Binge-r #228: Ranking the Latest Netflix Movies

Wrap Party: John David Washington (Malcolm) and Zendaya (Marie) in Malcolm & Marie

NETFLIX’S NEW MOVIES (FROM UH-UH TO OH YEAH)

MALCOLM & MARIE (Netflix, 2021, 106 minutes): A single location COVID-19 production shot on 35mm B&W film stock so luxurious that the images start to sour, this domestic two-hander stars John David Washington (Tenet) and Zendaya (Spider-man) as the titular Hollywood film director and his girlfriend who arrive home from the premiere of his new movie and launch into a thrown-down verbal reckoning. I enjoy the maximal style writer-director Sam Levinson brings to his HBO series Euphoria (which also stars Zendaya), but when lodged in theatrical specificity the words don’t always leave the page. The dynamic between the pair is more about the spectacle of their scything speeches than the nominal issues: the imbalance of fame, creative inspiration, and racial identity. No-one is afraid of this Virginia Woolf, which does demonstrate that Levinson has a big problem with film critics (who must offer obeisance) and no problem ravishing Zendaya’s body with the camera.

THE DIG (Netflix, 2021, 112 minutes): The second feature film from Australian theatre director Simon Stone is a tender but not always observant period drama about what – and ultimately who – endures. Based on historical events, it stars Carey Mulligan as Edith Pretty, an upper-class Suffolk widow who decides to have the ancient burial mounds on her estate uncovered by Ralph Fiennes’ Basil Brown, an unassuming and sometimes apologetic archaeologist whose working-class traits stoically shine through. The vast finds are invaluable – they’re currently in the British Museum – but coming in 1939, on the eve of World War II, they also serve as a reminder of civilisation’s worth in the face of destruction. Understatement to the point of repression – the true English disease – is at work here, and everything ties together a little too tastefully. A little dirt under the film’s fingernails might have helped the impeccable lead performances.

Captain Marvel: Kim Tae-ri (Captain Jang) in Space Sweepers

GEMINI (Netflix, 2017, 92 minutes): Yes, this supple mystery is from 2017, which is when I saw it at the Melbourne International Film Festival, but it’s been unavailable here until reaching Netflix last week. That’s a narrative which matches the netherworld film’s plot, which explores the co-dependently tight relationship between a Hollywood film star, Heather Anderson (Zoe Kravitz), and her friend and personal assistant, Jill LeBeau (Lola Kirke). When misfortune befalls Heather, the blame points to Jill, whose dedication sends her on a trail of possible suspects that is classic Hollywood: famous ex-boyfriend, spurned director, and obsessed fan. Aaron Katz’s movie exists in a nocturnal neo-noir space, where emotions have that cool Joan Didion distance and there are echoes of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. Plus John Cho as a deadpan police detective is a terrific change of pace.

SPACE SWEEPERS (Netflix, 2021, 136 minutes): This peppy South Korean science-fiction blockbuster about a spaceship crew who supply the rag and the tag to a snappy against the odds story has plenty of familiar elements, including but not limited to a lippy android, a nefarious tycoon chasing a misplaced prize possession, and CGI-driven orbital action. But every time you think it’s found a familiar routine, Jo Sung-hee’s film puts some spit and spin on proceedings. His chief instrument is Kim Tae-ri (The Handmaiden), who plays Captain Jang, the no-nonsense captain – with or without aviator shades – of The Victory, a corner-cutting pursuer of space scrap above a barely functioning 2092 Earth. Kim is the coolest thing in this movie, and possibly any other movie this year, with her dissolute guardians of the galaxy trying to profit from coming into possession of a child-like creation (Park Ye-rin). This adorable weapon is named Dorothy, which is a nod to the Wizard of Oz, complete with four companions. The film is a touch long, but it has a genuine irreverence and impeccably battered imagery. Malcolm and Marie would have been a lot better off if they watched it.

NEWLY ADDED MOVIES

New on SBS on Demand: Alive to both the elements and the agony of life, At Eternity’s Gate (2019, 107 minutes) is an intuitive Vincent Van Gogh biopic from artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel where the visual acuity outweigh the dialogue while Willem Dafoe’s lead performance – with a late Mads Mikkelsen assist – supplies a deeply soulful momentum.

New on Stan: Field of Dreams (1989, 106 minutes), with Kevin Costner as the “if you build it they will come” farmer is a particularly American fantasy, but the craft lets the symbolism and sentiment take hold; Tom Cruise does his earnest thing in the dystopian sci-fi of Oblivion (2013, 125 minutes) but the twists feel like tweaks whenever Andrea Riseborough is on screen as a fellow survivor of a ruined Earth.

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