The Best TV Shows & Movies Coming to HBO Max in August 2020

July 22, 2020

Believe it or not, the summer is almost over. And, unfortunately, we’re all still stuck at home for the foreseeable future. This means we need to find our entertainment where we can, and that’s where streaming services come into play. HBO Max, like every other service out there, introduces new titles every month, and in August they have plenty of things worth checking out. In addition to highly-anticipated originals like Lovecraft Country and An American Pickle, there are plenty of studio flicks as well. Here are the best TV shows and movies coming to HBO Max in August 2020.

Birds of Prey
Birds of Prey is fun! Sure, it has some script issues. But it’s also a brightly colored, weirdly violent action-comedy about Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) breaking away from the Joker and becoming her own independent woman. Also, people get their faces carved off. This wasn’t the big hit Warner Bros. had been hoping for, but I think that as more and more people discover it via streaming (or home video), Birds of Prey will get the respect it deserves.

The Way Back
Ben Affleck gives perhaps the best performance of his career in The Way Back. The plot, which has Affleck as an alcoholic who gets recruited to coach his old high school basketball team, isn’t exactly fresh. But Affleck’s performance, which is clearly deeply personal – he’s struggled with alcoholism in the past – helps elevate what’s going on here into something far more memorable than you might expect. You can call this a “dad movie” if you’d like, but it’s a damn solid dad movie.

Jojo Rabbit
Jojo Rabbit was an Oscar-winning pic, but it also has plenty of detractors who just did not care for Taika Waititi‘s “anti-hate” satire. I, however, found this to be a wonderful film. The concept – a young boy in Nazi Germany has an imaginary friend who just happens to be Hitler – could’ve backfired terribly. And I guess for some people, it did. But I strongly believe Waititi struck just the right tone for what he was trying to do here. You can argue that the film isn’t an accurate portrayal of the events of World War II, but I’m positive that wasn’t what Waititi was going for anyway.

The Fugitive
The Fugitive is a perfect example of a Hollywood thriller done right. Harrison Ford is a man on the run, framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Tommy Lee Jones is the U.S. Marshall on his trail. It’s simple and yet every facet of this film is firing on all cylinders, creating an exciting, engrossing movie that probably couldn’t get made today.

Contact
Robert Zemeckis followed Forrest Gump up with the far-superior Contact, a big, emotional sci-fi epic about both faith and science. Jodie Foster plays Dr. Ellie Arroway, who has spent her entire life trying to find life on other planets. And sure enough, she finds it – triggering a whirlwind of political, spiritual, and scientific scenarios that seem incredibly bold for what was billed as a big blockbuster.

August 1:
10,000 BC, 2008
All the President’s Men, 1976
Altered States, 1980
Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, Season 1
Bad Influence, 1990 (HBO)
Barefoot in the Park, 1967
Barkleys of Broadway, 1949
Batman (1989), 1989
Batman & Robin, 1997
Batman Begins, 2005
Batman Forever, 1995
Batman Returns, 1992
The Bear, 1989 (HBO)
Bee Season, 2005 (HBO)
Before Sunrise, 1995 (HBO)
Before Sunset, 2004 (HBO)
Biloxi Blues, 1988 (HBO)
Blade Runner: The Final Cut, 2007
Blue Crush, 2002 (HBO)
The Candidate 1972
Carefree, 1938
The Change-Up (Unrated Version), 2011 (HBO)
Chariots of Fire, 1981
Contact, 1997
The Dark Knight 2008
The Dishwasher, 2020 (HBO)
Driving Miss Daisy, 1989
Elf, 2003
The First Grader, 2011 (HBO)
The First Wives Club 1996
Flipper, 1996 (HBO)
Flying Down to Rio, 1933
Flying Leathernecks, 1951
Fool’s Gold, 2008
Fracture, 2007
The Fugitive, 1993
The Gay Divorcee, 1934
Get on Up, 2014 (HBO)
Go Tell It on the Mountain, 2004 (HBO)
Grace Unplugged, 2013 (HBO)
Hard to Kill, 1990
Harley Quinn, Seasons 1 & 2
Highlander: The Final Dimension, 1995 (HBO)
Highlander IV: Endgame, 2000 (HBO)
The Hindenburg, 1975 (HBO)
Hours, 2013 (HBO)
House of Wax, 2005
House Party, 1990
House Party 2, 1991
House Party: Tonight’s the Night, 2013
How to Be a Player, 1997 (HBO)
Idiocracy (Extended Version), 2006 (HBO)
Interview with the Vampire, 1994
Jeremiah Johnson, 1972
Jim Thorpe: All-American, 1951
Jojo Rabbit, 2019 (HBO)
Kung Fu Panda, 2008
Kung Fu Panda 2, 2011
Leprechaun, 1993 (HBO)
Leprechaun 2, 1994 (HBO)
Leprechaun 3, 1995 (HBO)
Leprechaun 4: In Space, 1997 (HBO)
Leprechaun: Origins, 2014 (HBO)
The Long Kiss Goodnight, 1996
The Lost Boys: The Thirst, 2020 (HBO)
The Lost Boys: The Tribe (Unrated Version), 2020 (HBO)
Love Field, 1992 (HBO)
Lovelace, 2013 (HBO)
Lying And Stealing, 2019 (HBO)
The Marine (Unrated Version), 2006 (HBO)
Martha Marcy May Marlene, 2011 (HBO)
Marvin’s Room, 1996 (HBO)
Maverick, 1994
Monkeybone, 2001 (HBO)
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, 2007 (HBO)
Murder at 1600, 1997
The Mustang, 2019 (HBO)
My Blue Heaven, 1990
My Sister’s Keeper, 2009
Nell, 1994 (HBO)
New Year’s Eve, 2011 (HBO)
Ocean’s Eleven, 2001
On Dangerous Ground, 1952
On Golden Pond, 1981 (HBO)
Phantom, 2013 (HBO)
Pi, 1998 (HBO)
Raise the Titanic, 1980 (HBO)
Roberta, 1935
Romeo Must Die, 2000
Savages (Unrated Version), 2012 (HBO)
Say It Isn’t So, 2001 (HBO)
Serendipity, 2001
Skyline, 2010 (HBO)
South Central, 1992
Spy Game, 2001 (HBO)
Steven Universe Movie (2019)
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, 1939
Striptease, 1996
Swing Time, 1936
They Live by Night, 1949
Things Never Said, 2020 (HBO)
Three Days of the Condor, 1975
Time Bandits, 1981 (HBO)
Top Hat, 1935
Two Minutes of Fame, 2020 (HBO)
Walk the Line (Extended Version), 2005 (HBO)
Wedding Crashers, 2005
Without Limits, 1998
Yes Man, 2008
August 2:
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, Docu-Series Finale (HBO)
August 3:
HBO Asia’s Invisible Stories
Invisible Stories, a six-episode half-hour drama series from HBO Asia, tells the untold stories from the fictional neighborhood housing estate in multicultural Singapore.
August 4:
Aldnoah.Zero
Inuyasha
Mob Psycho, Season 1
Promised Neverland, Season 1
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
The Swamp, Documentary Premiere (HBO)
The Swamp provides a look behind the curtain of Washington politics by following three renegade Republican Congressmen as they bring libertarian and conservative zeal to champion the President’s call to “drain the swamp,” while facing demands to raise money for their re-election campaigns and the Republican national party.
August 6:
An American Pickle, Film Premiere
An American Pickle, directed by Brandon Trost, is based on Simon Rich’s New Yorker novella and stars Seth Rogen as Herschel Greenbaum, a struggling laborer who immigrates to America in 1919 with dreams of building a better life for his beloved family.
Doom Patrol, Season 2 Finale
Esme & Roy, Season 2B
On The Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries, Documentary Premiere (CNN)
On The Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries takes viewers on a journey following a team of female journalists as they report on the presidential election that will define a generation.
August 7:
Habla Now, 2020 (HBO)
August 8:
Richard Jewell, 2019 (HBO)
August 9:
Perry Mason, Season Finale (HBO)
August 11:
Hard Knocks ’20: Los Angeles, Series Premiere (HBO)
HBO Sports, NFL Films and the two Los Angeles-based NFL franchises, The Chargers and Rams, are teaming up for an unprecedented and unfiltered all-access look at what it takes to make it in the National Football League.
August 12:
Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn (HBO)
Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn tells the story of Yusuf Hawkins, a black teenager who was murdered in 1989 by a group of young white men in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Yusuf Hawkins’ death and the official response to it sparked outrage in New York, unleashing a torrent of racial tension and spurring tireless civil rights activism that exposed deep racial prejudices and inequities which continue to plague the country today.
August 13:
Infinity Train, Season 3 Premiere
August 14:
Carmen Y Lola (AKA Carmen And Lola), 2020 (HBO)
August 15:
Birds Of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), 2020 (HBO)
August 16:
Lovecraft Country, Series Premiere (HBO)
Based on the novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, the ten-episode series follows Atticus Freeman as he journeys with his childhood friend Letitia and his uncle George on a road trip from Chicago across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father Montrose. Their search-and-rescue turns into a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and monstrous creatures that could be ripped from an H.P. Lovecraft paperback.
August 18:
Looney Tunes, Batch 3
Smurfs, Season 2
August 20:
The Fungies, Season 1A
Singletown, Season 1
August 21:
No Quiero Ser Tu Hermano (AKA I Don’t Want to Be Your Brother), 2020 (HBO)
August 22:
Queen & Slim, 2019 (HBO)
August 23:
Mia’s Magic Playground
August 24:
I May Destroy You, Finale (HBO)
August 27:
Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness, Docuseries Premiere
The four-part buddy comedy docuseries follows actor/documentarian/philanthropist Ravi Patel as he travels the world seeking answers surrounding life’s universal questions.
August 28:
Seneca, 2019 (HBO)
Steven Universe Future, Season Six
August 29:
The Way Back, 2020 (HBO)