What to stream on Netflix, Foxtel Now and Stan
Free Solo features one of the great action scenes to hit the big screen and headlines the best new movies to stream. But there’s also something scary, a gritty police drama and even a cheesy TV reboot. Here’s what to watch this weekend.
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Free Solo features one of the great action scenes to hit the big screen and headlines the best new movies to stream. But there’s also something scary, a gritty police drama and even a cheesy TV reboot.
Don’t waste your time wandering aimlessly around Netflix. Here’s what to watch this weekend.
MOTLEY CRUE’S THE DIRT A POLLUTED TIME CAPSULE
CAN US OUTDO HORROR CLASSIC GET OUT?
THE ONE WHERE THE PUNISHMENT FITS THE CLIMB
FREE SOLO (M) *****
GOOGLE, iTUNES, YOUTUBE MOVIES
This incredible Oscar-winning doco has ascended quickly from an acclaimed run in cinemas to home streaming. Meet 33-year-old professional climber Alex Honnold. He wants to ascend El Capitan, an legendarily intimidating, unforgivably sheer rock face standing almost a kilometre high in California’s Yosemite National Park. El Capitan is not the highest point of the Sierra Nevada mountains, but it is the most physically and mentally demanding. Particularly when you intend to conquer it like Honnold, who wants to be the first to get to the top “free solo.” Don’t know what that means?
You soon will. Honnold’s specialty is climbing alone, without the use of a single rope, or any protective gear. Think about that for a moment. One wrong move, and you are almost certain to fall to your death. As beautifully and insightfully as this film is shot, you will spend much of it hoping Honnold doesn’t go through with this possible suicide mission. But he does. And what transpires is one of the greatest action sequences to ever grace the big screen. Highly (and heart-in-mouth-ingly) recommended.
THE ONE WHERE MOTHERHOOD AIN’T CHILD’S PLAY
TULLY (M) ****
FOXTEL NOW, GOOGLE, ITUNES
Probably the most unfairly overlooked release of 2018, and well worth the trackdown. Movies have always had trouble depicting how mothers carry or shed the psychological weight added by a bout of postnatal depression (PND). Therefore a movie like Tully — which not only acknowledges the existence of PND, but dares make it the driving premise of its story — is definitely something to be applauded. However, if you are expecting this is something to be endured to be admired, you will be pleasantly surprised. Courtesy of a willing, honest performance by Charlize Theron and the crack writing-directing combo of Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman (Juno), Tully is a funny, vibrant and enlivened screen experience. Theron plays an exhausted recent mother whose grip on life is weakening fast until an enigmatic, free-spirited young woman (Mackenzie Davis) enters the household as a nanny. A unique movie with an astute take on the pleasure, pain and privilege so particular to motherhood.
THE ONE THAT COPS IT SOUR
TRIPLE 9 (M) ***
NETFLIX
The title of this unorthodox crime drama is US police code for “officer down.” There are moments aplenty here where viewers may want to put out a distress call on behalf of the movie. However, there is a gritty resolve to this tale that ultimately rewards any perseverance sent its way. The story is set in Atlanta, where a gang of highly organised bank robbers also happen to be high-ranking policemen. However, if you think you’re in for just another corrupt-cop thriller, you’re wrong. The real brains of the outfit is a real piece of work, a vicious crime baroness named Irina (a show-stealing Kate Winslet with a thick Russian accent). Co-stars Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck. Directed by John Hillcoat (The Road).
THE ONE THAT’S A PUB WITH NO CHEER
HOTEL COOLGARDIE (MA15+) ***1/2
AMAZON, GOOGLE, ITUNES, YOUTUBE MOVIES
Jaw-dropping, stomach-churning and thought-provoking — literally always at the same time — Hotel Coolgardie is one of the most confronting and compelling documentaries ever filmed in this country. If you thought the classic Wake in Fright was the last word in how nightmarish the ‘real’ Australian can be to foreigners, look out. This is the sobering story of Lina and Steph, two backpackers from Finland working as barmaids in the WA mining outpost of Coolgardie. Everywhere these poor women turn, there is abuse happening all around them. The publican berates them with foul language for not working quick enough. The clientele hit the booze so hard many of them pass out on a nightly basis. Those that remain awake become all the more explicit in their sexual overtures towards Lina and Steph. A shocking snapshot of an Australia no-one should have to live in … let alone visit.
THE ONE THAT’S A SHACK FULL OF SHOCKS
DON’T BREATHE (MA15+) ****
NETFLIX
One rundown house. Three young amateur burglars. A loner who does not take kindly to uninvited visitors. A huge pile of cash. In the wrong hands, this would make for 30 minutes of must-see movie at most. The rest would be filler, and worse. Not this time. The running battle of wits and deployment of desperate measures depicted here is staged with nimble speed and nerve-shredding efficiency. You will stagger away from this ordeal both intimidated and impressed.
THE ONE WHERE YOU SHOULD LOOK, NOT LISTEN
MARGUERITE (PG) ***
SBS ON DEMAND
If love is blind, then talent is deaf in this alternately engaging and poignant French period comedy-drama. Catherine Frot is wonderful in the title role as a sublimely oblivious socialite who thinks she has what it takes to make it as an opera singer. While Marguerite Dumont has a pile of cash to repeatedly put herself in the spotlight throughout the 1920s and 30s, she is also cursed with a voice that has most listeners wishing WW2 would hurry up and start already. The tragi-comic reasons for Marguerite’s pitch-imperfect warblings are beautifully communicated to the audience by the irresistible Frot. Oh, and any musical performances that do not feature you-know-who are first-class.
THE ONE WITH UGLY TAN LINES
BAYWATCH (MA15+) **
NETFLIX, AMAZON
Whenever Hollywood is hunting a quick buck, modern comedy remakes of old TV shows have always an easy kill. While Baywatch ain’t all bad — it stars the unfeasibly likeable Dwayne Johnson, for cryin’ out loud — there isn’t enough good stuff to fill a two-hour movie. Johnson spearheads a squad of lightweight lifeguards at loggerheads with a heavyweight crime boss running drugs over their patch of sand. The filmmakers seem very unsure as to where the jokes are hidden inside this sketchy premise, and only Johnson looks like he might have a clue. Otherwise, it’s a leery, lumpy mixed bag of buff blokes in board shorts and budgie smugglers, and beautiful babes pressure-packed into revealing red one-pieces. A magnanimous gesture by the costume department allows just enough breathing room in the ladies’ outfits for the famous Baywatch go-to move: the slo-mo jiggle-jog along the beach.
Originally published as What to stream on Netflix, Foxtel Now and Stan
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