35 best new Netflix movies and shows coming in February 2020

34. Cookie’s Fortune

Release Year: 1999

Directed By: Robert Altman

Starring: Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris O’Donnell, Ned Beatty, Courtney B. Vance, Charles S. Dutton, Patricia Neal, Donald Moffat, Lyle Lovett, Danny Darst, Matt Malloy, Randle Mell, Niecy Nash, Rufus Thomas, Ruby Wilson, Preston Strobel, Ann Whitfield

Release Date: Saturday, Feb. 1

If you’re an esteemed member of Film Twitter, please momentarily look away. Have you looked away? Okay, we can talk freely now. Each month when Netflix announces its new movie and TV releases, there’s always a few older movies that, more than likely, the average moviegoer hasn’t heard of. And Cookie’s Fortune certainly fits that bill, even though it’s from esteemed director Robert Altman. Film Twitter, you can come back now and join us in talking about one of the best new release movies heading for your watch list this February.

Glenn Close stars in Cookie’s Fortune as Camille Dixon, who discovers that her elderly widowed aunt Cookie (Patricia Neal) died by suicide in Mississippi. Camille opts to take an unconventional method with the postmortem procedure, electing to hide evidence of the suicide and make Cookie’s death look like a murder. Joined in her plan by her sister Cora (Julianne Moore), Camille runs her scheme on greed, but she soon realizes it won’t be a victimless crime when a local handyman Willis Richland (Charles S. Dutton) might take the fall for a murder that doesn’t exist.

Cookie’s Fortune comes from director Robert Altman, who also directed such films as M*A*S*H, Nashville, Short Cuts, Dr. T & the Women, Gosford Park and A Prairie Home Companion. The film opened to mostly positive reviews and holds an 86% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the independent film didn’t make too big of an impact commercially, bringing in a respectable $10.9 million gross against its $10 million budget. Cookie’s Fortune looks to have a second run at grabbing nostalgic viewers 20 years later when it streams on Netflix at the top of the month.