Every month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what’s a dedicated reader to watch? Well, whatever you want, of course, but the name of this website is Literary Hub, so we sort of have an angle. To that end, here’s a selection of the best (and most enjoyably bad) literary film and TV coming to streaming services this month. Have fun.
NEW:
Slow Horses (Season 4)
Apple TV+, September 4
Literary bona fides: based on Spook Street by Mick Herron (2017)
Gary Oldman is clearly having the time of his life being a surly dickhead in this excellent and still sort of under-the-radar British series, in which he leads a squad of disgraced, disregarded, and disgruntled MI5 agents. If you like your spycraft mixed with snide remarks and haven’t gotten into Slow Horses yet, consider this your cue to start. (Also in our fall film & tv preview)
Tell Me Lies (Season 2)
Hulu, September 4
Literary bona fides: based on Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering (2018)
Toxic relationships in college? How novel. But also, unfortunately, how difficult to look away from (for a certain kind of viewer, at least)—hence the second season of Tell Me Lies, which adds Gossip Girl‘s Thomas Doherty as Lucy’s new love interest, along with Tom Ellis, Jacob Rodriguez, and Katherine Hughes. (Also in our fall film & tv preview)
The Perfect Couple
Netflix, September 5
Literary bona fides: based on The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand (2018)
In her latest prestige crime turn, Nicole Kidman plays a famous, wealthy novelist (the perfectly named Greer Garrison Winbury) hosting her son’s lavish wedding at her Nantucket estate—despite not exactly approving of his choice of bride. But then, of course, someone gets murdered! Liev Shreiber, Eve Hewson, Dakota Fanning, and Billy Howle star in what looks like the perfect late-summer installment of Rich White People Behaving Badly. (Also in our fall film & tv preview)
My Brilliant Friend (Season 4)
Max, September 9
Literary bona fides: based on The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante (2014)
The conclusion to the beautiful (and beautifully slow) series based on Ferrante’s best-selling books. (Also in our fall film & tv preview)
The Old Man (Season 2)
Hulu/FX, September 12
Literary bona fides: based on The Old Man by Thomas Perry (2017)
If Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow seem like unlikely stars for a gritty thriller series (this old man indeed), the friction actually makes this series better. In the second season, they’re chasing down Alia Shawkat, who has been kidnapped by a terrorist who also happens to be her biological father (again, this old man…). (Also in our fall film & tv preview)
Three Women
Starz, September 13
Literary bona fides: based on Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (2019)
The adaptation of Taddeo’s bestselling nonfiction book about women’s sexuality stars Shailene Woodley as “Gia” (a stand-in for Taddeo) as she discovers and tells the stories of (you guessed it) three women, played by Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise, and Gabrielle Creevy. (Also in our fall film & tv preview)
Killer Heat
Prime Video, September 26
Literary bona fides: based on “The Jealousy Man” by Jo Nesbø (2021)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, and Richard Madden star in this thriller, an adaptation of a short story by Jo Nesbø, in which a detective (Gordon-Levitt) who also happens to be an expert in jealousy travels to a Greek island to investigate a man (Madden) who might or might not have murdered his own twin. (Also in our fall film & tv preview)
Rez Ball
Netflix, September 27
Literary bona fides: based on Canyon Dreams by Michael Powell (2019)
LeBron James serves as a producer on this fictionalized adaptation of Powell’s nonfiction book, for which he embedded with a Navajo high school basketball team in Arizona for a season; the film, directed by Sydney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest), who co-wrote the script with Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), is set in Chuska, New Mexico, where a basketball team full of players from the local reservation has lost its best player. (Also in our fall film & tv preview)
THROWBACK:
Die Hard (1988)
Hulu, September 1
Literary bona fides: based on Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp (1979)
The book may be good, but there’s no denying the movie is better. A solid watch (ha ha) at any time of year.
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Hulu, September 1
Literary bona fides: concerning various dead poets and those who love them
Is it corny? A bit. Dramatic? Okay. (Surely military school is not a fate worse than death.) But it is still one of the best movies of this particular kind, and regardless of how much they’ve been chastened by the world, any ex-English major who dares to rewatch is in danger of having their heart warmed and their Keats reopened. User beware.
Notting Hill (1999)
Paramount+, September 1
Literary bona fides: concerning a bookshop owner who rather gets the girl
Hugh Grant has never been better than his turn as Floppy in this better-than-it-should-be 90s rom-com.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Paramount+, September 1
Literary bona fides: based on The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (1993)
Sofia Coppola’s gauzy, terrifying take on girlhood (and boyhood)—her debut feature!—holds up. Just like the book, by the way.
A Knight’s Tale (2001)
Paramount+, September 1
Literary bona fides: based (sort of) on The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1400)
The early-2000s anachronistic cult classic, with a Bowie-blessed soundtrack, Heath Ledger smiling everywhere, and Paul Bettany stealing the show as Chaucer. It may not break any new ground plot-wise, but boy is it fun to watch.
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Netflix, September 1
Literary bona fides: based on “Three-Ten to Yuma” by Elmore Leonard (1953)
Really a remake of the 1957 film, I suppose, but even still. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are doing all they need to do in this solid Western, even if it got a little swallowed in 2007, a year of good Westerns (it was competing with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country for Old Men, so if you haven’t seen it, that’s probably why).
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Netflix, September 7
Literary bona fides: All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (2004)
“To watch this movie is to appreciate how little so many of its genre-mates are able to enjoy themselves, and how little they seem interested in your enjoyment,” writes Emily Firetog of the Tom Cruise (yes) action (yes) flick (yes). “The Edge of Tomorrow, above all else, knows what I need to enjoy myself, and it wants me to have it.” One of our best literary film adaptations of the decade.
