Netflix
Worth
Film, US, 2021 – out 3 September
Many films and shows (most of them documentaries) have been timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of 9/11. This Sundance-featured drama directed by Sara Colangelo is one of the pedigree titles. Based on a true case, Colangelo follows an attorney (Michael Keaton) who leads the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, taking on the impossible task of discerning how much a life is financially worth – measured in the scale of compensation afforded to mourning families.
The Lighthouse
Film, US/Canada, 2019 – out 6 September
Robert Eggers’ handsomely cinematic black-and-white curio is the greatest film ever made about two lighthouse keepers named Thomas. One of them (Willem Dafoe) is convinced seagulls are reincarnated creatures with mystical importance; if he is right, the other Thomas (Robert Pattinson) may have doomed them when he violently murdered one.
Pushed to the edge of psychological oblivion by a ranting and farting Dafoe, whose very existence seems predicated on emitting noxious gas, Pattinson continues his slide into cinematic trippiness after Cosmopolis and The Childhood of a Leader. Boxed in with claustrophobia-inducing 4:3 cinematography, The Lighthouse is a kind of high art hallucinogen, with a reasonably discernible storyline – for those who don’t want to go the full Eraserhead.
Q-Force: season 1
TV, US, 2021 – out now
Shows about American intelligence agencies often explore completely trivial matters such as national security and terrorism. They obviously need to be more fabulous. Enter Q-Force, an adult animated series about LGBT spies led by a gay James Bond-esque protagonist (voiced by Sean Hayes). Don’t expect high art; the show includes dialogue exchanges such as: “I’m saving your life!” “No, you’re touching my sack.”
Honourable mentions: The Shiralee (film, out now), Mad Max: Fury Road (film, out now), Money Heist season 5 (TV, 3 September), Kate (film, 10 September), Sex Education season 3 (TV, 17 September), Jaguar season 1 (TV, 22 September)
Stan
Streamline
Film, Australia, 2021 – out 16 September
Sporting movies are a dime a dozen, but Tyson Wade Johnston’s portrait of a talented young swimmer (Levi Miller) training for Olympic trials while navigating the choppy waters of adolescence is a rare and different beast: a dignified dramatic work, richly textured and performed. The director never supposes that swimming prowess is the right or only metric to measure the worth of its protagonist, or that success in the pool will necessarily mark the realisation of his hopes and dreams.
With an excellent performance from Levi Miller at its centre, and styled in rich cinematic images, a thick air of melancholia washes over the film from beginning to end. It’s a heavy picture, with many things on its mind, but with a good balance of optimism and pessimism, hope and despair.
Minari
Film, US, 2021 – out 16 September
You’ve probably heard of Lee Isaac Chung’s film by now: this lovely small picture has a big reputation. When I think of Minari, my mind first and foremost recalls its vividly rendered central setting: a farm in Arkansas, where a Korean family relocates circa the 1980s. The father of the family (Steven Yeun) pursues his dream of running a farm and selling vegetables. It is a film of old-fashioned hopefulness and low-key vibes, exploring (among other things) the difference between a house and a home.
Honourable mentions: Animaniacs (TV, out now), School of Rock (film, out now), The Secret Garden (film, 8 September), WuTang: An American Saga season 2 (TV, 9 September), Love, Inevitably season 1 (TV, 10 September), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (film, 11 September), The Departed (film, 12 September), The Witches (film, 13 September), Holy Motors (film, 15 September), The Mask (film, 15 September), The Goonies (film, 18 September)
Prime Video
The Dry
Film, Australia, 2020 – out 30 September
The massive success of Robert Connolly’s adaptation of Jane Harper’s bestselling mystery-thriller novel (now the 15th highest grossing production of all time at the local box office) gave the local film industry a splash of good news during these dark and downcast times. Critics (including yours truly) also came to the party – acknowledging a tough, gripping, very tonally well-controlled film in essence about two mysteries: one old and the other recent, both involving deaths in a small town that were potentially but not necessarily murders.
The old “this time it’s personal” twist has both threads connecting to protagonist Aaron Falk (Eric Bana), a federal agent who returns to his fictional home town after the apparent murder-suicide of an old friend. Forced to confront both sensitive issues from the past and a new potential crime, Falk is the centre of a taut and morosely gripping tale told with heavy use of flashbacks.
Back to the Rafters
TV, Australia, 2021 – out 17 September
The hugely popular Australian series Packed to the Rafters kicked off in 2008, riffing on the premise of empty-nesting parents whose children return to live with them. Six years after the show supposedly finished, it returns as a Prime Video original series, the parents (Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson) now living in the country with their youngest daughter (Willow Speers).
It would be very interesting to know what kind of audiences, ratings-wise, the reboot series receives – but alas, we won’t find out. Annoyingly, streaming platforms never reveal their numbers.
Honourable mentions: Anomalisa (film, out now), The Voyeurs, LuLaRICH (TV, 10 September), Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (film, 14 September), Everyone’s Talking About Jamie (film, 17 September), Inglourious Basterds (film, 26 September)
Binge
Impeachment: American Crime Story
TV, 2021, US – out 8 September
The third in the true crime anthology series (following previous seasons centred around the murder trial of OJ Simpson and the assassination of Gianni Versace) unpacks the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal from a women-led perspective. It takes an episode or two to build up before it really sizzles, buoyed up by strong performances, a good script and pace, and salaciously interesting subject matter.
Beanie Feldstein is great as Lewinsky, as is a near-unrecognisable Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, whose secret tapes of Lewinsky led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. An unusual turn of casting sees British actor Clive Owen play the softly spoken grey-haired former President; it takes a while to acclimatise to his performance.
Y: The Last Man
TV, 2021, US – out 14 September
I was one of many readers who smashed through Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s page-turning comic book series, set in a future where all mammals with a Y chromosome suddenly and inexplicably die, other than an escape artist named Yorick and his pet monkey. Navigating a post-apocalyptic world as the last man on earth proves rather difficult, various parties with various agendas wanting to kill or capture him. A film adaptation was booted around for a bit but never got off the ground.
In this TV version, Ben Schnetzer plays the lead role in a women-dominated cast (each episode was directed by a woman also). The source material was addictive and contains many cliffhanger moments; fingers crossed the series delivers the goods.
Honourable mentions: Any Given Sunday (film, 5 September), Gangs of New York (film, 11 September), Scenes from a Marriage (TV, 13 September), A Star is Born (film, 17 September), Scarface (film, 19 September), 30 Coins (TV, 20 September), My Best Friends Wedding (film, 26 September).
ABC iView
Fires
TV, Australia, 2021 – out 26 September
The first crop of productions covering the Black Summer bushfires have arrived, including last year’s Wild Australia: After the Fire (which made my list of the best Australian TV shows of 2020) and an upcoming documentary narrated by Cate Blanchett and directed by the Oscar-winning Eva Orner.
In terms of scripted drama there is also this six-part anthology series, exploring a range of different characters connected by the horrific events – including volunteer firefighters, farmers and families. Co-created by Tony Ayres and Belinda Chayko, the cast includes Miranda Otto, Anna Torv (currently on screens in The Newsreader), Richard Roxburgh, Cleverman’s Hunter Page-Lochard and Eliza Scanlen.
Juanita: A Family Mystery
TV, Australia, 2021 – out 7 September
Podcasts and true crime shows are a dime a dozen these days, countless amateur sleuths dusting off old mysteries in the hope of uncovering something new. This compelling two-parter from director Kriv Stenders explores one of Australia’s most famous crime mysteries: the still-unsolved 1975 disappearance of journalist and activist Juanita Nielsen.
An added justification for revisiting this case is the involvement of two of Nielsen’s relatives, Keiran McGee and Pip Rey, who (working with ABC’s Unravel True Crime podcast team) approach their investigation hoping that anybody who knows anything can finally “unburden themselves and speak to us”. Key to Neilsen’s disappearance (and also central to the investigation in Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire) are two very Sydney words: real estate.
Honourable mentions: Hitsville: The Making of Motown (film, out now) Bluey Father’s Day Special Episode, Louis Theroux: Selling Sex (TV, 5 September), 9/11: Life Under Attack (film, 9 September), Life in Ten Pictures: Amy Winehouse (TV, 16 September), The School that Tried to End Racism (TV, 21 September), Des (TV, 24 September)
SBS On Demand
Australia Uncovered
TV, Australia, 2021 – out 12 September
SBS is releasing a whopping eight new documentaries examining various issues important to Australian society, from suicide prevention (Osher Günsberg: A Matter of Life and Death) to Indigenous incarceration (Incarceration Nation) and child protection (The Department).
I’ve seen the majority and the standout is the first instalment, Strong Female Lead, which, in the style of assemblage documentaries such as The Final Quarter, explores the sexism Julia Gillard experienced during her tenure as Australia’s first female prime minister. Watching such rampant misogyny, so close to home, from the recent past, makes you want to throw things at the screen.
Another Round
Film, Denmark/the Netherlands/Sweden, 2020 – out 4 September
How do you make a film about control and excessive day drinking? They found a way. Thomas Vinterberg’s Oscar-winning Danish drama stars Mads Mikkelsen as one of a group of school teachers who endeavour to stay semi-sloshed, driven by the idea that a constant 0.5% blood alcohol reading will unlock hitherto unrealised potential.
Things go, perhaps predictably, a little pear-shaped. But one cannot guess too much about this hugely entertaining and well made film – which is kind of funny, kind of sad, kind of tragic.
Honorable mentions: Vice, Dances with Wolves, Half Nelson (film, 3 September), Iggy & Ace (TV, 9 September), Booksmart (film, 11 September), Inside Central Station: Australia’s Busiest Railway (TV, 12 September), The Place Beyond the Pines (film, 19 September), Lost for Words (TV, 22 September), Bad Apples (TV, 23 September), The Graduate (film, 29 September)
2021 Antenna Documentary film festival selects
International – begins 15 September
With the cinema industry buggered up due to Covid, festivals everywhere are going “virtual” – which in the current moment (well prior to Mark Zuckerberg’s prophesied metaverse) just means putting a bunch of films online. From 15 September, SBS on Demand will mark 10 years of the Antenna Documentary film festival with a suite of 10 feature-length docos that have screened at the festival in previous years. There are several nuggets of gold on the lineup including Another Country, Faces Places and Minding the Gap.
Disney+
Summer of Soul
Film, US, 2021 – out 29 September
The 1969 Harlem cultural festival took place over six weekends, with a stunning lineup of music legends such as BB King, Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone. The festival was “somehow written out of the history books” – a travesty that director Ahmir Thompson, also known as Questlove, aims to correct in his spectacular concert documentary. With the pandemic severely limiting our ability to party like it was 1969, or even 2019 (hell, we’ll take any year pre-2020), a weekend screening of Summer of Soul may be what the doctor ordered.
Isle of Dogs
Film, US/Germany, 2018 – out 17 September
I love the fastidiousness of Wes Anderson’s ultra-distinctive style, combining kitschy and diorama-like aesthetic with a suite of particular camera techniques, such as shots taken from above. Animation allows him to take his fastidiousness to higher levels, as we are reminded in this visually wonderful film told from the perspective of dogs who, following an outbreak of canine flu in Japan, are quarantined on an island of trash.
Honourable mentions: Spin (TV, 3 September), Doogie Kameāloha M.D. (TV, 8 September), Star Wars: Visions season 1 (TV, 22 September), Hot Tub Time Machine (film, 10 September).
Paramount+
Dragging the Classics: The Brady Bunch
TV, US, 2021 – out now
Sometimes the current and old zeitgeist intersect in the strangest of ways. This TV comedy special is a case in point. It recreates a classic episode of The Brady Bunch (1971’s Will the Real Jan Brady Please Stand Up?) with the drag queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race in all the main roles, except for Barry Williams (best-known for playing Greg, the eldest of the Brady sons) who now plays Mike Brady.
The acting is knowingly, tongue-in-cheek bad, and the performances most appealing for those who’ve kept up with RuPaul’s hit show. The script is virtually identical line by line to the old episode – meaning, forgive me, that the jokes were bad half a century ago and are still bad now, no matter how wink-wink the delivery is. Adding to the oddity is the recreation of The Brady Bunch home entirely through green screen.
Honourable mentions: American Soul (TV, out now), UFO (TV, 3 September), Run (film, 5 September), Crossing Swords (TV, 8 September), Star-crossed (film, 11 September).
