Now Stream This: 'The Firm', 'The Last Dance', 'Fear City', 'Palm Springs', 'Airplane!', 'Shattered Glass', And More

(Welcome to Now Stream This, a column dedicated to the best movies streaming on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and every other streaming service out there.)

Release Date: 1993Genre: ThrillerDirector: Sydney PollackCast: Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David StrathairnThe Firm is as solid as a Hollywood thriller gets. The type of movie they don't really make anymore – a mid-budget pic aimed squarely at adults, with a strong cast to boot – this John Grisham adaptation is tense, clever, and never dull, even as it stretches to nearly two-and-a-half hours. Director Sydney Pollack knows exactly what he's doing, letting the movie breathe, and letting everything fall into place slowly but steadily. And talk about a great cast – Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Strathairn, Jeanne Tripplehorn (where did she go??), Wilford Brimley playing against type as a bad guy, Tobin Bell using a weird accent, a possibly coked-up Gary Busey. You can't beat it. Tom Cruise is a young lawyer who gets head-hunted by a law firm in Memphis. He takes the gig because the money is too good to pass up, and sure enough, he realizes it all comes with a catch: his firm is in league with the mafia. Cruise is playing a normal guy here, and that's particularly fun to watch that because he usually plays superhuman dudes constantly doing crazy stunts these days. Although, yes, he does have multiple scenes where he runs. And as great as the cast as a whole is, Gene Hackman is the real standout, playing a morally gray character. Man oh man do I miss seeing Gene Hackman show up in new movies.For fans of: Michael Clayton, Absence of Malice, Holly Hunter smoking cigarettes in every scene she's in.

Release Date: 2020Genre: Sports DocumentaryDirector: Jason HehirCast: The Chicago Bulls

I'm not a sports person, so I was hesitant to watch The Last Dance. But after hearing everyone sing its praises, I finally decided to give in – and I'm glad I did. Even if you're not into sports there's so much here to latch onto. The docuseries, which first aired on ESPN and is now on Netflix, uses Michael Jordan's final season with the Chicago Bulls to tell a sprawling story of all the years Jordan played with the Bulls, and beyond. Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and many, many more people pop-up here, but the story always goes back to Jordan. Jordan is presented here as a Daniel Plainview figure – someone determined to win at all costs no matter who he might destroy in the process. It's fascinating to watch, and the editing, which cuts together clips of games scored to great songs of the era, makes The Last Dance wildly entertaining.

For fans of: Hoop Dreams, 30 for 30 documentaries, looking at Michael Jordon's huge house.

Release Date: 2020Genre: True Crime DocuseriesDirector: Paul Moessl

New to Netflix, Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia is an intimate look at how investigators and prosecutors tracked and eventually brought down the mafia in New York City in the 1970s and '80s. Loaded with footage from the era and actual audio recordings of the mobsters – who seem to punctuate every sentence with "fuck" – Fear City avoids wise guy cliches and focuses more on the work that went into first wire-tapping the mob and then eventually bringing them down after the mobsters were connected to huge million-dollar scams, mostly involving the construction of skyscrapers (Trump Tower gets brought up more than a few times). Best of all, Fear City only runs three episodes, so it never overstays its welcome – an approach more modern true crime documentaries should follow.

For fans of: Dirty Money, GoodFellas, thick New Yawk accents.

Release Date: 2020Genre: ComedyDirector: Max BarbakowCast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons

A modern-day riff on the Groundhog Day time-loop scenario, Palm Springs is funny, sweet, and often surprisingly melancholy. Not everything here works (a subplot involving a character played by J.K. Simmons never finds its footing), but the stuff that does work works well. While at her sister's wedding in Palm Springs, Sarah (Cristin Milioti) ends up stuck in a time loop with Nyles (Andy Samberg), who has already been stuck in the loop for a long time. Of course, it's only a matter of time before these two time loopers fall for each other. But first, they take advantage of their surreal situation by doing anything and everything they can think of, consequences be damned. Samberg is sharp here, but he's playing the type of character he always plays, just with a few more rough edges. Milioti is the real break-out here, balancing both humor and pathos with aplomb.

For fans of: Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, G–

Release Date: 2003Genre: DramaDirector: Billy RayCast: Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloë Sevigny, Rosario Dawson, Melanie Lynskey, Steve Zahn

The Star War prequels convinced most people that Hayden Christensen was not a very good actor. But Shattered Glass proves he can turn in something strong with the right material. Christensen plays Stephen Glass, a reporter at The New Republic who turns in one slam-dunk article after another, making him something of a superstar. But here's the catch: he made most of them up. Everything came crashing down for Glass when someone noticed an article he wrote about a hacker just didn't add up, and Shattered Glass chronicles his downfall, following editor Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard, fantastic and furious) as he first tries to prove Glass was telling the truth and then begins to realize one of his star reporters is completely full of shit.

For fans of: Spotlight, All the President's Men, watching people in the 1990s not understand how websites work.

Release Date: 1980Genre: ComedyDirector: David and Jerry Zucker and Jim AbrahamsCast: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lorna Patterson

One of the funniest movies ever made, Airplane! is a send-up of disaster movies, especially movies in the Airport series. When food poisoning knocks out some of the passengers, and pilots, of a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago, traumatized Ted Striker (Robert Hays) has to overcome his fears and land the plane safely. What follows is a non-stop assortment of sight-gags, somewhat dated references, and a manic spirt that's totally irresistible.

For fans of: The Naked Gun, The Kentucky Fried Movie, sniffing glue.

Release Date: 2011Genre: ActionDirector: Brad BirdCast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Anil Kapoor, Léa Seydoux

Many people seem to count Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol as their favorite M:I sequel. I'm not one of them (Rogue Nation all the way, baby), but this is one of the most entertaining entries in the series – the film that turned the franchise into a series of jaw-dropping set-pieces where Tom Cruise would risk his life for our entertainment. Cruise was always big on doing his stunts, but Ghost Protocol was the first Mission where he was performing stunts that really could've killed him, like scaling the side of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The plot involves Ethan Hunt and his team trying to prevent nuclear war, and, sure, whatever – that's fine. But let's not kid ourselves. We're not watching this movie for the plot, we're watching it to see director Brad Bird turn Tom Cruise into a human cartoon.

For fans of: Tom Cruise risking his life like a madman.

Release Date: 2003Genre: ThrillerDirector: Carl FranklinCast: Denzel Washington, Eva Mendes, Sanaa Lathan, Dean CainOut of Time isn't the flashiest Denzel Washington thriller, but it does feature a great performance from the actor along with plenty of twists and turns. A Florida noir, Out of Time has Washington as a local Chief of Police in the midst of an affair with a local woman, played by Sanaa Lathan. The relationship ends up getting Washington in plenty of trouble when his mistress turns up dead, and he ends up being the sole beneficiary of her $1,000,000 life insurance policy. Is he being set-up? Is there more than meets the eye here? Whatever is going on, Washington's character uses his law enforcement access to throw fellow cops off his scent, but there's only so long that can last. Tense and loaded with great set pieces – a scene where Washington is desperately trying to fake a fax machine message is tension-filled movie making at its finest.For fans of: Body Heat, Double Indemnity, Denzel Washington wearing a series of Hawaiian shirts.

Release Date: 2019Genre: HorrorDirector: Adam Egypt MortimerCast: Miles Robbins, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sasha Lane, Mary Stuart Masterson, Hannah Marks, Chukwudi Iwuji, Peter McRobbie

What if your imaginary friend from childhood resurfaced when you were an adult. And what if he wasn't so imaginary? That's the set up for Daniel Isn't Real, a creepy little horror flick about a loser college student (Miles Robbins) who manifests his imaginary friend (Patrick Schwarzenegger) to help with his confidence. Or so he thinks. However, it soon becomes abundantly clear that "Daniel" isn't who – or what – he says he is. Director Adam Egypt Mortimer manages to do a lot with a little here, leaning on some strong production design to tie it all together.

For fans of: Z, Drop Dead Fred, impromptu sword fights.

Release Date: 1990Genre: HorrorDirector: William LustigCast: Robert Davi, Claudia Christian, Michael Lerner, and Bruce Campbell, Robert Z'Dar

All the Maniac Cop movies are fun and worth watching in their own right, but Maniac Cop 2 is the best of the bunch. An improvement over the first film in nearly every way, Maniac Cop 2 doesn't just have great horror, it has great action, too – there's a scene involving someone hanging outside a car, cuffed to the steering wheel, as the car speeds through traffic, that's better than anything I've seen in the entire Fast and Furious franchise. One again, undead cop Matt Cordell is roaming the mean streets of New York, murdering people. To make things extra interesting, Cordell actually teams up with a serial killer midway through the film, although he has ulterior motives. This is a violent, sleazy film, set in a dark, dirty New York where smoke is always pouring out of manholes and everyone hates each other. All the cops are crooked and violent and corrupt, and they don't give a fuck who knows it. Until the Maniac Cop comes calling, that is.

For fans of: The Maniac Cop franchise, obviously.