Netflix
All the Light We Cannot See
TV, US, 2023 – out 2 November
I would say this adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel looks like a million bucks, if that wasn’t chump change for narrative dramas. Creator Steven Knight and director Shawn Levy conjure a smoky period look, with handsomely varnished European second world war settings that scream, “We spent big!” The series begins in Saint-Malo, where bombs are dropping as blind woman Marie-Laure (Aria Mia Loberti) broadcasts an illegal radio show listened to by Werner (Louis Hofmann), a young German expert in radio transmissions whose brilliance is recognised and exploited by the Nazis.
The story jumps around in time and location, with Levy’s unsubtle, borderline histrionic direction cranking up the violin strings. Lines like “everything has a voice, you just have to listen” work better on page than on screen – though the cast do their best to minimise the melodrama.
The Crown, season 6 part 1
TV, UK, 2023 – out 16 November
The sixth and final season of The Crown depicts the reign of old mate Queen Elizabeth II (played by Imelda Staunton), touching on events such as the coming together of Prince William (Ed McVey) and Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy) and the deaths of Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla). Nervous anticipation surrounds the depiction of the latter in particular: rumour is the series will include a scene featuring the ghost of Diana.
The Killer
Film, US, 2023 – out 10 November
It feels like every month brings a new supply of stories about assassins. But two words explain why The Killer is something to get excited about: David Fincher. The great director has helmed some superb thrillers including Seven, The Game, Panic Room and Zodiac. There’s no reason to think he can’t deliver the goods with this story about an unnamed yoga-loving hitman (Michael Fassbender) whose life goes off the rails when his latest assignment is botched. Peter Bradshaw gave it a five star rave, describing the film as a “horribly addictive samurai procedural” and “a thriller of pure surface and style”.
Honourable mentions: Nyad (film, 3 November), Sly (film, 3 November), Robbie Williams (TV, 8 November), Magic Mike’s Last Dance (film, 10 November), Hurricane Season (film, 11 November), How to Become a Mob Boss (TV, 14 November), Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (TV, 17 November), Leo (film, 21 November), Squid Game: The Challenge (TV, 22 November), Obliterated (TV, 30 November).
Stan
Scrublands
TV, Australia, 2023 – out 16 November
A priest with a sniper rifle? Alright, I’m intrigued. The trailer for Scrublands frontloads vision of this man of the cloth, Jay Ryan’s Bryon Swift, opening fire on his small-town congregation. One year later, on the anniversary of the shooting – which resulted in the death of five parishioners – an investigative journalist, Luke Arnold’s Martin Scarsden, arrives in town to dig deeper into the story, discovering, of course, a lot of funny business going on and a tangled and complex case.
Directed by Wolf Creek’s Greg McLean, Scrublands adapts Chris Hammer’s novel of the same name, described by Guardian Australia’s Susan Chenery as an “epic, atmospheric crime novel” in which “nothing is as it first appears”.
The King of Comedy
Film, US, 1982 – out 7 November
When director Todd Phillips’ great film Joker came out in 2019, it drew comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film The King of Comedy – another classic about an aspiring comedian who dreams of becoming a success. Robert Pupkin, played with unsettling zeal by Robert De Niro, reckons he’s found a way to fast-track his career: kidnap a popular talkshow host (Jerry Lewis) and make the ransom demand a spot on his show. It’s crazy, but … crazy enough to work? The plotting and direction is coyly off-kilter, Scorsese crafting a strange, edgy and uncomfortably entertaining satire of show business.
Honourable mentions: Drive My Car (film, 1 November), Knives Out (film, 1 November), Fury (film, 1 November), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (film, 4 November), Small Axe (film, 8 November), Barbarella (film, 9 November), Personal Shopper (film, 9 November), Carmen (film, 10 November), Zoolander (film, 10 November), Birdman (film, 12 November), The Host (film, 22 November), The Grey (film, 26 November), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (film, 30 November).
ABC iview
Australian Epic
TV, Australia, 2023 – out 8 November
This new show from the Chaser’s Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen turns key Australian historical events into musicals. Not weird at all. The series, which oscillates between talking heads interviews and wacky toe-tapping spectacle, contains a whopping 36 original songs, covering key turning points in the nation’s history such as the tabloid sensation created by Johnny Depp’s dogs, the fiasco of Melbourne’s botched ferris wheel, and, more seriously, the Tampa affair from 2001. God knows how they’ll make the latter funny.
Honourable mentions: Under the Vines season 2 (TV, 3 November), LA Confidential (film, 3 November), Evacuation (TV, 13 November), The Inbetweeners season 2 (TV, 17 November), Yakka: Australia at Work (TV, 21 November).
SBS on Demand
Fargo, season 5
TV, US, 2023 – out 22 November
Before the first season of Fargo arrived in 2014, nobody imagined it’d spawn an anthology series that was comparable in quality to the Coen brothers’ legendary film of the same name. The fifth season stars Jon Hamm as Roy Tillman, the sheriff of a small midwestern town circa 2019 – the most recent period depicted in the series so far. Not much is known about the plot; suffice to say that it explores the following questions: “When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?”
Love Serenade
Film, Australia, 1996 – out 10 November
Australian comedies have attracted the word “quirky” more times than you could shake a stick at. Shirley Barrett’s oddball love triangle, about a hotshot radio DJ (George Shetsov) who moves to a small town and romances two local sisters (Miranda Otto and Rebecca Frith), certainly fits the bill, but the quirkiness here is very dry and sly. The dynamic between the three main characters, brought to life by a trio of pitch-perfect performances, is thoroughly entertaining, and the sisters’ fair dinkum Aussieness contrasts with the DJ’s hoity-toity demeanour. Every few years I return to this film and it seems to keep getting better.
Honourable mentions: Black Narcissus (film, 1 November), Dating the Enemy (film, 1 November), Last Days of the Chez Nous (film, 1 November), Head On (film, 1 November), Hidden: Firstborn (TV, 2 November) The Brigade (TV, 30 November).
Binge
Infinity Pool
Film, Canada/Croatia/Hungary, 2023 – out 12 November
For Brandon Cronenberg, body horror is in the blood: he’s the son of the great David Cronenberg, auteur of icky classics such as Videodrome and The Fly. Cronenberg junior’s third feature, Infinity Pool, belongs to a growing genre of “eat the rich” satires. Here he critiques class systems through the story of James (Alexander Skarsgård), an author with writer’s block who, while vacationing on an exotic island, kills a local during a hit and run.
The film introduces its sci-fi premise when the cops haul him in and explain that, instead of executing James, the government has a special arrangement whereby they’ll produce an exact clone of him and kill the clone instead. This opens up a gnarly pathway to social commentary, Cronenberg smothering everything in a thick, acrid atmosphere. You’ll want a shower afterwards.
Punch-Drunk Love
Film, US, 2002 – out 11 November
At first blush, this fabulously nutty romcom starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson seemed like a minor work in the oeuvre of Paul Thomas Anderson, but Punch-Drunk Love is so magically strange and charming that it deserves residence on the top shelf. Sandler is great as Barry Egan, a socially awkward entrepreneur whose life changes for the better when he picks up an abandoned harmonium and begins dating the sweet Lena (Emily Watson). What a shame that he’s being extorted by a shonky phone sex operation run by the owner of a mattress company (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
Tonally, the film resembles a piece of music, playing out with a lovely, airy ebb and flow. As a character-oriented film it’s more erratic, Sandler’s protagonist embodying the film’s unpredictable spirit.
Honourable mentions: John Wick: Chapter 4 (film, 3 November), The Lady in the Van (film, 3 November), My Adventures with Superman (TV, 6 November), Magic Mike’s Last Dance (film, 10 November), Bookie (TV, 30 November).
Disney+
The Artful Dodger
TV, Australia, 2023 – out 29 November
This eight-part drama is a Oliver Twist spin-off following the titular pickpocket character created by Charles Dickens. Set in 1850s Australia, the show imagines that the Dodger (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) became a surgeon and moved down under, where he continues to indulge in a wee bit of crime. “My thievery’s been very occasional,” he says in the trailer, which includes vision of dramatic events such as pistols on the beach, a hanging and Damon Herriman in a top hat.
Faraway Downs
TV, Australia, 2023 – out 26 November
Baz Luhrmann can deliver grand spectacle like it’s nobody’s business; his ability to read the zeitgeist is a different matter. Nobody, anywhere, at any time, in any state of mind, watched his onerous and colossally stupid epic Australia and thought: they should turn this into a TV series! But Baz has done it, taking advantage of the streaming industry’s “bigger is better” attitude to content creation. This already outrageously long film has been expanded into a six-part series mostly set at the titular location: a large cattle ranch in the back of beyond.
Nicole Kidman’s aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley and Hugh Jackman’s insanely buff Drover will return to menace us once more, with expanded scenes and an alternate ending. Fun fact: back in 2008, in her blistering takedown of the film, Germaine Greer quoted my blistering takedown and called me courageous for writing it.
Honourable mentions: Black Cake (TV, 1 November), Quiz Lady (film, 3 November), FX’s A Murder at the End of the World (TV, 14 November), Doctor Who special: The Star Beast (TV, 26 November).
Amazon Prime Video
The Marsh King’s Daughter
Film, US, 2023 – out 27 November
In The Marsh King’s Daughter, Daisy Ridley’s protagonist Helena discovers a dark secret: her father is Ben Mendelsohn, AKA Jacob Holbrook, AKA infamous criminal “the Marsh King”. When he busts out of prison and comes looking for his daughter, Helena must reconcile with her past (as an abductee, along with her mother) and her monstrous father. Begging the question: how intense will Mendelsohn’s performance be on the Mad Mendo™ scale? A seven? An eight? A 10?
Honourable mentions: John Wick 4 (film, 3 November), Invincible season 2 (TV, 3 November), 007: Road to a Million (TV, 10 November), Mavka: The Forest Song (film, 28 November), 65 (film, 30 November).
Apple TV+
Fingernails
Film, US, 2023 – out 3 November
Director Christos Nikou’s romantic drama has a sci-fi twist, taking place in a future world where science can conclusively determine whether two people are in love. Which sounds pretty stupid, but as Variety critic Guy Lodge wrote, the film “invites us to consider whether such a concept is any sillier than the validating systems and symbols we devise”.
Jessica Buckley’s protagonist Annie lands a job at the Love Institute, where these tests are conducted. There she meets Riz Ahmed’s Amir and the pair begin to fall for each other, despite Anna being married to a man with whom she has a perfect love score. What gives? As George Clooney once opined: “it’s a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart”.
Honourable mentions: The Buccaneers (TV, 8 November), For All Mankind season 4 (TV, 10 November), Slow Horses season 3 (TV, 29 November).
Paramount +
Airplane!
Film, US, 1980, out 1 November
“I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley!” So many great lines, so many hilarious moments. This wonderfully scattershot comedy classic directed by Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker takes time to reveal its big guns, the great Leslie Nielsen only getting his first scene well into the runtime. But from the start, Airplane! has a terrific laugh-per-minute ratio, tossing together various sketches and running gags that take place in an airport and indeed on a plane, where almost everybody on board – including crew members – suffer terrible food poisoning.
Enter our hero, Robert Hays’ Ted Striker, who didn’t order the fish and must therefore save the day, learning how to land the plane. One excellent recurring gag involves Lloyd Bridges, playing a control tower employee, exclaiming “Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking!” I like that joke so much I bought a T-shirt with that line emblazoned on it. I am literally wearing it while writing this.
NCIS: Sydney, season 1
TV, Australia, 2023 – out 10 November
Yeah, nah. Not for me. I accept, however, that NCIS is a hugely popular series, replayed on US cable networks ad infinitum, with 20 seasons (and counting) and a raft of spin-offs to its name. They include the innovatively titled NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Hawaii and now NCIS: We’re in Bloody ‘Straya Now Mate. The trailer for NCIS: Sydney – the first iteration of the show set outside the US –unsurprisingly embraces its setting, not just dropping vision of the harbour but also dirt roads, a kangaroo and a koala for good measure. Could the criminals be … iconic Aussie animals? Please make this happen.
Honourable mentions: Beverly Hills Cop 1-3 (film, 1 November), Wayne’s World and Wayne’s World 2 (film, 1 November), Chicago (film, 1 November), Election (film, 1 November), The Truman Show (film, 1 November), Lawmen: Bass Reeves (TV, 5 November), WACO: The Aftermath (TV, 9 November), The Curse (TV, 11 November), Casino (film, 13 November), The Big Lebowski (film, 13 November), Get Out (film, 13 November), Ted (film, 13 November), Brokeback Mountain (film, 13 November), Twister (film, 13 November), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (film, 13 November).
