The best movies leaving Netflix, HBO, and more in February to watch now

February is coming to an finish, Polygon readers. Whereas it might be the shortest month of the yr, it’s not missing in films leaving streaming companies. The truth is, this is among the busiest months for good films leaving streaming shortly.

We’ve bought thrillers on Netflix (and a robust entry from top-of-the-line horror franchises ever), romantic classics on Hulu, Prime, and HBO Max, an under-the-radar motion film certain to thrill and shock you, an outdated hit from a brand new Oscar nominee, one among my all-time favourite films, and a lot extra.

However act fast! These films are leaving streaming companies on the finish of February. With out additional ado, let’s get into it.

Leaving Netflix

Scream IV

Picture: Paramount

12 months: 2011
Style: Horror
Run time: 1h 51m
Director: Wes Craven
Solid: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette

Scream 6 is due out later this yr, which makes this a superb time to atone for the fourth entry within the collection. Even higher, fan favourite Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) from Scream 4 is again within the newest entry for an additional run-in with Ghostface.

Scream 4’s Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is again in Woodsboro to advertise her e book, together with a number of new college students at Woodsboro excessive, together with Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts), Sidney’s cousin. As the primary Scream film of the 2010s, Scream 4 jumps headfirst into the ability of the web to create new, and worse, forms of celebrities, and what Ghostface murders (both committing them or surviving them) may do for somebody’s clout.

The net of all of it made Scream 4 maybe essentially the most forward of its time of the great Scream sequels (the primary 4), a film that was approach too on-line for audiences in 2010 to be completely onboard. However, with one other 13 years of web horror underneath our belts, Scream 4 finally ends up feeling like a significantly better reboot of the collection than final yr’s entry was. —Austen Goslin

Scream IV leaves Netflix March 1.

Shutter Island

Picture: Paramount Footage

12 months: 2010
Style: Thriller
Run time: 2h 18m
Director: Martin Scorsese
Solid: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley

Martin Scorsese’s twisty asylum thriller stays one among his missed trendy gems. Shutter Island follows Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), who has been despatched to an island asylum along with his companion, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), to analyze the disappearance of a affected person. Whereas he’s there, Teddy discovers that no matter’s happening with this asylum is way extra difficult than he initially imagined.

That is the sort of thriller that grabs you by the collar and yanks you from one twist to the following each time you assume you recognize what’s taking place, precisely like a great thriller ought to. Simply as importantly, the film is punctuated with an amazing forged of supporting characters who present up for his or her one massive scene earlier than calling it a day. Max von Sydow is a Nazi scientist, Jackie Earle Haley a very terrifying affected person, Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson sufferers who know greater than they are saying, Ben Kingsley a kindly physician with a secret, and Ted Levine and John Carroll Lynch play the warden and deputy warden respectively.

All of those twists and characters are held collectively fantastically by Scorsese, who shoots Shutter Island with a stunning blown-out colour palette that offers it the look of a ’50s Hollywood traditional, which completely contrasts the darkness of the plot and serves to maintain us much more off stability. —AG

Shutter Island leaves Netflix March 1.

Margin Name

Picture: Lionsgate Movies Residence Leisure

12 months: 2011
Style: Wall Road thriller
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: J.C. Chandor
Solid: Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto

J.C. Chandor’s 2011 movie Margin Name takes place over the span of 24 hours, following the staff of a prestigious Wall Road funding financial institution as they battle to grasp and reply to what’s going to ultimately be referred to as the worldwide monetary disaster of 2008. Whereas maybe not as approachable or didactic as Adam McKay’s The Large Quick, Chandor’s movie nonetheless manages to rework monetary esotericism into riveting drama by means of the power of its casts’ performances.

Paul Bettany is terrific right here, as are Zachary Quinto and Demi Moore, however the standout efficiency by far comes from Jeremy Irons, who delivers a exceptional scene throughout the movie’s climax that’s as charismatic as it’s disquietingly chilling. —Toussaint Egan

Margin Name leaves Netflix March 1.

Tucker: The Man and His Dream

Picture: Paramount Residence Video

12 months: 1988
Style: Biopic/comedy-drama
Run time: 1h 50m
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Solid: Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau

Even in a profession studded with such culture-defining works because the Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1988 biographical comedy-drama concerning the extraordinary (albeit exaggerated) story of Preston Tucker stands out as one of many director’s most fascinating movies. Tucker: The Man and His Dream stars Jeff Bridges because the eponymous army contractor turned entrepreneur who, within the late ’40s, tried to supply and promote his personal proprietary “automotive of tomorrow” referred to as the Tucker Torpedo. His ambitions, nevertheless, draw the ire of each the federal government and the so-called Large Three producers, the latter of whom conspire to undermine and in the end destroy Tucker’s dream of creating his personal firm.

Produced within the wake of the business and demanding failure of Coppola’s 1982 romance-drama One From the Coronary heart, Tucker: The Man and His Dream will be seen as each a piece of nostalgic recalibration and a once-removed allegory vindicating Coppola’s personal short-lived try and create a distribution firm to compete towards corporate-owned studios. Even set aside from this context, Coppola’s movie is an exceptionally entertaining one, brimming with terrific supporting performances by Martin Landau, Elias Koteas, and the late nice Mako, daring artistic cinematography by frequent collaborator Vittorio Storaro, and resplendent halcyon gold lighting.

One other noteworthy facet of Tucker is the way in which wherein it’s framed as a documentary commissioned on behalf of Tucker himself in an effort to promote shares of his firm, a intelligent approach of lampshading the movie’s divergences from precise historical past and Coppola’s personal gildings of inventive license. It’s a enjoyable, free-wheeling “nonmusical musical” drama concerning the perils of earnest ambition crashing towards the jagged rocks of orthodoxy and capitalism, and a film that greater than deserves your time and a focus. —TE

Tucker: The Man and His Dream leaves Netflix March 1.

Leaving Hulu

White God

Picture: Magnolia Residence Leisure

12 months: 2014
Style: Drama/fantasy
Run Time: 2h 1m
Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Solid: Zsófia Psotta, Sándor Zsótér

Have you ever ever heard of Homeward Sure: The Unimaginable Journey, the 1993 household comedy drama a couple of trio of speaking pets who trek throughout San Francisco to reunite with their beloved masters? Properly, think about that however sadder and extra Hungarian, and also you’ve bought the gist of White God.

Kornél Mundruczó’s 2014 drama facilities the story of Lili (Zsófia Psotta), a 13-year-old woman who’s left to stick with her estranged, petty, and emotionally unstable father (Sándor Zsótér) and Hagen, a mixed-breed avenue canine whom Lili adopts and loves unconditionally. When her father abandons Hagen by the roadside in a match of anger and jealousy for his daughter’s consideration, Hagen and Lili embark on their very own respective quests to reunite with one another.

Other than my earlier Homeward Sure comparability, Roger Ebert critic Matt Zoller Seitz summed up White God in his overview of the movie as an “R-rated Lassie by the use of Spartacus.” It’s an apt description, particularly provided that Hagen’s journey again to Lili includes a harrowing (and fully pretend) detour by means of an underground dogfighting ring, and Lili’s eventual reunion with Hagen is precluded by a fraught run-in with the cops after being implicated in promoting medicine.

It solely will get crazier from there, as White God ultimately builds to a climactic, fantastical, and completely awe-inspiring crescendo that, albeit foreshadowed within the movie’s opening moments, I can’t threat spoiling right here. If any of this sounds attractive to you, then it’s best to completely give White God a watch. —TE

White God leaves Hulu Feb. 28.

Ever After: A Cinderella Story

Picture: twentieth Century Fox

12 months: 1998
Style: Romantic comedy
Run time: 2h 1m
Director: Andy Tennant
Solid: Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, Dougray Scott

If you’d like a Cinderella retelling that deconstructs the story, provides the heroine company and motivation with out simply slapping on a bunch of woman energy hobbies, and fleshes out the connection between Cinderella and the Prince, Ever After is the right match for you. Drew Barrymore performs Danielle, the Cinderella equal on this story, who meets Prince Henry (Dougray Scott) after he flees from an organized marriage. He errors her for a noblewoman and is impressed by the way in which she stands as much as some guards, which makes him start to look at his lifetime of privilege and the impact royals have on the frequent folks. It’s an electrical love story that additionally performs round with fairy story conventions (Cinderella’s fairy godmother on this model is none apart from artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci). —Petrana Radulovic

Ever After: A Cinderella Story leaves Hulu Feb. 28.

Leaving Prime Video

Love Really

Picture: Common Footage

12 months: 2003
Style: Romantic comedy
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: Richard Curtis
Solid: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson

Is Love Really really good? That’s undoubtedly up for debate. (And boy, has that been debated.) Debates apart, it is a Christmas traditional. Should you’re on the “Properly really, Love Really is only a product of its time that I can nonetheless get pleasure from” aspect, it’s straightforward to get swept away within the vacation magic — simply take a look at all these bumbling British individuals falling in love! And throughout the Christmas season! Positive, there’s a ton of questionable office dynamics and plenty of fats jokes however look — it’s Hugh Grant dancing round 10 Downing Road! Mr. Bean extravagantly wrapping an adulterous current for Alan Rickman, who’s planning to cheat on Emma Thompson! (No, I don’t bear in mind the character names). —PR

Love Really leaves Prime Video Feb. 28.

The Starvation Video games: Catching Hearth

Picture: Lionsgate Residence Leisure

12 months: 2013
Style: Sci-fi motion
Run time: 2h 26m
Director: Francis Lawrence
Solid: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth

I didn’t get pleasure from The Starvation Video games once I noticed it again in 2012. I point out this not as a result of I’ve an curiosity in relitigating that movie (I don’t — discover another person to argue with) however to emphasise a degree: Once I noticed the sequel, The Starvation Video games: Catching Hearth, in theaters for the primary time a decade in the past, not solely was I shocked by how a lot I loved it in comparison with my expertise with the primary movie, I used to be wholly unprepared for the way it managed to elicit that rarest of aesthetic reactions in me: It really introduced me to tears.

The primary of the three Francis Lawrence-directed sequels to Gary Ross’ adaptation looks like a consummate corrective to almost each problem I had with the unique movie. Jennifer Lawrence delivers a compelling, plausible efficiency of a girl haunted by PTSD and survivor’s guilt; Jo Willems’ cinematography manages to conjure some genuinely hanging and memorable pictures. The motion scenes in The Starvation Video games: Catching Hearth are higher staged and extra appropriately gnarly than these of its predecessor, and the dialogue on a complete is simply higher written and extra fascinating.

I bear in mind the scene of Katniss and Peeta visiting District 11 to pay respects to Thresh and Rue. I bear in mind seeing a crowd of Black and brown faces amassed in stoic, heartbroken remembrance of two youngsters whose lives had been taken too quickly. I bear in mind the sensation that welled up in my chest on the sight of an aged man being dragged earlier than that crowd and executed for a minor act of defiance born out of the grief of that second, without delay visibly frightened but resolute within the irreproachable righteousness of that straightforward act. It’s the identical feeling I felt once I rewatched the film for the primary time in over a decade. It’s a feeling that I’ve, sadly, grown all too conversant in at this level in my life.

I can’t say whether or not that scene, not to mention the movie as a complete, will have an effect on you in the way in which it affected me. We don’t select what artwork strikes us and why; it simply does. With that mentioned, I ask you — no, I problem you — to interact with this movie in the identical approach as you’ll (and may) with any piece of artwork: With a gift thoughts, an attentive eye, a discerning conscience, and an open coronary heart. —TE

The Starvation Video games: Catching Hearth leaves Prime Video Feb. 28.

Onerous Eight

Picture: MGM

12 months: 1996
Style: Crime drama
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Solid: Philip Baker Corridor, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow

Paul Thomas Anderson’s characteristic directorial debut Onerous Eight isn’t simply important viewing for PTA followers, it’s additionally a film tailored for followers of early Coen brothers crime films or Paul Schrader’s movies. Philip Baker Corridor provides a terrific efficiency as an expert gambler who takes on John C. Reilly as a protege, for causes that appear altruistic and beneficiant however actually aren’t. The ensuing twists contain Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson in stunning roles, however whereas all people right here is doing glorious work, the actual star of this film is the feel Anderson brings to it, and the distinctively melancholy and emotionally difficult layers he places on what begins as a personality examine and turns right into a psychological crime story. The dimensions right here is small, claustrophobic, and intense, and everybody concerned places their all into it. It’s an actual hidden gem for neo-noir followers. —Tasha Robinson

Onerous Eight leaves Prime Video Feb. 28.

Leaving HBO Max

Loopy Wealthy Asians

Picture: Warner Bros.

12 months: 2018
Style: Romantic comedy
Run time: 2h
Director: Jon M. Chu
Solid: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh

Michelle Yeoh is within the zeitgeist proper now. In Loopy Wealthy Asians, she performs domineering matriarch Eleanor, who just isn’t so happy that her son Nick (Henry Golding) is relationship a daily ol’ woman named Rachel (Constance Wu). She’s not the principle attraction of this spunky romantic comedy, however she’s undoubtedly a spotlight. The film largely facilities on Rachel, who accompanies Nick to a marriage in Singapore — after which finds out that he’s not simply wealthy, he’s rich past her wildest creativeness. Rachel struggles to impress Nick’s judgmental household, which all comes to go in an intense mahjong scene towards Eleanor. —PR

Loopy Wealthy Asians leaves HBO Max Feb. 28.

Little Youngsters

Picture: New Line Residence Video

12 months: 2006
Style: Romantic psychological drama
Run time: 2h 17m
Director: Todd Discipline
Solid: Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson

Should you’re on the lookout for a pitch-dark psychological drama with a eager deal with the devastating penalties of unresolved frustrations current in an in any other case idyllic suburban group à la Todd Solondz’ Happiness or Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm, Todd Discipline’s 2006 drama starring Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, and Patrick Wilson is perhaps simply what you’re on the lookout for.

Based mostly on Tom Perrotta’s 2004 novel, with a script co-written by Discipline and Perrotta himself, the movie facilities on the disintegrating marriages of Sarah (Kate Winslet) and Brad (Patrick Wilson), two lovelorn individuals who inadvertently discover themselves drawn collectively after an opportunity encounter within the park with their children. The drama of their nascent tryst unexpectedly overlaps and collides with the lifetime of a registered intercourse offender (Jackie Earle Haley) who, shortly after shifting into the neighborhood and being subsequently ostracized by the group, struggles with a masochistic sense of guilt and and an intense self-hatred for his previous actions and whereas preventing towards his still-lingering predilections.

As you possibly can seemingly collect from that cursory synopsis, Little Youngsters just isn’t precisely what one would describe as a “glad” film. It’s messy, it’s stunning, and it’s uncomfortable; it’s a movie that unflinchingly grapples with the difficult tangle of contradictory feelings, temptations, and regrets inherent to the lived experiences of all too fallible human beings making an attempt as finest as they will to do as little hurt unto these round them whereas nonetheless remaining true to themselves.

If there’s a discernible “message” to remove from the movie, I’d argue it may very well be summed up by the apocryphal quote: “Be variety; everyone seems to be preventing a battle you recognize nothing about.” It’s a rattling good film and one which I like to recommend, although with a phrase of warning that you simply’ll need to ensure you’re in a secure emotional place earlier than watching it. —TE

Little Youngsters leaves HBO Max Feb. 28.

Leaving Criterion Channel

The Lengthy Goodbye

Picture: MGM Residence Leisure

12 months: 1973
Style: Crime drama
Run time: 1h 52m
Director: Robert Altman
Solid: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden

Film detectives have not often ever been as charming as Elliott Gould’s mumbly, intelligent, and easygoing Philip Marlowe in The Lengthy Goodbye. Robert Altman’s 1973 masterpiece follows Marlowe as he investigates the disappearance of a well-known writer and wonders whether or not it’s related to the loss of life of his personal good friend. After all, as with all nice PI tales, every little thing’s related and there are not any coincidences, only a net of lies, mischief, and crime for Marlowe to type out.

For all of the issues that make this film nice, Gould’s potential to drift by means of it so effortlessly is perhaps essentially the most enjoyable. He has a witty comeback for every little thing, whether or not it’s a hungry cat, a kick within the enamel, a loss of life risk, or a largely bare Arnold Schwarzenegger. Marlowe’s the sort of breezy, malleable character that smokes incessantly and may strike a match on any floor the world presents him.

All of this flexibility is ready up completely by the film’s rating, too, for which John Williams wrote one excellent tune, then endlessly modified it, altering its style and magnificence to suit the temper — typically deciding on one strategy originally of a scene, then swapping midway by means of when the vibes are off, identical to Marlowe himself. — AG

The Lengthy Goodbye leaves The Criterion Channel Feb. 28.