The Best Movies and TV Shows New to Netflix, Amazon and More in August – The New York Times

Northern Ireland, mid-1990s. The decades-long strife known as the Troubles is just another annoyance for a group of Catholic schoolgirls (and one tag-along male cousin), who are also dealing with the torments of adolescence. Season 2 of this zany British sitcom is filled with culture clashes and chaotic shenanigans, including the Derry Girls’ first encounter with Protestant boys. (Unaccustomed to Irish accents? Use the subtitles.)

Geena Davis joins the cast as a former showgirl-turned-entertainment director who hires the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling for an extended residency at the Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. (The gig kicks off on the day of the Challenger space shuttle explosion — an omen?) The change in scenery brings new plot possibilities for mud wrestling, gambling troubles and of course sexual escapades. There are also power struggles among the team’s producers, as they try to figure out a future for this colorful outfit. Can Ruth (Alison Brie) ever give up acting? Can Debbie (Betty Gilpin) live apart from her kid? Can the show really go on?

‘American Factory’
Starts streaming: August 21

In “American Factory” — the first title from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions and premiering in partnership with Netflix — the documentary filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar capture a very modern culture clash. A Chinese billionaire opens a new auto-glass factory in Dayton, Ohio; hires thousands of locals to work there; and then — frustrated by the perceived slowness of the American employees — begins replacing them with machines. A winner at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the film features intense conflict and also a full-blown musical number, staged by the corporation, limning the virtues of efficiency.

‘The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’
Season Starts streaming: August 30

Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s 1982 cult film “The Dark Crystal” captured the imagination of a generation, and this prequel series — drawn from an ongoing series of companion books — has all the Gelfling dreamfasting, Skeksis feasting and Fizzgig growling that nostalgic fans might expect. When a few young Gelflings discover something awful is happening to their planet Thra, they seek to undo the damage. Can they manage it? The Skeksis’ wheedling Chamberlain (Simon Pegg) doesn’t think so: “Gelfling are weak, Gelfling are small, and Skeksis are forever.”

Also arriving:

August 1

“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Groundhog Day,” “Horns,” “The House Bunny,” “Jackie Brown,” “Now and Then,” “Panic Room,” “Rocky,” “Sex and the City: The Movie,” “Something’s Gotta Give” and “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.”

August 8

“Jane the Virgin” Season 5, “The Naked Director” and “Wu Assassins.”

A neo-noir mystery with supernatural creatures, interspecies hookups and topical immigration debates. The Fae folk — faeries, fauns, centaurs, trolls and such — are refugees from their war-torn homeland Tirnanoc, but they’ve found little welcome in the neo-Victorian steampunk city of The Burgue. The Fae are the lowest of the social order, forced into lives of indentured servitude or sex work and tightly restricted in their rights and freedoms. Featuring Cara Delevingne and Orlando Bloom as a Faerie named Vignette and a police inspector investigating a string of serial murders named Rycroft Philostrate.

Also arriving:

August 2

”300”

August 21

“A Simple Favor”

August 23

“Alice Wetterlund: My Mama is a Human and So Am I” and “Mission: Impossible — Fallout.”

August 26

“The Lincoln Lawyer”

August 31

“Computer Chess,” “Failure to Launch,” “The Fifth Element,” “Godzilla,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” “Pirate Radio,” “Sucker Punch” and “The Uninvited.”

Robin Thede — the former head writer of the now-defunct “Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore” — produces, writes and stars in this playful comedy series, which mostly features black women in its core cast and as guest stars (Angela Bassett, Gina Torres, Yvette Nicole Brown, Lena Waithe and Aja Naomi King, to name a few). Recurring bits provide connective tissue throughout the six-episode season, including an apocalyptic event that leaves four friends contemplating the end of the world and a spy saga featuring a secret agent whose success largely depends on people disregarding her completely.

‘My Favorite Shapes by Julio Torres’
Starts streaming: August 10

This is not your typical stand-up comedy special. The “Saturday Night Live” writer and “Los Espookys” star Julio Torres sits at a conveyor belt as a stream of tiny objects rolls past, picking them up and telling a story about each one, as if they had rich inner lives and important things to say. (And if an object isn’t there, he’ll imagine it for us.) A cactus questions its own existence, an airplane curtain dividing first class and coach justifies its exclusionary practices, a toy penguin realizes that its race on a preset track is forever rigged. Sometimes, the objects are voiced by Torres, but a few surprise celeb guests also chime in.

‘Succession’ Season 2 premiere
Starts streaming: August 11

Internecine backstabbing within the Roy family’s billion dollar media empire continues. Following a failed hostile takeover and a manslaughter mishap, a neutralized Kendall (Jeremy Strong) finds himself dependent on the family patriarch Logan (Brian Cox), having to do his bidding. Kendall’s siblings — who don’t understand their brother’s change of heart — immediately tackle the question of whether to sell the company, and how to proceed if not. Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) both make a solid pitch, hoping to become the next CEO, while Connor (Alan Ruck) dreams of running for president. Good luck with that, Connor.

Also arriving:

August 1

“A Lego Brickumentary,” “Arizona,” “Body Heat,” “Brothers,” “Chariots of Fire,” “Conviction,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “The Lost Boys,” “Out of Africa” and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.”

August 3

“The Favourite”

August 10

“Aquaman”

August 12

“Our Boys” Limited Series Premiere

August 14

“Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America”

August 18

“The Righteous Gemstones” Season 1 Premiere

August 27

“The Mule”

August 31

“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

New to Hulu

The director Ben Berman planned to make a standard documentary about a terminally ill magician and comedian called the Amazing Johnathan (real name John Szeles). But in the course of shooting the film, Berman began to wonder if he wasn’t in the middle of an elaborate Andy Kaufman-style hoax. His subject was also being followed by a number of other film crews, and they all seemed to be getting the same sound bites. Was Szeles even dying? The finished documentary is now less about its original subject and more about the strange business of making documentaries.

Also arriving:

August 1

“Baby Boom,” “Big Fish,” “The Brady Bunch Movie,” “The Color Purple,” “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “The Cutting Edge,” “Dances with Wolves,” “Das Boot,” “The Fifth Element,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Idiocracy,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Meet the Parents,” “My Bloody Valentine,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Rushmore,” “Seven,” “Snake Eyes,” “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” “Stargate,” “The Terminator,” “Urban Cowboy” and “White Men Can’t Jump.”

August 16

“Find Me in Paris” Season 2

August 22

“A Simple Favor”

August 23

“Jawline,” “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” and “Operation Finale.”

August 26

“Captain Fantastic” and “Designing Women” Seasons 1-7

August 27

“The Lincoln Lawyer”

August 28

“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”