Netflix giveth, and Netflix taketh away. The start of a new month means a whole mess of new movies and TV shows premiering on the streaming service. And it inevitably means that a few movies and TV shows are leaving the service for unexplained reasons.
At least Netflix is starting to spread the pain out a little in June, yanking a few movies every week rather than ripping the Band-Aid off entirely on June 1. But, unless otherwise noted, you have 48 hours to watch or re-watch these movies before they leave Netflix.
“This is Spinal Tap” — The compulsively quotable king of the rock mockumentary is leaving Netflix on June 1. Which probably doesn’t make much difference to stars Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, who are suing because they’re not making hardly any money off the movie in the first place.
“The Hustler” — Netflix’s pre-1960 offerings are so pitiful it’s like they’re practically daring us to sign up for FilmStruck. Last chance to catch the epic pool table battle between an in-his-prime Paul Newman and a sinister Jackie Gleason.
“Jane Eyre” — “Sin Nombre” and “True Detective” director Cory Fukunaga must have seemed like a strange choice to direct an adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s Gothic romance. But he finds both the dread and the passion in this terrific adaptation, with Mia Wasikowska as the resourceful young ward and Michael Fassbender as the employer with a secret.
“The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-75” — This documentary, a collage culled together from long-lost footage of the Black Panthers, is essential viewing to those who want to understand the turmoil of the time and those looking for inspiration for today’s resistance.
“The Blair Witch Project” — They’ve tried remakes and sequels, but nothing equals the seat-of-the-pants, shaky-camera appeal of cinema’s most improbable $100 million box office hit. Best of all, you won’t throw up watching it at home.