STREAMING GUIDE

Six Shows and Movies to Stream Over the July 4th Holiday Weekend

6 shows and movies to binge watch over the long weekend.


1
Netflix

This July 4th, you have some typical choices for how you’d like to spend the holiday. You can opt for a barbecue during the day or fireworks at night—or you could just stay indoors and watch something on your computer, which is probably the preferable choice if we’re being honest.

But now comes the hard part: what do you want to watch?. Are you in the mood for some 1980s summer nostalgia à la Stranger Things? Or would you rather dive into some classic Americana, like A League of Their Own? If you’re not in the mood for nationalism, which is an understandable mindset to be in right now, there are some other quintessentially “American” stories worth watching that do their due diligence to criticize the establishment, too. Whether or not you’re feeling patriotic this year, these are some good movies to stream during the Independence Day weekend heat.

Stranger Things 3

Season three of Stranger Things has finally arrived on Netflix, and it promises to lean all the way in on that ’80s nostalgia, even further than the show did with the first two seasons. It’s summertime in Hawkins, and chaos is about to unfold now that the monsters from the Upside Down can actually talk—or can they?

Where to stream: Netflix

The Sandlot

*The Sandlot*

©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection

What’s more American than baseball? How about a movie that’s about baseball (and growing up and summer and facing your fears regarding the big slobbery dog that lives over the fence next door)? The Sandlot is a classic, and watching it can scratch that nostalgia itch for two separate eras: the ’60s, which is when the film takes place, and the ’90s, which is when the film was actually made.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

Adventureland

Adventureland is another trip down ’80s memory lane. Jesse Eisenberg plays a recent graduate who has to take a summer job at an amusement park in order to pay for his dream trip to Europe. Kristen Stewart plays his love interest, and both Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig co-star in it, too.

Where to stream: Showtime or Hulu

A League of Their Own

Yes, this is another baseball movie, but this one has Madonna in it and it’s not every day that you get to see America’s dad (Tom Hanks) play against the Nice Guy type.

Where to stream: Amazon Prime

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp

This may seem very 2015 to suggest, but it’s the middle of summer and it is hot and there’s nothing better than watching a campy take on summer camp. For bonus points, you can watch the cult 2001 film that this series was spun off from before you dive in to the follow-up story to what happened with the counselors at Camp Firewood.

Where to stream: Netflix

When They See Us

Ava DuVernay’s miniseries about the Central Park Five (now referred to as the Exonerated Five), who were wrongfully accused and convicted of raping a jogger in Central Park in 1989, is a tough watch, at times, but it’s also a necessary one. In four parts, DuVernay explores the hazards of a negligent legal system and how, despite DNA evidence and confessions from another assailant, the five teens were given maximum prison terms for a crime they did not commit. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get more American than that.

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