4 best films: quick links
4 best films to stream this week
Kneecap – 25 Feb (Stan)
Film (2024). When fate brings Belfast teacher JJ into the orbit of self-confessed ‘low life scum’, Naoise and Liam Óg, the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other.
Rapping in their native Irish, they lead a movement to save their mother tongue. But the trio must first overcome police, paramilitaries & politicians trying to silence their defiant sound – while their anarchic approach to life often makes them their own worst enemies. Watch the trailer.
From ScreenHub:
‘Every word of Irish spoken is a bullet fired for Irish freedom,’ is the oft-repeated refrain in British director Rich Peppiatt’s debut feature film, Kneecap, a fictionalised biopic about the popular – some would say notorious – Irish hip hop trio of the same name.
‘Rapping as Gaeilge (in Irish) is a political statement for Kneecap; a defiant act of cultural reclamation in response to 700 years of British colonial oppression (including the introduction of a law banning the speaking of Irish under certain circumstances in 1367; the first of several such attempts to actively silence and repress the language).
‘Consequently, Kneecap the film, a bawdy, rambunctious, hedonistic and exhilarating take on the band’s formation and rise to fame, is not only a work of entertainment: it’s also a call to arms on behalf of endangered languages everywhere.’ Read more …
Some Like It Hot – 25 Feb (Stan)
Film (1959). Sometimes you’re in the mood for a classic comedy, but you should always be in the mood for this classic comedy.
After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in, to put it mildly … Fantastic turns from Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in this Billy Wilder comedy.
For bonus trivia points: it was meant to be shot in colour, and started that way, but the heavy makeup used by Curtis and Lemmon as women made their faces look deathly green … hence the shift to black and white!
Nickel Boys – 27 Feb (Prime Video)
Film (2024). Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead and nominated for this year’s Best Picture Oscar, Nickel Boys chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers, Elwood and Turner, navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida.
And, weirdly, given the Oscar nods, this one hasn’t released in Australian cinemas – so enjoy it now, on the small screen, unless you have a really big screen at home!
Directed by RaMell Ross. Starring Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater and Fred Hechinger.
Audrey – 1 March (Netflix)
Film (2024). An irreverent Australian comedy! We like those! Self-appointed Mother of the Year, Ronnie has given her daughter Audrey everything, so when Audrey falls into a coma Ronnie has no choice but to keep their dreams alive by assuming her identity.
Starring Jackie van Beek and Jeremy Lindsay Taylor. Watch the trailer.
From ScreenHub’s review:
‘Once a semi-famous soap star, Ronnie Lipsick (Jackie van Beek) has not taken well to suburban life. Her handyman husband Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay) is disinterested in, well, pretty much everything; youngest daughter Nora (Hannah Diviney) struggles more with her bitchy schoolmates and a lack of parental attention than the cerebral palsy that’s left her wheelchair-bound.’ Read more …
