What to steam on Netflix, Foxtel Now and Stan

Hollywood heavyweights Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson and Spike Lee headline this week’s streaming with each taking a trip back into America’s dark past.

Take a trip back to the 1930s in "The Highwaymen." Picture: AP

Don’t waste your time wandering aimlessly around Netflix. Here’s what to watch this weekend.

BOREDOM NOT A OPTION FOR SHAZAM!

PET SEMATARY DIGS UP FRESH SHOCKS

The one shining a light on a dark place

BLACKKKLANSMAN

****

FOXTEL NOW (from Fri Apr 5)

A powder keg of restless energy, this recent Oscar-winner may not end with a bang, but it never settles for the faintest of whimpers. If anything, this provocative and slyly funny movie detonates a series of controlled explosions across its running time. Thankfully, a master director like Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, The 25th Hour) knows exactly when a fuse should be lit. A gripping true story is almost too bizarre to be taken seriously, if not for the unsettling fact it concerns the dreaded US racist group the Ku Klux Klan.

John David Washington and Adam Driver in Blackkklansman.

Newcomer John David Washington (son of Denzel) stars as Ron Stallworth, an African-American police detective who brought down a powerful chapter of the KKK in the 1970s by infiltrating it from within. While Stallworth works the phones and climbs the chain of command until he gets inside the head of clinical KKK strategist David Duke (Topher Grace), a fellow Jewish cop (Adam Driver) reluctantly enters the Klan’s HQ as Stallworth’s white alter ego. A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance.

The one ironing out a wrinkled past

THE HIGHWAYMEN

***1/2

NETFLIX

Mark down this atmospheric police procedural as a belated correction of the historical record. This is the story of the final, fateful and fatal pursuit of the infamous American criminals Bonnie and Clyde in 1934. Unlike the famous 1967 Warren Beatty feature film, this version is told from the perspective of the hunters, rather than the hunted. In fact, you will barely catch a close-up glimpse of the perps for most of the movie. Instead, the focus stays on retired Texas Rangers Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) and Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson), reluctantly reactivated by exasperated law officials at a loss as to how to stop Bonnie and Clyde’s multi-state killing spree. Both Costner and Harrelson are magnificent as a team, bringing two misunderstood characters to life with a tenacious, gritty and rueful grasp of what made these ageing gunmen tick. What the movie also gets right is its depiction of the inhumane tactics of Bonnie and Clyde, completely at odds with the folk-hero popularity they have enjoyed since their demise.

Woody Harrelson and Kevin Costner in a The Highwaymen. Picture: AP

The one giving you plenty to sink about

BLACK SEA (M)

***

FOXTEL NOW

Set any old thriller inside a submarine, and it isn’t long before the claustrophobia comes flooding in. Under the expert direction of Kevin MacDonald (Last King of Scotland), we plunge the depths of dread at all-too-close quarters within a creaky old Russian rust-bucket. The captain of this vessel is Robinson (Jude Law), an embittered seaman who assembles a dodgy crew to retrieve a stash of gold from a Nazi U-boat rumoured to be sitting on the bottom of the Black Sea. While the movie does waste some hard-earned unease by cutting away to flashbacks on dry land every so often, the deep distrust festering among Robinson and his crew keeps the viewer’s nerves on a razor-sharp edge when it really counts.

A scene from Sorry to Bother You. Picture: Universal Pictures

The one that’s a welcome interruption

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (MA15+)

****

GOOGLE, ITUNES

Unconventional, unruly and — in its best, most coherent moments — unbelievably great, Sorry to Bother You might be the strangest movie to score a release in 2018. It could also be the most ambitious, popping several provocative thought bubbles regarding race, class, capitalism, job satisfaction and how we treat one another from one day to the next. Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out) stars as Cassius, an African-American dude who can barely find the money to pay the rent on a space in his uncle’s garage. Things start looking up when Cassius lands a low-level job at a busy telemarketing firm and begins rapidly rising through the ranks. The secret to his success? Talking to customers over the phone in his best “white voice.” Just as Cassius comes under the suspect influence of an insane CEO (Armie Hammer), his girlfriend (Tessa Thompson) senses the time is right for an intervention. A brave and radical departure from many a filmmaking norm, highly recommended to those who appreciate chances taken and rules broken.

The one that’s older and wiser

GOING IN STYLE (M)

**1/2

FOXTEL NOW, NETFLIX

An unfailingly genial, yet unrelentingly generic comedy. What saves the whole exercise from being smoothed down into a slab of movie margarine is the superb trio of old-timers cast in the main roles. Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin play three best buddies who were steel workers back in the day. Now, the greybeards are secretly prepping for a new career very late in life: robbing their local bank for fun and profit.

The one where loving movies save lives

THE WOLFPACK

***1/2

SBS ON DEMAND

This unusual doco leaves many a vital thread of information dangling. However, the sheer singularity of the world we are taken into here should be more than satisfactory for intrigued viewers. This is the strange tale of the six Angulo brothers, virtual prisoners in a Manhattan apartment for most of their lives. The only lifeline to the outside world is the extensive collection of movies they are permitted to watch repeatedly. All of a sudden, the Angulos were fastidiously remaking their favourite movies with whatever scarce resources were available to them. In spite of viewing enough Tarantino and Scorsese movies to warp time itself, the six lads come across as friendly, relatively well-adjusted interviewees.

The Angulo brothers in a scene from Wolfpack. Picture: Madman films

The one with a tasteful menu

CAFE SOCIETY

***

NETFLIX

A trifling, yet tremendously appealing period romance, indulging in the same swift-quipped, smartly-dressed nostalgia for old Hollywood as the Coen brothers’ film Hail Caesar! Principal settings are split between Los Angeles and New York City in the late 1930s. Wide-eyed Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg) has ditched the Big Apple for Hollywood with dreams of breaking in to the big time. His entry pass comes courtesy of an uncle who is the most connected agent in town (Steve Carell), and a beautiful young woman (Kristen Stewart) with a healthy disrespect for the fame game. Director Woody Allen’s affinity for his characters — and sly affection for how their hearts rule their heads — forges a surprisingly personal connection.

Originally published as What to steam on Netflix, Foxtel Now and Stan