by Welcome to the weekly streaming guide for Boston.com. We suggest five must-watch films and TV series every week that are accessible on streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and more.
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See past iterations of our must-watch list here for even more greatstreaming alternatives.
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Highest 2 Lowest is Denzel Washington at his best
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All the new movies and TV shows streaming in August
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The best movies on Netflix right now (August 2025)
New Movies Streaming
High and Low
(1963)
Watch the Akira Kurosawa classic that inspired Spike Lee and Denzel Washington’s new film, Highest 2 Lowest, before you go to the theaters to see it (see my review in its entirety here). In Seven Samurai, Toshiro Mifune plays a Japanese businessman who is striving to save his firm when he is wrongly kidnapped and held for ransom by kidnappers who take his chauffeur’s son instead of his own.
How to watch: HBO Max is streaming High and Low.
Night Always Comes (2025)
Following an underwhelming performance in the nascent superhero movie The Fantastic Four, Vanessa Kirby takes center stage in this thrilling Netflix thriller. Lynette, portrayed by Kirby, is a marginalized woman who is offered the opportunity to become a homeowner at last, offering her and her brother (Zack Gottsagen), who has Down syndrome, stability. She has less than 24 hours to come up with $25,000 when her narcissistic mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) blows the down payment on a new car, which puts her in danger.
How to watch: Netflix is streaming Night Always Comes.
Training Day (2001)
In the 1990s, Denzel Washington had the opportunity to win three or four Oscars. However, the Academy made up for being left out of one of his best decades when Washington, as the iconic LAPD officer Alonzo Harris, dragged rising star Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) into the darkest levels of corruption over the course of a dramatic 24-hour period.
How to watch: MGM+ is streaming Training Day.
New TV Shows Streaming
Alien: Earth
With this ambitious series, which takes place two years before Ridley Scott’s original 1979 picture (also available on Hulu), Noah Hawley once again demonstrates his ability to skillfully adapt iconic films for the small screen, as he did with Fargo. Sydney Chandler (Sugar) portrays the first-ever hybrid, a synthetic entity implanted with human awareness, while Timothy Olyphant (Justified) serves as her instructor and trainer.
How to watch: Hulu is streaming Alien: Earth.
Chief of War
Jason Momoa is able to combine the best elements of his most well-known roles—from Game of Thrones to Aquaman to Dune—into a single character thanks to his passion project about late eighteenth-century Hawaii. Momoa, who portrays the powerful warrior Ka Iiana, is nimble with a spear and a sneer, but he also understands the serious threat posed by both European colonists and opposing tribes.
How to watch: Apple TV+ is streaming the game Chief of War.
Kevin Slane writes on culture and entertainment as a staff writer for Boston.com. Movie reviews, streaming guidelines, celebrities, and Boston activities are the main topics of his work.
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