What to watch on Netflix, Foxtel Now, Stan this week

A GOOD-time Star Wars movie, a dark political comedy and a doco on a music legend — this week’s streaming guide has something for all tastes. Leigh Paatsch runs the rule over the best (and worst) new movies on your streaming platforms.

The award-winning collaboration between Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson is covered in Quincy. Picture: Supplied

STAR Wars fans looking for a good time can’t go past Solo this weekend.

If you’re a fan of music, documentaries or both you can walk a mile in the shoes of a music legend with Quincy on Netflix.

Leigh Paatsch rates the best (and worst) new movies on your streaming platforms.

THE BEST RYAN GOSLING MOVIES TO STREAM

SIGN UP TO OUR WHAT TO WATCH EMAIL HERE

The one that sends the force in a fun direction

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (M) ***1/2

GOOGLE, ITUNES

OK, so Solo is not a big-time Star Wars movie. Nevertheless, it is a good-time Star Wars movie. If you want this origin tale of how Han Solo got his start in the wisecracking flyboy business to be packed with deep and meaningful mentions of the Force, or fresh canon fodder about the Jedi way, you’ve come to the wrong place.

However, if you want the upbeat lowdown on when Han first met Chewbacca, or how Han acquired his legendary skills as a maverick pilot — making friends, enemies and mischief along the way — then you are definitely in the right place.

Han Solo and Chewbacca in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Picture: Supplied

The Solo storyline takes place about a decade before the events of where Star Wars began for everyone (Episode IV — A New Hope). Han (played serviceably enough by relative unknown Alden Ehrenreich) starts out as a small-time grafter, trying to get the money together to buy his own space ride and track down his long-lost girlfriend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke of TV’s Game of Thrones). Co-stars Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover.

The one that pays respect to a sound talent

QUINCY (M) ****

NETFLIX

While great documentaries in general are always in plentiful supply on Netflix these days, great music documentaries have recently been in scarce supply on the world’s largest streaming platform.

Aside from the four-part doco series The Defiant Ones — well worth the look if you haven’t already been there — it has been very slim pickings indeed. Therefore the arrival of Quincy, a comprehensive chronicle of the extensive musical legacy of the incomparable Quincy Jones, is definite cause for celebration for music fans.

Now 84 years of age, Jones is still a presence in the biz as a producer, arranger, songwriter and all-round music guru of the highest repute. This is one of those docos content to let its subject’s track record do most of the talking, and seminal collaborations with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Ray Charles speak volumes to Jones’ undeniable influence on popular music. The rest of the talking comes from ‘Q’ himself, much more of an unconventional thinker (and ardent lover of fine wine) than many might have suspected.

Quincy is a comprehensive chronicle of the extensive musical legacy of Quincy Jones. Picture: Supplied

The one that drags the reds from out under the bed

THE DEATH OF STALIN (MA15+) ***

FOXTEL NOW

A political comedy so dark, the punchlines are all but blacked out. The year is 1953. The place is Moscow. The Communist regime’s ruthless leader Josef Stalin is dead. Now the hunt is on for a replacement who can dish out the same omnipresent oppression to 200 million people on a daily basis.

The power vacuum left by Stalin’s passing is packed with suck-ups who have forgotten how to think for themselves or the good of the nation. Adapted from Fabien Nury’s graphic novel by hardline British satirist Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, Veep), the movie shines strongly when its polished cast (led by Steve Buscemi as dictator-in-waiting Nikita Khrushchev) let rip with withering wordplay. Co-stars Olga Kurylenko, Jason Isaacs, Michael Palin.

The Death Of Stalin is the darkest of dark political comedies. Picture: Madman Films

The one that finds a love worth living for

HOLDING THE MAN (MA15+) ****

STAN

A compelling true story of two Melbourne schoolboys who fall in love in spite of the intense misgivings of their parents. As a close relationship blooms between Tim (an excellent Ryan Corr) and John (Craig Stott), the pressure of keeping it secret is relieved by a shared sense of humour and an unshakeable belief in each other.

This loving link is later tested to the utmost when both are diagnosed HIV-positive at the outset of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Though fated by the tragic nature of its story to put all viewers through the wringer, this fine film earns its right to do so by speaking a personal truth that anyone with a heart will immediately understand. Co-stars Anthony LaPaglia, Guy Pearce.

The one where growing up an orphan in paris is fun

MADELINE (G) ****

STAN

“In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.” So begins this beautiful 1998 adaptation of the first of Ludwig Bemelmans’ beloved series of children’s books, chronicling the adventures of a mischievous orphan imp (Hatty Jones).

She certainly has a nose for trouble, trying everything from running away to join the circus to completely outsmarting a loathsome English lord (Nigel Hawthorne). This charming kids’ pic has aged very well indeed, and is a surefire selection for any young viewers who like their movies mischievous and magical.

The one where a rich tycoon won’t pay his way

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD (M) ***1/2

FOXTEL NOW, STAN

In 1973, oil billionaire J. Paul Getty (a magnificent performance from Christopher Plummer) was not just the richest man in the world. He was the richest man in the history of the world. Now imagine you are J. Paul Getty III, the tycoon’s grandson.

While on holiday in Rome, you’ve been kidnapped by Calabrian gangsters, who have issued a ransom demand of 17 million dollars for your return. You know this amount should be pocket change for your grandpa. Old J. Paul will pay off those pesky perps, and have you home safely in a day or so, right?

Wrong. So begins All the Money in the World, a truth-is-far-freakier-than-fiction affair that takes a long sequence of agonising actual events, and lets their sheer strangeness speak for themselves. Incredibly, it takes over six months for this saga to reach its infamous boiling point (don’t look on the internet to see how it ends, whatever you do). Never will you see a man worth so much behave so cheaply. Co-stars Michelle Williams, Mark Wahlberg.

Wise watchers will steer well clear of The BBQ.

The one that is most certainly not a natural born griller

THE BBQ (PG) *1/2

FOXTEL NOW

A dire, dimwitted Australian comedy best avoided altogether. Shane Jacobson plays Dazza, a backyard barbecue obsessive forced to abandon his favourite pursuit after he almost poisons the whole neighbourhood.

Later, Dazza returns to active duty at the grill, sweating it out in the feeble final of a barbecue competition down at the local showground. En route, Dazza becomes mates with a secretive Scottish chef (Magda Szubanski), becomes enemies with a smartass French chef (Manu Feildel), and becomes convinced he is a descendant of Captain Cook.

It is downright strange to watch a comedy where the jokes don’t so much fall flat as lie very, very still. Perhaps in the hope you may not notice them at all.