Top 5 – Awesome Movies Coming to Netflix in April

I haven’t done one of these in a long, long time.  I don’t have a good reason for not posting this article monthly, but I’ll make sure these keep coming every month.  This month, Netflix is coming strong, but not with big blockbusters or original content, but with indies, foreign films, and classics.  I really hope Netflix keeps this trend going, as it will allow more people to see movies that they wouldn’t normally see.  Here are my picks for the best movies coming to Netflix in April.

You can find the full list of all the movies and shows coming to Netflix in April right HERE.

5 – PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (David Gordon Green, 2008)

• It’s no surprise that Netflix would release Pineapple Express during April seeing as this is the month of 4/20 (I don’t think I need to explain why the two correlate).  Pineapple Express is an awesome movie.  A deliriously funny, action-packed, surprisingly sweet stoner comedy.  James Franco, in one of the best performances of his career, and Seth Rogen play our two troubled stoners who are being chased by a ruthless gangster after one of them witnesses a murder.  The pair are excellent and we also get a scene-stealing performance from Danny McBride as the middle-man, Red.  Whether you partake in 4/20 or not, Pineapple Express is a hilarious watch for all.

4 – AMERICAN HONEY (Andrea Arnold, 2016)

• Andrea Arnold is a shining voice in the independent world.  With films like Fish Tank and Wuthering Heights, Arnold established herself as a prominent voice in cinema.  But American Honey is Arnold’s crowning achievement so far as a writer and director.  This gorgeous, grounded, gritty road movie is a slice of Americana we didn’t know we needed as we follow Star (an incredible Sasha Lane), a girl with nothing to lose to joins a gang of magazine sellers on a cross country journey that leads to love, loss, and hard partying.  At a sprawling two hours and forty three minutes, you feel everything Star is feeling and really get to drink in the glorious road trips this troop takes.  The film also stars Shia LeBeouf as the rat-tailed leader of the sellers and it is one of the best performances he has ever given.  American Honey is a great, under-appreciated movie from one of cinema’s shining voices.

3 – BURNING (Chang-dong Lee, 2018)

• 2018 was a spectacular year for foreign films and one of the great ones, and arguably the one with the least hype around it was Chang-dong Lee’s Burning.  This is a movie that I saw back in December and I’m still thinking about it. The film has a relatively simple premise, about a guy who starts falling for a girl before she goes on a trip to Africa, only for her to comeback with a mysterious man she met on her trip.  But this movie is one that takes its time to pull back the layers and really show itself.  This is a relationship drama mixed with endless mystery and thrills.  The performances in the film are great, but Steven Yeun has haunted my dreams as the mysterious man.  What’s this guys’ deal?  He’s good looking, smart, funny, charming, but is there something else to him?  Yeun does a great job never showing us his cards, even at the film’s finale, which will shake you to your core.  Burning is a film you won’t soon forget.

2 – BONNIE AND CLYDE (Arthur Penn, 1967)

• Netflix just dropped their own original movie, The Highway Men, last week, a film about the two cops who captured legendary bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde.  So, in the sprit of that film, Netflix decided to bring Bonnie and Clyde to their streaming service to act as a partner movie to The Highway Men.  Regardless of if you want to watch The Highway Men or not, it is imperative that you watch Arthur Penn’s masterpiece, Bonnie Clyde.  This isn’t your typical gangster film.  It dives in to the psyche of our famed criminals (played masterfully by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty) and their cross-country journey into gangster infamy.  This is a film that can be studied shot by shot and also a film that is incredibly charming, thrilling, and a lot of fun.  Truly one of the great pieces of cinema ever created.

1 – ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (Alan J. Pakula, 1976)

• Speaking of greatest pieces of cinema ever created, here’s another.  All the President’s Men is one of my favorite films ever and the greatest movie ever about journalism.  Looking at Washington Post writers Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein’s (Dustin Hoffman) investigation into Richard Nixon and Watergate, this is a movie that will grab you from frame one and will enthrall you until the final typed letter.  Hoffman and Redford are dynamic together, showing us the hard work, desperation, and heart these two put into one of the biggest stories in American history.  This is a film that, even set in the 70’s, feels just as relevant today.  This movie shows the importance of journalism and shows that Freedom of Press is something we need and something we shouldn’t take for granted.  Any time this movie is on, I watch it, and now that it’s on Netflix, I’ll probably watch it too many times to count.  This is an American classic.

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