If your Netflix home page is doing its job, you’ve likely already seen that Kevin Hart’s 72 Hours is at No. 1 on the U.S. Top 10 charts at the moment, and that a Liam Neeson action movie (In the Land of Saints & Sinners) from 2024 is up there, too. While both are solid picks for a fun movie night this week, there are, of course, loads more options.
This week we’re going a bit deeper with a few picks—two new and one new to Netflix this month: a claustrophobic sci-fi horror about a family trapped inside their house, a stunning adaptation of a classic manga, and, my top pick this week, a critically acclaimed coming-of-age dramedy with a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.
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The Last House
A supernatural force turns a family’s house into a prison
If you thought you had it tough being stuck inside during the COVID pandemic, this new Netflix Original sci-fi thriller from Lupin and Now You See Me director Louis Leterrier is a whole other level. In one of the most claustrophobic movies I’ve seen in a long time, The Last House does double duty as a mounting sci-fi horror and a commentary on how the mysteries of the natural world could easily turn on us.
Greta Lee (Past Lives, The Morning Show) and Wagner Moura (Narcos) star as young parents Ann and Jason, living a modest life in the Seattle suburbs with their two kids, Ruth and Graham. When a big storm rolls in, something inexplicable happens—the family, and everyone else in their neighborhood, are trapped inside their homes by some sort of supernatural force outside. As the days, weeks, and months go by, and their supplies dwindle, the family must adapt to the reality that this may never end—if they don’t tear themselves apart first.
Don’t take this one too seriously—the critics have so far not been too kind, but The Last House is a fun popcorn movie that gets weirder as it goes as the family, and the audience, learns the truth. Think A Quiet Place tension, but locked inside a quiet suburban house.
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The Ribbon Hero
The pioneering manga princess gets a modern reimagining
What do you get when a first-time animated feature director, whose credits include Star Wars: Visions, puts a fresh spin on one of the most influential manga comics ever drawn? The Ribbon Hero, that’s what. Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka’s famed 1953 manga, The Princess Knight, has been given a modern reimagining for Netflix with Yuuki Igarashi’s stunning style-diverse 109-minute feature.
The story, which predates Sailor Moon, follows Princess Sapphire (Saaya Kadokura), the sole royal survivor of her home kingdom of Silverland after the Nergal, a species of flying monstrous creatures, lays waste to the place, also killing her parents. The princess retreats to the kingdom of Goldland with her faithful sidekick Zirco (Mayumi Shintani), but soon the Nergal set their sights on it, too, for its supply of crystals, their main food source. But the princess has an ace up her sleeve, as her mystical ribbon gives her the ability to transform into the sword-wielding Princess Knight to make short work of the Nergal.
The animation is beautifully rendered and uses an impressive variety of styles—from hand-drawn 2D and old-fashioned European-style backgrounds, to even the cute and funny “Chibi” style, where the characters get huge eyes and heads when they freak out. The Ribbon Hero is streaming now.
The Ribbon Hero
- Release Date
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August 7, 2026
- Runtime
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109 minutes
- Director
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Yuki Igarashi
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Eighth Grade
Bo Burnham’s riveting middle school masterpiece
The best thing about actor/director/writer Bo Burnham’s (Bo Burnham: Inside) critically acclaimed masterpiece, Eighth Grade, is, hands down, its star, 14-year-old Elsie Fisher (The Summer I Turned Pretty), who carries the 2018 film with incredible range and honesty; it’s no wonder it’s one of A24’s most beloved movies and has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Fisher, who had just finished grade eight herself when filming, plays Kayla Day, a painfully shy 13-year-old trying to make it through the final days of that defining middle-school level, as she pours herself into chipper self-help videos on her YouTube channel that no one watches. It’s a painfully awkward but honest and spot-on depiction that Fisher just nails, as Kayla struggles to find herself, make friends, and maybe even attract the attention of her crush.
Josh Hamilton (Dark Skies, Alive) plays Kayla’s well-meaning single dad, Mark, whom I related to wholeheartedly, as he stumbles along the razor’s edge of trying to be there for his daughter while staying just far enough out of range of her deadly eye-rolling. Eighth Grade is funny, cringey, tender, and horrifically true to life.
Homes, heroes, and middle-school hallways
Whether you’re in the mood for claustrophobic sci-fi horror, an eye-popping anime redux, or a cringey coming-of-age saga your teenager definitely won’t watch with you, you’ve some solid options for movie nights this week. When you’re done, though, you can find more ideas in our streaming section on How-To Geek.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
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Two or four
- Live TV
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No
- Price
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Starting at $8/month
