Second Part of 'Stranger Things,' 'Gray Man' Among July Streaming Recommendations

by Julian Spivey

Picture: Netflix, Apple & Amazon

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Stranger Things – Netflix – Today
It feels like we were just here … the second part of the fourth season of Netflix’s mass hit “Stranger Things” is streaming now, just a bit over a month since the first part dropped on Memorial Day weekend. I can’t exactly tell you how the season is going because I’ve deliberately waited for part-two before starting the season, but I’ve heard mostly good things from friends who binged it immediately and it’s certainly done great things for Kate Bush. Enjoy the second half of the season because it’s most likely going to be two years before the final season airs.

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Black Bird – AppleTV+ - Friday, July 8
Inspired by true events and based on the true crime memoir In With the Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer by James Keene and Hillel Levin comes the limited drama series “Black Bird,” premiering Friday, July 8 on AppleTV+. The series stars Taron Egerton as Jimmy Keene, sentenced to 10 years in a minimum-security prison, but given the chance for freedom if he goes undercover in a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane to befriend a suspected serial killer Larry Hall (played by Paul Walter Hauser) in an effort to get him to admit to multiple murders. The series co-stars Greg Kinnear and Ray Liotta, in one of his final roles. 

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The Last Movie Stars – HBO Max – Thursday, July 21
Paul Newman is one of my all-time favorite actors. His wife Joanne Woodward was also an Oscar-winning great. Together they were one of the all-time great Hollywood couples. The HBO Max six-part documentary series “The Last Movie Stars” tells their story and I can’t wait to see it. The docuseries is directed by Oscar-nominated actor Ethan Hawke and produced by Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese and premieres Thursday, July 21. 

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The Gray Man – Netflix – Friday, July 22
The Russo Brothers, Anthony and Joe, have directed many of Marvel’s most acclaimed superhero action flicks. Now they are branching out to a different kind of action flick with “The Gray Man,” based on Mark Greaney’s 2009 novel of the CIA’s most skilled mercenary becoming the target of a psychopathic former colleague. Ryan Gosling plays the skilled mercenary and Chris Evans the psycho and those two going head-to-head is going to be a lot of fun for the audience. “The Gray Man” will be in select theaters on Friday, July 15 but then streaming on Netflix on Friday, July 22. 

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Anything’s Possible – Amazon Prime Video – Friday, July 22
Emmy-winning actor Billy Porter’s directorial debut “Anything’s Possible” is a modern coming-of-age story of a high school trans girl (played by Eva Reign) and the boy (Abubakr Ali) who falls in love with her. It’s a frequent story – boy falls for girl – but with a modern spin that is something happening more in real life and thus an important story to tell. It looks lovely based on the trailer.