Each month, several films and TV shows leave Showtime’s library. We provide a list of departing titles and recommend a few standouts so you can watch them before they’re gone forever (or are just available on a different site). For more coverage of the best titles available on Showtime and elsewhere, check out Vulture’s What to Stream Now hub, which is updated throughout the month.
This Month’s Highlights
Leaving February 20
Because Daniel Day-Lewis is retiring: Lincoln
Lincoln, like any good biopic, succeeds in its specificity. Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film doesn’t trouble itself with a summation of Honest Abe’s entire life. Instead, Lincoln focuses on the last four months of his presidency, mostly revolving around his efforts to pass the 13th Amendment and abolish slavery in the United States. Of course, the main attraction is Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance in the lead role, which remains uncannily good and a reason to watch the movie on its own. Give it a rewatch before it leaves Showtime. Leaving February 20.
Leaving February 9
If you’re in the mood for a frightening documentary: Meru
Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk were the first team to ever summit the central peak of Mount Meru, one of the most notorious mountains in the HImalayas. Of the many challenging climbing routes up it, the Shark’s Fin is the most difficult: It’s one of the most dangerous in the world, leading to a peak straight up a 4,000-foot wall. Meru chronicles this team’s attempt to summit that peak. Their first attempt ends horribly, their second makes history, and all of it is gorgeous and terrifying. Leaving February 9.
Leaving February 28
Because it’s all-too rare to see a movie like it: Smoke Signals
A notable bit of movie history is leaving Showtime this month: Sherman Alexie’s Smoke Signals, a 1998 independent film notable for being an all-Native American production that tells a story concerned with reasserting Native Americans’ voices. The film itself is a coming-of-age story about two young men coming to grips with the death of a man they both viewed as a father figure: Victor is his actual son and hates him because of the abuse he endured; Thomas idolizes the man for saving him as an infant. At odds in both these views and their feelings about being Native American, the two go on a trip to Arizona to collect Victor’s father’s ashes and find themselves. Leaving February 28.
Full List
Noteworthy selections in bold.
Leaving February 2
• The Nanny Diaries
Leaving February 9
• Meru
Leaving February 15
• Breach
• The Fifth Estate
Leaving February 16
• Dane Cook: Troublemaker
• Halloween (2007)
Leaving February 17
• The Cookout
Leaving February 20
• Lincoln
Leaving February 22
• Dick Tracy
• High Fidelity
• Red Dragon
Leaving February 25
• Gangs of New York
Leaving February 27
• Burnt
Leaving February 28
• American Outlaws
• An American Rhapsody
• Becoming Bulletproof
• Bigger Than the Sky
• Bridge of Spies
• Bugsy
• Citizen Ruth
• Cold in July
• De-Lovely
• The Descent
• The Doors
• Gigli
• Heavy Metal
• Hesher
• I Am Number Four
• I Love You Phillip Morris
• Kingpin
• Lumberjack Man
• Murder in the Dark
• No Man’s Land (2001)
• People Like Us
• Secret in Their Eyes
• Seraphim Falls
• Smoke Signals
• Some Kind Of Wonderful
• Southland Tales
• Spring Broke
• Stander
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Unnatural
• Urban Legend
• Urban Legend: Final Cut
• The Wicked Within
• Young Guns
• Young Guns II