Catch some great cinema moments this month

Above: Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty star in Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde." (Photo: Warner Bros./Seven Arts)

It’s the start of a new month, so it’s time to again check out what’s new to stream.

By streaming, I usually start with Netflix. And by new, I mean … well, you can watch only so many episodes of “Schitt’s Creek” at any one time, right? (That and “Peaky Blinders” are what we’ve been binge-watching lately.)

Some of the most intriguing Netflix offerings in January are throwbacks to a better time, one that paved the way for much of today’s best cinema and marked the first efforts of some actors who would go on to become big stars. My favorites are the following:

“Bonnie and Clyde” (1967): Arthur Penn’s study of the bank-robbing couple nearly got lost in the initial critical shuffle. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times in particular hated the film, calling it “a cheap piece of bald-faced slapstick comedy that treats the hideous depredations of that sleazy, moronic pair as though they were as full of fun and frolic as the jazz-age cut-ups in ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie.’ ” If it hadn’t been for The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael, Penn’s movie might have never received a widespread release and would have had to wait for a later, more appreciative audience. As it is, it paves ways for one of the golden ages in U.S. cinematic history – the 1970s. Watching it now is like witnessing that history unfold anew.

“Cool Hand Luke” (1967): Made when Paul Newman was still transitioning from being known as little more than a pretty-boy actor, this Stuart Rosenberg film helped make him into one of industry’s biggest attractions. Though George Kennedy won a Best Supporting Oscar, and the cast includes a number of scene-stealers such as Strother Martin, Harry Dean Stanton and even Dennis Hopper, the film centers on the quixotic, rebellious and self-destructive yet charming Luke. And, by the way, how many eggs could you eat in an hour?

“Enter the Dragon” (1973): Two words: Bruce Lee.

“Goodfellas” (1990): One of Martin Scorsese’s best, which makes it by definition one of the best films of the 20th century. It’s not just the storyline, which arguably could be seen as just another glorification of mob life, but the way the movie moves, in some sequences mirroring the coked-up actions of Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill. The central Nightclub sequence, which is done in a single take, is one of the great achievements of U.S. filmmaking. (Also, look for Scorsese’s 2006 film “The Departed.”)

“Mystic Pizza” (1988): In an otherwise minor film, this story of three young women signals the coming era of women’s films – and it marks the birth of one of the biggest stars of the next two decades: Julia Roberts.

“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (2011): Though not the first time someone had adapted the first novel in the late writer Stieg Larsson’s trilogy (that honor belonging to Swedish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev), this version does boast all the stylistic touches that David Fincher can bring to a film. And both Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara aren’t bad, either.

“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” (1993): Johnny Depp stars in the title role, but the movie gets stolen from him by a then-19-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio who – though he wouldn’t win an acting Oscar until 2016’s “The Revenant” – received a well-deserved Best Supporting Oscar nomination for his performance as a teenager with development disabilities.

Happy viewing everyone.