Five (more) things to watch this weekend
Dick Johnson is Dead Netflix —
When documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Kirsten Johnson realised that her beloved psychiatrist father Dick was in noticeable physical decline and was going to die soon, she decided to enlist his help for this moving examination of the difficulties of facing up to the fact that our parents will die. Together, the daughter and father create a number of scenarios in which
— thanks to the magic of film — Dick is able to die and come back to life, living as it were forever, at least on screen. Along this journey they both learn something about each other and the universal challenges of watching your parents age. Smart, funny and deeply human, it’s one of the most innovative and touching films about life, death and family you ’ re likely to ever see.
The Boys in the Band Netflix —
Big Bang Theory ’ s Jim Parsons steals the show in this old-school adaptation of Mart Crowley’s seminal 1968 play about homosexual life in 1968 New York. It’s a darkly humorous, often vicious chamber piece in which a group of gay men are forced to confront the realities of their relationships and the attitudes of the wider world when they gather for a birthday party that will descend into emotional turmoil. Steered by a stellar ensemble that includes Matt Bomer and an excellent Zachary Quinto and directed
Smart, funny and deeply human, it’s one of the most innovative and touching films about life, death and family you’re likely to ever see
by award-winning theatre director Joe Mantello, it’s a solid piece of stage adaptation that delivers excellent performances and satisfying period detail and demonstrates the continued, depressing relevance, of its source material half a century on.
The Haunting of Bly Manor — Netflix
The team that scared the bejesus out of us with The Haunting of Hill House return to do a pretty good job of maintaining the old-school, show-don’t-tell, hellishly creepy chills that they ’ re quickly making their trademark. Inspired by the Henry James classic The Turn of the Screw , it’s the eerie tale of a 1987 encounter between live-in tutor candidate Dani (Victoria Pedretti) and her potential new boss, the enigmatic British barrister Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas). Dani learns that she’ll be required to take care of Henry ’ s orphaned niece and nephew at his manor house in the country. It’s a job that seems to be too good to be true and turns out to be far more than she had bargained for.
Years and Years — Showmax
An all-too-possible piece of dystopian realism set in the very near future, writer and creator Russell T Davies’s political and social drama follows the fortunes of the members of an ordinary Manchester family over a 15-year period beginning on New Year’s Eve of 2019. It tackles the rise of populist politics, the swift and terrifying effects of new technology on young people and the ways in which, hopefully, even in the face of unimaginable obstacles and all too plausible social upheavals in the future as it always has beent.
Primal Season 2 — Showmax
After its three Emmy wins for Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Genndy Tartakovsky’s beautifully executed, wordless story about the fantastical prehistoric adventures of one man and his dinosaur best friend returns with new episodes.
It ’ s short and sharply visualised and in a time when we’re all worried that everything around us will crumble and leave us in some sort of postapocalyptic, prehistoric survival of the fittest hell, its themes of brotherhood and the necessity of working together to survive.