Streaming guide: Thirteen Lives is a claustrophobic, real-life thriller
You might know how it ends, but you don’t know the claustrophobic drama of the 2018 mission to rescue kids from a flooded Thai cave. We rate the new shows and movies streaming on Netflix, Binge and more.
Leigh Paatsch
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Leigh Paatsch runs the rule over the new shows and movies to stream on Netflix, Binge, Amazon and more.
The one coming to the rescue
THIRTEEN LIVES (M)
★★★★
STREAM via AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
Veteran filmmaker Ron Howard has no peer when it comes to depicting life-or-death situations based on actual events (remember Apollo 13?). By getting the minor details right, Howard inevitably achieves a major impact: no small feat when we all know exactly how those events will play out. Therefore Howard is the right choice for a comprehensively gripping dramatisation of 2018’s famous Tham Luang Nang Non cave rescue. In case you have forgotten — and really, how could you? — this was the incredible situation where 12 Thai junior soccer players and their coach were trapped for 18 days inside a complex mountain cave system filled with monsoon rains. While over 10,000 volunteers participated in a desperate rescue effort, the world watched and waited for a miracle. In a most un-Hollywood manner, Howard cleverly structures the movie as a straightforward procedural that does not require any juicing of the script or showy acting whatsoever. The frighteningly claustrophobic conditions facing both those trapped and those coming to their aid are all that truly counts. In fact, when stars of the calibre of Viggo Mortensen, Joel Edgerton and Colin Farrell (as the unconventional British and Australian divers who played key roles in the mission) show up in the midsection of the movie, it is without fanfare or histrionics. Just as it should be. Highly recommended.
The one where the seventies never ended
LICORICE PIZZA (M)
★★★★
STREAM via AMAZON PRIME VIDEO; or RENT
A work of very specific cinematic time travel, this invitingly laidback hangout movie is nothing short of mesmerising. As directed by the great Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood), Licorice Pizza very casually picks you up and drops you off in 1973, and leaves you there for a few hours. While you get your bearings in a world where the jeans are flared, the collars are wide, the hair is long and the vibe is oh-so-relaxed, your spirit guides will be a couple who remain unsure of what kind of couple they should or could be. Gary (Cooper Hoffman) is fifteen years of age and already past his use-by date as a TV child star. Now on the hustle for a new career as (I kid you not) a waterbed sales tycoon, Gary befriends Alana (Alana Haim), a photographer’s assistant some ten years his senior. Together, this unorthodox pair (and an ever-growing entourage) drift through a hazily idyllic summer in California’s San Fernando Valley without a care in the world. Once a viewer is immersed in this vividly rich environment, they may not want to leave. Though complete unknowns, Hoffman (son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Haim are perfect for their roles, and more than hold their own with accomplished co-stars such as Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn.
The one that puts a smile on your space
LIGHTYEAR (PG)
★★★
STREAM via DISNEY+
To get the most fun you can from Lightyear, only one requirement needs to be met: don’t expect anything extending the Toy Story universe “to infinity … and beyond!”. The connection here to all things Toy Story is, at best, loose and casual. What you’ll actually be watching is an origin story of sorts for the one and only Buzz Lightyear, the self-centred space hero who famously joined forces with Woody the Cowboy once upon a time. Overall, this is a solid sci-fi-for-kiddies yarn, hitting all the high visual benchmarks that Pixar is renowned for (next year’s Animation Oscar is already a certainty). Story-wise, Lightyear is all about how the laws of time travel (Buzz embarks on a journey in which the rest of his crew ages decades in his absence), fuel consumption (Buzz must find a source that will power a spaceship for the full trip home) and artificial intelligence (Buzz’s becomes best friends with a scene-stealing robot cat named Sox) will be pleasingly bent out of shape for your entertainment pleasure.
The one winning a war weirdly
OPERATION MINCEMEAT (M)
★★★
RENT only
This intruiging military thriller chronicles one of the most famous endeavours in the annals of wartime espionage. In 1943, British intelligence came up with an unorthodox plan to trick the Nazis. A soldier’s corpse would wash up on a Spanish beach, carrying documents that would lead the reader to believe the Allies were about to open a new battlefront in Greece. If the erroneous intel fell into the hands of the Germans, then Allied fortunes in WWII just might take a turn for the better. As weird as the idea reads on paper, the Brits go about enacting the scheme with just the right dashes of sincere patriotism and detached irony. As a movie, it is actually a vaguely enjoyable watch because of the strength of its casting. Colin Firth and Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen are very much to the fore as two of the chief conspirators, while Johnny Flynn (Emma) steals several scenes as a wry young officer named Ian Fleming (the same Ian Fleming who would create James Bond just over a decade later).
The one that’s better than the other one
VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE (M)
★★½
STREAM via BINGE, FOXTEL; or RENT
Back in 2018, not many people were game to openly admit they liked the first Venom, a shambolically strange Spider-Man spin-off in which Spider-Man was nowhere to be seen. However, a fanbase has since formed for Tom Hardy’s Spidey-adjacent anti-superhero Eddie Brock and his never-ending struggle with the alien symbiote living inside him. Remarkably, this sequel stands as a marked improvement in every department, thanks largely to the casting of Woody Harrelson as Cletus, Eddie’s infamously no-good nemesis. While, all roads lead to a goofily satisfactory final-act showdown, those that dig the Venom effect will enjoy being side-tracked by all the pointless mucking-about that chews up the first hour. Hardy has a true flair for comedy that (in the right movie) is going to wow people one of these days.
The one not here to score likes
NOT OKAY (MA15+)
★★★
STREAM via DISNEY+
While prone to mood swings and flat spots that can sometimes kill its momentum, this calculated swipe at cancel culture, hashtag activism and the time wasted living one’s life online is still well worth the look. Not only for its right-here-right-now relevance. Thankfully, the movie has a winning lead in Zoey Deutch (Set It Up, Zombieland: Double Tap), whose trademark brand of enthused and bemused sarcasm is a good match for the material here. Deutch plays Danni Sanders, a would-be writer who suddenly becomes a viral superstar after a series of on-the-spot social media posts about a terrorist bombing in Paris. Unfortunately, Danni was safe at home in the US at the time of the incident, which means her flagrant lie about being a trauma survivor is due to get found out any minute. Deutch finds the right mix of loveable and loathsome in her character that keeps both the movie and its audience on their toes, setting the scene for a quality ending you should stick around for. Co-stars Dylan O’Brien.
The one that rattles the Cage invitingly
THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT (M)
★★★½
RENT ONLY
Rather nutty, kind of sweet and genuinely funny, this gimmick-driven action affair is much, much better than it has any right to be. First of all, let’s address that gimmick, as it is a doozy. The formerly famous, respected, popular and now not-so-hot movie star Nicolas Cage plays the lead role of Nicolas Cage, a formerly famous, respected, popular and now not-so-hot movie star. Considering the dire form he has been in for his last 30-or-so releases, Cage slips into character very quickly and quite impressively here (playing your real self in a fictionalised setting is tougher work than it sounds). The story starts with a desperate Cage taking the only job coming his way: a million bucks to travel to Mallorca to appear at the birthday party of a superfan. A superfan who also happens to be a drug-running, arms-trading supervillain with a billion in the bank and the feds on his tail. Cage ends up cutting a deal with the CIA to provide insider intel on the shady operations of the notorious Javi (Pedro Pascal), while also becoming quite fond of the guy. While this is a goofy conceit for a movie, it is an effective one. Cage clearly enjoys sending himself up, while doubling down on slaying as an action-comedy lead.
The one that brings the early bada-bing
THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (MA15+)
★★★
STREAM via NETFLIX, BINGE, FOXTEL
A better title might have been Tony Soprano: The Early Years. But that is not so poetic a choice when poetic licence is the order of the day. Especially when you are crafting a standalone prequel to one of the greatest series in the history of broadcast television, The Sopranos. Set primarily in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this well-crafted, though vaguely under-energised affair focuses on those colourful figures who shaped a young and hungry Tony Soprano into the maladjusted mobster he would become. Tony is played by a relative newcomer in Michael Gandolfini (son of James), and it must be said he does a fine job of stepping into his late father’s sizeable shoes. The movie picks up some serious momentum once it zeros in on Tony’s wide-eyed study of Uncle Dickie (a standout display from Alessandro Nivola). To be honest, while the filmmakers have gone to great lengths to make Many Saints work in its own right, it is best enjoyed by those who know their Sopranos folklore inside and out. Super-fans of the show will find plenty of fresh intel and surprise revelations about many of their favourite characters. Co-stars Ray Liotta, Vera Farmiga, Corey Stoll.
The one that’s drives the Chevy to the levy
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED: THE STORY OF DON MCLEAN’S AMERICAN PIE (PG)
★★★
STREAM via PARAMOUNT+
Not many individual songs would warrant a documentary all to themselves. However, even though it is 50 years since its release, the immortal American Pie is one track that can handle all the deep-digging analysis thrown at it. There is not just one story behind how a little-known singer-songwriter Don McLean came to compose one of the greatest popular songs in history. There are indeed several stories, and this polished doco gathers and then blends them in an irresistible fashion. If there is a drawback, it is that there is one too many modern-day musician, awkwardly musican-splaining what we already know: this eight-and-a-half minute epic is a towering work that few of their kind will ever match. Weirdly, although the song is repeated countless times across the doco, the viewer never tires of it (especially when McLean goes into detailing the recording process, and the genius contribution of session keyboardist Paul Griffin’s piano flourishes).
The one where the educated have a lot to learn
HONOR SOCIETY (M)
★★★½
STREAM via PARAMOUNT+
The star of talented young Australian performer Angourie Rice continues to steadily rise with this surprisingly sharp black comedy for teens. In last year’s acclaimed series Mare of Easttown (still streaming exclusively on Binge and Foxtel), Rice revealed a compelling, yet casual force to her acting that continues to develop here. In this energetic affair, Rice plays Honor, an ambitious high schooler hell-bent on a prestigious future college career at Harvard. To seal the deal, she must remove three other gifted local students from contention for a prized personal recommendation by a connected school counsellor. Two of Honor’s rivals look as if they will be easily dealt with. However, the other one (a science whiz played by Stranger Things’ Gaten Matarazzo) has a habit of hanging in there when he really shouldn’t. Don’t expect this movie to always play it cute. In fact, it’s all the better when the going gets dark (a la Emma Stone’s still-underrated Easy A).
The one where the big tunes keep on coming
SING 2 (PG)
★★★
STREAM via BINGE, FOXTEL, AMAZON; or RENT
This animated jukebox musical sequel goes much, much better as a streaming proposition than it did in cinemas. The simple reason why is that kids can do the pause-rewind thing, so they can see their favourite cartoon animals croon their favourite classic hits over and over again. The song selections (be warned – there is a stack of them!) are impeccable for the most part, with killer covers of Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy, Aretha Franklin’s I Say A Little and Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road deployed to winning effect. A voice cast spearheaded by Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton and U2 frontman Bono all sound as if they are having a grand time of it.
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.
Companion’s a terrifically twisting thriller best seen spoiler-free
Companion is the kind of original and inventive thriller that comes around all too rarely – but the top-level twists hit hardest by going in spoiler-free, writes Leigh Paatsch.