WHAT’S STREAMING
EMMA (PG) Reconnected to Austen’s powers, UK, 125 min
A sprightly adaptation of the time-honoured novel by Jane Austen. The movie goes big with the frilly bonnets, hooped dresses and starched collars, and is a small delight to marvel at for its attractive wardrobe work alone. Same goes for a frame-filling production design, which effortlessly transports us into the Austen universe. Anya Taylor-Joy does well in the title role, a capriciously meddlesome young matchmaker who will burn and rebuild many romantic bridges throughout Austen’s characteristically busy tale. ***1/2
NETFLIX, FOXTEL
WONDER WOMAN 1984 (M) Not always a blast from this past, US, 152 min
This sequel to Wonder Woman’s billion-grossing origin story (released in 2017) is slightly sappier and far more crappier than its predecessor. However, at a mammoth 150 minutes plus, nobody can accuse the filmmakers of not giving fans every possible chance to worship their favourite lariat-twirling heroine. As the title implies, the movie is set smack-bang in the heart of the 1980s, where Wonder Woman’s glamourzon alter ego Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is working as head anthropologist of the city’s leading museum. This puts her on a collision with a prototype Donald Trump named Maxwell Lord (played by Pedro Pascal), who is cornering the world’s oil market with a magic rock that grants all wishes in seconds flat. On and on this wonky, barely coherent tale goes, weakened further still by the wonky, barely expressive acting skills of the implausibly photogenic Ms Gadot. Co-stars Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig. **1/2
BINGE, FOXTEL, NETFLIX
I CARE A LOT (MA15+) The blunt force of a woman of steal, US, 115 min
Yes, the title is ironic. To the absolute max. The mega-manipulative Marla (a chillingly sinister Rosamund Pike) does not care at all. Which is why she makes such a tidy stack of dollars tricking the elderly out of their life savings. Marla might have the perfect front for her crimes - she is a well-regarded court-appointed guardian - but she is definitely heading for the perfect comeuppance when her latest ‘victim’ (a wonderful Dianne Wiest) puts a call out to a wellconnected acquaintance. Just who will come out on top in a bottom-feeding battle of wills is almost impossible to predict. This is a mercurial, moodshifting movie that won’t accommodate all tastes, but will not be forgotten in a hurry courtesy of a brilliant Pike. ***
AMAZON
SHOWBIZ KIDS (M) No play time after fame game is over, US, 94 min
“Every year, over 20,000 child actors audition for roles in Hollywood. 95 per cent of them don’t book a single job.” It was with this sobering stat that this compelling HBO-produced doco begins, and it soon becomes clear this rigorously researched production is a cut above other titles that have investigated the pitfalls of pre-adult stardom. Director Alex Winter was a child actor himself, and his insider’s grasp of this stillmisunderstood topic draws some raw and telling contributions from the doco’s many interviewees. Among those with the most illuminating and cautionary experiences to share are Henry Thomas (best known as Elliott in E.T.), Mara Wilson (Mrs. Doubtfire and Matilda), Milla Jovovich (a model and actress from age 11), Wil Wheaton (Stand By Me) and the late Disney teen star Cameron Boyce (who tragically dies from an epilepsy attack shortly after filming his very eloquent contributions here). Recommended viewing for both parents of kids with showbiz ambitions, and the kids themselves. ****
BINGE, FOXTEL
21 BRIDGES (MA15+) Stopping all traffic to start the chase, US, 96 min
A solid pulp crime thriller set across a single night on the streets of New York City. Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) stars as Andre Davis, a complicated NYPD detective with an unfair rep for being a bit too trigger-happy on the job. Almost as soon as Davis is advised to stop with the pumping of lead into crooks, two mysterious gunmen start wasting cops left, right and centre.
Our hard-pressed hero is given a single night to hunt down the perps and halt the carnage, courtesy of an unprecedented sealing off of the whole of Manhattan by city authorities. Co-stars J.K. Simmons, Sienna Miller. ***
FOXTEL, NETFLIX OR RENT
TENET (M) Back to the future and back again, US, 150 mins
This notoriously enigmatic affair from filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Inception, Interstellar) is propelled by the concept of ‘time inversion’, where both the past and the future can move in multiple directions. Therefore it is left to an unnamed agent (John David Washington) to stop a wily Russian oligarch (Kenneth Branagh) from summoning a tsunami of evil from the future that could exterminate the present forever. A movie always blowing you away, and then doing you over. Co-stars Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Michael Caine. ***
BINGE, FOXTEL, NETFLIX
BUDDY GAMES (MA15+) With buddies like these, who needs an IQ?, US, 95 mins
If you somehow missed The Hangover - or its two shoddy sequels, or its many inane imitators - then you might be vaguely enticed by the bro-tastic, bad-taste-ish high jinks promised by Buddy Games. Don’t be fooled. This dire excursion into dirty-minded dip-stickery pushes around a few small piles of filth in various directions, in the vain hope laughter will suddenly happen. It does not. The story centres on a bunch of lifelong friends who need to cheer up a good buddy who is on the brink of ending it all. To put it politely, he just hasn’t been the same since, umm, losing his manhood in a paintballing accident. So his old crew come to the rescue by resuscitating the Buddy Games : an Olympics for morons, in which events may call for the deliberate consumption of laxatives, the accidental consumption of bodily fluids, the indiscriminate abuse of animals, and the select harassment of women.
Even if Covid-19 wasn’t about at the moment, you’d still want to be wearing a mask while watching this. Starring Josh Duhamel, Dax Shepard, and the bloke who used to be Johnny Drama in Entourage. *