Thanks to regional streaming service Showmax, South Africans and viewers in other African countries now have a chance to catch up on some big name movies they may have missed at the cinema over the past year, not to mention some intriguing new series.
You can find a list of everything coming to Showmax in September here, but these are our curated top picks for the month ahead.
Series
In addition to Queen Latifah’s small screen reimagining of The Equalizer, viewers can binge new seasons of The Rookie, Rick and Morty, plus Sex and the City in its entirety (including the 2 films). Then there’s these standout new series.
The White Lotus is a dark comedy drama set at a Hawaiian resort that caters to the whims of the wealthy elite. This razor-sharp satire stars Connie Britton, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Daddario, Steve Zahn and more.
From the creators of The Raid comes gritty BAFTA-nominated crime drama Gangs of London. The series tells the story of a city torn apart when the head of its most powerful crime family is assassinated. The cast includes Joe Cole, Paapa Essiedu, Sope Dirisu, Michelle Fairley and Colm Meaney.
Movies
While there’s Scoob! (20 September) for the kids and young at heart, and the Rush Hour trilogy (2 September) for Jackie Chan fans, lovers of prestige cinema can finally catch the massively acclaimed Oscar-winners Minari (9 September) and Judy (2 September). Otherwise, our highlights are:
Tenet (27 September) is the trippy latest from Christopher (Inception) Nolan. The sci-fi action thriller follows a CIA agent armed with only one word: “Tenet”, as he embarks on a mission beyond time. John David Washington stars alongside Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Sir Michael Caine, and Sir Kenneth Branagh.
In socially conscious horror-thriller Antebellum (16 September), Janelle Monáe stars as a celebrity sociologist and author who suddenly finds herself trapped on a 19th Century slave plantation in the American South.
HBO feature documentary The Same Breath (6 September) illustrates the devastating effects of widespread misinformation, and decision failures, in the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Directed by China-born award winner Nanfu Wang, with a 96% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.