Streaming guide: The best new shows and movies on Netflix, Binge, Disney+ and more

The new series on how Uber crashed through the taxi industry is one of the best shows this year. These are the shows and movies you should be streaming on Netflix, Binge and more.

Leigh Paatsch reviews the new shows and movies on Netflix, Binge, Disney+ and more.

The one that’s gonna take everybody for a ride

SUPER PUMPED: THE BATTLE FOR UBER (M)

★★★★½

STREAM VIA PARAMOUNT+

Here’s hoping this seven-episode limited series eventually finds its way to a wider selection of streaming platforms, as it is one of the best shows to drop this year. This is the true story of how the ubiquitous ride-sharing app Uber totalled the taxi industry, while taking liberties with just about every major rule and minor by-law in the good business handbook. Overseeing wave after wave of dodginess and deceit was the brash company founder, Travis Kalanick (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an earth-scorching, bridge-burning narcissist who stopped at nothing to divert the whole planet’s traffic in the direction of his hip pocket. If you know nothing of how Uber came into existence – or its bizarre, party-bro culture as the brand took off like a rocket – then you are going to be shocked, intrigued and riveted. At times, the whole tale veers dangerously close to becoming Silicon Valley’s own Wolf of Wall Street. Highly recommended.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.

The one going the whack to repel all attacks

INTERCEPTOR (MA15+)

★★★

STREAM VIA NETFLIX FROM FRIDAY

This briskly paced, brashly unsubtle action movie (co-scripted and directed by best-selling Australian author Matthew Reilly) has just enough going for it to keep you watching. The setting is a small US missile interception base in the middle of the ocean. Russian-funded terrorists are about to take over the facility so their overseers can launch a nuclear strike that will take out every major city in the US. However, the base’s command centre just happens to be under the control of the last combat-ready soldier left standing, Captain J.J. Collins (Elsa Pataky). All she has to is keep those bad dudes out of the room until back-up from the nearest available Navy SEALS arrives. What follows is a completely unfeasible, yet mildly enjoyable running stoush which pits the worryingly diminutive J.J. against a collection of psychotic brutes seemingly twice her size and thrice her skill set. The key word here, of course is “seemingly”. And it is in the many combat scenes where Pataky is called upon to both out-think and outfight her feral foes that the movie truly pays its way.

Elsa Pataky as JJ Collins in Interceptor. Picture: Brook Rushton/Netflix

The one that loves to have a beer with Duncan

SLIM & I (PG)

★★★½

STREAM VIA NETFLIX or RENT

To many, a doco about the late Australian country-and-western icon Slim Dusty shapes as a well-meaning, but dull experience. However there is much more to Slim & I than first meets the eye. The principal reason why is the belated recognition directed towards someone who didn’t just make a star out of Slim Dusty, but made a man of him, too. That someone is Joy McKean. This remarkable woman was not just the wife of the knockabout fella synonymous with hits such as Pub With No Beer and Duncan. McKean was also Slim’s manager, mentor, muse and collaborator on every single aspect of a long, and rewarding career. Though a talented performer and songwriter in her own right, Joy selflessly saved her best for her husband’s pursuit of a lifelong dream. As the doco proves repeatedly, these were not acts of obligation, but acts of love. An endearing and straight-shooting interviewee, Joy is joined by family, friends and a Who’s Who of Australian music to give the singular life she shared with Slim Dusty the rich context it deserves.

A scene from the Australian documentary Slim and I, on the life of country greats Slim Dusty and Joy McKean.

The one with anarchy in the UK

PISTOL (MA15+)

★★★

STREAM VIA DISNEY+

This six-part miniseries chronicles the shambolic birth, self-sabotaging career and influential afterlife of Great Britain’s founding fathers of punk rock, The Sex Pistols. A bunch of relatively unknown actors handle the principal roles, and a majority of them do quite well indeed. However, all are trumped by the excellent period detail of the picture-perfect production design, which swiftly transports you to the grotty glamour and great music that has happening all over England in 1976-77. Series creator and principal director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) adapted the series from the best-selling memoir of Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, which means the legendarily dodgy duo of vocalist Johnny Rotten and manager Malcolm McLaren don’t exactly come out of this smelling like roses. A must-see for music buffs who treasure all things punk, new wave or merely in-your-face for the sake of it.

Pistol chronicles the ups and downs of Great Britain’s fathers of punk rock, The Sex Pistols.

The one where the guy gets (on the nerves of) the girl

THE LOST CITY (M)

★★★

PREMIUM RENTAL

This old-school blend of rom-com and adventure flick stays in the right crowd-pleasing zone from start to finish. Sandra Bullock stars as Loretta, an author of sexed-up, dumbed-down romance novels who is enduring the book tour from hell. Loretta’s PR team have paired her as a double act with hunky man-mountain Alan (Channing Tatum), the shirtless dude who has graced the covers of the writer’s entire body of work. So when a miserable Loretta gets kidnapped by an evil media tycoon (Daniel Radcliffe), it doesn’t look as if anyone is going to miss her much. Except Alan. Who rather cluelessly steps up and mounts a rescue mission, which will be fronted by a mercenary he met at a yoga retreat, an enigmatic killing machine named Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt). Once Pitt appears on the scene, The Lost City lifts its game from so-so to solidly silly (and occasionally, sort-of stirring). The comedy chemistry between Bullock and Tatum steadily improves throughout the picture, as does its writing and direction.

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum in The Lost City.

The one worth a second look

IN BRUGES (MA15+)

★★★★

STREAM VIA BINGE, FOXTEL, NETFLIX

A total blast from the past, well worth the revisit. After a job for a ruthless crime lord goes horribly wrong, two Irish hitmen (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) are banished to a tourist town in Belgium to await their fate. An extraordinary comedy-drama written and directed with rat cunning and savage economy by acclaimed playwright Martin McDonagh. The best way through this cruel and elaborate maze is to remain aware of every little extra, seemingly meaningless detail slipped into the mix here. The acting of the two leads is first-rate, especially a uncharacteristically connected (and funny) Farrell.

Colin Farrell in a scene from 2008 film In Bruges.

The one that’s off to a crying start

THUNDER ROAD (M)

★★★½

SBS ON DEMAND

Do not miss the start of this intermittently astounding comedy-drama. For it is all about the first scene when it comes to Thunder Road. Filmed in one excruciating, exhilarating and exponentially gripping extended take, the opening sequence tracks a heartfelt funeral eulogy going off the rails repeatedly. The speaker, a Texan policeman named Jim Arnaud (Jim Cummings), intends to pay tribute to his late mother. By the end of his rollercoaster of a ramble, we have been taken on a full guided tour of Jim’s frazzled mind. And it ain’t pretty in there. The movie goes on to explore how Jim may have worked himself into this sad, sorry and sort-of funny state. Not all of what it finds makes sense, but when this deceptively insightful character study is on target, you won’t miss the point at all.

Astounding comedy-drama Thunder Road has an unmissable intro.

The one with a soldier of (mis)fortune

THE CONTRACTOR (MA15+)

★★★

STREAM VIA AMAZON PRIME

It ain’t a Jason Bourne movie, but it’ll do for now. That is the best way to come at this solid espionage thriller, which moves confidently and convincingly through the same shadowy recesses of covert spy-guy activity. Chris Pine stars as James Harper, a US Army lifer who is suddenly and unexpectedly bundled out of the military without a pat on the back or a payout. Seeking help from his best mate (Ben Foster, who paired up with Pine in the brilliant Hell or High Water back in the day), Harper is steered towards a private protection outfit for a temp job. This mysterious mob (one of the higher-ups is Kiefer Sutherland, back in Jack “24” Bauer mode) have a gig going in Berlin, where a select squad must infiltrate a dodgy lab linked to terrorists. The job should entail simply breaking some stuff and then bringing some stuff back to HQ, and Harper understandably overlooks some key minor details while he dreams on the major payout coming his way. Then all of a sudden, Harper finds himself cut loose by an employer all over again. Only this time, their redundancy package has a whiff of certain death about it. Nothing too remarkable here, but Pine anchors proceedings in fine style, and the running time is shorter and sharper than these kind of movies often are. Well worth the look if edgy escapism is required.

A Prayer Before Dawn is a prison drama of the highest order.

The one with two fists, one man and no hope

A PRAYER BEFORE DAWN (MA15+)

★★★★

STREAM VIA DISNEY+ or RENT

A punishing, uncompromising prison drama of the highest order, based on the true story of British amateur boxer Billy Moore (played by rising star Joe Cole of TV’s Peaky Blinders). In his early twenties, the meth-addicted Moore was arrested in Thailand on gun and drug possession charges, and thrown into the infamous Klong Prem Central jail. As expected, Moore’s inherent fighting skills offer his only chance of survival in these brutal surrounds. However, the complex local martial arts discipline of Muay Thai is not one that can be acquired overnight, and the same goes for learning both the pecking order and cultural rituals that govern prison life in Thailand. The level of authenticity achieved here is gut-punchingly raw, and not just because director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire elected to shoot this confronting fare in a Bangkok jail that had only recently been closed. Many of the featured actors Cole interacts with are ex-cons with rap sheets and physical scars that keep imminent danger crackling in the air around you.

A scene from Oscar-nominated documentary Minding the Gap. Picture: ITVS Films

The one that’s always rough, but never tumbles

MINDING THE GAP (M)

★★★★

STREAM VIA SBS ON DEMAND

This gently gripping, Oscar-nominated documentary is most definitely a film about skateboarders, but it is not a film about skateboarding. As a teenager, an aspiring filmmaker named Bing Liu had the foresight to begin chronicling the highs and lows of his skate-buddy’s lives. Not just out on the streets and skate parks of their depressed home town of Rockford, Illinois. But also, most importantly, behind closed doors of homes that were anything but happy. What emerges is a uniquely eloquent, thought-provoking and authentic portrait of what it is like to grow up and a face a future that issues few promises. Tough, yet tender stuff.

Tracee Ellis Ross and Dakota Johnson in The High Note.

The one that reaches, hits and holds

THE HIGH NOTE (M)

★★★★

NETFLIX, FOXTEL

One of the better feel-good films of the post-lockdown era has just dropped on Netflix and Foxtel again, and is well worth the track-down if you are yet to sample its delightful contents. While the movie does cater to all appetites in an effortlessly endearing manner, it is no way content to merely have us settle for a serving empty-calorie escapism. The High Note has both soul and smarts. Just like its two female protagonists: a veteran music diva of many moods, Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross); and her long-suffering, ever-obliging personal assistant, Maggie Sherwoode (Dakota Johnson). Though navigating very familiar territory, this balanced and accessible affair holds its appeal strongly throughout, thanks largely to a pair of top-notch lead performances from the relatively unknown Ross (a daughter of the great singer Diana) and the unfairly maligned Johnson (now putting the shaky start of Fifty Shades of Grey far behind her). Oh, and the music you will hear is glorious.

Adam Driver and Matt Damon in the Last Duel. Picture: Patrick Redmond/20th Century Studios

The one prepared to fight to the death

THE LAST DUEL (MA15+)

★★★½

FOXTEL, DISNEY+ or RENT

The impressive pedigree of this historical action-drama affair counts for so much throughout here. Direction comes from the great Ridley Scott (Blade Runner). Matt Damon and Ben Affleck co-wrote the screenplay (their first collaboration since winning an Oscar for penning Good Will Hunting in the late 90s). Best of all, rising star Jodie Comer (Free Guy, TV’s Killing Eve) contributes an anchoring performance that keeps the movie grounded at the very times it might start getting carried away. The setting is 14th-century France, where Comer’s noblewoman Marguerite has accused Jacques (Adam Driver) – the best friend of her husband Jean (Damon) – of taking advantage of her. The movie’s narrative shifts in perspective between the three protagonists, teasing out a truth that speaks volumes across the ages about how men view the women who love (or loathe) them. All storytelling roads lead to the inevitable one-on-one duel, which is staged with brutal efficiency and unrelenting intent.