The beginning of the month is always exciting, because it means that dozens of movies and TV shows have just dropped on Netflix. But it's also bittersweet, since some have to go, too. On Jan. 31, Netflix loses a crop of great films, which may or may not one day return to the service. The good news? You still have time to watch them before they disappear. Read on to find out which movies you need to make your Netflix priority this weekend, from a trippy, time-hopping epic to a gritty Boston-set crime drama.
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1 | Cloud Atlas
Warner Bros. PicturesDirected by Matrix helmers the Wachowskis, 2012's Cloud Atlas, based on the novel of the same name, is a convoluted and grand epic that spans five centuries. Actors including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, and Susan Sarandon play multiple characters in multiple eras across the film, emphasizing how humanity adapts and innovates, while pretty much just staying the same.
2 | The General's Daughter
Paramount PicturesJohn Travolta and Madeleine Stowe star in 1999's The General's Daughter as two Army investigators looking into the mysterious murder of a captain. The further they delve into the circumstances surrounding her death, the more it seems as though the powers that be in the military are trying to cover it up—her respected general father among them.
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3 | Shutter Island
Paramount PicturesOne of Leonardo DiCaprio's collaborations with director Martin Scorsese, 2010's Shutter Island adapts Dennis Lehane's thriller of the same name. DiCarpio plays a U.S. Marshal who travels to a remote facility for the criminally insane with his partner (Mark Ruffalo) to investigate the disappearance of a dangerous inmate. But as he's haunted by his own past, he comes to realize that not everything on the island is as it seems.
4 | Mystic River
Warner Bros. PicturesAnd Shutter Island isn't the only Lehane adaptation leaving Netflix this month. Also going is 2003's Mystic River, written and directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Laura Linney, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon. Set in a working-class Boston neighborhood, the story follows a group of men who grew up friends and are brought back together by the murder of one of their teen daughters. Suspicions and tempers run high, and a tragic incident from their childhood hangs over them in this intense drama.
5 | My Girl 2
Columbia PicturesThe sequel to the original coming-of-age favorite, 1994's My Girl 2 catches up with Anna Chlumsky's Vada Sultenfuss, who travels from her Pennsylvania home to Los Angeles to learn all she can about her late mother. And—since she's now a teen—she endeavors to learn a little about boys, too.
