The Substance, Furiosa and new White Lotus: what's new to streaming in Australia in February

The Guardian

31-01-2025

TV, US, 2025 – out 20 February
The first TV series starring the great Robert De Niro is set after a huge cyber-attack, during which thousands of people are killed and a message is sent to every phone in the US that reads: 'THIS WILL HAPPEN AGAIN.' Sure, that'd be pretty freaky, but old mate Bob – perhaps referring to Donald Trump, who he is no fan of – put things in context when he told Netflix: 'Right now, our actual world is scarier.' Even so, let's hope the series is an explode-a-palooza of jiggery-pokery and political intrigue. De Niro plays George Mullen, a former US president who comes out of retirement to lead the 'Zero Day Commision' tasked with finding the culprits behind the attack.
TV, Australia, 2025 – out 6 February
The story of disgraced wellness influencer Belle Gibson gets dramatic TV treatment in this six-part narrative series set during the early days of Instagram. The show purports to explore, among other things, 'the age of innocence on social media' – a time in which there were 'very few checks and balances in place'. Not like nowadays, when everything published on social media is 100% verified, totally true and companies such as Meta are investing, er, more and more resources into factchecking … right?!
Apple Cider Vinegar was created by Australian writer Samantha Strauss and stars Kaitlyn Dever as Gibson, who claimed she cured herself of several cancers by adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Honourable mentions: Shrek 1 and 2 (film, 1 February), MaXXXine (film, 2 February), Cobra Kai: Season 6: Part 3 (TV, 13 February), Gladiator (film, 16 February), The Theory of Everything (film, 16 February), Grease (19 February), Running Point (TV, 27 February).
Film, France/US/UK, 2024 – out 15 February
French film-maker Coralie Fargeat's sensationally disgusting body horror movie, which features an amazing performance from Demi Moore, seems to have been crafted with the following logic: to be heard during these noisy times you need to be loud. So, there's nothing remotely subtle about the Jekyll and Mr Hyde-esque story of Moore's Elisabeth Sparkle, once a huge Hollywood star but now the host of a morning aerobics program.
She enlists the services of a mysterious company that sells its own version of the foundation of youth: a serum that, once injected, creates a second, 'perfect' version of herself, i.e. young and hot. The catch: she only gets to spend one week at a time in her new body (played by Margaret Qualley). When Sparkle breaks the rules, bad things happen, then very bad things happen, then very very very bad things happen, culminating in a Grand Guignol spectacle that has to be seen to be believed. Consider yourself warned.
Film, US, 1959 – out 25 February
Ordinarily, discussing a 50s Hollywood film about men who hide from gangsters by dressing up as women might trigger alarm bells. But Billy Wilder's sparklingly progressive classic is no ordinary movie. It's like a great cocktail crossed with a magical elixir, certain to lift your spirits.
Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play a pair of musicians who witness a murder then don dresses and apply some lippy. When Marilyn Monroe arrives, she lifts the film into another stratosphere, playing Sugar Kane, the vocalist and ukulele player of an all-female band. It ends with the great final line: 'Nobody's perfect!'
TV, Australia, 2025 – out 13 February
This new Australian drama – created, written and directed by Nicholas Verso – does a good job of evoking the turbulence of adolescence and issues faced by the LGBTQ+ community. It's set in a coastal town in Western Australia and focuses on three gay teenagers: Charlie (Joseph Zada), Zeke (Aydan Calafiore) and Hammer (Kade Hammersmith). The story swings into gear when the rebellious Charlie hooks up with a married man, whose wife busts them, leading to him being outed and a blizzard of social media posts.
I've watched the first couple of episodes and I'm in two minds so far: the drama has a compelling rawness but some of the performances are patchy and the story didn't really engage me. Also, opening with boilerplate voiceover articulating a character's motivations and desires makes me feel like a sommelier who has just quaffed vinegar.
TV, US, 2025 – out 20 February
Solving crimes in Nowheresville, USA is a family business in this daffy, low-key comedy series starring Leighton Meester and Luke Cook as detective siblings who work for their police chief father (Clancy Brown). The show is based in a small American town but was actually shot in Queensland. The first couple of episodes (all I've seen so far) went down easily, although I wouldn't write home about it. The setup director is Trent O'Donnell, a comedy veteran whose work includes Colin from Accounts, No Activity and Review With Myles Barlow.
Honourable mentions: Kid Snow (film, 1 February), 21 Jump Street (film, 1 February), 22 Jump Street (film, 1 February), Despicable Me 1-3 (film, 1 February), Willy's Wonderland (film, 6 February), Talk to Me (film, 7 February), Robocop 1-3 (film, 8 February), Moonstruck (film, 9 February), Lord of the Flies (film, 11 February), Invisible Boys (TV, 13 February), The Pianist (film, 14 February), Aliens 1-4 (film, 16 February), Alien: Covenant (film, 16 February), Prometheus (film, 16 February), Fargo season 5 (TV, 21 February), Four Weddings and a Funeral (film, 22 February).
TV, Australia, 2025 – out 2 February
This 80s Australian period drama established a satisfyingly moreish format in its first two seasons, using historical events as dramatic scaffolding for a story centered around two fictional media personalities: Anna Torv's Helen Norville and Sam Reid's Dale Jennings. The third (and last) season, for me, dipped a little, losing some spark and lustre. Sometimes, it felt quite on the nose – but there's still more than enough to satisfy fans.
Honourable mentions: Love Me season 2 (TV, 2 February), Mozart: Rise of a Genius (TV, 3 February), Under the Vines season 3 (TV, 28 February).
Film, France, 1960 – out 1 February
No film genres or movements are as cool as the French New Wave, which irrevocably changed cinema. Rules flew out the window, jump cuts became all the rage, boldness swallowed subtlety. Jean-Luc Godard's erratic classic is one of its pioneering productions: a brilliantly bouncy and jazzy crime film that follows a young-on-the lam criminal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) as he hangs out with his American girlfriend (Jean Seberg). The doomed lovers storyline isn't much, but the film's execution is fantastically invigorating. Godard creates the energy of a cork that's just popped.
Film, France/Spain, 1977 – out 1 February
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is probably the best known film from the great Luis Buñuel, and perhaps his magnum opus. But That Obscure Object of Desire is also vintage Buñuel. In many respects, it's quite 'normal' compared with other titles in his oeuvre, but there are still some big quirks. Particularly that its lead female character is played by two different actors, for no discernible reason. They switch roles throughout the film, sometimes during the same scene. She is the flamenco dancer Conchita (Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina), who is pursued and obsessed over by a rich middle-aged Frenchman (Fernando Rey).
Film, Australia, 2023 – out 1 February
Noora Niasari's feature debut was one of the best Australian films of 2023, powerfully telling the story of Zar Amir Ebrahimi's titular protagonist, who tries to flee her abusive husband (Osamah Sami), seeking refuge in a women's shelter with their six-year-old daughter (Selina Zahednia). As I wrote in my review: 'Tension is skilfully sustained throughout and the drama has a pressurising effect, the air intensifying in a long, slow rise.'
Honourable mentions: South Park season 1-15 (TV, 1 February), Chaplin (film, 1 February), Belle De Jour (film, 1 February), An Angel at My Table (film, 6 February), Pose (TV, 14 February), Fame (film, 23 February), Shaft (film, 23 February), Goodfellas (film, 23 February), Argo (film, 23 February), The Jury Murder Trial (film, 26 February), Boiling Point (TV, 27 February).
Film, Canada, 2025 – out 6 February
The great Australian auteur, Justin Kurzel, has never made a bad film (including his much-maligned Assassin's Creed, which I will defend to the grave). His latest is a rock-solid, grittily realistic action flick adapting a nonfiction book about a white supremecist terrorist group in the 1980s, which robbed banks to fund a neo-Nazi agenda. A baggy-eyed Jude Law plays Terry Husk, the FBI agent on their trail, while Nicholas Hoult brings a disquieting ordinariness to Bob Mathews, one of the group's leaders. Visually, the colours are scaled back and the frame given a musty timeworn veneer. It's a more straight-up, less ambitious work than some of his other films, like True History of the Kelly Gang and Nitram.
Film, US, 2024 – out 27 February
I'm eagerly awaiting RaMell Ross's adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel The Nickel Boys, which is set in Florida under the Jim Crow segregation laws in the 1960s. The buzz around it is great, including Oscar nominations and oodles of praise from critics, with the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw describing the film 'transcendentally moving and frightening'.
I'm particularly interested in its heavy deployment of first-person perspective – an approach that fascinates me. It's one of the dominant perspectives in video games but a visual technique that never took off in cinema, although some films have dabbled— for instance, 1947's Lady in the Lake and 2015's Hardcore Henry.
Honourable mentions: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (film, 1 February), The Bourne Identity (film, 1 February), Clean Slate (TV, 6 February), Newtopia (TV, 8 February), Reacher season three (TV, 20 February).
TV, US, 2025 – out 17 February
Who would've thought that murder, mystery and exotic locations would make such a tantalising mix? Everybody, of course! However Mike White's anthology series The White Lotus is several stratospheres above the likes of Death in Paradise. The first season was great and the second is just as good. Not surprisingly, expectations for the third season are very high, although little is known about what it will include. We do know that it will be based in Thailand, with White promising a 'longer, busier, crazier' season.
Film, Australia/US, 2024 – out 21 February
Will Furiosa be the last Mad Max movie to be directed by George Miller? Hopefully not. A finished script for another excursion into the waste land exists, but Furiosa's disappointing box office takings may have put the kibosh on it. Anya Taylor-Joy plays a younger version of the eponymous badass (formerly played by Charlize Theron) in this over-the-top beast of a movie, which delivers the requisite petrol madness but doesn't match the awesome rollercoaster ride of its predecessor, Mad Max: Fury Road.
Honourable mentions: The Age of Innocence (film, 1 February), MaXXXine (film, 2 February), M*A*S*H (TV, 3 February), OJ Simpson: Blood, Lies And Murder (TV, 3 February).
TV, US, 2025 – out 19 February
Every episode of Pixar's first TV series follows a different member of a middle school softball team gearing up for their big championship game. Reminding us that Disney is far from being at the forefront of social change and, in fact, is generally quite gutless, news broke last year that the Big Mouse decided to remove one of the show's most interesting elements: the presence of a transgender character (who has subsequently become cisgender). Time will tell how the show fares quality-wise. Pixar generally set pretty high standards.
Honourable mentions: A Thousand Blows (TV, 21 February), Scamanda (TV, 26 February).
Film, US, 2025 – out 14 February
Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller play two crack snipers, from Russia and the US, respectively, who fall in love with each other. Ordinarily, this premise might make me yawn, but there's a big twist: each is stationed on different sides of a gorge, which not even the world's most powerful leaders know about. Because, well … that'd be telling. In the words of one character: 'The gorge is the door to hell. And we're standing guard at the gate.'
It's maybe a little unusual that the gates of hell are guarded by only two people, but this is not social realism. It's a big silly monster movie directed with a stony face by Scott Derrickson and working with a script by Zach Dean that feasts on fantastic elements while dropping in lines from TS Eliot.
Honourable mentions: Love You to Death (TV, 5 February), Berlin ER (TV, 26 February).