The streaming wars are officially on! The upside is that between all those subscriptions, there’s a whole lot of content to chose from. The downside? There’s too much damn content to choose from! To help save you from the endless scroll through all the titles, we’ve put together a list of the best new movies on Netflix this month to add to your watchlist. As usual, the streaming serviceadded a whole bunch of new titles at the beginning of March 2020and we’ve picked through the list to recommend some of the highlights.
You’ll find a good deal of variety in the curated selections below, from new Netflix originals to nostalgic classics, and a pair of festival hits from last year I can wait for y’all to check out. Check out our list of the best new movies on Netflix in February 2020 below. And for a bigger selection, peruseour giant best movies on Netflix article.
Available:March 1
Director:Steven Soderbergh
Writer:Lem Dobbs
Cast:Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Bill Paxton, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Douglas
Steven Soderberghtakes a lot of swings, and he rarely misses. And while his 2011 action thrillerHaywiremay not have rallied the enthusiasm it deserved upon theatrical release, it’s well worth a rewatch. The first step of Soderbergh’s big swing here was recruiting wrestling superstarGina Caranoto lead his film as a special ops agent who’s double crossed and left for dead on a mission, giving Carano her first big theatrical acting break and putting her remarkable physicality to use in some striking fight scenes (including an all-timer with Michael Fassbender). The second big swing was going in and tweaking the athlete-turned-actors voice for the duration of the film, a bizarre choice that alienated some of Carano’s diehard fans and gave the film an unusual sense of surreality in the mix of the unadorned action. Somehow it all works, andHaywirestands as an underrated gem in Soderbergh’s always unpredictable resume.
Director:Wolfgang Petersen
Writers:Laurence Dworet, Robert Roy Pool
Stars:Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Donald Sutherland, Patrick Dempsey
Because sometimes you just want tolean inon the terror – and judging by the wayContagionhas shot up the ranks in most popular titles, you are not alone. ButContagionisn’t streaming anywhere at the moment, so if you’re keeping it Netflix-centric, set your sights onOutbreak, the 1995 epidemic drama that sees a team of epidemiologists confronting a viral outbreak in Los Angeles after a real clown man tries to sell an infected monkey on the black market. Thanks for nothing, McDreamy. It’s peak a mid-90s drama, packed to the brim with the stars of the hour, and while it’s an imperfect and uneven film, it still gets under your skin. Especially in times like these. So remember folks, don’t steal monkey, and more importantly, wash your damn hands.
Director:Joe Pytka
Writers:Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, Herschel Weingrod
Cast:Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight, Theresa Randle, Bill Murray, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Danny DeVito, Billy West
If the NBA cancellation has you in shambles, allow us to direct you toSpace Jam. “Space Jam, you’ve never seen anything like it,” boasted the official trailer to the 90s kids classic. And you know what? Fair enough. No doubt that’s because the film’s entire set-up, nay, it’s very existence seems like something that was cooked up on a particularly groovy hallucinogenic. The film sees NBA legends likeMichael Jordan,Larry Bird, andCharles Barkleymore or less finding themselves in what feels like a mental breakdown when the villainous alien Swackhammer (Danny DeVito) steals their athletic prowess for a basketball game against the Looney Tunes with the fate of the beloved animated icons on the line. Looney Tunes + basketball legends + Danny DeVito, what could go wrong? Literally nothing, that’s what. So break out your boombox and crank it up, because Netflix has a real jam going down this month.
Available:March 3
Writers/Directors:Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
Cast:Lexy Kolker, Bruce Dern, Grace Park, Emile Hirsch, Amanda Crew
This indie gem has been tearing up the Netflix Top 10 charts for the past couple weeks and for good reason,Freaksis a captivating and tightly constructed genre thriller that fuses superhero archetypes with sci-fi action and builds a compelling (and satisfying) mystery box out of the fusion. Breakout newcomerLexy Kolkerstars as Chloe, a young girl with frightening abilities who’s spent her life locked in a little house with her hyper-protective father. But with a little goading from the mysterious local ice cream man Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern), Chloe dips a deviant toe into the outside world and discovers it’s much more complicated and horrifying than she ever imagined. At it’s heart,Freaksworks because it’s an emotionally charged story about parenting, but writer/directorsZach LipovskyandAdam Steinalso do tremendous work making their meager budget feel like a whole intriguing universe. It’s one of the overlooked gems from last year and it’s about dang time it got its due.
There Will Be Blood
Writer/Director:Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast:Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds
One of the great films by one of the great living filmmakers,There Will Be Bloodis a bonafide modern classic. In fact, it’s so good that some folks considerNo Country for Old Menwinning Best Picture that year – of the best Best Picture winners in Academy history – the wrong call. And fair enough, becausePaul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 oil prospector drama is an extraordinary piece about faith, family, and the maddening need for more, more, more. It also features an all-time great performance fromDaniel Day Lewis(whodidwin the Oscar that year, along withRobert Elswit’s stunning cinematography).
The Platform
Available:March 20
Director:Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Writers:David Desola, Pedro Rivero
Cast:Ivan Massagué, Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan
I’m so excited for this one to finally debut. I caughtThe Platformout of Fantastic Fest last year, and the allegorical Spanish thriller immediately shot to the top of my list of unreleased movies I couldn’t wait to discuss with people. The film is set in a vaguely dystopian, vertically stacked prison, where all of the cells are lined up in a clean tower of inmates. Each floor is a cell, each cell has two prisoners, and the ceilings and floors of each cell have a large rectangular opening to the floors above and below. Once a day, a giant platform descends from the top floor to the bottom with a Hogwarts-worthy feast laid out upon it; the people up top eat like kings and the people while the people below them live off the scraps. And every once in a while, you’ll wake up on a new floor. It’s a fantastic concept that turns class warfare into a literal prison and doesn’t skimp on the horror when it comes to the way the desperate and starving will tear each other apart for the scraps.
Available:March 27
Writer/Director:Prentice Penny
Cast:Mamoudou Athie, Courtney B. Vance, Niecy Nash, Matt McGorry, Sasha Compère
Netflix’s new heartfelt comedy was meant to debut at SXSW this year before the festival was cancelled due to growing Caronavirus concerns, but you can check it out from the comfort of your own social distancing later this month. Written and directed byInsecureexecutive producerPrentice Penny,UncorkedstarsMamoudou Athie(who’s set to star in the upcomingJurassic World: Dominion) as a young man raised to take over the family BBQ restaurant owned by his father (Courtney B. Vance) and his father before him. There’s just one problem – his great passion is to become a master sommelier, and as those dueling commitments start to conflict, the father and so duo have to find a way to understand each other.
