Best new movies on your streaming platforms
From Borat to Sarah Palin, Bill Murray to Mel Gibson — these are the new movies landing on your streaming platforms. Leigh Paatsch runs the rule over the latest offerings.
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The one serving a bill you’ll be pleased to see
ON THE ROCKS (M)
****
APPLE TV+
Reunited once more with his Lost in Translation collaborator, writer-director Sofia Coppola, Bill Murray plays Felix, a veteran New York art trader who drifts in and out of the life of his cherished daughter Laura (Rashida Jones) as he pleases. A bit of a rogue, an obvious ladies’ man and a clandestine philosopher, Felix is about to add ‘private detective’ to his resume when he gets an inkling Laura’s workaholic husband might be cheating on her. Against Laura’s wishes, Felix is soon applying all kinds of unnecessary surveillance tactics to get to the bottom of what is going on. While this movie is definitely slender when it comes to plotting, the chemistry it nurtures and builds between Murray and Jones is as vivid as any screen coupling you’ll catch right now. Murray is the king of the one-note, multi-layered performance, but Jones – who excels in On the Rocks’ all-important dialogue exchanges between Laura and Felix – keeps pushing him not to rest on his well-earned laurels.
The one that’s all hype, no hilarity
BORAT: SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM (MA15+)
**
AMAZON
Sacha Baron Cohen’s long-awaited mock-doco sequel is no match for its groundbreaking predecessor. The most obvious problem was always going to be tough to fix. Is there anyone left on the planet who wouldn’t immediately spot the ingratiatingly inappropriate Borat as a fake? Try as they might, Cohen and his satirical conspirators fail to find the right solution. Borat’s limited interactions with ‘real’ people (most notably, spending a week in a shack with some Trump-supporting woodsmen) often have a faintly rehearsed feel to them. Then there is the divisive figure of Borat’s teenage daughter Tutar (played by unknown Bulgarian actor Maria Bakalova). This new character is used as a ‘Trojan Horse’ to get the movie’s cameras into the places that Cohen-as-Borat’s notoriety would have prevented. While Tutar does end up anchoring what will become Subsequent Moviefilm’s most controversial scene – in which a close associate of President Donald Trump can be seen on a hotel bed with his hand down his pants – she is also present for the movie’s unfunniest sequences.
The one where great looks can be greatly deceiving
BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY (M)
****
STAN, DOCPLAY
“Any girl can be glamorous,” Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr once mused. “All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” What Hedy Lamarr chose to do when she wasn’t standing still is the powerful hook of a most illuminating documentary. Once popularly referred to in the late 1930s as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” the moody, mercurial and highly inquisitive Lamarr also pursed a secret calling as an inventor. Remarkably, one of her most important projects resulted in a major breakthrough that remains a foundation of all modern encryption technology. If you use Wi-Fi, GPS or Bluetooth daily, then you are using some of the groundbreaking intel developed by Lamarr back in the day. Though more at home in a makeshift laboratory than on a studio set, Lamarr’s desire to remain in the public eye ultimately resulted in her downfall. A recently discovered set of 1990 interview tapes with this amazing woman fills out a detailed and revealing portrait.
The one where the Penn isn’t mightier than the flawed
THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN (M)
**1/2
Stream via FOXTEL; or Rent via various platforms
In the absence of any movies exploring such rich dramatic subjects as the growing of grass, the drying of paint or the completion of tax returns, a movie about the secret history of a dictionary might be just the thing problem sleepers have been hoping for. Mel Gibson stars as James Murray, the self-taught man of letters whose winning way with words willed the famous Oxford English Dictionary into being in the 1800s. Murray was also the founding father of crowdsourcing, as it was his idea to invite the general public to hunt, trap and submit undocumented words from the English language to his offices. One of the most prolific contributors to the project was William Minor (Sean Penn), a US Civil War veteran detained in a London asylum for the criminally insane. The movie tells its modest story effectively enough, even if the inelegant performances of the two leads (particularly Penn and his love of a ranty tantrum) are of much help.
The one that ain’t no holiday
FANTASY ISLAND (M)
*
Stream via AMAZON; or Rent via various platforms
The corny premise that powered the ancient TV show of the same name remains fixed in place: a bunch of well-off randoms travel to a mysterious private isle that can stage any wish-fulfilling fantasy they so desire. Had the movie stuck with this basic blueprint, it might have stayed in the vicinity of watchable. However, a decision by filmmakers to fully turn the concept into a half-cocked horror movie buys the entire doomed enterprise a one-way ticket to the bottom of the barrel. Among the guests about to learn the same lame lesson about leaving the past unaltered are a glum woman (Maggie Q) who wants another shot at answering a marriage proposal, a tormented woman (Lucy Hale) confronted by her long-lost bully, and two idiotic step-bros (Ryan Hansen and Jimmy O. Yang) who just want to party all the time. Your fantasy throughout will be to get your money back in full. Good luck with that.
The one that deserves your vote
GAME CHANGE (M)
****
BINGE, FOXTEL
A very timely re-release on to streaming platforms, particularly with the most contentious US Presidential election of the modern era only days away. This cracking political drama tells the true story of the meteoric rise to notoriety by Alaska governor Sarah Palin (played with eerie precision by Julianne Moore). When the mere possibility of power goes straight to Palin’s head, her 2008 running mate Senator John McCain (Ed Harris) is at his wit’s end to stop her. Co-stars Woody Harrelson as a justifiably exasperated Republican spin doctor.
The one that seeks and speaks the truth
BY THE GRACE OF GOD (M)
****
SBS ON DEMAND
Described quite aptly in some quarters as “France’s own Spotlight”, this compelling docudrama about a sexual abuse cover-up by the Catholic Church is a demanding, but rewarding experience. The difference from the Oscar-winning Spotlight is that there is no team of dutiful journalists chasing leads and pointing fingers at serial paedophile priest Bernard Preyet (Bernard Verley). Instead, it was left to a group comprised of Preyet’s now-adult victims – led by Alexandre (Melvil Poupard), a successful banker incensed to discover his abuser is still working with children – to expose a devastating scandal.