One of the funniest sitcoms on Netflix makes its exit for U.S. subscribers at the end of July. If that’s not cause enough for distress, the streamer is also jettisoning a handful of delightful coming-of-age movies, a classic ’90s rom-com and one of the most influential movies of the 2010s. Watch them while you can. (Dates reflect the final day a title is available.)
‘The Social Network’ (July 1)
The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and the director David Fincher seemed, at first, like an odd pairing — a shotgun marriage of florid dialogue to a moody, sensual visual style. But in collaborating on this 2010 fictionalized account of the rise of Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, they complemented each other: Fincher gives Sorkin’s words a distinct visual snap, and Sorkin gives him a script in which the dialogue is as sharp as the imagery. Sorkin picked up an Oscar and Fincher nabbed a nomination, as did the film’s star, Jesse Eisenberg, who finds the perfect note of know-it-all desperation as Zuckerberg.
‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’ (July 1)
The writer Shirley Jackson, who died in 1965, is having a bit of an unexpected moment of late. In addition to this moody Netflix adaptation of her 1962 novel, her book “The Haunting of Hill House” was adapted for a mini-series on the streamer, and she’s the subject of the Hulu biopic “Shirley.” Taissa Farmiga and Alexandra Daddario star in “Castle” as the Blackwood sisters, who live (along with their infirm Uncle Julian) in solitude and mystery; their parents died years earlier, under cloudy circumstances, and they’re still the subject of talk in town. That chatter grows louder with the arrival of an enigmatic cousin, Charles (Sebastian Stan, wild and woolly), who shakes the precarious household to its core. Farmiga and Daddario exude both fragility and danger, while Crispin Glover underplays nicely (and surprisingly) as Uncle Julian.
‘Django Unchained’ (July 23)
The writer and director Quentin Tarantino and the actor Christoph Waltz pulled off a sly repeat of their “Inglourious Basterds” Oscar triumph, again nabbing the trophies for best original screenplay and best supporting actor for this 2012 spaghetti western riff. Jamie Foxx stars as the title character, a former slave in the pre-Civil War South who befriends a bounty hunter (Waltz) and learns the trade; Leonardo DiCaprio is gleefully villainous as a plantation owner who stands between Django and his wife (Kerry Washington). It’s Tarantino, so the violence and profanity are plentiful, but the set pieces are thrilling, the characterizations are vivid and the laughs stick in the throat.
’30 Rock’: Seasons 1-7 (July 31)
Tina Fey went from serving as head writer on “Saturday Night Live” to creating this series, in which she stars as … head writer of a late night NBC sketch show. Well, they say to write you know! But it wasn’t the inside jokes that made “30 Rock” one of the most rewatchable sitcoms of our time; it was its distinct mixture of finely tuned characters, quotable dialogue and rapid-fire pacing (on a sheer jokes-per-minute basis, it’s unbeatable). And as network television grows steadily sillier, “30 Rock” spoof shows like “MILF Island” and “God Cop” seem less like satire and more like prognostication.
‘The Edge of Seventeen’ (July 31)
Before she was garnering acclaim in the title role in “Dickinson” or working her way up the pop charts, Hailee Steinfeld starred in this bittersweet coming-of-age comedy from the writer and director Kelly Fremon Craig. Steinfeld stars as Nadine Franklin, a wise and witty but not terribly popular high school junior whose world turns upside down when her best friend (Haley Lu Richardson) hooks up with Nadine’s older brother (Blake Jenner). Craig’s perceptive, unflinching writing turns what could have been a predictable high school comedy into something a good deal more nuanced; she’s sympathetic to Nadine but is careful to make her a complex character, not always conventionally likable or admirable.
‘Lean on Me’ (July 31)
Morgan Freeman landed one of his first leading roles in this 1989 high school drama, starring as Joe Clark, a principal whose tactics for turning around a high-crime, low-achievement high school in Paterson, N.J., earned him the nickname “Crazy Joe.” The director, John G. Avildsen, was also behind “Rocky” and “The Karate Kid,” and he occasionally flattens the (still relevant) questions of effective educational reform into his go-to mode of rousing underdog story. But the film is full of powerful moments, most of them courtesy of Freeman’s tough-as-nails performance.
‘Little Women’ (July 31)
Every generation gets it own adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel, it seems, and while Greta Gerwig’s recent version was tiptop, Gen Xers are still dedicated to this 1994 take from the Australian director Gillian Armstrong (“My Brilliant Career”), who maintains, and even sharpens, some of the rougher edges that earlier adaptations sanded down. Winona Ryder, in an Oscar-nominated turn, leads an ace ensemble that also includes Trini Alvarado, Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst and Samantha Mathis as her sisters; Susan Sarandon as their mother; and Christian Bale, Gabriel Byrne and Eric Stoltz as the men in their lives.
‘My Girl’ (July 31)
Those who know Anna Chlumsky only from her wickedly funny (and deliciously foul-mouthed) work on “Veep” may be surprised by this, her debut film, a sweet coming-of-age drama set in the summer of 1972 and released when she was only 11 years old. She stars as Vada, whose father (Dan Aykroyd) runs the local funeral parlor, which has made little Vada (perhaps understandably) into a hypochondriac. Jamie Lee Curtis co-stars as a potential romantic interest for Vada’s dad, while Macaulay Culkin is heartbreaking as Vada’s summer pal (and first kiss).
‘You’ve Got Mail’ (July 31)
Five years after the spectacular commercial and critical success of “Sleepless in Seattle,” Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and the writer-director Nora Ephron teamed up for another contemporary riff on a classic Hollywood romantic comedy. They came up with “You’ve Got Mail,” which updates “The Shop Around the Corner” for the internet age, with Hanks and Ryan in an online romance, unaware that they’re professional enemies in real life. Ephron assembles a stacked supporting cast — Dave Chappelle, Greg Kinnear, Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton and Steve Zahn all turn up — but it’s once again Hanks and Ryan’s show, as they light up the screen with their sunny movie-star charisma and impeccable love-hate chemistry.
ALSO LEAVING: “Home Again” (July 7); “Radium Girls” (July 15); “Chicago Med”: Seasons 1-5 (July 21); “21,” “Forrest Gump,” “Love Actually,” “Poms” (July 31).
