The best movies leaving Netflix, Max and more at the end of August 2024

We’re coming to the end of the month, and that means there’s a lot of coming and going on all the major streaming platforms. And while there are plenty of exciting movies on the way in September, we want to make sure you don’t miss out on the gems that disappear at the end of August.

To help you end the summer with the best movies possible, we’ve compiled a list of the very best films leaving streaming services at the end of the month. They include a unique coming-of-age film, two dark fantasy journeys, and two vibes masterpieces from the great Michael Mann.

Here are the best movies that will no longer be streaming at the end of August.

Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Pour: Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner
Leave Netflix: 31.August

Teenagers are not like they are portrayed in the movies. Sure, they have their moments of courage or compassionate understanding, and most will turn out fine in a few years, but there is a lot of selfishness to overcome first. And very few movies have ever portrayed that selfishness as well as On the edge of seventeen.

The film follows Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), a young girl struggling through life with her brother (Blake Jenner) and mother (Kyra Sedgwick) after the unexpected death of her father. In her grief, Nadine is mean, angry, and seemingly blind to the grief of everyone around her. All of these problems are only made worse when her best friend (Haley Lu Richardson) starts dating her brother.

All of that may sound a bit boring, but one of the film’s many strengths is that it remains wonderfully funny from start to finish. This is largely thanks to Steinfeld’s incredible performance, which finds a perfect middle ground, constantly making Nadine seem thoroughly mean and undeniably charming. It’s the rare film where you spend the entire time not congratulating the main character on her success, but wishing her to realize that she’s acting like an idiot. There aren’t enough films like this, about likable characters who are completely in the wrong, but that’s probably because it’s not nearly as easy as On the edge of seventeen makes it look. —Austen Goslin

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Pour: Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder
Exit Prime Video: 31.August

When you think of actors who exude the otherworldly sex appeal and monstrous tendencies you’d expect from the iconic Count Dracula, Gary Oldman isn’t exactly the first name that springs to mind for most people. That’s what makes his performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 horror fantasy so notable, as Oldman’s atypical portrayal of the dour, bloodsucking libertine alongside Keanu Reeves’ portrayal of the heroic Jonathan Harker makes him one of the most memorable incarnations of the Count ever seen on screen.

Combined with the film’s beautiful, practical sets, the lavish costumes by designer Eiko Ishioka, and some notable supporting performances by Anthony Hopkins and Tom Waits, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of the most unique films in Coppola’s highly acclaimed work. And with Megalopolis is just around the corner, it’s time to revive one of his classics. –Toussaint Egan

Director: Michael Mann
Pour: Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Naomie Harris
Leave Netflix: 31.August

Michael Mann has directed a number of acclaimed blockbusters over the course of his long and illustrious career, including his 1995 symphonic crime drama heatone of my absolute favorite films. But no other film in his work is more typical “Mann-core” than MiamiVicethe feature-length adaptation of the 1984 crime series produced by Mann, starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas.

The plot couldn’t be further from the topic. Here is the true heart of MiamiViceThe enduring appeal of The 4000: It just doesn’t look or feel like any other crime drama of its era. Mann’s experiment with digital photography creates a level of eerie realism through its landscape of crushed brown and black textures and bleached white beach views. It’s a crime drama that exudes a sense of cool all in its own way, a grand experiment that has spawned a cult following and been reassessed as one of the director’s best. In short, MiamiVice is a mood. -THE

Director: David Lowery
Pour: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Ralph Ineson
Leave Max: 31.August

The Green Knight is one of the most beautiful films of the last decade. Director David Lowery’s film retells the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” in which the knight Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) beheads a mysterious Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) and sets off on a journey a year later to receive “an equally terrible blow.” While Lowery’s film technically tells the whole story, its main focus is on the strange events that befall Gawain on his journey to the Green Chapel.

Watching this film is like being caught in a dream, a flood of beautiful images loosely tied together by a standout performance from Patel as a ne’er-do-well knight who isn’t sure he’s headed for the gallows. In each increasingly strange scene, Patel conveys Gawain’s wonderful incredulity, somehow simultaneously rooted in the strangeness of his present moment and driving him mentally toward his appointment with a deity who may wish him dead. The film is bizarre, poetic and immensely poignant in a way that makes it a more than worthy adaptation of the classic Arthurian legend. —AG

Director: Michael Mann
Pour: James Caan, Willie Nelson, Tuesday Weld
Leave Criterion Channel: 31.August

The late, great James Caan (The Godfather) plays the lead role in Michael Mann’s 1981 neo-noir heist thriller Thief as Frank, an ex-convict and professional safecracker who wants to get back on the straight and narrow and start a family. Unfortunately, Frank is denied his share of his latest heist, so he is forced to take a job with the mafia to make ends meet. Featuring a beautiful synthesizer score by Tangerine Dream, stunning night cinematography by Donald Thorin, and an iconic and emotionally nuanced performance by Caan, Thief is an absolute eye-catcher and a jewel in the crown of one of the best directors of our time. End of blurb. -THE