Seven films worth streaming on Netflix this month.
Don’t schlep it through another awful true crime documentary filmed in the style of a Jim Beam commercial. Here are seven films we deem actually worth watching on Netflix this month.
A Simple Favour
Sometimes you don’t want to challenge yourself with an erotic arthouse from the Rainer Weiner Fassbinder archive. As Henry Rollins famously said, “There’s protein listening and carbohydrate listening,” sometimes the brain just craves carbs. Paul Feig’s A Simple Favour expertly toes the line between actually good!!! and mind-numbing. It’s slapstick, stylish and silly. The rumours that Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively actually hated each other makes it all the more delicious.
Two Hands
Two Hands is a hallmark of Australian cinema. Hilarious, idiosyncratic, grimy, violent and completely bonkers. It’s a film that has you yearning for the bygone era of Kings Cross — when the city bled neon and pulsated with schemes from swindlers and charlatans.
Everything about Two Hands is cool. It’s a timeless film, one that still resonates. Led by gorgeous, warm performances from young Heath Ledger and Rose Byrne and a litany of other oddball characters. God I love this movie so much. The greatest. Also soundtracking the film’s climax with ‘These Days’ by Powderfinger… transcendental.
The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith
Fred Schepisi is a legend of the Australian screen, from the side-splitting, Steve Martin-led take on Cyrano de Bergerac Roxanne, to the harrowing Devil’s Playground.
The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith is a staple in the Australian New Wave. Set against the sprawling, raw Australian outback in the 1900s, the film is based on the Indigenous Australian outlaw Jimmy Governor. Who, in the film, goes on a murder spree against whites.
An Angel At My Table
No director translates poetry to the screen as deftly as Jane Campion. An Angel At My Table, based on the autobiography of the same name, tracks the life of Janet Frame, New Zealand’s most celebrated author. What a staggering life she lived.
Frame, with her curly-red hair, and awkward demeanour, is played by three actresses at three different stages in her life. From her impoverished, tragedy-laden childhood, to her teenage years and schizophrenia misdiagnosis and finally, to her literary reverence.
Mystic River
Between Rian Johnson’s Brick and Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, the early 2000s really brought it in the way of small-town neo-noir. The undercurrent of this film is looming, uneasy — unspeakably painful. The cast is all star, Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn, Laura Linney, Keanu Reeves.
Wait, no Keanu Reeves. I spent an entire paragraph talking about how hot Keanu Reeves was in this film before realising that Keanu Reeve’s isn’t in this film, he’s in Rivers Edge, also excellent (and on Stan.)
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
This Studio Ghibli film, directed by the studio’s co-founder Isao Takahata, is one of the most gorgeous animations you’ll ever watch.
Based on the 10th-century Japanese folk story, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Studio Ghibli unravels the tale of a mythical girl found in a forest and raised as a princess. Visually, it’s the most minimalist offering in the Ghibli calender, sweeping charcoal strokes and gentle watercolours.
Good Time
The Safdie Brothers mainstream breakthrough. A paranoid, nightmarish crime caper — led by an exceptional performance from a box-bleached Robert Pattinson. It’s as anxiety-inducing as Uncut Gems, just superb really.
To check out everything arriving on Netflix this month, head here — and bid adieu to everything leaving in June here.
