From a Harry Connick Jr romance to a Guy Ritchie gem, these are the best movies streaming now
From a true-ish WWII tale turned into a fun action romp, to an inspirational sporting story and a gorgeous looking romance, Leigh Paatsch reviews top streaming movies.
With the blockbuster box-office hit Deadpool & Wolverine dominating cinemas again this week, LEIGH PAATSCH takes a closer look at a selection of prominent movie releases currently landing on home streaming platforms.
THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE (M)
Prime Video
Across a long and successful career, few have bettered British filmmaker Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Sherlock Holmes, The Gentlemen) when it comes to plunging us headlong into deep and meaningless escapism. Needless to say, he’s in fine form tearing up a true-ish story of eclectic espionage and the bonkers blowing-up of stuff at a crucial juncture of WWII. Selected to save the day for Great Britain by Winston Churchill himself is a disreputable rogue secret agent named Gus March-Phillips (an excellent Henry Cavill). It is his job to run the black-ops project that could turn the war in favour of the Allies. But only if his own hand-picked team of mercenary reprobates (played by Henry Golding, Alan Ritchson and Alex Pettyfer) can destroy a certain German U-boat sitting in a certain African coastal harbour on a certain day. With the clock ticking down and the body count going up – Gus and the gang will often abandon their best-laid plans if there are Nazis to be creatively and comically mown down to a pulp – the movie locates an irresistible sweet spot that will knock around action fans in all the right ways. Yes, the complete exercise is little more than Inglorious Basterds fused with The Dirty Dozen, but there is no denying the whole thing works.
YOUNG WOMAN & THE SEA (PG)
Disney+
With the poolside heroics at the Olympics peaking across this week, the timing of this inspirational biopic of champion swimmer Trudy Ederle could not be any better. In fact, the diminutive, but determined Ederle racked up a tally of one gold and two bronze medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics, despite being denied either a proper training program or decent accommodation. Back in those days, women who took to the water were rarely encouraged to aspire to greatness on a sporting level, a fact bluntly driven home to Ederle when she later announces her post-Olympics plan to become the first female to swim the English Channel. As played convincingly and charismatically by Daisy Ridley, Ederle’s indomitable spirit comes to the surface most vividly throughout this expertly produced family film. If anything, we come to learn that the punishing demands of distance swimming on Ederle were nothing compared to what it took to move past the roadblocks consistently placed on her path to greatness. Co-stars Tilda Cobham-Hervey.
FIND ME FALLING (PG)
Netflix
Incurable romantics who seek comfort in unashamedly sappy tales of love found in unlikely places will get much of what they’re pining for here. A well-cast Harry Connick Jr. plays John Allman, a reclusive American music star who has fled to the island of Cyprus to make a belated new start in life. After decades of living in the shadow of his one big hit, the rather grouchy John inevitably finds himself dragged into a different spotlight by many a well-meaning, if over-intrusive local resident. One of them, the region’s most attractive doctor, Sia (Agni Scott), just happened to be the inspiration for John’s famous chart-topper, The Girl on the Beach. Will an old flame catch alight once more? No need to answer that. And if you can’t spot the big secret set to be revealed about Sia’s aspiring-musician daughter Melina (Ali Fumiko Whitney), it might be time for the eye test you’ve been putting off. As a showcase for the sunlit beauty of Cyprus and the underrated acting chops of Connick Jr., this predictable affair breezes by with little to truly fault. Or for that matter, remember.
SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY (PG)
Netflix
This dizzying documentary literally scales many daunting heights by launching us into the vertigo-inducing world of rooftopping, a maverick pastime where participants either climb up or descend from the world’s tallest structures. Upping the danger quotient is a complete disregard (or absence) of conventional safety rigging, or permission from the property’s owners to be clambering all over their precious real estate. The Skywalkers name-dropped in the title are Vanya Beerkus and Angela Nikolau, renegade Russian rooftoppers who have made a name for themselves as a double-act professionally and romantically. Though the subjects are intriguing personalities in their own right, it is the heart-stopping, high-altitude footage that captivates and intimidates throughout. Particularly as the pair near the audacious climb that will seal their reputation: 828m of skyscraping torture in downtown Kuala Lumpur known as Merdeka 118. Avoid the use of stairs or ladders for at least one hour after viewing.
PERFECT DAYS (PG)
Stan or rent
This recent Oscar nominee for Best International Feature Film will definitely go down in cinematic history as the best movie ever made about cleaning toilets. If that doesn’t have you flushed with enthusiasm, perhaps the clear realisation this quiet meditation upon life – how we live it and what we learn from it – is also one of the best movies of the past year might encourage a deserved look-see. The setting is Tokyo’s perpetually shimmering Shibuya district, a bustling enclave where the public lavatories are feats of architectural design that belong (and indeed have been celebrated) in glossy magazines. Nevertheless, these lavish loos must be kept fit for constant use, a job which is diligently administered daily by a kindly, caring man named Hirayama (Koji Yakusho). While the movie concerns itself with little more than tracking the rigidly regimented work and home lives of Hirayama, his gently incisive interactions with those he meets and the calming grace he leaves in his wake amount to a small movie miracle to be truly treasured. Directed by Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas).
More Coverage
ELIZABETH TAYLOR: THE LOST TAPES (M)
Binge, Foxtel from this weekend
This superb documentary is structured around a recently discovered series of interviews conducted with legendary screen siren Elizabeth Taylor in 1964. At the time of recording, Taylor was the most famous woman in the world, having achieved levels of celebrity, notoriety and mystique that are unthinkable (and almost un-survivable) by today’s standards. The cautious, yet willing candour of Taylor’s own narration is balanced by a bewitching stream of archival footage that captures Taylor’s astonishing natural beauty in ways many will not have experienced before. Though Taylor was only halfway through the eight marriages that would dominate all subsequent summaries of a colourful personal life, you get the full picture of why this remarkable woman was such a powerful magnet for the best and worst of what fame can do to a person. Highly recommended.
Originally published as From a Harry Connick Jr romance to a Guy Ritchie gem, these are the best movies streaming now
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