7 best movies to watch about America this Fourth of July

How does it feel for a movie about America to be American? It’s not an easy question to answer.

This July Fourth weekend, we’ve pulled together a group of movies we love that fits that bill (while trying to avoid the easy path of “patriotic” movies). This is instead a collection of movies that are thematically addressing the question.

We welcome all nominations, especially outside the box ones! While you’re here, you should also check out our list of the best labor movies you can watch at home — many of those would also be excellent fits here.

Black Panthers

Janus Films

The French master Agnès Varda made this 28-minute documentary relatively early in her career, following protests by the Black Panther Party in Oakland after the arrest of Huey P. Newton. Matching Varda’s indelible style as a documentarian with a historical document of a moment and a place that is often excluded from American textbooks, Black PanthersThis is an unforgettable portrait of a group of remarkable people who are trying to improve a country that has fallen apart. —Pete Volk

Black Panthers You can watch it on HBO Max or the Criterion Channel. Or you can digitally rent it on Amazon.

David Byrne’s American Utopia

Image by:

Spike Lee directed this performance of David Byrne’s electric Broadway musical, filled with jubilant dance numbers and deep reflection on the state of our country and world. It was one of Polygon’s favorite movies of 2020. —PV

Our review:

Even for those unfamiliar with Byrne’s work, the film feels urgent and joyous, as the performers, following Annie-B Parson’s choreography, caper and cavort across the stage. The songs aren’t narrative, at least not in the explicit way they would be in a traditional musical, but their themes form a shape in Byrne’s hands, coalescing around the conflict that seems so prevalent in present-day America, and the necessity to be kind to each other, and to do the work to create a better tomorrow. He can create a prodigious pleasure that leads to an even wider feeling of empathy. This turns Byrne’s instincts to dance and sing into instincts to act.

David Byrne’s American Utopia You can watch it on HBO Max or digitally rent or buy on Apple, Google Play and other VOD providers.

Minding the Gap

Magnolia Pictures

We love Polygon. Minding the Gap, Bing Liu’s debut documentary feature about his group of skateboarding-obsessed friends in Illinois. It is a moving portrait about friendship, masculinity and America’s heartland. Many Polygon staffers mentioned it in their picks for best movies in the 2010s as well in our 50 best streaming movies list, our list o the top sports movies and our Hulu list of best movies. Minding the Gap: It’s great! —PV

Minding the Gap You can watch it on Hulu.

Southland Tales

Image: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Richard Kelly’s (Donnie DarkoThe 2006 sci-fi movie, a delirious science fiction film, is unnervingly tuned to entertainment, military-industrial complex and American surveillance state. It was released without much attention and was actually at least 20 years ahead of its time. The movie is now a piece of prescient dystopia. It’s equally chaotic and focused.

If nothing else, watch the hypnotic scene where Justin Timberlake, playing an Iraq War veteran who now deals drugs, mimes The Killers’ “All These Things That I’ve Done” in a sequence filmed like a music video. —PV

Southland Tales Starz on Prime Video allows you to stream the content, as well as renting or purchasing digitally on Apple TV or Google Play.

You can kill them softly

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Set in Boston in the days leading up to the 2008 presidential election, Andrew Dominik’s 2012 neo-noir thriller stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a mob enforcer and fixer hired to track down a trio of crooks who had the audacity (see: stupidity) to knock over a Mafia poker game. This film, as a whole, is extremely good. A tightly wound crime drama with fantastic cinematography, great supporting performances by Ray Liotta (though they are brief), and a tension-filled climactic discussion between Cogan’s handler and Cogan about the nature of America which boils patriotic mythmaking into an empathetic and straightforward truth. To paraphrase Cogan: We’re living in America, and in America, you’re on your own. —Toussaint Egan

You can kill them softly It is streaming on Hulu, FUBO TV and Crackle.

It’s not rare to find it sometimes

Focus Features Image

This week, the Supreme Court reversed its decision Roe V. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that for nearly half a century upheld a pregnant person’s right to bodily autonomy in the choice to terminate a pregnancy. What’s too often lost in the discussions over abortion rights are the individual stories of ordinary people whose lives have been shaped by it. Eliza Hittman’s 2020 film Never Rarely, Sometimes Always The issue’s emotional core is tapped into and the characters are rendered with poignant clarity and profound empathy. This is an important and powerful film that must be seen and heard. It’s a compelling story, which should also be viewed and considered. —TE

Never Rarely, Sometimes Always You can stream it for free on Freevee with the ads, as well as digital rent-or-purchase on Apple and Google Play.

Pain & Gain

Warner Home Video

One of the bodybuilding idiots kidnaps a client in an attempt to make it big. Many hijinks ensue in this ripped-from-the-headlines satirical comedy.

Michael Bay’s maximalism is a perfect match for the bulked-up lead actors of Dwayne Johnson (in one of his last roles where he was playing a character other than Dwayne Johnson), Mark Wahlberg, and Anthony Mackie. The result is Bay’s funniest movie, by far, and a surprisingly astute commentary on the unattainability of the American Dream for most and the dangers that the promise of its access can cause. —PV

Pain & Gain Prime Video, Paramount Plus and Amazon Prime Video are both available for streaming.