Netflix
The Cry
TV, UK/Australia, 2018 – out 25 October
It’s part abduction thriller, part whodunnit, part intense portrait of a marriage derailing – and entirely one of the best TV series of the past decade. Jenna Coleman and Ewen Leslie (both delivering exceptional performances) play parents dealing with the sudden loss of their baby boy, who goes missing from the car one evening while they’re at the supermarket.
The Cry is cut so strikingly – in an intensely fragmented style by editor Alistair Reid – that the visual grammar of the show takes your breath away. Based on Helen FitzGerald’s novel, co-adapted by the author herself, and directed by Glendyn Ivin (Safe Harbour, Seven Types of Ambiguity, Penguin Bloom), the series scrunches up the drama into a very intense tangle; then, with a magician’s dexterity, unveils surprises bit by bit, leading up to an electrifying finale.
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Series 1-3
TV, Australia, 2012-2015 – out now
Australian film and television features several well-known detectives and investigators (Jack Irish, Jane Halifax, Jay Swan...) but none quite like the smart, sassy and amazingly dressed Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis). I respect her lifestyle decisions; if you’re completely loaded and have all the time in the world, why not poke around in police business and solve gnarly crimes?
Each episode of the TV show (which spawned a so-so feature film and two spin-off series, one made here and the other from China) begins with somebody carking it in either suspicious or explicitly nefarious circumstances. Fisher then sashays in to save the day, in the Jessica Fletcher model of stickybeaks. The show gets more compelling as it progresses, the production team refining what becomes an irresistibly moreish formula.
Colin in Black & White
TV, US, 2021 – out 29 October
Co-created by Selma director Ava DuVernay and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, this six-part series dramatises the athlete’s high school years in California. More interesting than his sporting career is his political activism; Kaepernick made headlines around the world for dropping to one knee in protest at police brutality, which resulted in him being ousted from the league.
Honourable mentions: Seinfeld seasons one to nine (TV, out now), Maid (TV, out now), The Guilty (film, out now), You season three (TV, 15 October), The Trip (film, 15 October), Nektronic (film, 15 October), The Invisible Man (film, 17 October), Army of Thieves (film, 29 October).
Stan
One of Us is Lying
TV, US, 2021 – out 8 October
The official synopsis for this YA mystery drama includes the words “five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive”. Which is a more dramatic way of saying “someone dies during detention”. The deceased detention attendee is Simon (Mark McKenna), who publishes gossip online – prior to his untimely demise, of course – and has dirt on pretty everybody, meaning everybody had a motive to off him.
So: Agatha Christie by way of The Breakfast Club – the 80s high school classic this pulpy-looking series has already been compared to many times. Please, please, please can we have a cameo from Judd Nelson?
A Clockwork Orange
Film, UK/US, 1971 - out 8 October
All these years later the dangerous energy of Stanley Kubrick’s notorious masterpiece has waned not one iota. This difficult but immaculately crafted film is gripping from its first shot, depicting those awful Droogs drinking glasses of milk, with Malcolm McDowell’s narration talking about revving himself up for “a bit of the old ultra violence”.
A confronting stretch of “can’t watch, can’t look away” must be endured before the film finally arrives at an intellectual perspective, when the powers that be attempt to use experimental treatment to reform violent criminals. This leads to the question of whether goodness can be forced or taught, or whether it must come from within. Another question Kubrick asked: “can I use devices to keep McDowell’s eyes open and look super freaky and film it for visual effect?” The answer, of course, is yes.
Honourable mentions: About Schmidt (film, 2 October), All the Money in the World (film, 4 October), The Founder (film, 5 October), Rock of Ages (film, 9 October), We’re the Millers (film, 12 October), The Hangover (film, 15 October), Boogie Nights (film, 16 October), Saw 1-6 (film, 18 October), Room 212 (film, 21 October), A Nightmare on Elm Street 1-7 (film, 22 October), The Conjuring 1 and 2 (film, 23 October), Joe (film, 25 October), All American (TV, 26 October), Angela Black season one (TV, date TBC).
SBS on Demand
New Gold Mountain
TV, Australia, 2021 - out 13 October
Last year, when I asked Warwick Thornton for this thoughts on the word “cinematic”, the great director’s response included the succinct definition: “fuck it looks good!” That Thorntonian turn of phrase will be on the mind when watching director Corrie Chen’s four-part miniseries set in the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s – told from the perspective of Chinese miners – because, well, fuck it looks good.
Expect eye-watering painterly visuals (including the old “fully clothed woman in a fancy dress walks into a body of water” image, which never ceases to be dramatic) and a narrative involving a murder mystery and tensions between rival gangs.
Honourable mentions: Thin Blue Line (TV, out now), Dead Mountain: The Dyatlov Pass Incident (TV, 7 October), Big Fish (film, 13 October), Suspiria (film, 19 October), It Comes at Night (film, 22 October), Red Election (TV, 23 October), The Host (film, 25 October), The Fog (film, 26 October), Algiers Confidential (TV, 28 October), Day of the Dead (TV, 30 October).
ABC iview
Big Deal
TV, Australia, 2021 - out 19 October
At this point in human history, a new documentary proclaiming that Australian democracy isn’t under threat of being bought and traded by the highest bidders would be far more shocking than one that says it is. The position of this Craig Reucassel-directed investigation, presented by the personable Christiaan Van Vuuren, is of course the opposite, exploring the influence of lobbyists and arguing why (quoting the press materials) “we should care, and how we can safeguard our democracy.”
Honourable mentions: The Trip to Greece (film, 1 October), Philomena (film, 1 October), Veneno (TV, 1 October), The Trip to Spain (film, 10 October), Annika (TV, 15 October), Girl on the Train (film, 22 October),
Binge
Succession season three
TV, US, 2021 – out 18 October
Realism comes in many forms and can be achieved in many ways. As this article reported, the makers of Succession have famously used wealth consultants “who advised the actors on behaving like the filthy rich – with suggestions such as not ducking when they exit a helicopter (after all, they’ve been climbing in and out of them their entire lives) or wearing coats because they’ll be stepping straight from the mansion into a limousine.”
It’s one small example of how and why HBO’s hit series about an uber-wealthy family, with power-jostling children and a media tycoon father (*cough* Murdoch *cough*) has captivated audiences. Stories about dynasties will never go out of fashion, and, following on from a highly climactic season two finale, it looks like Succession has plenty of gas left in the tank.
Curb Your Enthusiasm season 11
TV, US, 2021 – out 25 October
He’s ba-ack! Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm is now 11 seasons in, kicking off all the way back in 2000. So happy 21st birthday, Larry! May you mark the occasion by neurotically contemplating small, seemingly inconsequential details, stewing on them over and over and over again, blowing them all out of proportion; then, when things go (even more) pear-shaped, concocting some weird interpretation of how you were right all along. Not for all tastes, but exhaustingly good.
Honourable mentions: School of Rock (film, 1 October), The Inbetweeners seasons one to three (TV, 1 October), 15 Minutes of Shame (film, 8 October), Lady Bird (film, 15 October).
Amazon Prime Video
The Green Knight
Film, US, 2021 – out 28 October
Director David Lowery’s highly anticipated medieval epic has been collecting great buzz, including not one but two five star reviews published on this very masthead. Dev Patel embarks on a sumptuously shot mission involving a duel with the titular character (Ralph Ineson), which comes with a catch: the person who successfully beheads the Green Knight wins his axe but is destined to suffer the same fate precisely one year later.
Expect misty mountains and forests, Arthurian largesse and splashes of cinematic surrealism. Lowery’s fantastic previous film, A Ghost Story, was an amazing astral projection past the boundaries of time and space and back again – courtesy of some dude dressed in a bedsheet. It received not one, not two, but three four-star reviews published on this very masthead.
Promising Young Woman
Film, US, 2020 – out 7 October
Writer/director Emerald Fennell’s post-#MeToo rape-revenge movie hits you for six, steered by an unforgettable performance from Carey Mulligan as a woman who hangs out in bars, feigns being drunk, then scares the hell out of men who try to take advantage of her. The film is fiercely and powerfully polemic, rearranging a genre that most often involves middle-aged men like Liam Neeson avenging their daughters.
Honourable mentions: My Name is Paul Murray (film, 1 October), Shadow In The Cloud (film, 14 October), I Know What You Did Last Summer (TV, 15 October), Nobody (film, 16 October), After We Fell (film, 22 October), Unheard season one (TV, 29 October).
Disney+
Muppets Haunted Mansion
TV, US, 2021 – out 8 October
The time is right for a new Muppets movie; the time is always right for a new Muppets movie. Those foam and felt scallywags have formed an inimitable place in popular culture and move and groove with the times; we never outgrow them. The latest inspirational Muppetational adventure follows Gonzo and Pepé the King Prawn as they spend an evening in a haunted mansion.
Fun fact: one time I smuggled myself into a test screening for a Muppets movie (people from the press were forbidden) and on the audience report card I wrote that Pepé’s performance was “undercooked”. I’ve felt bad about this ever since, firstly for committing a terrible crime against comedy and second for insulting Pepé.
Honourable mentions: Black Widow (film, 6 October), Hot Tub Time Machine (film, 15 October), Bad Times at the El Royale (film, 22 October).
Paramount+
Conviction: The Case of Stephen Lawrence
TV, UK, 2021 – out 4 October
The great comedian Steve Coogan has been flexing his dramatic muscles – including in an upcoming performance as notorious paedophile Jimmy Saville, and in this mini-series about the fight to convict the murderers of the titular black British teenager who was killed in a racially motivated attack in 1993.
Coogan plays detective chief inspector Clive Driscoll, who leads a reopened investigation into the case, believing it constitutes “a straightforward crime that I think we should be able to solve with a bit of commonsense coppering”. Released under the title Stephen in the UK, the show has been described as “unputdownable telly” told in a “hand-held verité” style.
Honourable mentions: comedy specials from Anne Edmons and Lloyd Longford, Celia Pacquola, Tom Gleeson and Lano and Woodley (TV, 1 October), Queenpins (film, 2 October), Madame X (film, 8 October), Nancy Drew (TV, 10 October), Guilty Party (TV, 15 October), Spreadsheet (TV, 27 October), Star Trek: Prodigy (TV, 29 October).
