The Best Movies Leaving Netflix, Max, and More in Late August 2024

We’re almost at the end of the month, which means there’s a lot coming and going on every major streaming platform. And while there are plenty of exciting movies coming in September, we’re making sure you don’t miss the gems leaving at the end of August.

To help you end the summer with the best possible movies, we’ve compiled a list of the very best films leaving streaming services at the end of the month. These include a unique coming-of-age film, two dark fantasy journeys, and two vibes masterpieces from the great Michael Mann.

These are the best movies that will no longer be available to stream at the end of August.

Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Form: Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner
Leaving Netflix: August 31st

Teenagers are not all as movies portray them. Sure, they have their moments of bravery or compassionate understanding, and most of them will turn out fine within a few years, but there is still a lot of selfishness to process. And very few movies have captured that selfishness as well as The edge of seventeen.

The film follows Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), a young girl struggling to make ends meet with her brother (Blake Jenner) and mother (Kyra Sedgwick) after the unexpected death of her father. In her grief, Nadine is mean, angry, and seemingly blind to the grief of everyone around her, problems that are only exacerbated when her best friend (Haley Lu Richardson) begins dating her brother.

This may all sound a bit dull, but one of the film’s many strengths is how brilliantly funny it remains from start to finish. This is largely due to Steinfeld’s incredible performance, which strikes a perfect balance between keeping Nadine both mean and undeniably charming. It’s the rare film where you’re not rooting for the main character to succeed the entire time, but for her to realize she’s being a jerk. There aren’t enough films like this one, about nice characters who get it all wrong, but that’s probably because it’s not nearly as easy as The edge of seventeen makes it look. —Austen Goslin

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Form: Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder
To leave Prime Video: August 31st

When you think of actors who exude the otherworldly sex appeal and monstrous bent you’d expect from the iconic Count Dracula, Gary Oldman isn’t exactly the first name that comes to mind. That’s what makes his performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 horror fantasy so notable, as Oldman’s out-of-character portrayal of the gruff, bloodsucking debauchery juxtaposed against Keanu Reeves’ performance as the heroic Jonathan Harker makes for one of the most memorable incarnations of the count ever to grace the screen.

Combined with the film’s beautiful, practical sets, designer Eiko Ishioka’s elaborate costumes, and some notable supporting roles from Anthony Hopkins and Tom Waits, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of the most unique films in Coppola’s highly acclaimed oeuvre. And with Megalopolis Now that the time is almost here, it’s time to revisit one of his classics. —Toussaint Egan

Director: Michael Mann
Form: Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Naomie Harris
Leaving Netflix: August 31st

Michael Mann has made some certified cinematic hits in his long and illustrious career, such as his 1995 symphonic crime drama Heatone of my all-time favorite films. But no other film in his oeuvre is more quintessentially “Mann-core” than Miami Vicethe feature film adaptation of the 1984 crime series that Mann produced, starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas.

The plot couldn’t be further off the mark. Here’s the real crux of Miami Vice‘s enduring appeal: It simply doesn’t look or feel like any other crime drama of its era. Mann’s experimentation with digital photography yields a level of eerie realism through his landscapes of crushed brown and black textures and bleached white beachscapes. It’s a crime drama that exudes a sense of cool on its own terms, a grand experiment that has earned a cult following and reappraisal as one of the director’s best. In short, Miami Vice is a vibe. -AT

Director: David Lager
Form: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Ralph Ineson
Max left: August 31st

The Green Knight is one of the most beautiful films of the past decade. Director David Lowery’s film retells the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” in which the knight Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) beheads a mysterious Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) and sets out a year later to receive “an equal blow.” Although Lowery’s film technically tells the entire story, it focuses primarily on the strange events that befall Gawain during his travels to the Green Chapel.

Watching this film feels like being trapped in a dream, a flood of beautiful images loosely tied together by a superb performance from Patel as the vapid knight who’s not sure he’s headed for the gallows. In each increasingly strange scene, Patel sells Gawain’s wondrous disbelief, somehow simultaneously rooted in the strangeness of his present moment and mentally drifting toward his appointment with a deity who may want him dead. It’s bizarre, poetic, and deeply moving in ways that make it a more than worthy adaptation of the classic Arthurian tale. —AG

Director: Michael Mann
Form: James Caan, Willie Nelson, Tuesday Weld
Exit Criterion Channel: August 31st

The late, great James Caan (The godfather) stars in Michael Mann’s 1981 neo-noir heist thriller Thief as Frank, an ex-con and professional safecracker looking to get straight and start a family. Unfortunately for him, Frank is denied his part in his latest heist, forcing him to accept a job with the mob to break even. Featuring a gorgeous synth score by Tangerine Dream, dazzling nighttime cinematography by Donald Thorin, and an iconic and emotionally nuanced performance by Caan, Thief is an ice-cold stunner and a jewel in the crown of one of today’s best directors. End blurb. -AT