Streaming guide: What to watch this weekend
Get a dose of Australian history on your screen with the strangest rendition of the Ned Kelly story you’ll see or a sobering yet uplifting family war drama. But if that’s not your thing, here’s what else you should watch.
Leigh Paatsch
Don't miss out on the headlines from Leigh Paatsch. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE ONE WHERE RUSTY CALLS THE SHOTS
THE WATER DIVINER (M)
***1/2
FOXTEL
A sobering, yet uplifting ANZAC drama amounts to a successful passion project for Russell Crowe. The Oscar-winning actor assuredly takes charge of proceedings both before and (in making his long-threatened directorial debut) behind the cameras. Though the story told here is intrinsically linked to our nation’s enduring remembrance of those who well fell with honour in Turkey during World War 1, it is hardly a conventional reading of the Gallipoli experience. Crowe plays Joshua Connor, an Australian farmer still mourning the tragic loss of all three of his soldier sons on the same fateful night at Gallipoli in August 1915. With the whereabouts of their remains still classified as unknown in late 1919, Connor travels alone to Turkey to find closure on his own terms. A number of well-shot combat sequences drive home the dire consequences of war with great intensity and soulful insight. Though not without its flaws, Crowe continually locates the right depth of emotion at the right time.
THE ONE WHERE A MOTHER’S LOVE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE
BEN IS BACK (M)
***1/2
NETFLIX
Addicted to opioids since 14, Ben (played by Lucas Hedges) has shown up unexpectedly at his family’s home on Xmas Eve. In the 24 hours to follow, he will put all of them through the wringer. Particularly his mother Holly (Julia Roberts), a devoted parent who has lived through her son’s long struggle with a love undiminished and a trust almost vanished. Roberts takes an unconventional read of Holly as someone who is hard-bitten, heartbroken and hopeful, all at the same time. It is a risky approach, but it works wonders for the movie in the long run as Holly hangs in there for Ben, come what may. Hedges’ convincing performance reinforces his reputation as the best young actor going round.
THE ONE WHERE LOVE IS VERY, VERY BLIND
LONG SHOT (M)
***
AMAZON
If Long Shot wasn’t such an overt rom-com, you could easily classify it as a work of science fiction. How else to explain a world where a living goddess like Charlize Theron could possibly fall for a deadset slob like Seth Rogen? Especially when Theron is playing an elite US politician and international diplomat poised to become the first female President, and Rogen the hoodie-wearing huffer of hooch inexplicably fated to be her next boyfriend? And yet, somehow, Long Shot snatches real and lasting laughs from the jaws of improbability on a consistent basis. It is not the greatest comedy you will see this year, but it is a good one, largely thanks to the strong, opposites-attract chemistry of the two leads. Though the humour skews mostly to Rogen’s skill set – broad, blue and just that little bit blokey – it is a game and up-for-anything Theron who ensures the best jokes hit their intended targets.
THE ONE HAPPY TO PAINT ITSELF INTO A CORNER
LOVING VINCENT (PG)
****
SBS ON DEMAND
This ethereal hybrid of biopic, drama and investigative mystery pieces together the life of revered artist Vincent Van Gogh, and is quite unlike anything seen on screen before. This is, in fact, the first-ever entirely handpainted movie. The end result is both captivatingly beautiful and slightly disarming. It’s like having fallen asleep in a gallery, you awake to find the oils from Van Gogh’s paintings have slid off their canvasses and filled the air around you. Stars Saoirse Ronan, Aidan Turner.
THE ONE THAT’LL HOLD YOU CAPTIVE
PRISONERS (MA15+)
****
FOXTEL, NETFLIX
A superior thriller, made with real intelligence and raw feeling. After the mysterious abduction of two children, police in a small American town are forced to let their only suspect walk. An anguished parent (Hugh Jackman) takes matters into his own hands and decides to conduct his own private interrogation of the suspect. Jackman goes with the forceful flow demanded of him, and delivers a clear career-best performance. Co-star Jake Gyllenhaal – who represents what stands for reason in a situation where reason barely applies – makes just as telling a contribution.
THE ONE THAT’S A WANDERING WONDER
WALKABOUT (M)
****1/2
FOXTEL
One of the most haunting and unworldly films ever shot on Australian soil extracted a performance of an extraordinarily rare calibre from a then-unknown indigenous dancer. The great David Gulpilil was still a teenager when he debuted before the camera in 1971, quietly exuding a grace, strength and sorrow that has the viewer glued to his every move. Gulpilil plays a young indigenous man who stumbles upon two British children lost in the outback after a horrifying tragedy separated them from their father. A towering work, painted from a palette of feelings and instincts words cannot do justice to.
THE ONE THAT ROBS YOU BLIND
TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG (MA15+)
**
STAN
TV viewers glued to the tennis have been carpet-bombed with ads hyping this odd rendition of the Ned Kelly story very hard indeed. Don’t believe a word of it. Just like the stumbling 1970 Ned Kelly (starring a wildly miscast Mick Jagger) and the mumbling 2003 one (not the late Heath Ledger’s finest hour), this new version leaves little impact, and makes even less sense. While no-one could accuse True History of being all dull – fat chance of that with its overabundant supply of cross-dressing cattle duffers, mullet-haired miscreants, and tattooed toughs – it remains in a closed loop of swinging and missing throughout. Stars George MacKay, Russell Crowe.
READ MORE:
THE ADAM SANDLER MOVIE THAT’S ACTUALLY GOOD
LIKE A BOSS ONE UNFUNNY COMEDY
MIDWAY DIVE-BOMBING SCENES WORTH THE TICKET
PEANUT BUTTER FALCON FULL OF VIBRANT HEART
Originally published as Streaming guide: What to watch this weekend
Mad About the Boy is best Bridget Jones film since the first
Bridget Jones has lost a husband and gained a younger lover but Renee Zellweger brings heart and humour to Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
Timely take on Munich Olympics terrorist crisis
The edge-of-your-seat factual drama September 5 takes viewers behind the scenes in one of the Olympic Games’ darkest hours with a message that still resonates today.