Like sands through the hourglass, movies leave Netflix and other movies arrive on Netflix. Each month, the streaming service takes away films from their audience of instant-watchers and replaces them with a fresh(er) batch of cobbled-together oddities. Some of the movies you will have never heard of before. Others are cinematic classics. You truly never know what you’re going to get, Forrest, so let’s look at some of the films leaving Netflix this month and what’s showing up in their place.
Leaving: American Psycho (Leaving 1/1/16) | Arriving: We Need to Talk About Kevin (Arriving 1/1/16)
Sadly, Mary Harron’s devilishly-funny horror satire American Psycho departs the world of instant watch, and with it goes the best performance of Christian Bale’s career – Oscar win for The Fighter be damned – as he runs around in a tuxedo hunting women on the streets of New York City at the height of Wall Street’s greed-is-good evil. In its place is another biting film from a female director – Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, a fierce examination of a family in the wake of a high school massacre. It has fascinating things to say about mothers and their children that are too often swept under the rug by people for whom being a mother ought to be the greatest achievement in a woman’s life.
Leaving: A Clockwork Orange (Leaving 1/1/16) | Arriving: Pride & Prejudice (Arriving 1/1/16)
January’s Netflix arrivals are disappointingly very low on great movies, so it’s sad to see the likes of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange leave. The only true work of masterful filmmaking newly available to stream from Netflix in January is Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice with Oscar-nominated Keira Knightley as the Jane Austin heroine and Matthew Macfadyen as the famed Mr. Darcy. It’s classical filmmaking, the likes of which we rarely get anymore. It’s superb.
Leaving Zoolander (Leaving 1/1/16) | Arriving: Adult World (Arriving 1/8/16)
You will now no longer be able to laugh at Derek and Hansel whenever you feel like it – unless you’re one of those people who still has all your old DVDs – but in the place of Ben Stiller’s Zoolander is the wonderful sex-comedy Adult World. Starring Emma Roberts as a wannabe poet who is forced to start working at a porno shop where she falls for her American Horror Story co-star Evan Peters, the film follows her rise as a protégé (of dubious nature) to a famous writer played with snivelish glee by John Cusack. This little-seen indie flick has surprising amounts of laughs and heart.
Leaving: Rosemary’s Baby (Leaving 1/1/16)| Arriving: House of Wax (Arriving 1/1/16)
Now, of course, these two films aren’t comparable in the slightest beyond both being horror movies. Roman Polanski’s masterful Rosemary’s Baby with Mia Farrow is extraordinary, and we’re sad to see it go. However, while the remake of the 1950s Vincent Price horror flick was given a lot of flak for casting Paris Hilton – it’s no spoiler to say she dies a particularly gruesome death – at the height of her vapid, desperate need for fame, it’s actually not as bad as you may suspect. It’s a neat little horror flick with some wonderful design (the titular house of wax is quite a sight, especially as it begins to melt) and some nasty gore.
Leaving: Coyote Ugly (Leaving 1/1/16) | Arriving: The Last Five Years (Available 1/15/16)
An entire generation’s guilty pleasure will vanish when Coyote Ugly leaves Netflix streaming. The only film to have ever brought together the bizarre combination of Piper Perabo, Tyra Banks, John Goodman, and LeAnn Rimes remains a ridiculously good party background selection thanks to its jukebox hits and sexually PG choreography. With that gone, be daring and choose the musical drama The Last Five Years which tells the story of the rise and fall of a couple (played by Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan) from both points of view. The songs by acclaimed Broadway writer Jason Robert Brown are sublime (like “Still Hurting” and “Summer in Ohio”) and you may just find your next favorite movie that none of your friends have heard of.
Here’s the entire list of movies leaving Netflix in January:
Leaving 1/1/16
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Almost Famous (2000)
American Psycho (2000)
American Psycho 2 (2002)
The Bourne Identity (2002)
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Coach Carter (2005)
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Corpse Bride (2005)
Coyote Ugly (2000)
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior: Season 1
Four Brothers (2005)
Gladiator (2000)
The Graduate (1967)
Grandma’s Boy (2006)
Harriet the Spy (1996)
Heartbreakers (2001)
The Hours (2002)
The Italian Job (2003)
Jackass: The Movie (2002)
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Lawrence of Arabia: Restored Version (1962)
The Longest Yard (2005)
The Machinist (2004)
Max Steel: Seasons 1-2
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
The Patriot (2000)
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
Rambo: First Blood (1982)
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
Rambo III: Ultimate Edition (1988)
The Rescuers (1977)
Risky Business (1983)
Rocky (1976)
Rocky II (1979)
Rocky III (1982)
Rocky IV (1985)
Rocky V (1990)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Serpico (1973)
Sesame Street: Animals and Nature: Season 1
Sesame Street: Classics: Vol. 1-2
Sesame Street: Cookie and Friends: Season 1
Sesame Street: Creativity and Imagination: Season 1
Sesame Street: Elmo and Friends: Season 1
Sesame Street: Everyday Moments: Season 1
Sesame Street: Music and Dance: Season 1
Sesame Street: Numbers and Letters: Season 1
The Sum of All Fears (2002)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Trading Places (1983)
Trekkies (1999)
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Zoolander (2001)
Leaving 1/4
Dumbo (1941)
James and the Giant Peach (1996)
Pocahontas (1995)
The Aristocats (1970)
The Fox and the Hound (1981)
The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
The Tigger Movie (2000)
Leaving 1/8
The Lying Game: Season 2
Leaving 1/14
Bad Ink: Season 1
Beyond Scared Straight!: Seasons 4-5
Dance Moms: Collection
Duck Dynasty: Collection
Hoarders: Collection
Intervention: Collection
Pawn Stars: Collection
Storage Wars: Collection
The Kennedys: Season 1
Here’s the entire list of movies arriving on Netflix in January:
Available 1/1/16
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Along Came Polly (2004)
American Girl: Grace Stirs up Success (2015)
Angry Birds Toons: Season 1
Bring It On: Fight to the Finish (2009)
Bring It On: In It to Win It (2007)
Catwoman (2004)
The Celebrity Plastic Surgeons of Beverly Hills: Season 1
Constantine (2005)
Forensic Files: Collection 2
Friday Night Tykes: Season 1-2
The Good Road (2013)
House of Wax (2005)
How to Change the World (2015)
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Journey to Le Mans (2014)
Loins of Punjab (2007)
Meet the Fockers (2004)
Meet the Parents (2000)
Nanny McPhee (2006)
Piku (2015)
Pooh’s Heffalump Movie (2005)
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
The Rundown (2003)
Shout Gladi Gladi (2015)
Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball (2009)
Something New (2006)
Stephen Fry Live: More Fool Me (2014)
Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle: Season 3
Swordfish (2001)
The Tale of Despereaux (2008)
Under Arrest: Season 1: “Put Some Clothes On”
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
The Wedding Date (2005)
The Whole Ten Yards (2004)
Available 1/2
30 for 30: Four Falls of Buffalo
I’ll Have What Phil’s Having: Season 1
Available 1/3
Sofia the First: Season 2
Available 1/4
Blunt Force Trauma (2015)
Training Day (2001)
Available 1/5
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 10
New Girl: Season 4
Available 1/8
Adult World (2014)
Dragons: Race to the Edge: Season 2 — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Tom Segura: Mostly Stories (2015) — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Available 1/10
Dos Hermanos (2010)
El Hombre de al Lado (2009)
Esperando La Carroza (1985)
The Marziano Family (2011)
Rosario Tijeras (2005)
Un Oso Rojo (2002)
Available 1/11
Littlest Pet Shop: Season 4
Available 1/12
The Ladykillers (2004)
Available 1/13
Parks and Recreation: Season 7
Available 1/14
The Testimony (2015)
Available 1/15
Degrassi: The Next Class: Season 1 — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
The Last Five Years (2015)
Moonwalkers (2015)
Occupied (2015)
The Overnight (2015)
Sirens: Season 2
Available 1/16
Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)
Available 1/17
Z Nation: Season 2
Available 1/19
Curve (2015)
Available 1/20
Drone (2014)
Available 1/21
When Calls the Heart: Season 2
Available 1/21
Sharknado 3 (2015)
Available 1/23
Chelsea Does (2016) — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Available 1/25
From Dusk Till Dawn: Season 2
Turbo Kid (2015)
Available 1/28
Frozen Planet (2011)
Frozen Planet: On Thin Ice (2011)
Frozen Planet: The Epic Journey (2011)
The Making of Frozen Planet (2012)
Available 1/29
Ever After High: Dragon Games — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Available 1/31
Words and Pictures (2013)
