If you’re a Netflix subscriber, you’ll probably start crying once September ends.
It won’t be because of any movie you’re actually watching; instead, you’ll shed some tears when you find out you won’t be able to watch some of the most entertaining films ever made.
On October 1, Netflix will remove dozens of titles, most of them with high Rotten Tomatoes ratings and beloved by fans and critics alike.
It took some time and effort, but Watch With Us selected three great Netflix movies you should watch before they leave next week: a forgotten Matt Damon drama, an erotically charged romance and a Steve Martin comedy.
‘The Good Shepherd’ (2006)
Young Edward Wilson (Damon) wants to serve his country, so when an FBI agent asks him to spy on one of his professors at Yale University just before World War II breaks out in Europe, he jumps at the chance. He’s good at gathering intelligence on people who don’t want to be found out, and he’s soon working in the government tracking down suspected Communist spies in the 1950s and 1960s. But while Edward is dedicated to his career, which eventually includes helping launch the CIA, he’s not so passionate about his family, with wife Margaret (Angelina Jolie) and son Edward Jr. (Eddie Redmayne) frequently passed over. Edward thinks he’s a decent man, but as he grows older, he realizes there’s more to life than being good at your job.
Directed by Robert De Niro, who also costars as Edward’s mentor, Bill Sullivan, The Good Shepherd is an epic, 167-minute chronicle of how and why the CIA was formed right after World War II. While Edward is a fictional character, he’s based on a real person, Allen Dulles, as are most of the other characters in the film, like Billy Crudup’s charismatic spy, Arch Cummings. The result is a film that blends powerful melodrama with a fascinating look into the early days of what quickly became one of the American government’s most powerful agencies. The all-star cast is terrific, with Alec Baldwin, John Turturro, William Hurt, Timothy Hutton and Lee Pace all having their moments to shine.
The Good Shepherd leaves Netflix on October 1.
‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’ (2013)
Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos) is smart but young; at 15, she thinks she knows everything but has experienced nothing. When she meets Emma (Lea Seydoux), she’s initially struck by the older woman’s blue-dyed hair but discovers she’s more than just casually interested in her. Soon, they begin an intense love affair, but it quickly becomes obvious they are two very different people. Still, they love each other, but is that enough to bridge the age and personality gaps that continually divide them?
Modern-day love stories aren’t usually epic in nature, but Blue Is the Warmest Color is the exception. Clocking in at three hours, the film takes its time to really examine how Adèle and Emma’s romance evolves — both before, during and after their relationship. Like the characters themselves, the film is a bit messy and disorganized, but that’s the point. Flawed and vulnerable, they feel real, even if you want to scream at them for being irrational at times. Blue Is the Warmest Color is at times sexy and frustrating, but it’s always honest, and that’s something you can’t say about most movies about love.
Blue Is the Warmest Color leaves Netflix on October 1.
‘Parenthood’ (1989)
The Buckman clan is a tight-knit family unit that is fraying at the edges. Gil (Martin) is feeling the dual pressure of being an attentive father and snagging a much-needed promotion, while Helen (Practical Magic 2‘s Dianne Wiest) and Susan (Harley Jane Kozack) struggle raising their kids and figuring out love in their thirties. As for the perpetually in-trouble Larry (Tom Hulce), well, the less said about him, the better. The Buckman siblings may all be adults, but they’re still trying to grow up into the parents they always wanted to be like and that their kids want them to be.
Parenthood feels like a small miracle. It’s a big-hearted comedy that is dramatic just when it needs to be and is, at times, almost brutally honest about the impossible expectations we place on our parents as kids and the pressure to live up to those expectations when we become adults. The Ron Howard film also features one of the best ensemble casts of the ‘80s, with stellar work from Martin, Wiest (who was rightfully nominated for an Oscar), Mary Steenburgen as Gil’s patient wife, Jason Robards as the distant Buckman patriarch and a young Keanu Reeves as a spaced-out boyfriend of one of Helen’s kids. The film was such a big hit that it spawned not one but two TV shows and features one of Randy Newman’s best songs, “I Love to See You Smile.”
Parenthood leaves Netflix on October 1.
