Netflix's Addams Family reboot works a charm

Tim Burton is free from the 'horrible circus' of Disney, and firmly in his comfort zone: milling about with weird goths. 

Tim Burton is free from the 'horrible circus' of Disney, and firmly in his comfort zone: milling about with weird goths. 

Have you heard? "Goblin mode" is up for Oxford's Word of the Year. Defined as “The idea of rejecting societal expectations put upon us, in favor of doing whatever one wants to.” So, we're rejecting the "societal expectations" of partaking in party season, shuttering our blinds, and streaming TV into oblivion. Will you join us?

The Birdcage

Mike Nichols and Elaine May’s adaptation of La Cage aux Folles still sparkles 26 years later. Armand (Robin Williams) and his partner Albert (Nathan Lane), live flamboyantly and in flamingo pink in their Floridian drag bar. When their son, Val (Dan Futternman) announces he’s to marry the daughter Senator Keeley (played with delicious wickedness by Gene Hackman), a prominent conservative politician in the midst of a scandal. The film hinges on one central event: the meeting of these wholly incompatible in-laws. To prepare, Armand and Albert “straighten up” and pretend to be heterosexuals: it’s out with the nude art and homoerotic knick-knacs, and in with the crucifixes and “nice books” (in this case, a set of Nancy Drew novels.) Bolstered by May’s whip-smart script, The Birdcage is silly in all the right ways.

Watch on Nine Gem, Saturday at 10pm. 

Diego Maradona

Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia’s (Amy) film follows the arc of your typical sports documentary, but Diego Maradona is not your bog-standard sportsman. The chiselled, hard-partying Casanova with the hand of God, born to a poor family in a Buenos Aires shanty town, who found glory through superhuman talent, is an extraordinarily compelling subject. Culled from over 500 hours of archival footage shot in the 80s, the film track’s Maradona’s pivotal transfer to Naple’s flailing team, S.S.C. Napoli, and the way he instilled hope in the impoverished city. In this film, the athlete is a man of wild contradictions: there is Diego, the devoted son, hardworking and insecure; and Maradona, the character he invented to survive, arrogan, bullish, and on a downwards spiral. 

Watch on SBS Viceland, Saturday at 10:15pm.

X

It’s 1979, a troupe of young, outsider filmmakers set out to “make a good dirty movie” at a rural Texas property owned by a creepy elderly couple, what could possibly go wrong? Literally everything. One-by-one, the bodies pile up. Ti West is one of horror’s most dedicated students, but don’t go into this expecting an “elevated” genre flick. Though X is full of style, it’s a nasty cut-and-dry love letter to the golden age of slasher. Filled with sex, vicious deaths, and heads that explode like melons (Lord of the Rings’ Wētā Workshop are behind the epic practical effects). X is both genuinely terrifying and funny. The characters are fleshed-out and kooky — you’ll mourn when they meet their inevitable slaughter. And for a slasher, the acting is remarkably good: Jenna Ortega and Mia Goth in particular are scene-stealers.

Watch X on Binge.

Wednesday

Can you hear that? It’s the low purr of the Hollywood microwave, reheating yet another beloved franchise. These reboots usually suck (see: Tales of the City) but, to my surprise and delight, Netflix’s new Addams Family spin-off, Wednesday, works a charm.  Tim Burton, now free from the ‘horrible circus’ of Disney, is firmly in his comfort zone: milling about with weird goths. Wednesday (played by perfectly stony Jenna Ortega) is shipped off to a school for “outcasts” (in this case, gorgons, vampires, werewolves and lycans) after setting killer piranhas on the bullies of her normal high school. Even amongst this freak show, Wednesday struggles to fit in. With Smallville’s Alfred Gough and Miles Miller as creators, this ooky spooky romp is not without a healthy lashing of teen angst.

Dead to Me season 3

The second season of the Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini-led dark comedy about two trauma-bonded, wine-guzzling widows on a crime spree ended on a cliffhanger, one that would go on haunting us for two-and-a-half years, after production was halted by the pandemic and Applegate’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis. We were left at the scene of a brutal car crash after Jen (Applegate) and Judy (Cardellini) were struck by a vehicle driven by Ben (James Marsden), the identical twin brother of Judy’s dead fiancé. At last, we have closure, with the third and final season landing on Netflix this week. It’s a wonder this show, which was exec-produced by Anchorman dream team Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, didn’t make a bigger splash. Sauced up and grief-stricken 40-something-year-old women trying to outfox the FBI in gleaming Laguna Beach? It’s irresistible. 

Watch Dead to Me on Netflix