New on Netflix UK: what to watch February 2019

• Scott Henderson
• 30 January 2019

In which we get excited about Velvet Buzzsaw, Nightflyers, High Flying Bird and Russian Doll

We're deep in winter now, which means, Netflix, we're really counting on you to have our backs. Good news is, the biggest streaming platform in the world has a cracking month in store, so let's dive into the highlights.

Things kick off immediately on Fri 1 Feb with Velvet Buzzsaw (review) from Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy, reuniting with stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo for this genre-defying film. If you haven't already seen the trailer, stop what you're doing and watch now, it's truly something else. John Malkovich, Toni Collette and Natalie Dyer make up a terrific cast.

Actually, you're spoilt for choice on Fri 1 Feb as two new series drop that will no doubt be fast favourites on the platform: black comedy Russian Doll, starring Natasha Lyonne, and sci-fi horror Nightflyers, from the mind of George RR Martin. And, while we're on the subject of new series, you better believe we'll be tuning in to new superheroes show The Umbrella Academy (Fri 15 Feb) (review). Also watch out for Dirty John (Thu 14 Feb), starring Eric Bana (yeah, we've been wondering where he was at too) and Mrs Coach Connie Britton.

Back to the pick of the new films, we are pretty excited about anything Steven Soderbergh is putting out, but basketball film High Flying Bird (Fri 8 Feb) looks especially intriguing and sees him team up again with Andre Holland, who was great in The Knick (vale!). Oh, and he shot the whole thing on an iPhone 7, so there's that too.

We loved The Breaker Upperers (Fri 15 Feb) when we saw it at London Film Festival last year, and Rebel Wilson rom-com send-up Isn't It Romantic (Thu 28 Feb) looks a lot of fun and the film you probably wished I Feel Pretty (Wed 27 Feb) was. And rounding out a great month for romance, Jordan Peele's Oscar-winning Get Out (Sun 24 Feb), which if you still haven't caught, well, we don't even want to know you.

Full February 2019 release slate after these trailers...