New February 2015 Movies and TV Streaming on Netflix

TV Features Netflix

Our favorite documentary of 2014 is coming to Netflix in February, along with the first five seasons of M*A*S*H, a new season of House of Cards and a much-overlooked 2009 neo-noir gem. Here are our movie picks for the best of what’s new on Netflix for the coming month:

overnighters.jpg1. The Overnighters
Year: 2009
Director: Jesse Moss
Available: Feb. 17
The bulk of The Overnighters is about Williston, N.D. It may not be the most happening city in the United States, but it is one of the fastest growing thanks to the controversial fracking boom and subsequent influx of jobs. Thankfully, director Jesse Moss leaves the fracking debate for other documentaries to handle. In turn, he focuses on the economically challenged men who seek work in the area and the harsh realities they find instead. Rather than the instant riches and six-figure salaries afforded a lucky few, scores of job seekers are left to fend for themselves, living out of cars and alienated by a less-than-welcoming community. The notable exception is Lutheran pastor Jay Reinke, who happily throws open the doors of his Williston church with a housing program dubbed “The Overnighters.” Without the consent of his congregation, Reinke invites these desperate pilgrims to make the building their temporary (or semi-permanent) residence. For Reinke, this radical act of charity is simply the Christian thing to do. For many of his parishioners, it’s an uncomfortable intrusion on their spiritual sanctuary—especially when the local paper prints a list of registered sex offenders in the area and a few of those names are Overnighters. The experience of The Overnighters is about so much more than just what does or doesn’t drive Reinke. It’s about what’s happening in America right now, how we can have as many abstract discussions about economics, the environment, crime and punishment, and religion as we want, but that these abstract ideas have real impacts on real people. —Geoff Berkshire

brothers-bloom.jpg2. The Brothers Bloom
Year: 2009
Director: Rian Johnson
Available: Feb. 1
“He writes his cons the way dead Russians write novels”—this line from The Brothers Bloom not only illustrates the skills of schemer Stephen (Mark Ruffalo), but it also perfectly describes director Rian Johnson’s gift for constructing neo-noir masterpieces that manipulate the emotions of his audiences with enthralling grift. Featuring a cast that can do no wrong, Brothers Bloom stars Ruffalo and Adrien Brody as a pair of fraternal conmen who mark an eccentric heiress—the magnetic Rachel Weisz—for her fortune. After crafting an entire language of hard-boiled vernacular in his jarring debut, Brick, Johnson makes a more approachable film along a syncopated rhythm of saturated camera pans and clever plot beats. But Ruffalo, Brody and Weisz don’t rest on plot twists and double crosses alone; their melancholic and moving characterization dominates the film as much as the sleight-of-hand on the main stage. A near-perfect symphony of intellect and entertainment, The Brothers Bloom forms one the most memorable cinematic families this side of the Tenenbaums.—Sean Edgar

proof.jpgProof
Year: 2005
Director: John Madden
Available: Feb. 1
Madness and genius have long enjoyed a certain uncomfortable kinship. Philosophers and psychiatrists continue to ponder the awkward relationship between profound creative thought and mental instability—the most affecting breakthroughs are often based on the kinds of fragile, unthinkable truths the rest of us instinctually shy away from. Proof details the career, descent into madness and premature death of graphomaniac Robert Llewellyn (Anthony Hopkins), a revolutionary mathematician tended to by his shaky, sardonic daughter Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow, reprising her stage role from London’s West End). After Robert dies, Catherine’s sister, shiny-haired currency analyst Claire (Hope Davis) reappears, and Robert’s protégé, Hal Dobbs (Jake Gyllenhaal), begins scouring Robert’s notebooks, searching desperately for a moment of lucidity. Proof is based on David Auburn’s Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play; adapted by Auburn and directed by Shakespeare In Love’s John Madden (who also led Paltrow in Proof’s London run), the ?lm follows the script scrupulously, permitting only a handful of circumstantial tweaks.—Amanda Petrusich

two-faces-jan.jpg4. The Two Faces of January
Year: 2014
Director: Hossein Amini
Available: Feb. 12
In the latest adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel, you’re not only seduced by the characters but also by the décor, the mood, the swirl of cigarette smoke and the stylishness of the sunglasses. Whether it’s Alberto Iglesias’s score, meant to evoke the icy paranoia of Bernard Herrmann’s music for Alfred Hitchcock, or the period setting, the feature directorial debut of Oscar-nominated screenwriter Hossein Amini revels in its old-fashioned tone. The Two Faces of January is a thriller in love with the tense, sly thrillers of yesteryear. Set mostly in Greece in 1962, the film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst as Chester and Colette, an American married couple vacationing in Athens, who meet Rydal, an American tour guide who offers to show them around the city. The movie is a clever puzzle, a loving homage, as opposed to a prickly psychological snapshot. But the film’s elegance is enrapturing, and the performances captivate. As the noose draws tighter around the characters, we feel its pull around our neck, as well. Jackals these people may be, but they (like the world they inhabit) are too alluring to deny.—Tim Grierson

joe-movie.jpg5. Joe
Year: 2014
Director: David Gordon Greene
Available: Feb. 1
Director David Gordon Green’s latest effort, Joe, is a poetic, unexpectedly tender slice of underclass drama that also exudes a certain kind of metaphorical connection to the low-lying fog of economic desperation that presently holds so many in its grip. An adaptation of the late Larry Brown’s 1991 novel of the same name, Green’s film centers on Gary (Tye Sheridan), a 15-year-old Texas kid whose father (Gary Poulter) is a shiftless, alcoholic lout. Near-homeless and hungry, both figuratively and literally, Gary hooks a job with Joe Ransom (Nicolas Cage), a strong-willed ex-convict who isn’t really a role model but — out of necessity and by degrees — begins to assume that mantle. Not entirely unlike Prince Avalanche, Green’s last film, Joe is a work of plaintive portraiture and, broadly speaking, a movie about confused men finding their way in the world. Cage and Sheridan (The Tree of Life, Mud) have a great rapport, and the veteran actor in particular delivers a magnetic, dialed-in performance, his most layered of the last several years. —Brent Simon

Avail. Feb. 1
Bleach the Movie: Hell Verse
The Brothers Bloom
Dark Ride
Gimme Shelter
Gucci: The Director
Hot Pursuit
Houseboat
Into the Blue 2: The Reef
Joe
King Arthur
Naruto Shippuden: The Movie
Now: In the Wings on a World Stage
Proof
We Could Be King
We’re No Angels
Zapped
Departures, Seasons 1-2
Magic City, Seasons 1-2
M*A*S*H, Seasons 1-5
Spartacus, Complete Series

Avail. Feb. 5
The Little Rascals Save The Day

Avail. Feb. 6
Ever After High: Spring Unsung”
Danger 5

Avail. Feb. 7
Dead Snow: Read vs. Dead
Elsa & Fred

Avail. Feb. 8
Blood Ties
Catch Hell

Avail. Feb. 10
Dwight Howard: In the Moment

Avail. Feb. 11
Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Avail. Feb. 12
Young Ones
The Two Faces Of January
Scary Movie 5

Avail. Feb. 13
Mako Mermaids, Season 2

Avail. Feb. 16
Save the Date

Avail. Feb. 17
The Overnighters

Avail. Feb. 18
Earth to Echo
In Secret
The Fluffy Movie

Avail. Feb. 19
White Bird in a Blizzard

Avail. Feb. 20
Richie Rich, Season 1

Avail. Feb. 21
RoboCop

Avail. Feb. 24
1,000 Times Good Night
Hawaii Five-0, Seasons 1-4

Avail. Feb. 26
Open Windows
Russell Brand: Messiah Complex

Avail. Feb. 27
Ralphie May: Unruly
Boys
House of Cards, Season 3

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