Netflix has been on a roll with its movie programming lately. Though COVID-19 lockdowns are beginning to ease in many countries, they continue to provide countless hours of much-needed entertainment for people unable to enjoy a typical summer and here’s the best of what arrived this week.
Top of the list is Spike Lee’s new joint Da 5 Bloods. This war drama finds a group of Vietnam veterans returning to the jungle in order to track down some treasure they buried long ago. Lee’s on a hot streak after the Oscar-winning BlacKkKlansman and critics and audiences alike are calling this one of his best movies ever. Now that I’ve seen it, I can finally agree with everyone tipping star Delroy Lindo for awards season success next year.
Also added this week was 2018 Japanese animated movie Okko’s Inn, which walks in the footsteps of Studio Ghibli classics like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. It follows a young girl grieving for her dead parents while at her grandmother’s house, dealing with it by speaking to the ghosts that secretly live there.
Elsewhere, there’s Before I Fall, which is a seriously underrated teen drama with a Groundhog Day-style time loop twist in which a girl keeps looping through time while discovering more and more about her friends. It failed to attract an audience in theaters, but I think it’s definitely worth checking out.
A little further down the quality totem pole is Middle Men, a drama starring Luke Wilson about a tech entrepreneur who becomes enmeshed in crime and finds himself under police investigation. It’s not a great movie, though I guess it is interesting that the inspiration for the film, Christopher Mallick, was accused of stealing millions of dollars from his clients to fund its production.
And then, of course, there’s 365 Days, which is taking social media by storm thanks to its sex scenes that put Fifty Shades of Grey to shame. Maybe one for a late, lonely night?