Crowd-pleasing genre films, groundbreaking documentaries and most of the James Bond filmography are among the best movies leaving Netflix for U.S. subscribers in April. (Dates reflect the first day titles are unavailable and are subject to change.)
‘Ford v. Ferrari’ (April 1)
Matt Damon and Christian Bale star as Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, the car designer and driver who took on the seemingly impossible task of a Le Mans-winning racecar for the Ford Motor Company in the mid-1960s, a period when the Italian Ferrari team seemed unstoppable. The director James Mangold (“Logan,” “A Complete Unknown”) directs with his customary smooth professionalism, wisely choosing to use the conflicts between these mavericks and the suits at Ford as a stand-in for the creative vs. business battles that aren’t specific to any particular industry or time. Damon and Bale are both at their movie-star best, but the most memorable performer is Tracy Letts, who steals every scene with his nuanced and frequently funny portrayal of Henry Ford II.
‘Man on Fire’ (April 1)
This 2004 action thriller from the style specialist Tony Scott (“Crimson Tide,” “Top Gun”) stars Denzel Washington as Creasy, a hard drinking, deeply damaged former military man hired as a bodyguard for Pita (Dakota Fanning), the young daughter of a rich couple living in Mexico City. Despite his best efforts, she is abducted, sending the death-and-destruction specialist on a mission to get her back. It sounds like any number of shoot-em-ups — the story was first told in a novel by A. J. Quinnell and previously adapted into a 1987 Scott Glenn vehicle — but Scott and the screenwriter Brian Helgeland take an unexpectedly character-driven approach, eschewing action entirely throughout the first act to establish firmly the bond between Creasy and Pita.
‘Waiting for Guffman’ / ‘Best in Show’ / ‘A Mighty Wind’ (April 1)
Stream “Waiting for Guffman” here, “Best In Show” here and “A Mighty Wind” here.
The passing, in late January, of the great comic actor Catherine O’Hara prompted Netflix to add several of her most beloved films — chief among them, this trilogy of breathtakingly inventive and fiercely funny improvised “mockumentaries” from the director Christopher Guest. First came “Waiting for Guffman” (1997), starring Guest as a flamboyant small-town community theater director and O’Hara at her funniest as Sheila Albertson, the company’s go-to leading lady. Two years later, Guest and his cast reunited, with several welcome additions, for “Best in Show,” as the eccentric participants of the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show; O’Hara teamed with her “SCTV” co-star Eugene Levy (the credited co-writer of the films) to play a loving couple whose bond is occasionally tested by her colorful past. O’Hara and Levy are also the highlight of “A Mighty Wind,” a gentle satire of the folk singers of the 1960s.
‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ (April 7)
The original 1995 “Bad Boys” made legitimate movie stars out of Martin Lawrence and Will Smith; the 2003 follow-up solidified their status and that of their director, Michael Bay. Then the series lay fallow for 17 years, roaring back with “Bad Boys For Life” (2020), which swapped in Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah as directors and took a more comic approach. Adil & Bilall (as they’re collectively known) returned for this 2024 installment and pushed the comic boundaries of the series even further, to great effect: For all of the sleekness of the series, Smith and Lawrence have always excelled as funnymen, and the supporting cast (including Vanessa Hudgens, Tiffany Haddish, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez and Rhea Seehorn) provide ample support.
‘Cast Away’ (April 7)
The “Forrest Gump” director Robert Zemeckis and star Tom Hanks reunited for this 2000 riff on the “Robinson Crusoe” story, with Hanks as a FedEx efficiency expert who survives a frightening cargo plane crash but ends up stuck on a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific. The setup is laborious, and the payoff is maddeningly formulaic, but the film’s middle hour or so, with Hanks alone on that island with only his thoughts (and, later, his pet volleyball) to keep him company, is one of the most haunting and poignant dramatizations of loneliness, despair and perseverance ever committed to celluloid.
‘Piece by Piece’ (April 7)
The pop-music biographical documentary has frankly become a bit tired, leaning on the same aesthetic and narrative clichés, no matter the artist at its center. So kudos to the chart-topping performer and producer Pharrell Williams for shaking things up with his 2024 bio-doc, teaming with the Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville (“20 Feet From Stardom”) to tell his story in the Lego-based animation style of “The Lego Movie.” It sounds like a strange combination, but it is an appropriate fit for Williams’s outsized persona and gee-whiz enthusiasm, making this walk through his singular career into something most bio-docs forget to be: fun.
‘O.J.: Made in America’ (April 12)
Ezra Edelman’s five-part documentary account of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, conceived originally as part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, was so spectacularly well-received that it became the longest film to date to win an Oscar (for best documentary, a category whose rules were subsequently changed to bar the inclusion of multipart or limited series). But the film’s maximalism is tied inextricably to its excellence; rather than taking the typical ghoulish true-crime approach to the double murder that became Simpson’s legacy, Edelman digs deep for context, framing Simpson’s life within the larger stories of race, sports, domestic abuse and media sensationalism. The result is an astonishing achievement in nonfiction filmmaking.
‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ (April 17)
The wisecracking, pizza-eating, karate-chopping Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became such a standby of children’s entertainment and merchandise that it’s easy to forget they began as a comic book series targeted toward irreverent teenagers. This 2023 animated feature, which counted the team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (“Superbad,” “Pineapple Express”) among its writers and producers, went back to those roots, deliberately (and successfully) recalling and reanimating those early comics with its witty dialogue and visual style. The jam-packed voice cast includes Rose Byrne, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Ayo Edebiri, Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Rudd, Maya Rudolph and Rogen himself.
The James Bond Movies (April 21)
The adventures of Ian Fleming’s 007 have been so ever-present on Prime Video — Amazon MGM Studios co-owns the series — that it was a bit of a surprise when the entire filmography appeared on Netflix three months ago. But that was always going to be a short-term arrangement, and sure enough, the entire franchise (save for “Never Say Never Again”) will leave the service soon. That should give you enough time for a full binge, but if want to be selective, try “From Russia With Love,” “Goldfinger” and “You Only Live Twice” from the Connery era; the exceptionally stylish “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” starring the one-off Bond George Lazenby; “The Spy Who Loved Me” and “Live and Let Die,” with Roger Moore; “License to Kill” with Timothy Dalton; “Goldeneye” with and Pierce Brosnan; and the memorable Daniel Craig entries “Casino Royale” and “Skyfall.”
Also Leaving:
“Alex & Emma,” “The American President,” “Big Momma’s House,” “The Bucket List,” “Cheaper By the Dozen,” “Cheaper By the Dozen 2,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” “Despicable Me,” “Despicable Me 2,” “District 9,” “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” “Free Solo,” “Friends With Benefits,” “Ghosts of Mississippi,” “Misery,” “Molly’s Game,” “Only the Brave,” “Pineapple Express,” “Pitch Perfect,” “Rio,” “Rio 2,” “Rumor Has It …,”“The Sting,” “Twins,” “Wyatt Earp,” “Zero Dark Thirty” (April 1); “After Hours,” “For Your Consideration,” “Home Fries,” (April 4); “Ip Man,” “Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster,” “Ip Man 3,” “Ip Man 4: The Finale,” (April 5); “Queen of the South”: Seasons 1-5 (April 7); “Kubo and the Two Strings,” (April 8); “Take Me Home Tonight” (April 10); “Deconstructing Harry” (April 12); “Licorice Pizza,” “Van Helsing”: Seasons 1-5 (April 16); “Black Sails”: Seasons 1-4 (April 17); “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Die Another Day,” “Dr. No,” “For Your Eyes Only,” “The Living Daylights,” “The Man With the Golden Gun,” “Moonraker,” “No Time to Die” “Octopussy,” “Quantum of Solace,” “Spectre,” “Tomorrow Never Dies,” “Thunderball,” “A View to a Kill,” “The World is Not Enough,” (April 21).
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