Oscar winners, cult favorites, and recent small-scale hits make up just some of the expiring titles that this month has to offer. If you want to sneak in some spooky season picks, then there’s psychological thrillers, melodramatic horrors, and the terrifying true story about (gasp) how Facebook was founded. Put these titles on your watchlist, because who knows where they’ll be this time next month.
What’s leaving Netflix
Yes, God, Yes
Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer takes on Catholic schoolgirl sexual repression in this delightful indie from 2019. Yes, God, Yes finds Dyer placing Alice, an exceedingly naïve high schooler in the year 2000. Her co-ed Catholic school preaches abstinence above all else, with eternal damnation hanging over the head of any teen who dares to act on their feelings and/or hormones. But when a crude rumor begins to spread about Alice, she has to learn the ins and outs of the maze that is teen sexuality — with plenty of prayers for penance, of course. Yes, God, Yes streams until Saturday, October 22nd.
Begin Again
John Carney has built a career off of small, sentimental, and frequently musical romances like Once, Sing Street, and Modern Love, and Begin Again is hardly an exception. Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo star as two struggling figures in the music industry: Knightley plays Gretta, a soulful songwriter who’s recently broken things off with her successful-but-sanitized musician boyfriend (played by recent hot topic Adam Levine), while Ruffalo plays Dan, a music producer who’s seen better days. They each find a fellow outcast in the other, and though no romance blossoms between them, they collaborate to create a fresh start and some lovely music. Begin Again streams until Thursday, October 27th.
What’s leaving Hulu
The Social Network
Grab your Prada, your hoodie, and your fuck you flip flops, because you have just under a month left to stream The Social Network. This time capsule of a film captures the turmoil leading up to the creation and popularization of Facebook, and hindsight has only made the whole thing better. Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher team up to deliver one of the sharpest movies this century has to offer, with pitch-perfect performances from Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield as slighted fellow Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin. The Social Network will be available to stream until Sunday, October 30th.
Black Swan
If you’re eagerly awaiting Darren Aronofsky’s Brendan Fraser vehicle The Whale, then treat yourself to one of the director’s most twisted movies. Black Swan not only cemented Natalie Portman as one of the best actresses in the business, but it’s the rare hit to be unapologetically, intensely weird. The film follows Portman’s Nina as she struggles to maintain the lead role in her ballet company’s Swan Lake; while she’s easily able to perform as the White Swan, the darker, more sensual Black Swan haunts her in the lead up to her debut. Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, and Winona Ryder also star in this dizzying dancer’s ensemble. Black Swan will be available to stream until the end of the month.
What’s leaving HBO Max
Thelma & Louise
Road trip! Young Brad Pitt! Feminism! Thelma & Louise has all of this and more. This classic buddy crime dramedy juggles plenty of different genres and ideas, but it does so marvelously with the help of chameleonic director Ridley Scott. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon star as Thelma and Louise, respectively, two women who seek an escape from their rote lives in small town Arkansas. But what they hope to be a weekend getaway morphs into something much more extreme — and violent. Their girls’ trip becomes a journey of discovering themselves and their agency as women, with Sarandon and Davis playing off each other perfectly. Thelma & Louise is available to stream until the end of the month.
Nathan for You
If The Rehearsal has gotten you into a Nathan Fielder mood recently, then be warned: Nathan for You will only be streaming for another month. The quirky comedian’s original hit show features Fielder doing his supposed best to help struggling businesses with increasingly outlandish marketing ploys, from a petting zoo hoax to “Dumb Starbucks.” The series blends comedy with reality — Fielder is working with real businesses here — and creates the perfect cringey satire for our capitalistic times. It’s absurd and sometimes even a little bit stupid, but that’s where the fun lies. Nathan for You streams on HBO Max until the end of the month.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane not only dared to star two iconic Golden Age actresses in the latter half of their careers, but it gave each a meaty, melodramatic, and memorable role. Bette Davis plays former child actress “Baby Jane” Hudson, while Joan Crawford is her older sister, Blanche, who had a successful Hollywood career before an accident paralyzed her. The two aging sisters live together in a pressure cooker of resentment that inevitably ends in tragedy. Once you’ve watched it, do yourself a favor and stream Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Bette and Joan — it’s a perfect companion piece. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? will be available to stream until the end of the month.
What to Watch is a regular endorsement of movies and TV worth your streaming time.