The Best TV Shows and Movies New to Netflix, Amazon and More in February

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Every month, subscription streaming services add a new batch of movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are the titles we think are most interesting for February, broken down by service and release date. Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice.

New to Netflix

From left foreground, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino in “Goodfellas.”Warner Bros.

“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” Thus begins Martin Scorsese’s gangland masterpiece from 1990, which elevated the genre in ways only “The Godfather” had done before. Ray Liotta plays the ambitious mobster as he rises through the ranks, from fresh-faced kid to strung-out paranoiac, pursued by the feds. So many great lines and characters fill this movie, but Joe Pesci steals the show as the hot-tempered, trigger-happy Tommy DeVito.
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Uma Thurman in “Kill Bill: Vol. 1.”Andrew Cooper/Miramax Films

‘Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2’
Starts streaming: Feb. 1

Quentin Tarantino fans may forever fight over which of his movies is the best, but I think a large contingent will always hold onto the “Kill Bill” movies. Following a former assassin out for revenge, “Kill Bill” spans multiple genres and pays tribute to dozens of movies in creative ways. One of the most notable of those tributes is the yellow and black tracksuit Uma Thurman wears in the first volume, a callback to Bruce Lee’s outfit in “Game of Death.”
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Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker.”Summit Entertainment

Nine years have passed since Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar, for this rugged and visceral film about the men who defused bombs on the front lines of the second Iraq War. The movie is a tense psychological battle between nerves and detonators. It also no doubt helped Jeremy Renner secure that “Avengers” gig.
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Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln.”DreamWorks Pictures

“Phantom Thread” was only weeks ago given wide release in domestic theaters, so now is a perfect time to appreciate just how dedicated Daniel Day-Lewis is to his acting. For Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” Day-Lewis spent over a year preparing for the role, changing how he carried himself and the pitch of his voice in order to look and sound more like the 16th president. He once even stayed in character as Abraham Lincoln when discussing “Mad Men.”
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Also of interest: “American Pie” (Feb. 1), “Meet the Parents” (Feb. 1), “Men in Black” (Feb. 1) and “Ocean’s Eleven” (Feb. 1).

New Netflix Original TV Series

Joel Kinnaman in “Altered Carbon.”Netflix

In the early 2000s, the novelist Richard Morgan published a trilogy of science-fiction stories about Takeshi Kovacs, a hard-boiled pulp hero living in a future where human beings can have their memories, skills and personalities transferred into a new physical “sleeve” after they die. After spending over a decade trying to bring the character to the screen, the screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis has finally come through with “Altered Carbon,” based on the first book of the series. Joel Kinnaman (who was so good in “The Killing”) stars as Kovacs, a long-shelved super soldier resurrected to investigate a death that was believed to be suicide, but may actually be murder.
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From left, Karamo Brown, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Bobby Berk in “Queer Eye.”Netflix

In the early 2000s, when the L.G.B.T.Q. community was much less widely represented on TV, the Bravo series “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” was a revelation. Its diverse panel of gay style experts patrolled a hearteningly idealized New York City, where different groups of people interacted amiably. Given all the ways that culture and society have changed over the past decade, it will be interesting to see whether the revamped version of the show — with an entirely new “Fab Five” doing the makeovers and a scope extended beyond New York — will still feel vital.
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From left, Rio Mangini, Jahi Di’Allo Winston and Quinn Liebling in “Everything Sucks!”Netflix

Having already hit the jackpot with shows about awkward kids, like “Stranger Things” and “American Vandal,” Netflix is at it again with a comedy about the drama geeks and A/V Club nerds at a mid-1990s Oregon high school. The writing, directing and producing team includes the indie film stalwarts Ben York Jones (“Like Crazy”), Michael Mohan (“Save the Date”) and Ry Russo-Young (“Before I Fall”), so expect the humor to be more gentle than broad, and interlaced with painful truths about how it feels to be an adolescent misfit with big creative dreams.
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Joel McHaleNetflix

Ever since E! canceled its Friday night roundup show “The Soup,” topical television has suffered from a Joel McHale-sized hole. This hole is about to be filled, however, with his new weekly Netflix show. Playing to his strengths, the puckishly cynical comedian will offer his take on what’s happening in the world of news and entertainment, accompanied by clips, sketches and special guests. At its best, “The Soup” could be more informative about the state of our culture than the nightly news, so the bar is pretty high for this 13-episode series.
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Regina King, left, and Clare-Hope Ashitey in “Seven Seconds.”Netflix

The writer and producer Veena Sud alternately captivated and frustrated TV viewers with her AMC-Netflix series “The Killing,” which overstretched its mystery plots while developing a finely textured study of troubled people in a forbidding Seattle. Her new crime drama “Seven Seconds” (based on 2013 Russian film,) is also about a death: the accidental killing of a black Jersey City teen by a white cop. With the “whodunit” aspect minimized, Sud should be in her element, using tragedy as a lens through which to view various social ills. It should help that her cast includes Regina King, who has won two Emmys for her roles on “American Crime.”
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Also of interest: “Coach Snoop” Season 1 (Feb. 2) and “Ugly Delicious” Season 1 (Feb. 23).

New Netflix Original Movies

A scene from “Seeing Allred.”Netflix

The feminist attorney Gloria Allred has spent decades fighting for causes she believes in, using the courts and the media. Sophie Sartain and Roberta Grossman’s documentary “Seeing Allred” is a glowing portrait of the activist, combining her reflections on a tumultuous life with footage of her drumming up publicity for her clients and going after powerful men like Bill Cosby and Donald Trump. The film became unexpectedly relevant while it was in production, as the #MeToo movement erupted with the kinds of personal stories of injustice that Allred has spent her career trying to be heard.
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A scene from “The Trader.”Netflix

Netflix has become a surprisingly welcoming home for foreign-language movies, documentaries and even short films. “The Trader” is all three at once: a 22-minute Georgian doc about a man who collects old clothes and housewares and swaps them for food at a community market. A winner of a jury award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, “The Trader” is a touching piece of cultural anthropology.
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Also of interest: “The Ritual” (Feb. 9), “When We First Met” (Feb. 9), “Irreplaceable You” (Feb. 16), “FullMetal Alchemist” (Feb. 19), “Forgotten” (Feb. 21) and “Mute” (Feb. 23).

New to Amazon Prime

William L. Petersen in “Manhunter.”

In this stylish thriller from Michael Mann, William L. Petersen plays a criminal profiler who’s brought out of retirement to catch a notoriously elusive killer. “Manhunter” may have its share of crime movie conventions — like a catchy serial-killer name, in this case “the Tooth Fairy” — but this synth-soaked adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel “Red Dragon” was the cinematic introduction to the world’s most famous cannibal psychologist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (spelled “Lecktor” in this movie).
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Adam Storke and Julia Roberts in “Mystic Pizza.”MGM

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be slinging pizza for the rest of my life,” says the flour-caked Daisy, played by Julia Roberts in this adorable movie from 1988 about love, life and female friendship. Daisy is one of the movie’s three young women who work in a pizzeria, all of whom are going through some sort of a quarter-life crisis involving relationships. It’s an early look at the kind of Everywoman characters Roberts has played throughout her career, exemplified just a few years later in her breakout role in “Pretty Woman.”
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Debra Winger, left, and Shirley MacLaine in “Terms of Endearment.”Paramount Pictures

Skip mushy Valentine’s Day movies if you’re not in the mood and watch one of the best mother-daughter weepies instead. You're pretty much guaranteed a good cry with this 1983 melodrama starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger as mother and daughter. (Jack Nicholson and Jeff Daniels star as their beaus.) If you don’t know what happens in the latter half of this movie, be assured it is sad. And if you do know what happens ... you know that’s why it’s worth rewatching.
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A scene from “The Warriors.”Paramount Pictures

Released at a time when the most of the country thought New York City was a scary place (the late ’70s — and to be fair, it sort of was), “The Warriors” follows a group of young hooligans who are framed for the murder of a big-time gang leader and forced to retreat to their home turf in Coney Island. It’s a perfect midnight movie with plenty of ridiculous fight scenes involving colorfully eccentric gangs, like the all-girls group the Lizzies and the Louisville slugger-toting Baseball Furies.
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Robert Pattinson in “Good Time.”A24

In this movie set in New York City, Robert Pattinson plays Connie, a small-time crook, who must rescue his younger brother from jail after they botch a bank robbery. Pattinson gives a touching and physically demanding performance as the wayward brother. His wild-eyed stare and twitchy reflexes in the film look particularly dramatic through the movie’s acid-tinged lens and dizzying speed.
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A scene from “Human Flow.”Amazon Studios

In this poignant and monumental documentary, the Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei looks at the devastating effects of the current refugee crisis, which has seen around 65 million lives displaced around the world. The film’s images are often so bleak and the stories so heartbreaking that the experience of watching can feel numbing, so vast is the scope of the film and the troubles it documents. But the documentary never loses its sense of empathy.
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Adam Driver, left, and Channing Tatum in “Logan Lucky.”Claudette Barius/Bleecker Street

This poor Steven Soderbergh movie found very little love when it was released in theaters last year. With luck, that will change when it hits Amazon Prime. “Lucky Logan” is a fast and loose caper starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough and Daniel Craig, who play some very strange characters looking to get rich quick with a robbery during a Nascar race. The cast members seems to have such a great time with their roles that the movie would be fun to watch even without the high-stakes heist.
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Also of Interest: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (Feb. 1), “A Fish Called Wanda” (Feb. 1), “John Mellencamp: Plain Spoken” (Feb. 1), “An Officer and a Gentleman” (Feb. 1), “Star Trek” (Feb. 14)

New to Hulu

J.R. Villarreal and Keke Palmer in “Akeelah and the Bee.”Saeed Adyani/Lionsgate Films

Akeelah (Keke Palmer) is a young spelling savant from a tough part of Los Angeles, and her potential is recognized by a kindly teacher (Laurence Fishburne) who begins to train her for a regional spelling bee. He’s not the only one who can help Akeelah reach her dreams — she learns she has willing teachers in her life of all kinds. But her mother (played by Angela Bassett) will have to put aside her misgivings if Akeelah hopes to train without sneaking around behind her back.
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Audrey Tautou in “Amélie.”Miramax Zoe

In this lush, imaginative film from the French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Delicatessen,” “City of Lost Children”) Audrey Tautou plays a kindhearted young waitress named Amélie, who makes it her life’s mission to make everyone else’s lives better— despite her own, often neglected feelings of loneliness. Amélie fends off her blues in part with an overactive imagination, which allows the film to take several fantastical breaks from reality. It’s bound to feel a bit twee for some, but there’s a reason international audiences found Amélie’s whimsical story so irresistibly charming.
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Gene Wilder, left, and Cleavon Little in “Blazing Saddles.”Warner Bros. Pictures

Mel Brooks rides again in this silly western that would probably be too offensive to release today. But in 1974, it was a groundbreaking comedy that both took on racism and had one of Hollywood’s first (and certainly most elaborate) scenes devoted entirely to flatulence. When a black sheriff (Cleavon Little) is put in charge of a racist town, he enlists the help of a recovering sharpshooter (Gene Wilder) to win the locals’ trust and save them from an exploitive villain, a state attorney (Harvey Korman) whose name sounds an awful lot like the actress Hedy Lamarr’s.
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Harris Dickinson, center, in “Beach Rats.”Neon

Eliza Hittman does a remarkable job of immersing her audience in “Beach Rats,” her second feature. Looking to score dates and pick some pockets, a group of disillusioned friends gets together, gets high and wanders the shores in and around Coney Island. But Frankie (Harris Dickinson) has his mind on other things — like exploring his sexuality by browsing gay dating sites and hooking up with men. Even the festive lights of Coney Island feel grungy in this movie, and the film’s loose and frantic quality enhances the group’s restless search for any escape from boredom they can find.
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Anthony D. Weiner facing the microphones in the documentary “Weiner.”Sean McGing/Sundance Selects

Even after a humiliating sex scandal derailed the career of the former Congressman Anthony D. Weiner, he invited the documentarians Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg to film his campaign for mayor of New York City. Weiner clearly hoped the film would be a document of a political comeback, but instead it captured the final downfall of a once-promising politician. Weiner came out against this film’s portrayal of events after its release, but the damage to his career was done.
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Rose Leslie and Harry Treadaway in “Honeymoon.”Magnet Releasing

I caught this twisted horror movie several years ago at a festival, and it hasn’t left me since. In it, a newly wedded couple heads off into the woods for their honeymoon where — you guessed it — things go horrifically wrong after one of them disappears and then returns acting strangely. The movie takes a David Cronenberg-like turn for a most gruesome finish.
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Also of interest: “A Fish Called Wanda” (Feb. 1), “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (Feb. 1), “The Hurt Locker” (Feb. 1), “Manhunter” (Feb. 1), “Mystic Pizza” (Feb. 1), “An Officer and a Gentleman” (Feb. 1), “Terms of Endearment” (Feb. 1), “The Warriors” (Feb. 1), “Lucky” (Feb. 11) and “The Two Faces of January” (Feb. 12).

New to HBO

From left, Tim Daly, Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg and Paul Riser in “Diner.”MGM

Before they were Hollywood A-listers, Mickey Rourke and Kevin Bacon were fresh-faced co-stars when this understated nostalgic drama was released in 1982. Set in Baltimore during the last week of the 1950s, “Diner” follows a group of friends who spend a lot of time talking over white dinner plates and reminiscing about old times. Written and directed by Barry Levinson, the film was a highly personal project for him, based on recollections from his youth.
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Michael Cera, left, and Jason Schwartzman in “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”Universal Pictures

Coolly received on its first release, this action comedy from Edgar Wright is a hilarious riff on the underdog story. Our hero, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), falls in love with the perfect cool girl, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but there’s a catch: He has to defeat her seven evil exes in video game-style fights so they can have a real chance at love. Wright’s energetic film seems to burst with the bright colors of a comic book page, and the story unravels at an almost breakneck speed. Hope you can keep up.
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Natalie Wood, left, and Rita Moreno in “West Side Story.”MGM

With Steven Spielberg currently casting for a remake, perhaps it’s time to revisit the original version of this adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” You know the deal: Sharks vs. Jets. “I like to be in America!” Natalie Wood. Stephen Sondheim. There are so many wonderful things to choose from about this musical set in a pre-gentrification Upper West Side — that is, if you can stomach the brownface used to make white actors look Puerto Rican. More important, this was the movie that made Rita Moreno a star, and it was her performance in “West Side Story” that earned her an Oscar for best supporting actress.
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Gal Gadot in “Wonder Woman.”Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Entertainment

Finally! After countless dude-driven superhero movies from the Marvel and DC Comics catalogs, somebody released a stand-alone, multimillion-dollar-budget movie about a superpowered warrior hero who is also a woman. Released last year during the action-heavy summer movie season, this origin story for Diana Prince, a.k.a. Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), delivered plenty of action — even breaking a few box-office records for movies directed by women (in this case, Patty Jenkins). Turns out superheroes come in many forms.
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Also of interest: The “Alien” series (Feb. 1), “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (Feb. 1), “Man on the Moon” (Feb. 1), “Predator” (Feb. 1).
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Noel Murray contributed reporting