What to stream this week: High Life, The Crown, Moonbase 8 and more

Deeply unsettling and sometimes shocking, Robert Pattinson’s movie prompted festival walkouts. But it’s also incredibly gripping.

Have you had enough of staring at screens yet? Never, I hear you say? Damn right.

Here’s a selection of new baubles to entertain and exhilarate, plus a few older titles in a similar vein.

Happy viewing!

SOMETHING SPACE-Y

High Life: There’s no doubt that there are space movies that make your heart swell and believe in the best of humanity, movies like Apollo 13 or The Martian. And then there are those that disturb and even frustrate, like High Life.

Starring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche, and directed by French filmmaker Claire Denis (Beau Travail), High Life is an intense, towering movie experience. Sometimes it shocks, sometimes it disgusts but it’s always gripping. And you never know where it’s taking you.

It’s not for everyone – certainly one of its Sydney Film Festival screenings in 2019 prompted dozens of walkouts.

The movie follows a scientist on board a spaceship with a group of death row prisoners – their mission involves extracting energy from a black hole. Watch it: Stan

Robert Pattinson loves a challenging movie

Moonbase 8: There is a wave of TV shows about astronauts and wannabe astronauts this year, so, here’s another! Starring John C. Reilly, Tim Heidecker and Fred Armisen, it’s centred on three aspiring spacemen living in a moonbase simulation on Earth as auditions for the real thing. It’s loose and a bit meandering, but that may very well be the appeal for fans of Moonbase 8’s stars. Watch it: Stan

This will definitely end well

SOMETHING POLITICALLY THRILLING

Roadkill: If you’re finding the zaniness of US politics exhausting, skip across the pond to the UK, where Hugh Laurie has a new four-part political thriller series out. Laurie plays a charismatic Conservative politician, whose personal and professional indiscretions become the target of various plots. He’s wily enough to out-scheme, but does he deserve to? Watch it: ABC iview

Hugh Laurie as a charismatic politician with many, many skeletons Photographer: Steffan Hill

State of Play: There’s an American remake if that’s your thing, but, you haven’t seen State of Play unless you’ve seen the original British six-parter, which starred the always very watchable Bill Nighy, Kelly Macdonald and a very young James McAvoy in this political thriller about a dead political staffer and the journalists seeking to uncover the crime. Watch it: Stan

State of Play is still a thrilling series, especially if it’s been so long since you’ve seen it and you can’t remember who did it

SOMETHING TOFF-Y

The Crown S4: With the arrival of Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher, The Crown is back on form as two era-defining women burst onto the screens, giving the glitzy royal drama more cohesion than the most recent series. Gillian Anderson is note-perfect as Thatcher while Emma Corrin’s break-out role as Diana impresses. Spanning the 1980s, there’s plenty of scandal and even more power games. Watch it: Netflix, from Sunday, November 15 at 6pm AEDT

RELATED: A stronger season of The Crown fuelled by Thatcher and Diana

Gillian Anderson as the Iron Lady

The Queen: Before writer Peter Morgan created The Crown, his best-known work was The Queen, a drama about the death of Princess Diana and the fallout over Elizabeth II’s stoicism in the face of national grief. When you get to the end of The Crown S4 and can’t wait two years to dive into the 90s with season five, The Queen is next best thing. Plus, Helen Mirren won an Oscar for the title role. Watch it: iTunes/Google Play

Helen Mirren in The Queen

SOMETHING WITH SKATERS

Betty S1: Filmmaker Crystal Moselle’s encounter with a group of young female skaters on the subway in New York turned first into a feature film and then morphed into this six-part fictionalised mood piece. She explores a specific subculture with the same curiosity and authenticity as she did in her 2015 documentary, The Wolfpack. Watch it: Binge/Foxtel Now*

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Betty season one is streaming now

Hala: Hala premiered at Sundance before it was bought by Apple for its nascent streaming platform, Apple TV+. While it hasn’t had as high a profile as some of its bigger originals, it’s definitely worth a spot on your watchlist. Especially as it’s headlined by the luminous Australian actor Geraldine Viswanathan, who stars as a Pakistani-American teen whose desires (and skateboarding) puts her in conflict with her strict family’s traditional values. Watch it: Apple TV+

Hala originally premiered at Sundance

SOMETHING WITH MOBSTERS

Gangs of London: Super ruthless, Gangs of London is a TV series for those who like their mob stories told with a robust serving (or seven) of ultra-violence on the mean streets. If smackdowns and blood splatter gets you pulsing with excitement, then you may very well be into the story of the Wallace gang, whose scion is out for vengeance after the murder of his old man. Watch it: Stan

Kicking and screaming

Gangs of New York: A continent and 150 years away from the London thugs above, Martin Scorsese’s historical epic still boasts one of the most impressive casts ever assembled – Daniel Day Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jim Broadbent, Brendan Gleeson. It’s the story of a long-festering feud breaking out in the New York slums against the backdrop of the US Civil War. Watch it: iTunes/Google Play

You can’t beat that stache

*Foxtel and Binge are majority owned by News Corp, publisher of news.com.au

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