Summer doesn’t officially start until June 21, but for many, it’s already here. School’s out, vacations are about to begin and the theaters are already packed with seasonal blockbusters like The Devil Wears Prada 2 and another Star Wars film.
Netflix is about to celebrate the sunny season with a diverse slate containing all of your favorite genres, like rom-coms, action flicks, thrillers and more.
There’s a lot coming out, which is why Watch With Us has compiled a list of the best new original Netflix movies for you to watch during the summer.
From a cute office romance with Jennifer Lopez and Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein to a dark thriller starring Severance’s Adam Scott and Robert De Niro, these films are not only highly anticipated but could become some of the streamer’s most popular movies ever.
‘Office Romance’ — June 5
Summer is all about relaxing, so what better way to Netflix and chill out than to watch an old-school rom-com like Office Romance? The Ol Parker-directed film stars Jennifer Lopez as Jackie Cruz, a successful CEO of an airline who has a strict work ethic and an even stricter set of rules. She doesn’t want any of her employees fooling around with each other, but when handsome hot-shot lawyer Daniel Blanchflower (Brett Goldstein) joins the company, Jackie can’t help but break her own rules and date him on the sly. Love is hottest when it’s forbidden, but will Jackie lose her hard-fought reputation if someone finds out?
Office Romance’s plot is rubber-stamped by the rom-com factory, but who watches Netflix rom-coms for the plot? It’s all about the stars and the chemistry they create with one another, and Lopez and Goldstein deliver in the hot-and-heavy department. They’re supported by a surprisingly impressive supporting cast that includes Amy Sedaris, Betty Gilpin, Tony Hale, Bradley Whitford and, in a better-late-than-never Selena reunion, Edward James Olmos.
‘In the Hand of Dante’ — June 24
I love a good folly, a messy, weird film that is borderline unclassifiable, and In the Hand of Dante fits that description to a tee. The star-studded film is part heist film, part Ingmar Bergman-esque philosophical drama, part biopic, part … sigh, it’s a little bit of everything. Oscar Isaac stars as Nick, a down-on-his-luck New York City writer who is coerced by two gangsters, Louie (Gerard Butler) and Joe (John Malkovich), to help them steal the original manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. That’s a huge task, because it’s locked away somewhere in the Vatican, and no one is sure it’s actually the real deal.
Sounds pretty straightforward, right? But wait — Isaac also stars as Dante himself, who is shown in flashbacks ruminating about being stuck in a loveless marriage. There’s yet another subplot involving a Dante scholar having a doomed affair with a gangster played by Jason Momoa. Yes, it’s that kind of movie, but I can safely say there’s nothing like it on Netflix this summer, this year or maybe ever. That has to count for something, right? Be warned — the film is shot partially in black and white and is nearly three hours long, so get comfortable when you start streaming it.
‘Enola Holmes 3’ — July 1
This July, the epic Enola Holmes saga comes to an end with Enola Holmes 3. Wait, you didn’t know this was a franchise? Me either, but the first two Enola Holmes films did so well for Netflix, they greenlit a third to wrap up all the loose ends. Snark aside, Enola Holmes 1 and 2 are pretty entertaining, and the third one promises even more of the same blend of historical action, breaking-the-fourth-wall comedy (Enola just loves to talk directly at you, doesn’t she?) and a not-too-puzzling mystery.
In this entry, Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) is about to get married to her longtime love, Twekesbury (Louis Partridge), when disaster strikes. Older brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) has been kidnapped, and no one knows where he is. Only Enola can find and save him, but is she using this latest mystery to avoid coming to terms with getting hitched?
‘Heartstopper Forever’ — July 17
Before there was Heated Rivalry and Off Campus, there was Heartstopper, a very PG-rated romance between two English schoolboys, Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke). The three-season series documented their blossoming romance as well as the lives of their friends, like Elle (Yasmin Finney) and Tao (William Gao). After a relatively successful run that launched Connor and Locke’s careers and made LGBTQ+ YA love stories hot properties for streamers to adapt, the Heartstopper series ends with a 111-minute movie, Heartstopper Forever.
Not a lot is known about the movie as of press time, except that Nick and Charlie are still in love and making goo-goo eyes at one another. The show’s principal cast is set to return, with only Olivia Colman being replaced by another actor, Star City‘s Anna Maxwell Martin. The film adapts the sixth and final graphic novel by Alice Oseman, so expect lots of twee love scenes and tearful goodbyes set to the music of indie bands you’ve probably never heard of. Will Heartstopper Forever be as insufferably cute as the show was? Probably, but in an era when explicit nudity and TMI dialogue are quickly becoming the norm for content directed at this audience, it’s a welcome respite.
‘The Whisper Man’ — August 28
Who is The Whisper Man? In this original Netflix film, he’s Frank Carter (Michael Keaton), a serial killer who terrorized the small town of Featherbrook twenty years ago. Fortunately for everyone, he was caught, sentenced and locked away in prison. But when Tom Kennedy’s (Adam Scott) young son, Jake (Acston Luca Porto), goes missing, he thinks it’s somehow linked to Frank. The only one who can help him solve the mystery is his father, Pete Willis (Robert De Niro), a detective who was never as close to his son as he would’ve liked. Can this estranged father and son find a way to heal old wounds to save Jake?
In a recent interview, director James Ashcroft cited classic thrillers like The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en as key influences when he adapted Alex Norton’s bestselling novel. That’s the vibe the film’s promotional images give off, and with a talented cast that includes Michelle Monaghan, Hamish Linklater and Owen Teague, there’s a good chance The Whisper Man could join those influential films in the serial killer movie hall of fame.
