'The Thursday Murder Club,' 'My Oxford Year' and More New Netflix Movies You Shouldn't Miss in August

Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest star in My Oxford Year, a new romance on Netflix based on the novel by Julia Whelan. Carson stars as Anna, an ambitious American student who enrolls in a year-long poetry program at the University of Oxford. Anna has created a strict plan for herself, starting with her studies at Oxford, but all of that is derailed when she meets a charming man named Jamie (Mylchreest) who makes her question whether the path she's laid out for herself is the right one. The film arrives Aug. 1.

If you're looking for a thrilling, chilling mystery, the 2024 Filipino horror Scarecrow (also known as Espantaho) delivers. After the death of a man named Pabling, his daughter Monet (Judy Ann Santos) participates in a nine-day ritual mourning the dead called pasiyam. Over those nine days, Monet and her mother, Rosa, have a brush with a supernatural entity that haunts them as they grieve. The film arrives on Netflix this month.

John Cena stars in the action-comedy film Freelance as former Army Special Forces agent Mason Pettits, who has been tasked with protecting a journalist (Alison Brie) visiting the dictator of a fictional South American country. While traveling together, they're ambushed and learn that Pettits was not simply hired as a bodyguard, but as an assassin, and his job is to kill the country's leader. Juan Pablo Raba, Christian Slater and Alice Eve co-star. 

Stolen: Heist of the Century (Aug. 8)

Stolen: Heist of the Century is the latest documentary from RAW, which also produced films like The Tinder Swindler and Don't F**k With Cats. This new film exposes the real story behind one of the biggest diamond heists of all time, when between $100 million and half a billion dollars' worth of diamonds were stolen from a vault in Antwerp in 2003. The robbery was pulled off by master jewel thieves from Italy known as 'The School of Turin', and the documentary, out Aug. 8, reveals how they did it. Though the thieves were caught, most of the diamonds have never been recovered.

Songs from the Hole (Aug. 13)

Songs from the Hole is not quite a documentary, though it does tell true stories from the life of James "JJ '88" Jacobs, who was jailed at the age of 15 and became a poet and musician while serving a life sentence behind bars. Blending real stories with imagined reenactments and visuals accompanying Jacobs' music, the film explores the redemptive properties of art, which can arrive in the most unlikely places. 

Director Genndy Tartakovsky's previous films include the Hotel Transylvania series, and his new project, Fixed, is another animated comedy, though this one is geared toward adults rather than kids. Fixed is the story of Bull (voiced by Adam DeVine), a dog who sets out for one last, great night with his friends before he gets neutered the next day. Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn, Beck Bennett, Fred Armisen and Bobby Moynihan also lend their voices to the film.

Night Always Comes (Aug. 15)

The new crime thriller Night Always Comes, which is based on the 2021 novel The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin, stars Vanessa Kirby as a woman forced to pull together $25,000 over the course of one night in order to save her family's home. The cast also includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julia Fox, Eli Roth and Zack Gottsagen.

Fast and Furious movie collection (Aug. 16)

Set in Majorca, Fall For Me is a suspenseful erotic drama about a woman named Lilli who meets a charismatic man named Tom while visiting her sister on the Spanish resort island. Tom and Lilli have a passionate fling, but you don't need me to tell you that Tom might not be the Prince Charming that Lilli thinks he is and he's got some secrets of his own.  

The Truth About Jussie Smollett? (Aug. 22)

In 2019, at the height of his career, actor Jussie Smollett was allegedly the victim of an assault in Chicago. As time went on and his story changed, Smollett was eventually accused of fabricating the entire incident and conspiring to stage the attack. Now, six years later, Smollett himself will speak on the subject to try and set the record straight about what really happened that night.

Fantasy Football Ruined Our Lives (Aug. 27)

In the Italian comedy Fantasy Football Ruined Our Lives, the reigning fantasy football champion in a competitive friend group goes missing. (Since the film takes place in Europe, football is soccer, in case that matters.) When a judge looks into his disappearance, she starts to wonder if he left on his own or if his friends -- jealous of his past success picking teams -- might actually have had something to do with it. 

The Thursday Murder Club (Aug. 28)

The Thursday Murder Club is a little like Only Murders In The Building meets A Man On The Inside. The new film, directed by Chris Columbus, stars Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie as retirees who investigate cold case murders for fun. When a murder occurs at their assisted living facility, the foursome realizes that danger is lurking a little too close to home. In addition to the impressive quartet headlining the film, co-stars also include David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant.