Netflix
Spaceman
Film, US, 2024 – out 1 March
The best film ever made about a lonely astronaut and a giant extraterrestrial spider who helps him through his personal issues. That astronaut is Jakub (a hangdog Adam Sandler) who’s lonely, sleep-deprived and out of sorts. But the film doesn’t get bogged down by the question of whether the surprisingly sage arachnid (voiced by Paul Dano) is a hallucination.
The emotions in Spaceman feel totally genuine. Boosted by Sandler’s rueful performance, it builds a contemplative mood that uses space as an environment for soul-searching. The spaceman’s voyage through the cosmos ultimately points inwards as he ponders his relationship with (and true feelings towards) his pregnant wife (Carey Mulligan). It feels surprisingly grounded.
3 Body Problem
TV, US, 2024 – out 21 March
Liu Cixin’s smash-hit novel The Three-Body Problem is grandly plotted, featuring everything from alien civilisations to a wildly immersive virtual reality-esque program. It practically begged to be adapted for screen. The first episode of Netflix’s version begins with the shocking public death of a scholar during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 60s, soon followed by a jump forward in time to a particle accelerator lab, where a man stares incredulously at a screen and says: “All of the physics of the past 60 years is wrong – science is broken.”
The seams of reality are buckling and seismic change is near. One of the key characters is genius scientist Auggie Salazar (Eiza González), who begins seeing flashing numbers appearing before her, resembling a countdown. The first couple of episodes (all I’ve seen so far) suggest an adaptation that effectively captures the book’s ambition and grandiosity.
Honourable mentions: Django Unchained (film, 1 March), Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda (TV, 5 March), Supersex (TV, 6 March), The Gentlemen (TV, 7 March), Damsel (film, 8 March), Chicken Nugget (TV, 15 March), Shirley (film, 22 March), The Beautiful Game (film, 29 March).
Stan
The King is Dead!
Film, Australia, 2012 – out 4 March
There are bad neighbours and then there are the neighbours like Gary Waddell’s King, a rough-as-guts nogoodnik whose house is a hovel populated by a revolving door of degenerates. They deliver an awful shock to a young couple who buy the property next door and, pushed to the brink, decide to take matters into their own hands.
Waddell – a veteran actor whose work includes the infamous Australian classic Pure Shit – is so astonishingly good that I launched an online campaign, back when the film was released in 2012, to get him an Aacta award. It wasn’t successful but hopefully the addition of this film to Stan’s library means others will experience this brilliant performance.
Population 11
TV, Australia, 2024 – out 14 March
This comedy series created by Phil Lloyd and directed by Trent O’Donnell (who worked together on the amazing Review with Myles Barlow) begins with Darren Gilshenan’s Hugo running around in a panic, late at night, collapsing on a field with an eerie light from above illuminating his face. An, erm, professional UFO spotter by trade, he subsequently goes missing – abducted, perhaps?
Hugo’s long-lost son from Ohio (Ben Feldman) arrives down under to look for him, triggering a fish-out-of-water premise and continuing a long line of sun-frazzled foreigners forced to deal with nincompoop Australians (Wake in Fright, Love is in the Air, Welcome to Woop Woop and many more).
Honourable mentions: Moneyball (film, 1 March), LA Confidential (film, 2 March), Eight Legged Freaks (film, 7 March), For Your Consideration (film, 8 March), The Cabin in the Woods (film, 9 March), Once Were Warriors (film, 14 March), Shayda (film, 18 March), Ten Empty (film, 21 March), La Vie En Rose (film, 25 March), Footloose (film, 25 March).
Amazon Prime Video
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Film, US, 2023 – out 15 March
Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation of Judy Blume’s coming-of-age classic nails the desperation kids have to become adults, and the awkwardness and absurdity of them trying to hurry it. Set in 1970 (the year the book was published) and centred on 12-year-old Margaret, the film has a great leading performance from Abby Ryder Fortson, perhaps the best of its kind since Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade.
Margaret’s voiceover, structured in the form of brief prayers, adds colour without resorting to cheap exposition. The writing and direction is top notch, drawing on familiar story elements – like moving into a different neighbourhood and making new friends – in ways that feel fresh. A delight.
Road House
Film, US, 2024 – out 21 March
The 1989 Patrick Swayze movie Road House is a good production to remake, because there’s a lot of room for improvement. Even diehard Swayze fans will shift in their seats during this shaggily paced story of a brilliant bouncer recruited to clean up a rowdy dive bar where glassings are a nightly occurrence and musicians play behind a protective wire mesh. This time around, the protagonist is a former UFC middleweight played by a super buff Jake Gyllenhaal. The trailer suggests an awful lot of testosterone swishing around.
Honourable mentions: Ricky Stanicky (film, 7 March), Frida (film, 14 March), Beacon 23 (TV, 15 March), Davey and Jonesie’s Locker (TV, 22 March), The Boys in the Boat (film, 29 March).
Binge
The Regime
TV, US, 2024 – out 4 March
I love the idea of a political satire starring Kate Winslet as the kooky despot of a fictitious European nation, whose hobbies include admonishing underlings and performing terrible karaoke renditions. But after two episodes I’ve called time on this dry comedy series. I couldn’t get accustomed to its rhythms.
The Regime felt, to me, like one of those shows that the creators think is awfully clever and funny, but leave most viewers cold. Winslet is obviously the main attraction (and she impresses, as always) but the story unfolds from the perspective of a much blander character: an emotionally troubled soldier played by Matthias Schoenaerts.
High Country
TV, Australia, 2024 – out 19 March
This eight-part mystery thriller, based in Victoria’s High Country, looks exquisitely wet and misty – a little like The Dry 2. Leah Purcell plays detective Andrea Whitford, who investigates five missing people who never returned from the wilderness. It’s gotta be a serial killer, right?!
That trailer doesn’t give away much, but does drop lines that can – in the wrong hands – sound rather heavy-handed. In the right hands, however, this kind of dialogue can feel germane to the narrative world and helps heighten the stakes. We’ll find out soon enough.
Honourable mentions: Ladies in Black (film, 1 March), Cat Person (film, 2 March), Moneyball (film, 3 March), Mary & George (TV, 4 March), The World According To Garp (film, 6 March), About Schmidt (film, 8 March), John Farnham: Finding The Voice (film, 11 March), Apples Never Fall (TV, 14 March), The Girl on the Bus (TV, 14 March), Asteroid City (film, 15 March), A Quiet Place (film, 16 March), Primal Fear (film, 19 March), The Reckoning (TV, 20 March), Oppenheimer (film, 22 March), Strays (film, 22 March).
SBS on Demand
After Yang
Film, US, 2021 – out 1 March
In Kogonada’s tenderly crafted sci-fi drama, Yang (Justin H Min) is a highly advanced and realistic-looking android – or “technosapien” – who belongs to a family of three. They’re tea shop owner Jake (Colin Farrell), his wife, Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), and their young adopted daughter, Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), who’s devastated when Yang malfunctions.
Jake attempts to repair the robot and discovers its memory bank contains some peculiarities. This sends the narrative in a reverse Pinocchio direction: instead of an artificial boy coming to life, it’s about understanding one post-death. Kogonada brings a meditative, ponderous quality that doesn’t feel pretentious; this beautiful film hums with a gentle, ruminative rhythm.
Blancanieves
Film, Spain/France, 2012 – out 1 March
Pablo Berger’s sensationally strange take on Snow White, which recasts the princess as a Spanish bullfighter, is a black-and-white silent film injected with a wildly surreal, anachronistic energy, as if it fell out of Dr Caligari’s cabinet or Nosferatu’s coffin. I’ve seen this film once at a festival about a decade ago – during a day crammed full of other movies – and it’s bounced around in the dark recesses of my mind ever since.
Honourable mentions: Driving Miss Daisy (film, 1 March), Raging Bull (film, 1 March), Screw (TV, 1 March), The Worst Person in the World (film, 4 March), Pulp Fiction (film, 8 March), Vivarium (film, 8 March), 8½ (film, 12 March), Babylon Berlin seasons 1-4 (TV, 14 March), Mystic River (film, 15 March), La La Land (film, 16 March), Moonlight (film, 17 March), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (film, 20 March), Traffic (film, 23 March), Das Boot (film, 25 March), Litvinenko (TV, 27 March).
ABC iView
Life After Life
TV, UK, 2022 – out 9 March
Ursula Todd, the protagonist of Life After Life, is constantly dying, which sounds rather dark – but in order to constantly die, she needs to constantly be born, so it all works out in the end? Maybe not: the Guardian’s Rachel Aroesti described this four-part adaptation of Kate Atkinson’s 2013 novel as a “devastating drama” perfect for those who “like the feeling of being overwhelmed by vicarious trauma”. The story takes place during various historical periods, including the first and second world wars and the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Honourable mentions: Pride (film, 1 March), Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras 2024 (TV, 2 March), Happy Valley series 3 (TV, 15 March), Melbourne international comedy festival (TV, 27 March).
Disney+
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)
Film, US, 2024 – out 15 March
First came the original cut of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. Then came the extended version. Now we have “Taylor’s Version”, featuring five additional songs that weren’t included in the theatrical or digital releases. Swifties will gobble it up, of course, and those unfamiliar with the world’s biggest pop star can press play and figure out what the fuss is about.
Honourable mentions: Queens (TV, 5 March), X-Men 97 (TV, 20 March), Renegade Nell (TV, 29 March), Madu (film, 29 March).
AppleTV+
Napoleon
Film, UK/US, 2023 – out 1 March
I wasn’t a fan of Ridley Scott’s epic biopic, though it does come alive on the battle ground with well-staged action scenes refreshingly light on CGI. But you have to sit through a lot of filler to get there, charting the great French ruler’s rise to power and relationship with Vanessa Kirby’s Josephine. The protagonist is played by Joaquin Phoenix as a petulant manchild about as charming as an old sock.
Was the film intended to be comedic? Some lines suggest the affirmative, but Scott’s direction is so somber, it drains any hint of humour. This is an event movie that feels old-timey – not just in period settings but in the style and spirit of tentpole releases, evoking earlier (pre-Marvel) times for blockbuster cinema.
Honourable mentions: The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin (TV, 1 March), Manhunt (TV, 15 March), Palm Royale (TV, 20 March), STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces (film, 29 March).
