If you like your streaming entertainment star-studded, you’ll be very happy this week with several A-listers leading titles like Wolfs, The Penguin, His Three Daughters, and more.
SERIES
The Penguin S1
20 September 2024 – Showmax
I still have no idea why filmmaker Matt Reeves chose to cast Colin Farrell as iconic comic book villain The Penguin in his 2022 reboot of The Batman, but when results are as amazing as this, I’m not going to ask questions. This spinoff series sees Farrell buried under a mountain of makeup and prosthesis to bring the portly Oz Cobb to life, but through it all the Irish actor turns in a hell of a performance. More Sopranos than Superheroes, this is a grounded and gritty crime drama that details Penguin’s grab at power in the wake of the destructive events of The Batman. But as I mentioned in my 8/10 review for season one, the show’s true secret weapon is Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, the daughter of slain mob boss Carmine Falcon, who is released from Arkham Asylum and sets on her own quest for the throne of Gotham’s underworld. Her awards-buzzy performance alone is worth the price of admission on this one, but luckily there’s a whole lot more to love as well.
Mr. McMahon S1
25 September 2024 – Netflix
From one supervillain to another… there’s arguably nobody alive who’s done more to get professional wrestling into the mainstream zeitgeist than WWE co-founder Vince McMahon. Just what he did though…. This unflinching documentary takes a deep dive into how McMahon transformed WWE (then known as the WWF) from a fledgling regional wrestling organization to a global sports entertainment powerhouse through cutthroat business dealings. Along the way, he made and broke careers, spawned enemies, and becoming embroiled in several controversies, the latest of which was an explosive sexual misconduct investigation that eventually led to his resignation.
Nobody Wants This
26 September 2024 – Netflix
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: An agnostic podcast host and a rabbi walk into a party… and immediately have sparks fly between them. That’s the setup for rom-com series Nobody Wants This which sees Kristen Bell and Adam Brody star as the respective would-be couple who discover that they could not be more wrong for each other – as their families keep saying – but somehow this may just work.
MOVIES
Wolfs
20 September 2024 – AppleTV+
George Clooney and Brad Pitt were fantastic together in the Oceans movies, and now the fan-favourite actors are finally reuniting on screen for Wolfs. From filmmaker Jon Watts (Marvel’s Spider-Man trilogy), this action-comedy sees Clooney as a professional fixer hired to cover up a high-profile crime. When miscommunication sees a second fixer (Pitt) showing up for the same job though, just as it all goes sideways, it forces the two “lone wolves” to work together if they hope to survive a night that quickly spirals out of their control.
His Three Daughters
20 September 2024 – Netflix
Starring Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen, touching dramedy His Three Daughters follows a trio of stepsisters who share the same father but different mothers. Estranged for years, the vastly different siblings are forced to come together over the course of three eventful days in their ailing father’s New York apartment. Forced to confront their broken family dynamics, the trio try to mend their relationships with one another and their father.
Asteroid City
23 September 2024 – Showmax
It’s safe to say you’re either a Wes Anderson fan or you’re not. There’s no middle ground when it comes to auteurs’ highly stylized signature filmmaking. You can definitely count me in the fan club, so I’m rather excited to finally get around to watching Asteroid City, his latest bit of celluloid whimsy. The star-studded comedy drama takes place in the titular fictional American desert town circa 1955, as the Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention sees students and their parents gather from across the country for the annual Asteroid Day celebration. The planned itinerary is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events though thanks to possible first contact with extraterrestrials. The massively long list of stars in this one include Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Toni Colette, Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Jeffrey Wright, Margot Robbie, Tilda Swinton, and many more.
Killer Heat
26 September 2024 – Prime Video
When it comes to feature film adaptations of his work, super popular Norwegian author Jo Nesbø has not had the best luck (how they butchered The Snowman is still unforgivable). Maybe those fortunes will change with Killer Heat, director Philippe Lacôte’s adaptation of Nesbø’s 2021 short story “The Jealousy Man”. The crime mystery film sees Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring as Nick Bali, a detective with personal issues, who is hired by wealthy widow Penelope Vardakis to investigate the supposedly accidental death of her brother-in-law. Flown to the remote Greek island the Vardakis family calls home (and which they effectively control), Bali uncovers that Penelope was in the centre of a love triangle with her husband and his twin brother (both played by Richard Madden) and things are not as straightforward as they appear.