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Movie theaters are opening up around the U.S., but with the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, not everyone feels comfortable venturing out just yet. Fortunately, you don’t have to head to the local multiplex to see some of the year’s most-anticipated films. From a fresh take on Sherlock Holmes to the late Chadwick Boseman’s final completed film, here are some of the movies that will be streaming on Netflix in fall 2020. 

‘Cuties’ 

Sept. 9 

Maïmouna Doucouré’s French-language film Cuties arrives in early September. The movie is about an 11-year-old Muslim girl from Senegal living in Paris who rebels against her family’s traditions by joining a dance crew at her middle school. It was positively received at Sundance, but when the streaming service started promoting the film, there was an avalanche of complaints that it was sexualizing young girls. Doucouré has said she even received death threats. You can judge Cuties for yourself when the movie becomes available to stream on Sept. 9.

‘The Social Dilemma’

Sept. 9 

The new documentary The Social Dilemma may convince you to log off for good. Through interviews with Silicon Valley insiders, it looks at the ways our growing dependence on social media is changing ourselves and our world, not necessarily for the better. 

‘The Devil All the Time’ 

Robert Pattinson in a church
Robert Pattinson as Preston Teagardin in The Devil All the Time | Glen Wilson/Netflix © 2020

Sept. 16 

Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Mia Wasikowska, and Bill Skarsgård are among the all-star cast of this psychological thriller based on a book by Donald Ray Pollock. Set in Ohio, it features a cast of sinister characters including a unholy preacher (Pattinson), crooked sheriff (Sebastian Stan), and a twisted couple (Jason Clarke and Riley Keogh). They’re all circling around a young man (Holland) who is fighting the evil forces threatening him and his family.  

A Love Song for Latasha

Sept. 21 

Protests over centuries of racial discrimination and violence erupted around the U.S. this summer. The documentary A Love Song for Latasha looks back to another period of unrest: the L.A. riots of 1992. The shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was a flashpoint for the uprising in South Central, but her story was lost in the ensuing chaos. This documentary from director Sophia Nahli Allison “rebuilds an archive of a promising life lost,” according to Netflix. 

Enola Holmes’ 

Millie Bobby Brown with bow and arrow
Millie Bobby Brown in Enola Holmes | Neflix

Sept. 23 

Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) gets demoted to a supporting role in this movie, which focuses on the adventures of his younger sister Enola (Millie Bobby Brown). After her suffragette mother (Helena Bonham Carter) vanishes, her brothers Sherlock and Mycroft (Sam Claflin) want to send her to a finishing school so she can become a proper young lady. But Enola slips their grasp, runs away to London, and gets caught up in a mystery surrounding a runaway lord.  

‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ 

Oct. 16 

Aaron Sorkin helms this historical drama about the 1969 trial of the activists charged by the federal government following the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The cast includes Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin, and Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays prosecutor Richard Schultz and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II potrays Black Panther Bobby Seale.

‘Rebecca’ 

Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James looking in a mirror
Lily James as Mrs. de Winter and Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca | KERRY BROWN/NETFLIX
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Netflix Under Fire For Misrepresenting French Film ‘Cuties’

Oct. 21 

Lily James and Armie Hammer star in this adaptation of Daphne DuMaurier’s gothic novel Rebecca (also the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film). James plays the second Mrs. de Winter, who marries the mysterious widower Maxim de Winter (Hammer) after a whirlwind romance. She moves with her new husband to his estate in England, where the intimidating housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas) seems determined not to let her replace Maxim’s first wife, her beloved Rebecca.  

‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ 

Netflix hasn’t yet set a release date for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but it’s due out sometime before the end of the year. Anticipation is high for the adaptation of the August Wilson play, since it was the last film Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman completed before his death from colon cancer in August. Viola Davis plays the title character, a trailblazing blues performer who spars with her ambitious trumpet player Levee (Boseman) and her white managers during a recording session.

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