Love is in the air next month, or so we’re told. While you’ll have to wait until March for the third (and final) season of Netflix’s Love, there’s plenty to admire on the streaming service in February. Whether you prefer to turn to Netflix for chills or thrills, the new Oscar-season power player has something new to binge every week. Read on to learn about the best of what the streaming service is bringing to the screen next month—as well as what to catch now, before it fades into the black hole of the Internet.
Movies
What’s Arriving . . .
The Ocean’s franchise (2/1)
Ocean family completists who want to refresh their memory of Steven Soderbergh’s three early-aughts heist movies—Ocean’s Eleven,Ocean’s Twelve, and Ocean’s Thirteen—in advance of June’s all-female revamp, Ocean’s 8, won’t have to go far. All three stylish movies starring George Clooney,Brad Pitt,Matt Damon, and the rest will hit Netflix at the beginning of the month, allowing viewers to savor the three great (O.K., at least two great) Ocean adventures before lining up to see Sandra Bullock take on Debbie Ocean, Danny’s estranged sister. Even if you’re not a completist, it may be worth watching at least the first film—because at least Damon and Carl Reiner (if not more) will be reprising their roles, as cameos or more, in Ocean’s 8.
On Body and Soul (2/2)
If you’re the sort that prefers to watch all of the Oscar-nominated films in order to make sure your ballot picks are as informed as possible, then Netflix is here with at least one nominated foreign-language film. On Body and Soul is already an award winner—it won the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival—and is Hungary’s best hope for an Oscar. A love story set in a Budapest slaughterhouse (isn’t it romantic?), the film follows a man and a woman who discover they share the same dream every night and try to re-create it during the day.
Mute (2/23)
Alexander Skarsgård—the True Blood alum who has been cleaning up on the awards circuit in recent months, thanks to his menacing turn in Big Little Lies—stars as a mute bartender named Leo searching for his missing girlfriend. Along the way, he encounters menacing surgeons played by Justin Theroux and Paul Rudd. But here’s where the plot thickens. The movie was made by Duncan Jones, who won critical acclaim with his off-kilter 2009 sci-fi film, Moon, starring Sam Rockwell—and then fell from grace with 2016’s Warcraft. Jones has returned to his moody, indie roots with Mute, and there’s reason to believe he may be trying to recapture his Moon success in an even more overt way. Photos from January 2017 (yes, this movie was supposed to come out last year) reveal an Easter egg in the form of a sticker bearing Rockwell’s face. Is Mute secretly a sequel to the clone-based antics of Moon? Will one of Rockwell’s many alter egos make an appearance?
What’s Leaving . . .
Desk Set
This brilliant Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy joint has been one of the few films left in Netflix’s ever-shrinking “classics” collection. (Go ahead and type “classic movies” into the search bar, then prepare for your jaw to drop at the lack of options.) Clearly, films of a bygone era are not very popular with Netflix users, which would explain why the streaming giant seems far more focused on 90s nostalgia than the Golden Age of Hollywood. Still, modern viewers would find much to love in this gentle, sharp romantic comedy about a clever reference librarian (Hepburn) and the efficiency expert (Tracy) tasked with computerizing her collection. A clash over technology and a battle of wits? Some things never go out of style.
TV
What’s Arriving . . .
Altered Carbon (2/2)
Joel Kinnaman—another tall, brooding Swede, not to be confused with Alexander Skarsgård—stars in this adaptation of Richard K. Morgan’s futuristic, hard sci-fi novel of the same name. Netflix is taking a big swing on this series after failing to land its last attempt at the genre, Sense8. In Altered Carbon, Kinnamen is Takeshi Kovacs—a onetime elite-forces soldier, now a prisoner of the state, who wakes up 250 years after being arrested. He’s in a new body now, and has one chance to win his freedom: solving the murder of the affluent Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy). Both the cyberpunk body-swapping and whodunnit mission recall two commercially underwhelming 2017 films: Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner 2049. The visually dazzling Altered Carbon (the pilot was directed by Game of Thrones phenom Miguel Sapochnik) is nearly as ambitious as those two films, and Kinnaman certainly makes for a compelling lead, having played a very similar role in AMC’s The Killing. But critics are rightly pointing out Altered Carbon’s cavalier treatment of female characters, who are often either stripped nude or murdered. It’s a gender dynamic that might have worked for audiences in Westeros—but doesn’t translate as well to the far future.
Everything Sucks! (2/16)
Do you like the recent nostalgia of Stranger Things? How about the wry, meta high-school hijinks of American Vandal? The coming-of-age angst of 13 Reasons Why? Then Netflix—which, remember, is not opposed to using algorithms in order to cook up new shows—has brewed up what C.C.O. Ted Sarandos has declared its new stealth hit. Everything Sucks! is a 1996-set dramedy that follows the freaks and geeks of two different high-school castes—A/V Club and Drama Club—who are thrown together in the town of (yes) Boring, Oregon, while making their own movie. A recent teaser for the series is already in danger of nostalgia overload, thanks to a Pop-Up Video theme (ask your parents). But if there’s such thing as “too much” nostalgia for the masses, Netflix, the home of Fuller House, hasn’t discovered it yet.
The Frankenstein Chronicles: Seasons 1 and 2 (2/20)
Those TV fans still reeling at the idea of an entire calendar year (or more) without new episodes of Game of Thrones can perhaps take solace in Netflix’s latest costumed British import, starring Ned Stark himself: Sean Bean. If the name of the series didn’t already tip you off, this series (which originally aired in the U.K. in 2015) centers on reanimated monsters in 19th-century England. Bean plays an inspector determined to discover who is responsible for a washed-up corpse cobbled together from the bodies of several different victims. Overeager English majors (Mary Shelley is a character) and fans of Penny Dreadful,Taboo,Ripper Street, or Peaky Blinders are in for a gory treat.
What’s Leaving . . .
Burn Notice
Those looking to figure out how to make a stun gun out of a disposable camera, audio bugs from a Pringles can, or smoke screens from olive oil will have to go somewhere else for their modern-day, Miami-set MacGyver kicks. As if getting drummed out of the C.I.A. wasn’t enough of an indignity, Jeffrey Donovan’s Michael Weston has now been dropped by Netflix. So if Bruce Campbell in a parade of Hawaiian shirts, Gabrielle Anwar’s glossy hair, or Donovan’s super-human tolerance for yogurt was your comfort binge, you may have to resort to some creative spy tactics in order to get it.
FULL LIST OF ARRIVALS
Feb. 1
3000 Miles to Graceland
42 Grams
Aeon Flux
American Pie
American Pie 2
American Pie Presents: Band Camp
American Pie Presents: The Book of Love
American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile
Ella Enchanted
Extract
Goodfellas
How the Beatles Changed the World
John Mellencamp: Plain Spoken
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution
Lovesick
Meet the Fockers
Meet the Parents
Men in Black
National Parks Adventure
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Thirteen
Ocean's Twelve
Paint It Black
Scream 3
The Hurt Locker
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Z Nation: Season 4
_Feb. 2
Altered Carbon: Season 1
Cabin Fever
Coach Snoop: Season 1
Kavin Jay: Everybody Calm Down!
Luna Petunia: Return to Amazia: Season 1
On Body and Soul
Feb. 6
Fred Armisen: Standup for Drummers
Valor: Season 1
Feb. 7
Imposters: Season 1
Queer Eye: Season 1
Feb. 8
6 Days
The Emoji Movie
Feb. 9
Fate/Apocrypha: Part 2
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman: George Clooney
Seeing Allred
The Ritual
The Trader (Sovdagari)
When We First Met
Feb. 14
Greenhouse Academy: Season 2
Love Per Square Foot
Feb. 15
Deep Undercover Collection: Collection 2
Re:Mind: Season 1
Feb. 16
DreamWorks Dragons: Race to the Edge: Season 6
Evan Almighty
Everything Sucks!: Season 1
Irreplaceable You
First Team: Juventus: Season 1
Feb. 17
Blood Money
Feb. 18
The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale
Feb. 19
Dismissed
Fullmetal Alchemist
Feb. 20
Bates Motel: Season 5
The Frankenstein Chronicles: Seasons 1-2
Feb. 21
Forgotten
Lincoln
The Bachelors
Feb. 22
Atomic Puppet: Season 1
Feb. 23
Marseille: Season 2
Mute
Seven Seconds: Season 1
Ugly Delicious: Season 1
Feb. 24
Jeepers Creepers 3
Feb. 26
El Vato: Season 2
Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards
People You May Know
Sin Senos sí Hay Paraíso: Season 2
Winnie
Feb. 27
Derren Brown: The Push
Marlon Wayans: Woke-ish
FULL LIST OF WHAT’S LEAVING
Feb. 1
Brubaker
Corpse Bride
Day Watch
Desk Set
Enquiring Minds
Everyone's Hero
Hard Candy
How to Steal a Million
King Arthur
Magic City: Seasons 1-2
Night Watch
Open Season: Scared Silly
Perfect Stranger
Project X
Silver Streak
Stranger by the Lake
The Benchwarmers
The Five Heartbeats
The Fury
The Longest Day
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tin Man
Top Gear: Series 19-23
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Feb. 2
A Ballerina's Tale
Feb. 3
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
Feb. 5
Hannibal Buress: Animal Furnace
Hannibal Buress: Live from Chicago
Feb. 10
Dragonheart: The Shadowed Claw
Feb. 11
A Little Bit of Heaven
Feb. 12
Honeymoon
Feb. 14
Family Guy: Seasons 1-8
Feb. 15
12 Dog Days Till Christmas
A Christmas Kiss II
Before I Go to Sleep
Burn Notice: Seasons 1-7
Christmas Belle
Feb. 16
Our Last Tango
Save the Date
Feb. 17
Freakonomics
Feb. 19
An Idiot Abroad: Seasons 1-3
Feb. 20
Aziz Ansari: Dangerously Delicious
Feb. 21
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Feb. 24
Jane Got a Gun
Feb. 28
American Genius
Brain Games: Seasons 3-4
Cesar 911: Season 1
I Am Ali
Miami SWAT: Season 1
The Catch: Season 1
Get Vanity Fair’s HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Full ScreenPhotos:From Oprah to De Niro: Behind the Scenes of Vanity Fair’s 2018 Hollywood Issue Cover
JESSICA CHASTAIN, actor, producer.
With her cherry hair and Creamsicle complexion, Jessica Chastain possesses a classical beauty suitable for Victorian high collars (Crimson Peak), to-the-manor-born hauteur (Miss Julie), heroic archery (The Huntsman: Winter’s War), and parts requiring her to keep her dimpled chin cocked. Chastain has also dived into the netherworlds of counter-intelligence (Zero Dark Thirty) and high-roller underground gambling (Molly’s Game, as real-life “poker princess” Molly Bloom) without losing translucence. On the horizon is perhaps Chastain’s greatest challenge: playing the sainted country-music singer Tammy Wynette in George and Tammy.Photo: Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
Annie Leibovitz and team observe Jessicas Diehl and Chastain.Photo: Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
ROBERT DE NIRO, actor, producer, director.
It is impossible to determine which is more intimidating: Robert De Niro’s scowl, which in his gangster roles signals a beatdown about to ensue (see GoodFellas), or his jack-o’-lantern smile, which indicates he’s going to relish the beatdown about to ensue (see his Al Capone in The Untouchables). Violence isn’t the only language his characters speak, but it is the one in which they are most articulate, especially in the collaborations with Martin Scorsese, which began with Mean Streets and continue today with The Irishman (Netflix), co-starring, among others, Al Pacino (as Jimmy Hoffa!), Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, and Bobby Cannavale—ya gotta problem with that?Photo: Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
V.F. features editor Jane Sarkin and Annie Leibovitz review wardrobe options with Jessica Diehl.Photo: Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
Photo: Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
Photo: Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
Photo: Photograph by Annie Leibovitz.PreviousNext
JESSICA CHASTAIN, actor, producer.
With her cherry hair and Creamsicle complexion, Jessica Chastain possesses a classical beauty suitable for Victorian high collars (Crimson Peak), to-the-manor-born hauteur (Miss Julie), heroic archery (The Huntsman: Winter’s War), and parts requiring her to keep her dimpled chin cocked. Chastain has also dived into the netherworlds of counter-intelligence (Zero Dark Thirty) and high-roller underground gambling (Molly’s Game, as real-life “poker princess” Molly Bloom) without losing translucence. On the horizon is perhaps Chastain’s greatest challenge: playing the sainted country-music singer Tammy Wynette in George and Tammy.Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
ROBERT DE NIRO, actor, producer, director.
It is impossible to determine which is more intimidating: Robert De Niro’s scowl, which in his gangster roles signals a beatdown about to ensue (see GoodFellas), or his jack-o’-lantern smile, which indicates he’s going to relish the beatdown about to ensue (see his Al Capone in The Untouchables). Violence isn’t the only language his characters speak, but it is the one in which they are most articulate, especially in the collaborations with Martin Scorsese, which began with Mean Streets and continue today with The Irishman (Netflix), co-starring, among others, Al Pacino (as Jimmy Hoffa!), Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, and Bobby Cannavale—ya gotta problem with that?Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
HARRISON FORD, actor, producer.
Amazing how far Harrison Ford’s cocky, goofball grin has traveled since he hot-rodded down the main drag in American Graffiti, a grin that would forge a conspiratorial pact with audiences worldwide. Ford’s space jockey, Han Solo, in the Star Wars saga, and whip-cracking Indiana Jones were—and are—joyous throwbacks to the movie serials of lore, their boyish zeal unextinguished by age, gray, and grizzle. Ford also took on mortal danger with a straight mug as Jack Ryan (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger), the replicant terminator in Blade Runner, and Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive.Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
MICHAEL B. JORDAN, actor.
After appearing in a multitude of television series (most impactfully in The Wire), Michael B. Jordan had his big-screen moment of arrival in Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, a haunter of a film based on a real-life tragedy that illustrated why Black Lives Matter. Since then, Jordan has muscled up into the heavyweight division, literally in Creed and figuratively as Erik Killmonger, not a name to trifle with, in Coogler’s insanely anticipated rollout of the Marvel superhero Black Panther.Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
ZENDAYA, actor, singer.
Another Disney sensation who has gone mainstream massive, Zendaya—star of the Disney Channel’s K. C. Undercover—has zapped the sweet spot in pop culture where entertainment, fashion, and social media meet and cross-pollinate. She glammed down to play a dorky misfit in Spider-Man: Homecoming, then twirled up to loop the air as a trapeze artist in The Greatest Showman, as if to say, “Why should Spidey get to do all the swinging?”Photograph by Matthias Gaggl.
MICHAEL SHANNON, actor, musician.
Everything Michael Shannon is in, he intensifies. As the lawman in Nocturnal Animals, Shannon was an avenging angel in a white Stetson hat; in the keenly anticipated mini-series Waco, a docudrama depicting the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, Shannon’s resolute F.B.I. negotiator faces off against a crackpot messiah (Taylor Kitsch’s David Koresh); and in 12 Strong, he and Chris Hemsworth take on the Taliban. Small or big, there’s no theater of conflict he can’t command.Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
OPRAH WINFREY, actor, producer, philanthropist.
Oprah enrings the earth. Television host, author, producer, magazine publisher, powerhouse actress (The Color Purple, Beloved, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Selma, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), influencer without equal, and the first black woman to win the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award, Winfrey is more than the sum of her accomplishments—she’s a gravitational field that doesn’t press down but lifts up. Everything she does is dedicated to betterment without being didactic or, worse, corny. Will Oprah’s next act be a presidential bid?Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
TOM HANKS, actor, producer.
The unfussy integrity, mission resolve, and cool-in-a-crisis humor of Hanks’s Everyman heroes are among Hollywood’s last lingering reminders that we were once a proud democracy, and may still be again. His characters are animated by duty and the common good, not personal glory or Ahab obsession. Whether piloting Apollo 13 back to Mother Earth, Saving Private Ryan, or guiding a planeful of passengers safely onto the drink in Sully, Hanks keeps everything human-scaled and emotionally relatable. In The Post, a sure Oscar contender, he is once again thwarting the forces of suppression and deceit, portraying The Washington Post’s leonine executive editor Benjamin Bradlee, the role Jason Robards rasped into Oscar glory in All the President’s Men. Let the presses thunder!Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
GAL GADOT, actor, model.
Physically, the Israeli actress, model, and former Israel Defense Forces combat trainer Gal Gadot brought all the right attributes—imposing height and beauty, athleticism, goddessy glamour—to the task of playing Princess Diana, daughter of Hippolyta, better known around the neighborhood as Wonder Woman. But it was a secret power Gadot unsheathed that won the day: charm. In a blockbuster season with so little fun to be had, Gadot’s exuberant high spirits (and Patty Jenkins’s direction) redeemed the DC franchise from its male-menopausal funk. The rest of the Justice League should turn in their trunks.Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
REESE WITHERSPOON, actor, producer.
Fresh from the starting gate, Reese Witherspoon radiated poignant yearning in The Man in the Moon. Only 15 at the time, Witherspoon was a natural on-screen, but a lot of naturals turn unnatural with time; not our Reese. Her special gift is for clear carbonated comedy, most memorably as Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods, whose bunny fluff conceals a snap-crackle-and-pop brain. Rom-coms aplenty followed, girded by dramatic triumphs: country madonna June Carter in Walk the Line and scary momster Madeline Martha Mackenzie in HBO’s smash mini-series Big Little Lies.Photograph by Matthias Gaggl.
NICOLE KIDMAN, actor, producer.
No matter how many gutsy dives Nicole Kidman takes from the high board in her choices of adventurous roles, directors, and projects (in this decade alone, The Paperboy, The Beguiled, The Killing of a Sacred Deer), the entertainment press insists on propping her on an ivory pedestal and harping on her frosty reserve. More fools they. As an actor, Kidman has never hesitated to get down in the funk. She brought the body heat to Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, her maternal agon in Birth remains an undiscovered wonder, and she was outright freaky-deaky in The Paperboy. Conquering TV with an Emmy-and Golden Globe-winning splash in HBO’s Big Little Lies, Kidman could rest on her laurels but won’t. This Kid don’t quit.Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
GRAYDON CARTER, journalist, producer.
Graydon Carter and Robert De Niro talk between takes.Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
CLAIRE FOY, actor.
Quintessential Englishness is the viola Claire Foy plays, usually in period costume. Foy was outfitted with the poshy title of Lady Persephone Towyn in the remake of Upstairs, Downstairs (BBC), lost her head as Anne Boleyn on Wolf Hall (BBC), and was reconstituted for greatness as Queen Elizabeth II on The Crown (Netflix), contending with a moody husband, a lumbering Winston Churchill, a sprawling empire, and the deadweight of protocols and precedents—all while maintaining cameo-brooch composure. In royalty, as in theater, the show must go on.Photograph by Kathryn MacLeod.
Joanna RobinsonJoanna Robinson is a Hollywood writer covering TV and film for VanityFair.com.
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