5 Netflix Movies You Need to Watch This Week (September 8

Whether you’re inviting friends round for a movie night, want something to keep you entertained when traveling, or just love watching as many films as possible, Netflix has you covered.

These are five movies that I thoroughly enjoyed, all of which are available to stream on Netflix now.

5

The Running Man

This year sees the release of director Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, starring Glen Powell and based on the 1982 novel by Stephen King (under his pseudonym Richard Bachman). It will apparently be more faithful to the source material than the 1987 version of The Running Man, which is fun but very much an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. Arnie stars as Ben Richards, a man recruited to appear on a TV show where the participants must escape or die.

The movie is over the top and silly, but knowingly so—Ben says the Terminator’s famous “I’ll be back” line, for starters. It’s very much of its era, but that’s not a bad thing, and there is plenty of action and humor packed in. Plus, real-life game show host Richard Dawson is on top form as the diabolical Damon Killian. Think of The Running Man as a humorous version of Squid Game or The Hunger Games, and you won’t be far off.

4

Wind River

Wind River is a 2017 film written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, who is probably best known for co-creating the TV show Yellowstone. It stars Jeremy Renner as a federal wildlife officer who finds the dead body of a young Native American woman in the Wyoming snow. Elizabeth Olsen plays an FBI agent who comes to investigate, and the pair work together to get to the bottom of what happened.

The stark, cold landscape is both vast and claustrophobic, which gives Wind River a compelling sense of place. Pair that with well-written characters, bolstered by the cast’s fantastic performances, and you have a murder mystery that pulls you in and doesn’t let go until the end—and even once you get there, it’s likely to stay with you. If you enjoy the film, I recommend also watching Sicario and Hell or High Water. Together with Wind River, they make up Sheridan’s thematically linked neo-western trilogy.

3

Chicken Run

The Great Escape with chickens? Sold! That’s basically what Chicken Run is. Released in 2000, it was the first feature-length movie from British animation studio Aardman, the folks responsible for the cracking Wallace & Gromit series. In the film, the chickens live on an egg farm run by Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson), who kills them when they can no longer lay eggs. The leader of the chickens, Ginger (Julia Sawalha), regularly tries and fails to lead an escape, but a new plan hatches when American rooster Rocky (Mel Gibson) lands on the farm.

Chicken Run may have dark themes, but this is a family-friendly film full of humor. It’s silly and charming, with jokes that work for both children and adults, and the voice acting is delightful. Perhaps the most impressive element of the film is the stop-motion animation; the clay-sculpted characters are wonderfully expressive. The Netflix-produced sequel, Dawn of the Nugget, arrived over two decades later—it’s enjoyable enough, but it’s not a patch on the original.

2

High Plains Drifter

After starring in some of the most iconic Western films of all time, Clint Eastwood tried his hand at directing his own with 1973’s High Plains Drifter. The result is unique and weird, in the best way. On the surface, many of the Old West staples are present, including a nameless central character and sun-drenched dusty landscapes, but it subverts expectations. Eastwood’s protagonist is not a hero—he arrives mysteriously in the mining town of Lago and swiftly commits physical and sexual violence.

Despite that, the townsfolk hire him to protect them against three outlaws who are soon to be released from prison. They offer him anything he wants, which he takes advantage of, like stripping the sheriff of his badge and giving everyone free drinks at the tavern. Why does this stranger agree to help? That’s part of the mystery, which is played on with some curious imagery and music. In Eastwood’s extensive filmography, High Plains Drifter stands as one of the most interesting.

1

Still Alice

Still Alice is based on a novel by Lisa Genova about a linguistics professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The eponymous character, Alice Howard, is played to perfection by Julianne Moore. She’s incapable of giving a bad performance, but she holds the entire film as we witness Alice’s deterioration and the impact it has on her life, job, and family (including her husband, played by Alec Baldwin). Moore won an Academy Award for her work, and rightly so.

It’s a relatively simple story, presented in a straightforward way, but that doesn’t mean it’s without emotion. Far from it. Rather, Still Alice is devastating and deeply moving because it’s real and human. Whether you have familiarity with the disease or not, this is challenging but essential viewing.

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When you’ve watched all of these movies, it’s time to explore the new shows coming to Netflix in September. Who has time for other hobbies when there’s so much entertainment to view?