Five things to watch this week
POWER — NETFLIX
The injustices and inequalities of the US policing system have been the subject of much interrogation in recent years.
Director Yance Ford places the history of policing in the US under an often uncomfortable microscope in this film, which traces the history of the police force from its origins as a slave patrol force to its militarisation in the 20th century and the explosive protests against it in the Black Lives Matter era.
The film uses interviews with academics and an extensive archive of excessive violence by police officers that paints a damning picture of questionable tactics and racial bias and makes a convincing, if sometimes overly didactic, argument that the US police do not enforce the safety of citizens but the ideological aims of those in power.
THE BIG CIGAR — APPLE TV+
This series is based on a 2012 Playboy article by Joshuah Bearman — whose earlier article about a CIA operation to rescue the hostages in Iran provided the material for Ben Affleck’s 2012 Oscar-winning film Argo.
The limited series dramatises the crazy but true story of Black Panther Party founder Huey P Newton, who, with the help of Hollywood producer Bert Schneider, escaped the FBI and fled to Cuba in 1974.
André Holland plays Newton and Alessandro Nivola stars as Schneider in a madcap thriller that uses plenty of 1970s visual style to paint a picture of a turbulent time in US history and tell the story of a man who remains an enigmatic but popular figure in the counter-revolutionary movement.
FIRES — SHOWMAX
This award-winning anthology series from 2021 explores the fates of a series of different characters against the backdrop of the megafires that swept Australia in 2019 and 2020.
Each episode takes place in a different part of eastern Australia, with the trials and tribulations of disparate characters linked by the recurring presence of two volunteer firefighters. Through strong, characterdriven stories, the show explores the human dramas of ordinary people thrown into stark relief by dangers of an overwhelming inferno and celebrates their resilience, while not allowing viewers to forget the terrible events of a summer of uncertainty and dread.
DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD — MUBI.COM
Romanian director Radu Jude takes an acerbic and darkly comic swipe at the foibles of late-capitalist existence.
Following the daily life of a jaded millennial working as a PA in a Bucharest film production company, the film examines the way in which the gig economy creates a new type of economic dictatorship in a supposedly post-dictatorship society and how in a world of 16-hour work days and constant hustling, small moments of personal expression and freedom become exponentially large acts of resistance.
BRIDGERTON SEASON 3 — NETFLIX
The Shondaland train steams full speed ahead with the return of everyone’s favourite heart-thumping, bodice-ripping, colour-blind Regency-era romance fantasy.
This time it’s the turn of Lady Whistledown herself — wallflower Penelope Featherington — to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight as her search for love becomes the focus of the Bridgerton universe.