Netflix
Boy Swallows Universe
TV, Australia, 2023 – out 11 January
I found Trent Dalton’s bestselling story of hard-luck characters in lower-class Brisbane circa the 1980s rather haphazardly plotted, which makes me curious about how the veteran screenwriter John Collee and the directors – Bharat Nalluri, Jocelyn Moorhouse and Kim Mordaunt – will give this mini-series a narrative spine. The last time Moorhouse and Mordaunt worked together they delivered the sublime Wakefield, which bodes well for this production.
Eli, the story’s 13-year-old protagonist played by Felix Cameron, must survive the schemes of several dodgy characters including his mentor Slim (Bryan Brown) and drug dealer Tytus Broz (Anthony LaPaglia). One of the show’s settings is the controversial – and now defunct – Boggo Road jail.
The Brothers Sun
TV, US, 2023 – out 4 January
Gangsters, martial arts, Michelle Yeoh and at least one fight scene featuring a person dressed in an inflatable dinosaur costume. If you’re not averse to any of these things, and see some potential in them being combined, you might want to put this eight-part black comedy on your radar. Yeoh (in her first lead role since snagging the best actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once) plays Eileen, the matriarch of a crime family embroiled in crisis. “Our family is head of the Jade Dragons,” she tells her son Bruce (Sam Song Li), who had no idea his kin were crims. The producers claim the show delivers an “action-packed family drama with a twisted sense of humour”.
Honourable mentions: Society of the Snow (film, 4 January), Good Grief (film, 5 January), Bitconned (TV, 11 January), Heist (film, 12 January), Lift (film, 12 January), Maboroshi (film, 15 January), Griselda (TV, 25 January).
Stan
Prosper
TV, Australia, 2023 – out 18 January
Obviously inspired by the rise and fall of Hillsong (the megachurch known for its zhooshed-up sermons and shocking, scandal-filled history), the creators of Prosper have entered an interesting dramatic space, exploring behind-the-pulpit power-jostling and crisis management. The story follows the leader of an evangelical church called U Turn: the charismatic Cal Quinn (Richard Roxburgh), who is supported by his wife, Abi (Rebecca Gibney), as they plot international expansion.
The first couple of episodes get the show off to a cracking start, with strong performances, interesting characters and sordid twists. Expect splashes of drugs, death and various kinds of wheeling and dealing. Dramatic licence has certainly been taken but, given what we know of Hillsong and the behaviour of its leaders, none of if is too much of a stretch.
The Tourist season two
TV, UK/Australia/US/Germany – out 2 January
I loved the first season of this on-the-run series starring Jamie Dornan as an amnesiac Irishman who can’t remember who he is, what the hell he’s doing in outback Australia and why people seem to want him dead. All is not what it seems, as they say, in this pulse-pounding example of what I call the “bugger me dead, it’s hot!” action thriller.
I have high hopes for the second season, which relocates the action to Ireland but retains Dornan’s co-star Danielle Macdonald as Aussie cop Helen, who is sweet but far from a pushover.
Shayda
Film, Australia, 2023 – out 11 January
The Australian-Iranian writer/director Noora Niasari’s debut feature, inspired by her childhood experience of living in a Brisbane women’s refuge, was one of the best locally produced films of 2023. Using a boxed-in aspect ratio, in vogue at the moment, Niasari maintains an airtight sense of realism as she follows the titular protagonist’s attempts to flee an abusive husband. Zar Amir Ebrahimi delivers a standout performance – subtle but rousing.
Honourable mentions: Grizzly Man (film, 1 January), Fast and the Furious 1-7 (film, 1 January), The Big Short (film, 2 January), Ali’s Wedding (film, 6 January), Under Siege 1 and 2 (film, 7 January), As Good as It Gets (film, 12 January), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (film, 15 January), Heat (film, 16 January), Assassin’s Creed (film, 18 January), Everything Everywhere All at Once (film, 20 January), In Bruges (film, 21 January), JFK (film, 24 January), Slumdog Millionaire (film, 28 January), Mystery Road: Origins season one (TV, 31 January).
ABC iView
Nemesis
TV, Australia, 2023 – out 29 January
Certain things in life, as they say, are inevitable – death, taxes and ABC documentaries examining the entrails of a previous federal government. And what a previous government! After years of squawking about the knifing of Kevin Rudd, the Liberal party did the old “that’s not a knife!” routine and delivered the country three prime ministers in nine years: Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison. This mini-series promises a “revealing tale of politics, ambition and power”, featuring “candid no-holds-barred interviews that capture this tumultuous period and the personalities behind it”.
Honourable mentions: McCartney 3, 2, 1 (TV, 1 January), Changing Ends (TV, 1 January), The Search for the Palace Letters (film, 8 January), Total Control season three (TV, 14 January), Darby & Joan (TV, 14 January), Earth (TV, 23 January).
SBS On Demand
eXistenZ
Film, UK/Canada, 1999 – out 1 January
David Cronenberg has directed several classic body horror films; they’re his signature dish. eXistenZ has a Baudrillardian twist in that it’s based in a virtual reality-esque simulation created by a hotshot game designer (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Inside the game the players are required to enter another simulation, leaving us unsure about what’s real and what’s not. The late 90s was a great period for films that played around with simulations: see also Dark City, The Truman Show and, of course, The Matrix.
Honourable mentions: Scrubs seasons one to nine (TV, 1 January), Point Break (film, 1 January, Churchill (film, 1 January), Two Weeks to Live (TV, 8 January), Culprits (TV, 11 January), Glengarry Glen Ross (film, 12 January), The Box (film, 12 January), Spinners (TV, 25 January).
Amazon Prime Video
Expats
TV, 2024 – out 26 January
Nicole Kidman goes to Hong Kong in this adaptation of Janice YK Lee’s 2016 novel, which the LA Times described as a story about “uprooted lives and how they converge and intersect within Hong Kong. Kidman plays Margaret, who moved to Hong Kong with her family and belongs to an affluent expat community, along with others including Mercy (Ji-young Yoo) and Hilary (Sarayu Blue).
All six episodes were directed by Lulu Wang, who is best-known for her semi-autobiographical family drama The Farewell. The production has drawn some controversy, with Hong Kong press reporting that Kidman walked off the production (a claim Amazon Studios has denied) due to creative differences with Wang. There was also some uproar surrounding Kidman being granted an exemption by the Hong Kong government to skip Covid quarantine.
Honourable mentions: Joy Ride (film, 1 January), Foe (film, 5 January), Role Play (film, 12 January), Dance Life (TV, 19 January), Hazbin Hotel (TV, 19 January), Sweet As (film, 23 January), Sound of Freedom (film, 23 January), The Underdoggs (film, 26 January).
Binge
True Detective: Night Country
TV, US, 2024 – out 15 January
I must admit that I tapped out of True Detective at some point during its second season. Jodie Foster’s involvement in the fourth season of the crime anthology series makes me open to the idea of giving it another crack. Plus it’s got a different showrunner, Issa López, and features the first female-fronted detective duo in the franchise, with Foster and Kali Reis starring as detectives investigating the disappearances of six men from an Arctic research station in Alaska.
High Noon
Film, US, 1952 – out 3 January
“Do not forsake me, oh my darling, on this my wedding day … ” begins the famous theme song to Fred Zinnemann’s brilliant western. For me westerns never got better than this gracefully executed and deeply suspenseful film that unfolds in real time and follows small-town sheriff Will Kane (Gary Cooper), who learns that a vicious criminal (Ian MacDonald) is arriving on the noon train and plans to kill him. The unerringly dignified Kane tries to rustle up support from citizens, who one by one look the other way, tinging the narrative in a painful melancholia.
There’s no silly masochism or chest-beating in this film; its screenwriter, Carl Foreman, even, in fact, hints at an anti-guns message. This is perhaps one of the reasons why John Wayne, a noted conservative, lambasted High Noon for being “the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life”.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Film, US/UK/France, 2000 – out 12 January
Ask a bunch of people what their favourite Coen brothers film is and you’re bound to get several different responses, reflecting the breadth and eclecticism of their work. My favourite is this semi-musical comedy set in rural Mississippi during the Great Depression, starring George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson as three escaped convicts who become superstar folk musicians, banging out a killer version of I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow. I reflected on my great love for O Brother on its 20th anniversary, describing it as a film that’s “absurdly entertaining and witty” and “trades in a kind of film-making that never really existed”.
Honourable mentions: Ted and Ted 2 (film, 1 January), Once Upon a Time in the West (film, 2 January), The Italian Job (film, 2 January), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (film, 5 January), Sunset Boulevard (film, 6 January), The Warriors (film, 6 January), The Dirty Dozen (film, 7 January), Ted season one (TV, 11 January), Secrets of Penthouse (TV, 13 January), Paint (film, 13 January), Moonrise Kingdom (film, 20 January), Pain & Gain (film, 20 January), No Hard Feelings (film, 20 January), The Survival of Kindness (film, 22 January), In the Know (TV, 25 January).
Disney+
Death and Other Details
TV, US, 2024 – out 16 January
Mandy Patinkin plays a Poirot-esque role as the world’s greatest detective, Rufus Cotesworth, who investigates a murder that took place onboard a lavish ocean liner. Petty thief Imogene Scott (Violett Beane) is the prime suspect, but presumably somebody else did it – unless the writers have ironically circumvented expectations by making the killer the obvious choice.
Like a zillion other murder mystery enthusiasts, co-writers Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams have cited Agatha Christie as a key influence on this show, claiming to have “read everything she’s ever written”.
Honourable mentions: Ishura season one (TV, 3 January), Marvel Studios’ Echo (TV, 10 January), Daughters of the Cult season on (TV, 11 January), Cristóbal Balenciaga season one (TV, 19 January)
Apple TV+
Masters of the Air
TV, US, 2024 – out 26 January
Austin Butler, who delivered a sensationally hip-thrusting performance in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, stars in Masters of the Air as a member of the US air force’s 100th Bomb Group, which conducted bombing raids of Nazi Germany. Belonging to the Band of Brothers franchise, this nine-episode series was executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, and cost a pretty penny – reportedly about US$250m. The trailer is a smorgasbord of handsome period settings, moody lighting and vertiginous action.
Honourable mention: Criminal Record (TV, 10 January).
