Best Movies Streaming July 2023: 65, Bird Box Barcelona and More

Jamie Foxx, John Boyega and Teyonah Parris are front and center in “They Cloned Tyrone,” Netflix’s biggest original movie offering of July. The science-fiction thriller centers on a series of eerie events that thrust an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. Boyega is a dope boy named Fontaine, while Parris is a working woman called Yo-Yo and Foxx is her pimp Slick Charles. “They Cloned Tyrone” is the directorial debut of Juel Taylor, who co-wrote the film with Tony Rettenmaier. Prior to serving as co-screenwriter on this film, Taylor also penned “Creed II,” “Shooting Stars” and “Young. Wild. Free.” The film puts a modern and mysterious spin on the Blaxploitation genre and its tropes, and Boyega previously told Variety that he liked that it might leave viewers puzzled. “You stayed confused for Jordan Peele. I think we should keep this going,” he quipped. “Trust me, you will figure everything out.”

Adam Driver’s adventure movie “65” was a bust for Sony Pictures earlier this year, grossing $60 million worldwide on a production budget in the $40 million range. Perhaps more people will come around to its silly and simple charms on Netflix this month. Driver plays an explorer who crash lands on earth 65 million years ago and is forced to battle dinosaurs to survive. It’s an incredibly derivative set-up, but it’s made with skill from “A Quiet Place” writers Scott Beck and Bryan Wood. From Variety’s review: “Anchored by another in a series of committed performances from Adam Driver and an ensemble of suitably menacing prehistoric beasts that chase him for just over 90 minutes, Beck and Woods’ adventure delivers requisite thrills even if it creativity seems stuck in the distant cinematic past.”

Sandra Bullock delivered Netflix one of its biggest original films and most viral social media sensations with 2018’s “Bird Box,” which was set in a world dominated by monsters that preyed upon those who could see them. Now the “Bird Box” franchise is expanding with a Spanish-language spinoff titled “Bird Box Barcelona.” The film again centers on a group of people forced to blindfold themselves in order to stay alive. Mario Casas stars as a father struggling to protect his daughter from the monsters while navigating the streets of a desolate Barcelona.

Director Chris Smith takes on the lives of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in his documentary “Wham!,” which uses archival footage to show how two best friends came together to form one of the world’s most beloved pop acts in just four years. Per Netflix’s official synopsis: “With unprecedented access to both George and Andrew’s personal archive including remarkable and never-before-seen footage, alongside rare, candid and previously unheard interviews, ‘Wham!’ charts their incredible journey from school friends to superstars.”

Netflix’s “The Out-Laws” puts an action spin on “Meet the Parents,” starring Adam Devine, Pierce Brosnan, Nina Dobrev and Ellen Barkin. “Workaholics” and “Pitch Perfect” favorite Devine plays a straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life, but their relationship is complicated by a bank robbery at his work that may have ties to his fiancé’s parents. “The Out-Laws” cast also includes Michael Rooker, Poorna Jagannathan, Julie Hagerty, Richard Kind, Lil Rel Howery, Blake Anderson, Lauren Lapkus and Laci Mosley. Dobrev told Tudum about working with Divine: “He was an incredible, generous actor in the scenes and a great partner. I couldn’t speak more highly of him. He’s just such a great guy and maybe my favorite co-star that I’ve ever worked with.”

“Succession” may be over, but Matthew Macfadyen fans are in luck as his dreamy Mr. Darcy is coming to Netflix this month thanks to Joe Wright’s rapturous “Pride and Prejudice.” The 2005 release earned four Academy Award nominations, including best actress for Keira Knightley. From Variety’s review: “A movie for the age, and a keeper for the ages, ‘Pride & Prejudice’ brings Jane Austen’s best-loved novel to vivid, widescreen life, as well as making an undisputed star of 20-year-old Keira Knightley.”

Jennifer Lawrence is bringing the raunchy R-rated comedy back to movie theaters with “No Hard Feelings” (now playing), and one of her biggest inspirations was the 2002 comedy “The Sweetest Thing.” Starring Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and Selma Blair, the film centers on a woman who has avoided men for years but finds her perfect match one night while out with her girlfriends. When he leaves town, the friends team up to track him down.

Lawrence told Diaz during a recent chat for Interview Magazine: “When my best friend was going through a bad breakup many years ago, she wanted to watch ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ which is her favorite movie. I was like, ‘Justine, trust me on this one. We’re going to watch “The Sweetest Thing,” and you’re going to thank me.’ She was so hesitant. I put it on, and it totally fixed her… You and Christina Applegate. Talk about chemistry.”

Noah Baumbach is returning to theaters this month as the co-writer of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” movie. His best directorial effort is also coming to streaming thanks to “The Squid and the Whale” arriving on Netflix. The 2005 biographical comedy-drama centers on two boys in Brooklyn coping with their parents’ divorce in 1986. Baumbach was Oscar-nominated for best original screenplay. From Variety’s review: “Richly fulfilling the promise of Baumbach’s indelible 1995 debut, ‘Kicking and Screaming,’ this film is full of strong performances and wry observation. The final result is a perceptive (and unexpectedly moving) portrait of lives in crisis.”

Universal’s “Shrek” spinoff “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” comes to Netflix after originally making its streaming debut on Peacock in March. The film was a box office hit with $448 million worldwide, and now Netflix-subscribing families can watch the Antonio Banderas-voiced feline from the comfort of their own homes. From Variety‘s review: “‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ marks DreamWorks Animation’s best film since the ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ trilogy, reflecting some of the lessons learned on that series, including the notion that cartoon characters get a lot more interesting if they’re not immortal.”

James Mangold is back in theaters with “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” but fans of his non-tentpole work may be interested in streaming “Ford v Ferrari” on Hulu this month. The story is centered around the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France as automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and his British driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) join forces to build a racecar for the Ford company that can beat its rivals at Ferrari. The film earned four Academy Award nominations, including best picture. It won the Oscars for best sound editing and film editing. From Variety’s review: “What ‘Walk the Line’ director James Mangold has done with ‘Ford v Ferrari’ will wow you, balancing the burnt-rubber thrill of the sport with scenes in which the two men butt heads with their corporate overlords about how to get the job done.”

Colm Bairéad’s “The Quiet Girl” was nominated for best international feature film at the Oscars earlier this year. The Irish drama is set in 1981 and centers on a withdrawn 9-year-old girl who experiences a loving home for the first time when she spends the summer on a farm with distant relatives. From Variety’s review: “Colm Bairéad’s gentle, straightforward, largely Irish-language ‘The Quiet Girl’ has an ear finely attuned to all those types of hush, and to the tender feelings they can contain… Set to Stephen Rennick’s sweet score, which tiptoes round the edges of the film’s airy sound design, the simplicity of the story and the desire to do right by all the characters (except perhaps a prying neighbor who is sketched rather cattily) is an undoubted strength.”

After making its streaming debut on Paramount+ in April, “80 for Brady” arrives on Prime Video this month at no extra cost to subscribers. Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Sally Field play smitten Tom Brady fans who embark on a hilarious road trip to the Super Bowl. “Kyle Marvin’s directorial debut is a pleasant enough reminder that these gals are still game for a good time,” reads Variety’s review. “More fuddy-duddy buddy comedy than sports film, the female-scripted laffer (co-written by Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern) celebrates the fact that football appeals to more than just bros. Never mind that its central foursome seems less interested in Brady’s form than in how well he fills out his uniform.”

A television reboot of “Twilight” is now in development, but attempting to match the success of the four-film franchise might be a losing battle. ”Twilight” (2008), “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” (2009), “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” (2010) and both parts of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” (2011–2012) are arriving on Prime Video this month, over a decade after turning Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner into global superstars. Stewart plays the withdrawn teenager Bella Swan, whose world is turned upside down when she falls in love with a local vampire. From Variety’s original review: “Stewart (seen recently and most impressively in ‘Into the Wild’) makes Bella earthy, appealing and slightly withdrawn, and British thespian Pattinson (who registered poignantly as the ill-fated Cedric Diggory in ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’) is every inch the deadly dreamboat.”

Danielle Deadwyler gave one of the best performances of 2022 in “Till,” starring as the mother of Emmett Till who used her son’s horrific murder to create a larger awareness of the Civil Rights Movement across America. From Variety’s review: “In her terrific performance as the mother of Emmett Till, Danielle Deadwyler wrestles a ghastly American tragedy into a story of resilience crucial to the civil rights movement… she makes Mamie’s love real and her grief relatable. No mother should experience what she did, and no one would blame her for wanting to bury him as discreetly as possible.”

In director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest psychological horror, a family gets taken hostage by four strangers who demand their sacrifice to prevent an apocalypse. Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff and Rupert Grint star in this story based on author Paul G. Tremblay’s “The Cabin at the End of the World.” From Variety’s review: “Shyamalan remains a master of tension. All that suspense builds to a grand anticlimax here, but at least the experience doesn’t let Us get ahead of the plot. If anything, it plays ‘Funny Games’ with the genre, perversely asking us to empathize with The Strangers.”

Mixing intimate cinéma vérité, archival footage and on-camera interviews, “Stephen Curry: Underrated” documents the basketball player as he rises from an undersized college player at a small town Division I college to a four-time NBA champion, building one of the most dominant sports careers in the world. From Variety’s review: “If the measure of a good documentary about a superstar athlete is in synthesizing what makes its subject tick, ‘Stephen Curry: Underrated’ gets passing grades… With enough fresh stories to keep basketball fanatics engaged and a coda that every soccer mom will appreciate, this is a film that’s worthy of its subject.”

Zach Galifianakis, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook and Geraldine Viswanathan join forces to take on the true story of the Beanie Babies empire that dominated culture in the 1990s. As the film’s synopsis asks: “Why did the world suddenly treat stuffed animals like gold? Ty Warner was a frustrated toy salesman until his collaboration with three women grew his masterstroke of an idea into the biggest toy craze in history. ‘The Beanie Bubble’ is an inventive story about what and who we value, and the unsung heroes whose names didn’t appear on the heart-shaped tag.”

Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review of Michael Bay’s “Ambulance” that “it takes you back to an age when action thrillers were big, loud, decadent, rebellious and ripped off from ‘Die Hard.’” Based on the 2005 Danish film of the same name, “Ambulance” stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as an army veteran down on his luck who turns to “brother” Gyllenhaal for help when he needs $231,000 to pay for his wife’s surgery. Gyllenhaal’s solution? A $32 million bank robbery. Set in Los Angeles over the course of one day, the movie — written by Chris Fedak — also stars Eiza González, Garret Dillahunt and Devan Long.

Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet bring a unique electricity to Luca Guadagnino’s road trip romance, in which two young cannibals realize they can’t survive without each other. Blood flows, spurts and is the lifeblood of this film, told in startling vignettes as Russell’s Maren learns she’s not alone in the world in craving human flesh. With dreamlike cinematography setting the backdrop for unforgettable characters like Chalamet’s Lee, Mark Rylance’s terrifying Sully and a nightmarish cameo from Chloë Sevigny, “Bones and All” is an ambitious and emotional work of horror romance.

With Ben Wheatley’s “Meg 2: The Trench” on the way to theaters on Aug. 4 and promising even more giant shark mayhem, it’s a perfect time for the original “The Meg” to return to streaming via Max. The Jon Turteltaub-directed 2018 action movie was a surprise box office hit with $530 million worldwide. Jason Statham plays a deep sea diver who joins a group of scientists in trying to tame a 75-foot-long Megalodon shark who is on a killing spree. From Variety’s review: “‘The Meg’ is ‘Jaws’ on dumbed-down steroids, and proud of it. It’s the sort of movie that people used to go to when they went to movies for the air conditioning.”