It’s time to get diabolical as the fourth season of The Boys leads this week’s streaming releases, alongside Richard Linklater/Glen Powell’s action-rom-com Hit Man, and the local debut of the Zoe Saldana-led thriller series Special Ops: Lioness.
SERIES
Becoming Karl Lagerfeld S1
7 June 2024 – Disney+
I am many things, but a fashionista is not one of them. But even for a frumpy dude like myself, I know of Karl Lagerfeld. Well, I thought I knew of Karl Lagerfeld, but there’s apparently lot more to learn based on Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, a new six-part miniseries out of France that stars Daniel Brühl as the famously flamboyant German designer. Adapted from the bestselling biography ‘Kaiser Karl’, this miniseries will delve into Lagerfeld’s rise to fame in Paris in the 1970s, eventually setting him on a collision course with professional rival Yves Saint Laurent.
Under the Bridge S1
12 June 2024 – Disney+
Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited Killers of the Flower Moon makes a couple of missteps in its gargantuan 3h26 running time. None of those missteps belong to Lily Gladstone though. The actress was the production’s true breakout, earning her a place in cinema history as the first Native American to win the Golden Globe for Best Actress and be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. And if you’ve been hyped to see more of her, look no further than Under the Bridge. Based on Rebecca Godfrey’s true crime book of the same name, this eight-episode miniseries stars Gladstone alongside Riley Keough and Archie Panjabi. It tells the true story of the 1997 disappearance and murder of Canadian teenager Reena Virk, and the controversy that sent shockwaves through the community when the truth was unearthed.
The Boys S4
13 June 2024 – Prime Video
Bloody comic book adaptation The Boys has already been renewed for a fifth season before the fourth season even debuts next week. That should be great news, but showrunner Eric Kripke recently drew some ire from fans when he seemingly walked back his original plans to wrap everything up then. As Kripke’s planned five season arc seems to be building towards the same conclusion as the comics it’s based off, fans are a bit worried that the show may suddenly get stretched out artificially just to prolong its popularity. Kripke has definitely shown that he knows what he’s doing thus far, and the new season looks every bit as good – and unhinged! – as what we’ve had before, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Either way, I’m here for more Homelander insanity. And indestructible chickens.
Special Ops: Lioness S1
13 June 2024 – Showmax
Taylor Sheridan may have made a name for himself with westerns, both classic and modern, but where he first truly gained my attention was when he penned the script for Sicario. And if you’re looking for more of that gritty and grounded special forces style action and drama, then Special Ops: Lioness may just be the show for you. Created by Sheridan, this spy thriller stars Zoe Saldana as a Force Recon Marine who is recruited into the CIA’s Lioness program to lead a special elite unite comprised entirely of women, sent to embed themselves into the lives of the wives, daughters, and girlfriends of known terrorists. The show also stars the likes of Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Kelly, and has already been renewed for a second season.
MOVIES
Snake
6 June 2024 – Prime Video
Selected to close the Joburg Film Festival earlier this year, Snake is an adaptation of local South African author Tracey Farren’s riveting novel of the same. Adapted by Farren herself with director Meg Rickards, the film follows Stella, a young girl living on a farm with a hard drink father and depressed mother. When Jerry, a charming and mysterious stranger, arrives on the farm, Stella’s family life seems to change for the better as her father stays sober and her mother begins to laugh again. But as Jerry slithers deeper into their lives, things take a dark turn.
Damaged
6 June 2024 – Prime Video
I’ll be honest, Damaged certainly does not look like it’s anywhere close to the best work of stars Samuel L. Jackson and Vincent Cassell, but hey! It’s Samuel L. Jackson and Vincent Cassell! This thriller sees Jackson as a Chicago detective whose serial killer cold case suddenly heats up five years later when a new string of murders occurs in Scotland, matching the MO of the killer he’s been chasing.
Hit Man
7 June 2024 – Netflix
Known for acclaimed comedies and dramas like the Before trilogy, Boyhood, and School of Rock, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Richard Linklater is not the first person you would think of to make an action movie about a professional killer. Which is why he didn’t. Kind of. Co-written with star Glen Powell, Hit Man is killer movie with a twist. Based on a story so absurd it must be true, Powell stars as Gary Johnson, seemingly a professional hitman. But Johnson is actually a college professor who just happens to have a knack for adopting fake identities and thus stumbled his way into a part-time gig at the New Orleans Police Department who hires him to pretend to be a hitman in the hopes of catching the would-be criminals trying to acquire his deadly services. But when Johnson finds himself falling for one these people, a woman trying to escape her abusive husband permanently, while incognito, things start to get very interesting.
Thanksgiving
9 June 2024 – Netflix
And now for something completely different. There’s almost no romance and not much in the way of subtle characterizations to be found in Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving. But what the fan-favourite horror director does bring to this holiday-themed slasher is a whole lot of gnarly kills and some solid jump scares. So, if you’re not somebody to flinch from a whole lot of blood and violence (like a lot!), then you’ll be happy to know that Thanksgiving is finally making its local streaming debut on Netflix this coming weekend.
VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
Sleeping Dogs
Purchase: Apple TV – R160 / Google TV – R160
Rental: Apple TV – R45 / Google TV – R50
Ok, calm down, gamers. This is not that Sleeping Dogs (although a film adaptation of the fan-favourite video game starring Donnie Yen is still in production). This thriller stars Russell Crowe as Roy Freeman, an ex-homicide detective who is forced to revisit a case he once worked on in order to save the life of a man on death row who could be wrongfully convicted. There’s just one problem: Freeman is suffering from a degenerative memory condition and can’t actually remember the case. As a man’s life hangs in the balance, Freeman will need to push through to uncover a conspiracy of lies and deceit.
The Royal Hotel
Purchase: Apple TV – R170 / Google TV – R180
Rental: Apple TV – R45 / Google TV – R46
I had admittedly never heard of The Royal Hotel until yesterday. But this Australian thriller stars Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick and that’s all I needed to know. Oh, you actually need to know more? Inspired by the 2016 documentary ‘Hotel Coolgardie’, this potboiler stars Garner and Henwick as two young American friends who run out of money while backpacking in Australia. With no other options, they take up an employment agency’s offer to work as bartenders at the Royal Hotel, a pub in a remote, tiny, male-dominated town in the Australian outback. But what starts as a fun working holiday turns scary when tensions with the local men start to rise, and the girls find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control.