Each month, lots of new films and TV shows are added to Stan‘s library. Critic Craig Mathieson surveys each month’s selections and picks for titles most worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.
Top Picks: TV
City on a Hill: Season 3 (July 30)
Kevin Bacon has found one of his richest roles yet in this 1990s-set crime drama, where he plays “classic Boston asshole” Jackie Rohr, an FBI agent whose flaws and fears are at odds with his refusal to look away no matter the cost. In an era when the city is stricken by institutional corruption and nefarious cliques, the alliance between Jackie and cleanskin Black prosecutor Decourcy Ward (Aldis Hodge) makes for an unlikely partnership in a show where the regret seeps in slowly but deeply. Come for the classic Boston accents, stay for the underworld machinations that invariably exact a personal price.
Code 404: Season 3 (August 4)
This is England, Boardwalk Empire (as Al Capone), Line of Duty, The Irishman, Boiling Point…Stephen Graham is one of the finest dramatic actors of his generation. That makes his work in this amiable British action-comedy all the more amusing. As near-future police detective Roy Carver, Graham plays it absolutely straight when his partner, John Major (Daniel Mays), is killed on the job but revived by an experimental artificial intelligence project. It’s Get Smart meets Robocop as the new Major rubs against his old pal, with familiar plots but effective gags in what’s become an under the radar success.
That Damn Michael Che: Season 2 (August 18)
A native New Yorker and stand-up comic, Michael Che now shares both head writer duties and the prized Weekend Update desk segment with Colin Jost on the American comedy institution Saturday Night Live. That’s a prestigious position, and Che used it to launch this sketch comedy series where he plays a version of himself and each episode revolves around a contemporary topic. Police brutality, unemployment, and falling in love all generated wry laughs and deadpan observations in the first season, and Che should have no shortage of topics in the second instalment.
Top Picks: Movies + Specials
Goodfellas (August 12)
The recent death of actor Paul Sorvino was a reminder that there are no small parts in Martin Scorsese’s definitive gangster movie. In Goodfellas, Sorvino plays Paulie Cicero, a softly-spoken mob boss with a “wonderful system” for doing the garlic in jailhouse dinners, who looms over the increasingly fraught machinations of wiseguy Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and his colleagues Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). More than three decades on it remains a mesmerising film—a wired procedural about organised crime and original sin.
Flag Day (August 18)
Sean Penn’s directing career never quite took off. The pre-eminent American actor of his era, and a tabloid headline tyro in his day, Penn had lofty ambitions behind the camera that intermittently came good with 1991’s The Indian Runner and 2007’s Into the Wild. His most recent directorial effort is this 2021 familial crime drama, an adaptation of Jennifer Vogel’s Flim-Flam Man, which detailed her complicated relationship with her father, a skilled counterfeiter and unreliable parent. Penn’s John Vogel is a striking figure in the life of his daughter, who as a teenager and young woman is played by Penn’s own daughter Dylan. The film divided critics, but you should never write Sean Penn off.
Force of Destiny (August 31)
Born in the occupied Netherlands during World War II before arriving in Australia as a young man in 1963, filmmaker Paul Cox became a touchstone figure of Australian arthouse cinema, quietly documenting human foibles in films such as Man of Flowers, Cactus (starring Isabelle Huppert), and Innocence. Released in 2015, the year before he died, Force of Destiny is an autobiographical drama about a sculptor (David Wenham) who looks at life anew as he waits for a life-saving liver transplant. It’s a quiet, idiosyncratic film, addressing mortality but not wrestling with it, and a conclusion to a lengthy, welcome career.
All titles arriving on Stan in August
August 1
Drive My Car
Mother!
The Untouchables
August 2
Rosalie Blum
August 3
Contagion
Just To Be Sure
August 4
Hotel Europa: Season 1 Premiere
Code 404: Season 3 Premiere
The Dancer
Reign Of The Supermen
The Death Of Superman
August 5
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath: Season 3
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Summer Camp Island: Season 2-3
Scooby-Doo! Franken Creepy
August 6
Dirty Harry
The Queen of Spain
Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay
Sing
August 7
Catwoman
August 8
Paradise Road
An Unexpected Love
August 9
Entourage
70 Big Ones
August 10
From Prada To Nada
Petra
August 11
Hotel Rwanda
God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya
August 12
Goodfellas
Uncle Grandpa: Season 2
Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays
August 13
RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race: Season 2 Premiere
Batman Vs. Robin
City of Lies
August 14
Raising Kanan: Season 2 Premiere
The Happytime Murders
August 15
Aurora
August 16
Game Night
August 17
The Defence: Season 3 Premiere
Flag Day
Drag Race Philippines: Season 1 Premiere
Drag Race Philippines Untucked: Season 1 Premiere
August 18
That Damn Michael Che: Season 2 Premiere
Gremlins
Elles
August 19
Space Jam
Traces: Season 1
Scooby-Doo! Mecha Mutt Menace
August 20
Sex & The City
Sex & The City 2
Justice League Vs. The Fatal Five
August 21
Life Of The Party
August 22
Welcome to Norway
Tigers
August 23
Rumour Has It
Where Am I Going?
August 24
The Meg
Rosa’s Wedding
August 25
Unfaithful: Season 2 Premiere
House of Ho: Season 2 Premiere
Last House On The Left
Out In the Open
August 26
Den Of Thieves
I’m Not a Killer
Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness
August 27
Rampage
Batman: Gotham By Gaslight
August 28
War (2007)
August 29
The Paras: Men of War: Season 1 Premiere
The Uncovering
The Vice of Hope
August 30
The Shining
Disco
August 31
Force Of Destiny
Persona Non-Grata
See also
* Best new movies and TV series on Netflix Australia
* Best new movies and TV series on Amazon Prime
* Best new movies and TV series on Disney+
* All new streaming movies & series
