'Nine Perfect Strangers,' 'Annette' Among August Streaming Recommendations

by Julian Spivey

Photos: Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix

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Beckett (Netflix) – Friday, August 13
John David Washington has become quite the movie star over the last few years. His latest “Beckett,” premiering on Netflix on Friday, Aug. 13, is the story of an American tourist involved in a car accident in Greece who becomes the target of a manhunt when his girlfriend goes missing. As he rushes to get to the American embassy in Athens he falls further and further into a dangerous conspiracy in this thriller directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino. 

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Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu) – Wednesday, August 18
Nicole Kidman has become the queen of the television limited series having starred in HBO’s “Big Little Lies” and “The Undoing” and now switching over to Hulu for “Nine Perfect Strangers,” premiering on Wednesday, Aug. 18. “Nine Perfect Strangers” has a stellar cast that also features Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon and Bobby Cannavale among others and features nine people all with mass amounts of stress in their lives who are chosen for a wellness resort that isn’t exactly what it seems. 

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Annette (Amazon Prime) – Friday, August 20
French director Leos Carax is known for making movies that can be explained as “batshit.” “Annette,” starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, seems no different. But Driver in something “batshit” is extremely interesting to me. The film, which is the director’s English-language debut, opened up the Cannes Film Festival last month to a lot of buzz and is about a stand-up comedian (Driver) and his opera singer wife (Cotillard) and how their lives are changed by their first child. It premieres on Friday, Aug. 20 on Amazon Prime Video. 

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The Courier (Amazon Prime) – Friday, August 27
Late August seems like a good time for prestige dramas dropping on Amazon Prime Video with “The Courier,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch, coming one week after “Annette.” “The Courier,” directed by Dominic Cooke, is based on the true story of British businessman Greville Wynne who was recruited by the British MI6 to sneak messages to a secret agent inside the Soviet Union. It looks like stories we’ve seen before, but also looks like an entertaining two hours.  

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Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) – Tuesday, August 31
I’ve been looking forward to this TV comedy for a while, as it was announced more than a year-and-a-half ago and delayed by COVID-19. I’ll watch anything with Steve Martin and Martin Short together. In “Only Murders in the Building” Martin, Short and Selena Gomez all shared an obsession for true crime and then find themselves in the middle of a crime in their apartment building. I’m sure it’ll be a laugh riot.