15 best movies to watch on Netflix, Hulu before they leave (July 2022)

It’s the end of a month, which means there are a lot of great movies leaving streaming platforms for you to catch up on before the calendar turns. But which ones are most worth your time? That’s where we’re here to help.

We’ve got 15 quality movies for you to check out at home before they leave Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, or wherever they are currently located. These include some of the best action movies on Netflix, an uproarious LGBTQ comedy, hardboiled thrillers, and more.

There’s also Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster, Tenet, which leaves HBO Max. If you haven’t had the opportunity to catch up with that particular brain puzzle, now’s your time.

Here are 15 of the best movies leaving streaming at the end of July 2022.

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Baaghi

There are few movie stars in the world with the combination of charisma, skill, and grace as Tiger Shroff. The martial artist/dancer/singer is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to movie stardom, and one of the best entry points for his particular brand of leading-man charisma is leaving Netflix at the end of the month.

In Baaghi (which translates to “Rebel”), Shroff plays Ronny, a full-of-himself, skilled martial artist who lacks the discipline to take control of his life. When his ex-girlfriend is kidnapped by a gangster who is also a champion at the Indian martial art Kalaripayattu, Ronny must set old demons aside to rescue her. Featuring thrilling fight scenes with top-notch choreography, exciting dance numbers, and an endless display of Shroff’s superstar bona fides, Baaghi is a must-see for any action fan. —Pete Volk

Baaghi leaves Netflix Aug. 1.

Before Midnight

If there’s one word to describe Before Midnight, the capstone to Richard Linklater’s two decade-spanning romance trilogy, it’s bittersweet. Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke return as Céline and Jesse, the once star-crossed couple who met on a train to Vienna in 1994. Nine years after resuming their romance in Paris, the film follows the now-married couple as they vacation on the Greek Peloponnese peninsula, touring the sights and reminiscing on their time spent together. Where Before Sunrise was the story of a blossoming young romance, and Before Sunset was the story of the rekindling of that same romance, Before Midnight is the story of that love’s maturation, and all the struggles and difficulties that come with it. —Toussaint Egan

Before Midnight leaves Criterion Channel on July 31.

The Birdcage

Mike Nichols’ classic adaptation of La Cage aux Folles is a hilarious subversion of your typical “two wildly different families have to get along when their children fall in love” romantic comedy. Nathan Lane, Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, and Dianne Wiest are all hilarious in this sendup of culture clashes and the moral panic of American conservativism.

As Polygon’s Maddy Myers put it in our list of the best LGBTQ comedies you can watch at home:

It’s hard to even imagine Nathan Lane as unconfident about anything in his life, especially when it comes to his melodramatic, hilarious portrayal of drag queen Starina (and her alter-ego, the not-so-mild-mannered Albert) in The Birdcage — but Lane was still in the closet at the time. It’s all the more impressive that the central joke of the 1996 movie is that Albert can’t manage to pass as straight, not even for the benefit of his son’s fiancée’s extremely conservative family. The Birdcage shows all the ways that gender is a performance through its rapid-fire wit and absurd situations, shying away from the preachiness you might expect of a comedy about conservatives forced to face their fears of all things queer. The best part of The Birdcage isn’t the drag performances, although those remain a delight — instead it’s the movie’s portrayal of the middle-aged mundanities of two gay dads existing in the ’90s. They’re normal, and at the time, that felt radical.

To quote a bird (albeit one typically not found in a cage): It’s an absolute hoot. —PV

The Birdcage leaves HBO Max July 31.

Boyka: Undisputed

In 2002, Walter Hill (The Warriors) released Undisputed, a prison boxing drama starring Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames. Four years later, direct-to-video action maestro Isaac Florentine took the series in a different direction with Undisputed II: Last Man Standing, starring martial artists Michael Jai White and Scott Adkins and changing the fighting style from boxing to mixed martial arts.

After that fantastic sequel, a surprising thing happened: Adkins’ Boyka character, who was the antagonist of Last Man Standing, became a huge hit and took over the series. Undisputed III: Redemption was the first of two stellar movies to focus on Boyka, with the latter (Boyka: Undisputed) leaving Netflix at the end of the month.

While it’s helpful to have seen the previous Boyka entries in the series, it’s not necessary. Just know Yuri Boyka is the most complete fighter in the world, and he has very conflicted feelings about his villainous past. In this one, he accidentally kills a fighter in the ring and devotes his life to doing what he can for the fighter’s widow. Adkins delivers a terrific leading performance, and as usual, the fight scenes are magnificent. —PV

Boyka: Undisputed leaves Netflix Aug. 1.

Burn After Reading

The movies of the Coen bros. are extremely reflective of the locations they are set in: Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Raising Arizona… Even their weaker outings, like The Ladykillers, are firmly entrenched in the moods of their settings.

Burn After Reading is one of their more exemplary attempts at this, as a quintessential Washington, D.C., thriller through and through. Perhaps the dumbest conspiracy thriller of all time (this is meant as a compliment), Burn After Reading weaponizes the paranoia and incompetence of government officials (especially those in the field of “intelligence”) in a wicked dark comedy with an excellent cast. —PV

Burn After Reading leaves Hulu July 31.

Collateral

An underrated Michael Mann vehicle and one of Tom Cruise’s most terrifying performances, Collateral is a slick neo-noir set on the streets of LA at night. Jamie Foxx plays a cab driver with big business plans he can’t seem to get together. When he happens to pick up a ruthless contract killer (Cruise) as his fare, his night takes a turn for the unexpected. Foxx and Cruise are at their absolute best in this pairing, and Mann’s crisp camera work coupled with the open streets of Los Angeles make this a very different kind of buddy road trip movie. —PV

Collateral leaves HBO Max July 31.

Devil in a Blue Dress

Carl Franklin’s adaptation of Walter Mosley’s excellent novel has it all: steamy noir Denzel, Don Cheadle in a “you have to see it to believe it” role, and all the necessary pieces for a great LA detective movie. It’s a crying shame we weren’t treated to many more Mosley adaptations with Denzel as Easy Rawlins. —PV

Devil in a Blue Dress leaves HBO Max July 31.

The John Wick movies

The Keanu Reeves-led revenge thriller series was a shock hit when the first movie came out in 2014, and has left a huge mark on action cinema in the years since. With an emphasis on practical choreography and close-quarters gunplay, the Wick franchise is helmed by former Reeves stuntman Chad Stahelski and brings that energy into everything it does. Special shoutout to Mark Dacascos, the villain of the third entry in the franchise, and to the upcoming fourth installment, which features Reeves fighting Donnie Yen with both a gun and a sword. —PV

The John Wick movies leave Peacock July 31.

Magic Mike XXL

The follow-up to the excellent romantic comedy Magic Mike is even more rapturously joyous than the first, celebrating pleasure in its many forms. This also doubles as a road trip movie and a “the crew gets back together for one last job” movie. Also: Joe Manganiello goes all out in a minimart dancing to “I Want It That Way.” Perfection, no notes. —PV

Magic Mike XXL leaves HBO Max July 31.

Speed

Here’s to the base pleasures of Speed, a movie that tells you exactly what it is right on the tin. A tense thriller meticulously constructed for maximum fun, it features a simple premise that will hook you from the start; an excellent cast led by Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and a delightfully wicked Dennis Hopper; and a tight script by future TV showrunner Graham Yost (Justified). —PV

Speed leaves Prime Video July 31.

Tenet

A friend of mine once described the premise of Tenet to me as “What if Christopher Nolan wrote the script for a Call of Duty game and turned it into a movie,” and honestly, there’s no better way of putting this film into words.

John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) stars in Nolan’s palindromically titled sci-fi thriller as a CIA operative, codenamed “The Protagonist,” who is recruited by a counterterrorism unit known as “Tenet” to stop a renegade Russian oligarch from inciting World War III using technology that threatens not only the present world, but the past and future.

Does that sound confusing? It is, but that’s neither the point nor the heart of the film’s appeal. Beyond the obtuse koan-like dialogue and confusing chronology of the film’s plot are some of the most breathtaking set-pieces and fight scenes Nolan has ever filmed. Did you like the rotating hallway fight in Inception? Wait until you get a load of the reverse car chase midway through Tenet, or the “temporal pincer maneuver” of the film’s finale. Still confused? To quote one of Tenet’s earliest scenes, “Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.” —TE

Tenet leaves HBO Max on July 31.

The Parallax View

A defining conspiracy thriller from the 1970s, Alan J. Pakula’s unforgettable adaptation of Loren Singer’s novel stars Warren Beatty as an investigative reporter who uncovers a vast political organization that carries out assassinations. Tangibly paranoid and uneasy, it’s a masterpiece of the genre and one of the most influential Hollywood films of the era. —PV

The Parallax View leaves Prime Video and the Criterion Channel July 31.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

One of the best musician biopics is also a completely fictional satire of the genre, featuring great gags and incisive criticism of well-worn tropes. My personal favorite: Dewey Cox has to remember his entire life before he goes on stage, every time. —PV

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story leaves Hulu July 31.