20 Best Movies New to Streaming in July: ‘Uncharted,’ ‘House of Gucci,’ ‘Bob’s Burgers’

Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman named Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci” the second best movie of 2021, writing: “It’s is a knowing high-trash Godfather Lite, and one should feel free to giggle at Jared Leto’s comically pathetic Paolo, the Fredo of the family, even as Leto makes him a weirdly layered buffoon. But Lady Gaga, as Patrizia, who marries into the Gucci clan and tries to take it over, is at once lusciously devious and earnestly exacting playing a conniver in over her head, who we root both for and against. And Adam Driver and Al Pacino give pinpoint performances as the Gucci entrepreneurs who see their empire cut out from under them.” Watch “House of Gucci” on Prime Video here.

“Bob’s Burgers” fans who missed “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” when it  opened in theaters over are in luck as the film continuation of the popular Fox animated series hits streaming this month. From Variety’s review: “The beloved sitcom’s feature debut doesn’t dish out any surprises — and no one will mind a bit…. the film reaches for a plot older than the hamburger itself. The Belchers have seven days to raise money to pay the bank, or else they’ve served their last sandwich. ‘The Bob’s Burgers Movie’ is remarkable in what it abandons. Let other movies chase photo-realistic animation. It remains stubbornly 2D as if to prove that looks matter less than jokes that come fast and friendly like a parade of puppies. Sometimes you just want a simple snack of meat and cheese.” Watch “Bob’s Burgers” on HBO Max and Hulu.

Sony struck box office gold with video game adaptation “Uncharted,” which featured the A-list pairing of Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. The movie grossed $401 million at the worldwide box office on the heels of Holland’s record-breaking “Spider-Man: No Way Home” run. Holland is Nate Drake, a valiant but naïve adventurer hero, and Wahlberg is Victor Sullivan, who becomes Nate’s mentor by recruiting him to go on a mission to find the legendary stash of gold. From Variety’s review: “It’s watchable in a thin ‘Raiders of the Lost National Treasure of the Fast & Furious Caribbean’ way. ‘Uncharted’ is a lively but thinly scripted and overlong mad-dash caper movie, propelled by actors you wish, after a while, had more interesting things to say and do.”

Joe and Anthony Russo follow their record-breaking MCU tenure (and their blockbuster swan song “Avengers: Endgame”) with an original Netflix spy thriller that is designed to launch a new mega-franchise for the streaming giant. Ryan Gosling plays one of the CIA’s most skilled mercenaries who uncovers a secret within the agency and gets a bounty placed on his head by one of his psychopathic former colleagues, played by Chris Evans. The supporting cast includes Ana de Armas, Regé-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick, Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard. Expect “The Grey Man” to be Netflix’s biggest original movie offering of the summer movie season.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s porn industry-set classic “Boogie Nights” is back on Netflix this month. From Variety’s original review: “Darkly comic, vastly entertaining and utterly original, Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Boogie Nights’ is one of the most ambitious films to have come out of Hollywood in some time. Spanning the height of the disco era, 1977-84, the film offers a visually stunning exploration of the adult entertainment industry, centering on a hard-core movie outfit whose members form a close-knit extended family… Anderson’s striking command of technique, bravura filmmaking and passionate exploration of the possibilities of a new kind of storytelling recall the young Scorsese of ‘Mean Streets.'”

Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can” is movie comfort food, bolstered by the infectious cat-and-mouse chemistry between Leonardo DiCaprio, playing teen conman Frank Abagnale, and Tom Hanks, playing the FBI agent hot on his trail. From Variety’s review: “Although the film reps a lightweight breather between the darker and more grandiose projects Spielberg is taking on these days, there may also lurk a personal connection for the director with the subject of the film. After all, at the very same time Abagnale was pulling his stunts, the teenage Spielberg was dressing in coat and tie and trying to palm himself off as an executive on the Universal lot, a ploy that paid off when he got a TV directing gig by age 21.”

In the wake of Ray Liotta’s sudden passing last month, it couldn’t be a better time for Martin Scorsese’s gangster classic “Goodfellas” to return to Netflix. From Variety’s review: “Simultaneously fascinating and repellent, ‘Goodfellas’ is Martin Scorsese’s colorful inside look at Mafia life in 1955-1980 New York City…Scorsese’s intent here, to show how a life of brutal crime could look compelling to an Irish-Italian kid whose sordid upbringing hasn’t prepared him for anything better, is defined by the off-putting, opaque characterization of Ray Liotta. Sympathy is not the issue here, empathy is.”

“Few blockbusters have borne so heavy a burden of audience expectation as ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ and Christopher Nolan steps up to the occasion with a cataclysmic vision of Gotham City under siege,” Variety’s review of “The Dark Knight Rises” reads. The film ends Nolan’s Batman trilogy by having Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) team up with Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) to take down the evil Bane (Tom Hardy). The review adds: “Running an exhilarating, exhausting 164 minutes, Nolan’s trilogy-capping epic sends Batman to a literal pit of despair, restoring him to the core of a legend that questions, and powerfully affirms, the need for heroism in a fallen world. If it never quite matches the brilliance of 2008’s ‘The Dark Knight,’ this hugely ambitious action-drama nonetheless retains the moral urgency and serious-minded pulp instincts that have made the franchise a beacon of integrity in an increasingly comic book-driven Hollywood universe.”

“An intensely claustrophobic, gut-wrenching thriller about two policemen’s desperate efforts to stop an ingenious serial killer whose work is inspired by the seven deadly sins, this weirdly off-kilter suspense drama goes well beyond the usual police procedural or killer-on-a-rampage yarn due to a fine script, striking craftsmanship and a masterful performance by Morgan Freeman,” read Variety’s review of David Fincher’s “Seven.” “Freeman’s work is a supremely nuanced, moving performance as the seasoned, bruised and solitary Somerset. This is screen acting at its best. Brad Pitt turns in a determined, energetic, creditable job as the eager young detective. Gwyneth Paltrow gives as much human dimension as possible to her few scenes as Pitt’s sensitive, uncertain wife.”

Thomasin McKenzie had her acting breakout in Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” in which she plays a young recluse living out in the woods with her father (Ben Foster). From Variety’s review: “For fans of the director’s ‘Winter’s Bone,’ which effectively launched Jennifer Lawrence’s career, this unconventional family portrait shares many qualities with the 2010 film, including profound empathy for backwoods characters and the discovery of yet another young talent in Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie…Granik’s approach is reminiscent of the sensitive, stripped-down style of Kelly Reichardt’s work, and by reteaming with Scottish cinematographer Michael McDonough she creates a richer visual environment in which to dwell.”

Theater director Carrie Cracknell and Dakota Johnson put a contemporary and comical spin on Jane Austen’s “Persuasion,” which was the legendary author’s final published work. The story revolves around Anne Elliot (played by Johnson in the film), an isolated 27-year-old struggling to move on from her broken-off engagement to Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis) after being persuaded by family friend Lady Russell (Nikki Amuka-Bird). After seven years, the two come back into each other’s orbit when Anne’s family rents their home to his sister and her husband. Anne quickly finds herself caught in a love triangle between her former fiancé and her cousin, William Elliot (Henry Golding), who will inherit her father Walter’s (Richard E. Grant) estate.

It’s an eternal middle-aged anxiety: “I feel like I’m turning into my mother.” And it’s given a most literal rendering in Iris K. Shim’s supernatural horror exercise “Umma,” in which Sandra Oh stars as a rural beekeeper inhabited by the vengeful spirit of her estranged mom. But while that premise might sound like the makings of a tongue-in-cheek body-swap fright-fest, “Umma” has far heavier issues on its plate as it attempts to thread the needle between its horror set-pieces and the more serious themes of generational trauma lying beneath.

Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez found a wealth of inspiration from the black-and-white “Sin City” comic books when they set out to recreate it as a neo-noir anthology movie. The film, which debuted at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, won the technical grand prize for its “visual shaping,” rendering most of the movie in black-and-white, while retaining and adding color for selected objects. From Variety’s review: “Rodriguez’s guild-bolting collaboration with graphic artist Frank Miller is a Mickey Spillane fever dream, with a gallery of tough customers doing nasty things to each other on a shimmering monochrome canvas. For geeks, action freaks and sensation-seeking teenage boys of all ages, the price of admission will provide a one-way ticket to hard-boiled heaven.” Watch “Sin City Unrated” on HBO Max here. 

With George Miller’s “Furiosa” prequel now in production, it couldn’t be a better time to stream “Mad Max: Fury Road.” The 2015 movie is widely considered one of the greatest action movies ever made and won six Oscars from 10 total nominations. Tom Hardy stars as the eponymous road warrior, who teams with a war captain (Charlize Theron) to free a group of enslaved women from a villainous ruler. From Variety’s review: “Even the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies look like Autopia test drives next to George Miller’s powerhouse reimagining of his iconic ‘Mad Max’ franchise…the tersely magnetic Tom Hardy turns out to be less of a revelation than his glowering co-lead, Charlize Theron, decisively claiming her place (with apologies to Tina Turner) as the most indelible female presence in this gas-guzzling, testosterone-fueled universe.” Watch “Mad Max: Fury Road” on HBO Max here. 

What happens when Repunzel meets John Wick? The answer is found in “The Princess,” director Le-Van Kiet’s upcoming action fantasy starring Joey King as a beautiful, strong-willed princess who refuses to wed the cruel sociopath to whom she is betrothed. As a result, the princess is kidnapped and locked in a remote tower of her father’s castle. With her scorned, vindictive suitor intent on taking her father’s throne, the princess must break out of captivity, protect her family and save her kingdom. No heroic prince is needed, of course. The 20^th Century Studios production is debuting exclusively on Hulu and should be an instant hit given King’s streaming bonafides thanks to Netflix’s popular “Kissing Booth” trilogy. Watch “The Princess” on Hulu.

“The Descendants” tackles some of the prickliest issues a contemporary family can face with such sensitivity that it’s hardly noticeable you’re being enlightened while entertained. George Clooney was Oscar-nominated for playing a Hawaiian father of two negotiating complex emotions while his wife lies comatose after a boating accident. From Variety’s review: “‘The Descendants’ deals in themes universal enough that audiences will come to the table with their own life experience to draw from, and Payne intuitively understands how to leave things open enough that we can personalize the story for ourselves. With the exception of Clooney, none of his casting choices seem obvious, which further brings the world to life.” Watch “Th Descendants” on Hulu here. 

An ambitious young woman (Zoey Deutch) finds followers and fame when she poses as the survivor of a deadly attack, but she soon learns that online notoriety comes with a terrible price. Searchlight Pictures is behind this scathing social media satire, which pairs Deutch with Dylan O’Brien and debuts exclusively on Hulu. The film is the latest directorial effort from  Quinn Shephard, the 27-year-old filmmaker whose 2017 directorial debut “Blame” was one  of the major breakouts of the Tribeca Film Festival. Watch “Not Okay” on Hulu here. 

Hanna Bergholm’s debut feature “Hatching” made waves at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year due to its eery atmosphere and body horror storyline, and now it comes to streaming via Hulu and makes for a perfect slice of summer horror. The film centers on a 12-year-old girl who discovers an egg and brings it home. When it hatches, the creature inside is revealed to be a doppelgänger that acts as a manifestation of the young girl’s repressed emotions. From Variety’s review: “Motherhood is scary stuff. From ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ through to ‘The Babadook’ and ‘Hereditary,’ a certain breed of horror film has taught us as much. Equally disturbing, in Hanna Bergholm’s inventive, alarmingly sunny genre outing ‘Hatching,’ is adolescence: lurking under a protective mother’s wings, waiting to crack and come of age in a Finnish suburb’s suffocating, expertly calibrated atmosphere.” Watch “Hatching” on Hulu here. 

Directed by Hannah Marks and written by Vera Herbert, “Don’t Make Me Go” is in some ways an inversion of the “unexpected kid” genre in which the protagonist is introduced to the child they didn’t know they had. The difference is that here, circumstances of the life-and-death variety prompt a single father named Max (Cho) to introduce his teenage daughter Wally (Mia Isaac, who also narrates) to the mother she’s never met. That requires a road trip from California to Florida, which Wally — who’s unaware of her dad’s true intentions and thinks they’re en route to his college reunion in New Orleans — only agrees to because her old man finally agrees to give her driving lessons along the way.

Billy Porter is known for being in front of the camera — most famously as Pray Tell on “Pose” and recently delivering a gender-bending twist on everyone’s favorite fairy godmother in Amazon’s musical movie “Cinderella.” Now, the Emmy-winning actor is stepping behind the camera to make his feature film directorial debut with “Anything’s Possible,” a John Hughes-esque coming-of-age dramedy about trans high school senior Kelsa (trans newcomer Eva Reign), who is navigating her first boyfriend, Khal (“Katy Keene” actor Abubakr Ali), friendship and family life with her single mom (Renée Elise Goldsberry). Like Netflix’s much buzzed about “Heartstopper,” “Anything’s Possible” is about LGBTQ joy. The trauma often portrayed on film and television when it comes to trans stories is nowhere to be found in this world. Watch “Anything’s Possible” on Prime Video here.