What you need to watch this long weekend

Ethan Hawke’s pitch perfect portrayal of a small town priest experiencing a crisis of faith or the best doco of 2018 about identical triplets adopted out, who accidentally find one another as adults — these are just two of your choices.

Scene from the movie Wild Card.

Ethan Hawke’s pitch perfect portrayal of a small town priest experiencing a crisis of faith, or the best doco of 2018 about identical triplets adopted out, who accidentally find one another as adults — these are just two of your choices for what to watch.

Leigh Paatsch has pulled together a whole lot more for your to choose from to while away your long weekend.

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HELLBOY KEEPS YOU ASKING... WHEN WILL IT END?

A DOGDY DOCO ABOUT A DOPE-DEALING NUN

CURSE OF WEEPING WOMAN A HIT-MISS HORROR

Ethan Hawke is raw power as a small town priest in First Reformed.

THE ONE THAT RESTORES YOUR FAITH IN MOVIES

FIRST REFORMED (MA15+)

****1/2

FOXTEL NOW

Movies as intelligent, challenging and almost flawlessly realised as this astonishing contemporary drama are mighty thin on the ground these days. Therefore I do recommend that anyone scouring the streaming platforms for top-shelf fare should track down First Reformed as soon as possible. The movie draws an incredible amount of raw power from two sources. The first is a career-best performance from Ethan Hawke as Ernst Toller, a small-town priest and former Army chaplain experiencing a crisis of faith that will either be the making or the breaking of him. Since losing his son in a terrorist ambush in Iraq, Toller has lost his way as a spiritual mentor to his dwindling church community. The arrival of a troubled young man who is an extreme environmental activist gives Toller a chance to snap out of his existential funk. Matching Hawke’s faultless display is the word-perfect writing and direction of veteran filmmaker Paul Schrader, mining the same rich vein of form that spawned his screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

THE ONE THAT BREATHES FIRE, FLYS HIGH

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (PG)

***

GOOGLE, ITUNES

Those that have grown to love (or have loved growing up with) the stirring adventures of the indefatigable Viking leader Hiccup and his trusty dragon offsider Toothless will not hear a bad word against the genial fantasy-based series. The same winning blend of endearment and excitement is once again to the fore in this quality final instalment. The Isle of Berk — over which Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) rules in place of his late father — is getting way overcrowded. Against the advice of several key elders, Hiccup embarks on an odyssey to locate a fabled hidden realm his dad once mentioned, which would be perfect for his plans for expansion. Adapted from the best-selling books by Cressida Cowell.

Jason Statham in a fight scene in Wild Card.

THE ONE THAT GOES THUMP IN THE NIGHT

WILD CARD (MA15+)

**1/2

NETFLIX

Nobody sits down with a Jason Statham flick expecting a deep and meaningful exploration of the human condition. (If you do, there are support programs available.) Nah, a Statham movie is all about how much bad, bruising and bloody stuff can be crammed into the spaces where the plot won’t be. This slickly-made affair — in which the Stath plays a Las Vegas bodyguard with major gambling debts — meets its questionable quotas with ease. In one standout combat sequence, our hero beats up a bloke using nothing but a credit card as a weapon. Co-stars Sofia Vergara, Stanley Tucci, Jason Alexander.

The brothers of Three Identical Strangers.

THE ONE WHERE TRUTH LOOKS JUST LIKE FICTION

THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS (M)

****1/2

GOOGLE, ITUNES

One of the best docos of 2018. Robert Shafran, Edward Galland and David Kellman were born identical triplets, only to be adopted out to various families by a young mother not capable of raising them. Somehow, the brothers accidentally found one another as adults, and from that moment on, were inseparable. The world’s media couldn’t get enough of the yarn, and the trio parlayed their fame into a successful New York restaurant. All of this alone would make for a cracking doco. But there is more. So much more. The upbeat coincidence of the siblings’ chance reunion is gradually overshadowed by the possibility there was nothing coincidental about their separation at birth. Amazing stuff.

Lake Bell and Owen Wilson in No Escape.

THE ONE ALWAYS ON THE RUN

NO ESCAPE (MA15+)

***

STAN

An undeniably enjoyable, pulpy chase flick that survives some shaky casting choices (Owen Wilson as a family man turned action hero?) and plot twists to deliver a fair little rush. Wilson is a Texan water engineer who has just had the dumb luck to move his family to an un-named Asian country on the same day a military coup is breaking out. Now he must shield his wife (Lake Bell) and two daughters from all kinds of kooky threats as they try and hot-foot it out of the country. The tribe’s only hope turns out to be a shady bloke (Pierce Brosnan) that Dad met on the plane earlier that day.

The cast of Into The Storm.

THE ONE THAT GOES HARD AND BLOWS HARDER

INTO THE STORM (M)

***

NETFLIX, STAN

To its catastrophic credit, Into the Storm knows its audience is here for nothing but the weather. The more extreme, the better. Much of the meteorological mayhem transpires around the small town of Silverton, a fictional hamlet sitting smack-bang at the centre of the flatlands of the US Midwest. A system of five magnificent mega-tornadoes — any of whom can display more personality than the whole cast combined — are about to swarm upon Silverton for one hell of a gusty get-together. The insanely inclement special-effects sequences (sonically boosted by a relentlessly whooshing sound design) will have all ducking for cover throughout.

THE ONE WHERE CLASS WON’T BE DISMISSED

THE TEACHER (M)

***1/2

STAN

Sometimes you don’t need absolute power to corrupt absolutely. Just ask schoolteacher Maria Drazdechová (played by Zuzana Mauréry), the clinically unscrupulous lead character of a compelling drama set in Communist-run Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s. Intimidated parents know their children will only get good grades if they stay on the good side of Maria. Sometimes a few bags of groceries will seal the deal. On other occasions, Maria may require some running repairs on her home, or perhaps even some goods smuggled out of the country post-haste. Like Maria herself, The Teacher can be wryly amusing when it wants to be, and then suddenly turn on you in a way you didn’t see coming.

Originally published as What you need to watch this long weekend