Leigh Paatsch streaming guide: What to stream this week

WE all know the pain of aimlessly scrolling through Netflix looking for something to watch. Don’t put yourself through it. Here’s Leigh Paatsch’s weekly streaming guide.

WE all know the pain of aimlessly scrolling through Netflix looking for something to watch. Don’t put yourself through it. Here’s the guide to the best new movies to stream this week.

MORE LEIGH PAATSCH REVIEWS

The one that’s a futuristic blast from the past

FAHRENHEIT 451 (M) ***

FOXTEL NOW

Legendary author Ray Bradbury’s seminal 1953 novel has been long due a modern update. This lavish HBO-produced adaptation certainly looks the part, but does feel a touch light on for impact considering the weight of the themes it is carrying.

Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther, Creed) stars as Guy Montag, a futuristic “fireman” whose job is to burn books for the betterment of mankind. Or so the government says, anyway.

The authorities believe the public would be better off glued to their screens, with social media and digital personal assistants serving as the adhesives. Under the mentorship of his unit captain Beatty (Michael Shannon), Montag does not question the motives of his mission until he meets the confident and rebellious reader Clarisse (Sofia Boutella).

While the movie’s many contemporary flourishes (and noticeably different ending) work well enough, there is a feeling the swift pacing is moving you right past the best stuff.

Could be one of those cases where a multi-part miniseries was the best way to go. Written and directed by Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes).

The one that’s just a blast … literally

FREE FIRE (MA15+)***1/2

FOXTEL NOW

The whole of this unorthodox action movie is one, long, surreal and sustained gunfight inside the claustrophobic confines of a dockyard warehouse. The shooters are split between two loose alliances.

One gang has shown up wanting to purchase arms for the IRA. The others have hauled along the goods for inspection. A dispute breaks out. Then comes all-out mayhem.

Remarkably, the film generates much excitement and many unpredictable changes of mood within its harsh limitations.

Oh, and it’s often bloody funny too (if you can hear what’s being said at the height of the fighting.) Something different, and dangerous too. Stars Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy.

The one for Australian true crime buffs

JOE CINQUE’S CONSOLATION (M) ***

SBS ON DEMAND

An unsettling, yet ungainly Australian crime drama based on a disturbing case that transpired in Canberra in the late 1990s.

Virtually everything that Joe Cinque (Jerome Meyer) gets to say here could be construed as an unwitting epitaph for a life cut horribly, tragically short.

His girlfriend, law student Anu Singh (Maggie Naouri) planned his death with chilling precision, sedating Joe into a virtual coma before administering a fatal dose of heroin.

A close circle of friends were well aware of what was going to happen, and did nothing to intervene. Adapted from the best-selling book by Helen Garner, the film is more concerned with exploring the frazzled psyche of Singh than directly addressing the consequences of her deadly actions.

The one for Japanese animation buffs

YOUR NAME (PG) ****

NETFLIX

This glorious animated teen drama was the highest-grossing movie in Japan in 2016, and found plenty of fans when it later hit Australian cinemas.

An oddly-affecting body-swap adventure — imagine Freaky Friday passing through the spectral filter of the Studio Ghibli classic Spirited Away — sees a small-town teenage girl and a Tokyo boy inexplicably taking over each other’s beings on certain days.

The meshing of graceful writing and modern, yet timelessly ethereal visuals is disarming at times, but always touching.

There is also a knowing playfulness and soulful feel for youthful rebellion that will speak to the experience of teenagers everywhere. Do not miss it if you hold any affection for high-quality, lasting-impact Japanese animation.

Margot Robbie plays a reporter embedded in Afghanistan in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Picture: Paramount

The one looking for a good story in a bad war

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT (M) ***

NETFLIX

The best thing Tina Fey (creator and star of TV’s 30 Rock) has done as a film performer by a considerable space.

She plays a woman in her early forties experiencing an unlikely change of career: reporting the war in Afghanistan as an embed with US troops. Margot Robbie also shines brightly as a rival journo toughing it out in trying circumstances.

Though uneven, the film excels when depicting the close bonds that form among those both covering and caught up in one life-and-death situation after another. Co-stars Martin Freeman.

The one looking for a big heist in a small time frame

LOGAN LUCKY (M) ***1/2

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An eccentric combo of scrappy crime caper and angular redneck comedy, Logan Lucky shouldn’t work anywhere near well as it does.

Channing Tatum stars as Jimmy, a good ol’ Southern boy working on a plan to rob a NASCAR stadium on race day. His safecracking expert, Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), is currently in jail, and will only participate if he can be busted out. And then busted back in. On the same day. Directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven).

Channing Tatum, Riley Keough and Adam Driver in Logan Lucky. Picture: Roadshow Films

The one that shoulda, woulda, coulda … doesn’t

THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD (MA15+) **

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Don’t go expecting another Deadpool from Ryan Reynolds and this tired, lacklustre action comedy.

He plays Michael Bryce, a once-elite bodyguard who has fallen on hard times. A chance at a comeback comes with a catch: protecting notorious hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) as he prepares to testify against a murderous dictator (Gary Oldman).

This patchy premise might have held together OK if Reynolds and Jackson had clicked as an amusingly adversarial double-act. Instead, the pairing mostly clunks. Disappointing.

@leighpaatsch

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