F1 gets the ‘Top Gun' treatment – and Brad Pitt driving at 290km/h
Top Gun: Maverick filmmaker Joseph Kosinski came to Formula 1 like many Americans: Drive to Survive. In that popular Netflix series, he saw the potential for a cinematic event, full of immersive thrills, the high stakes of the competitive racing world and the idea that your teammate could be your greatest rival.
'I don't think there's any other sport that's quite like that,' Kosinski says. 'It's ripe for drama.'
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Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
What to stream this week: Taron Egerton's fiery thriller and five more shows to catch
This week's picks include an arson thriller, an investigation of the OceanGate submersible disaster, season two of British crime drama The Gold and a revisit of Hannibal Lector. Smoke ★★★★ (Apple TV+) Few movie stars have come to streaming with more subversive purpose than Taron Egerton. The British actor, empowered by the Kingsman action-comedies and the Elton John biopic Rocketman, has used the 2022 Apple TV+ crime drama Black Bird and now this twisty, unconventional investigative thriller to play flawed men who want to believe they're the hero of their story. Egerton has become the great pretender of leading men, undercutting viewer expectations – especially here – and serving as a skeleton key for harsh revelations. The story of a hunt for a pair of serial arsonists in America's Pacific Northwest, Smoke starts giving off uneasy but intriguing vibes within the first episode. The dynamic between arson investigator Dave Gudsen (Egerton) and his new partner, police detective Michelle Calderon (Jurnee Smollett) is askew. The familiar, hard-nosed procedural stances feel forced – he's playing some kind of self-ordained role, she's carrying too much trauma. Dave and Michelle tell themselves truths that the story casts doubt on. And they don't trust each other. Like Black Bird, Smoke was created by the American crime novelist Dennis Lehane, whose books have become Clint Eastwood's Mystic River and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island. Lehane isn't doubling down on the grim realities, he's looking at them anew. Early on, Dave explains arsonists often act from a place of powerlessness, and the show digs into how that creates a hidden fury that must be satisfied. The story gives time, and explanatory scenes, not just to cops but also criminals. The nine-part series stages several fires, whether as an apocalyptic conflagration or a sudden nightmare that leaves skin literally peeling off a victim, but flames are seen as a kind of abyss. There's nothing there. It's interested in the people drawn to the abyss. Loading The tone is always sharp, the stakes genuine, but the mechanics hint at the absurd. Dave, who is writing a novel about an arson investigator, imagines himself playing the tough guy hero in his everyday life, and you see this. Delusions can become dominant. It's as if Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, circa Adaptation, have snuck into the writers' room. Smoke suggests that wrenching outcomes can have absurd seeds, and then it contrasts that with brutal bursts of corrupted reality. The show has hints of brilliance that can only appear with an idiosyncratic mindset, but it's also smart enough to staff the supporting cast with impressive actors, including Rafe Spall and Greg Kinnear, who can catch you out. Every episode from the second onwards ends with an unforeseen turn. That should be valued. From June 27. Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster ★★★★ (Netflix) Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the explicit causes and systemic failings that led to the June 2023 implosion of the tourist submersible Titan, killing all five people on board during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, are familiar and predictable: OceanGate co-founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who was piloting the undersea vehicle, was a narcissist who disdained safety regulations. He believed, like the Titanic, that the Titan was 'invulnerable'. The immense pressure at 3000 metres depth in the Atlantic Ocean proved otherwise. Loading What this feature-length documentary from director Mark Monroe provides is a level of detail and testimony that is damning. The narrative's thoroughness stands in contrast to Rush, who was obsessed with using an experimental carbon fibre hull to mark himself as a visionary. Rush had Bezos envy. He wanted to be acclaimed as a pioneer and brought start-up shortcuts to a technically demanding industry. Cutting between former employees, including one who was fired within 24 hours for raising serious safety concerns, and official investigators, the documentary makes clear it was only a matter of time before the hull of the Titan gave way. Monroe is circumspect with the four paying passengers, who lost their lives to Rush's hubris, but there's no deference to the latest instance of the CEO psychopath. 'He wanted fame,' a former staffer notes. 'And he's got it.' The Gold (season 2) ★★★½ (Stan) The first season of this British crime drama, which uses the real-life robbery in 1983 of a fortune in gold bullion as the starting point for an incisive and deeply entertaining take on ambition and order, was one of 2023's best shows. Creator Neil Forsyth returns for the new instalment, but it takes an episode or two to acquire a genuine rhythm, while the plot requires a lot more speculation. Nonetheless, with Hugh Bonneville exemplary as the chief investigator, there's still a muscular desperation and some mighty monologues. Mr Loverman ★★★½ (Binge and Foxtel) British actor Lennie James (Line of Duty) rightfully won the best actor category at the recent British Academy Television Awards for his portrayal of Barrington 'Barry' Walker, a London charmer of Antiguan birth whose ebullient life spans dual marriages: officially to his wife Carmel (Sharon D Clarke), and unofficially to his boyhood friend and soul mate, Morris De La Roux (Ariyon Bakare). This painfully nuanced series, adapted from Bernardine Evaristo's novel of the same name, captures Barry's belated attempt to finally deal with his deception after a lifetime of cultural exclusion and unacknowledged selfishness. Call Her Alex ★★½ (Disney+) This two-part documentary, directed by filmmaker Ry Russo-Young (Before I Fall), offers powerhouse podcaster Alex Cooper, who has taken Call Her Daddy from raunchy confession to chart-topping celebrity hub, the ultimate 21st century media compliment: an authorised portrait that celebrates her ascendance to mogul status. Framed around a live tour, Call Her Alex finds plenty to recount from Cooper's narrative, including a university sports career marked by sexual harassment and business difficulties when Call Her Daddy blew up, but it doesn't want to ask questions about who she is now, even as adulation furthers her ambition. Hannibal ★★★★ (Binge, Foxtel and Stan) Rewatch alert. It's 10 years since the third and final season of Bryan Fuller's exquisitely twisted reappraisal of author Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs characters concluded. Few shows since have come close to matching its vivid mix of baroque tableaus and psychological horror. With Hugh Dancy as FBI profiler Will Graham and Mads Mikkelsen as then leading psychiatrist (and surreptitious serial killer) Hannibal Lecter, this is a truly twisted take on the buddy (bloody) cop procedural. It's a show about empathy's cost and the need for transformation, told with an ambition that would worry today's streaming giants.
Perth Now
10 hours ago
- Perth Now
Fans celebrate ‘deeply powerful' statement for viral stars
After decades of performing for one of the NFL's most valuable franchises while earning less-than-glamorous wages, the much-loved Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have secured a 400 per cent pay raise. The wage increase is revealed at the conclusion of the second season of America's Sweethearts, the viral Netflix docuseries that follows the iconic team of dancers from auditions to the end of the NFL season. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders get pay rise. The series, which debuted its second season on Wednesday (US), chronicled the cheerleaders' push for better pay, putting a renewed spotlight on compensation issues that have long plagued NFL cheerleading squads. 'We're pleased, as you'll see in the series, that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were happy with the outcome,' Tad Carper, the Cowboys' senior vice president of communications, said in a statement. The show does not disclose the new wages taking effect next season, nor does it reveal the cheerleaders' current wages. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have secured a 400 per cent pay raise. Credit: Getty Instagram The Cowboys' statement did not disclose the exact pay amount, and a spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. According to the cheerleaders' website, they are paid for rehearsals, home games, promo appearances and shows. Jada McLean, who retired from the squad after having led the effort to secure higher pay, told The New York Times that she made $15 an hour and $500 for each appearance last year, based on experience. After the pay raise, she said, veteran cheerleaders could soon make more than $75 an hour. Following season 1 of America's Sweethearts, the cheerleaders have become universally loved, and fans were quick to celebrate the latest news. 'You know what??? They deserve it! Those girls starve themselves and work like slaves to become and remain a Cowboy cheerleader. Yaay them!' one fan said on social media. And another: 'Bout DAMN time!!!' And another: 'lol so does this mean they finally are making minimum wage?' Former cheerleader Kristin Westbrook said it was not just about the money, but respect. 'I wore the boots. I know what it takes,' she said on Instagram. 'Being a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader (2019–2022) meant training like an athlete, performing like an artist, and representing a billion-dollar brand — all while earning less than most would believe. 'This week's announcement of a 400% pay raise is long overdue — and deeply powerful. I'm so proud of the women on the current team who used their voices to spark this change. 'They've rewritten the story not just for themselves, but for every DCC to come — and, I hope, for every NFL cheerleader still waiting for fairness. 'This isn't just about pay. It's about value. It's about equality. And it's time the @nfl showed both. Let this be the beginning, not the exception.' McLean did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment. The massive fan reaction to the Netflix show after its debut last year helped bring a discussion around pay equity to the forefront, with many viewers questioning why the cheerleaders' salaries were so low. The Cowboys cheerleaders — along with other NFL cheerleading teams across the country — have continued to face fan scrutiny over the years for their low pay even though they contribute skilled labor and risk injury and are prominent faces of the Cowboys' brand. In 2018, former cheerleader Erica Wilkins filed a class action lawsuit against the Cowboys that resulted in a pay increase in 2019, from $8 to $12 per hour and from $200 to $400 per game. Wilkins, who cheered for the Cowboys from 2014 to 2017, claimed in her lawsuit that she sometimes made less than minimum wage and that the cheerleaders were paid less than the Cowboys' mascot. - With
Perth Now
12 hours ago
- Perth Now
Dove Cameron overcomes her nudity fears
Dove Cameron has overcome her fear of shooting nude scenes. The 29-year-old actress is dating Italian singer Damiano David, and he's encouraged Dove to overcome her fear of filming nude scenes. Speaking to NYLON, Dove explained: "My partner is European and has way less hang-ups on the purity complex than Americans do. "I went to the beach with him during a break while filming, and all the girls were taking their tops off. He was like, 'Nobody's going to be staring at you. You're totally safe. If you want to, then you're free to do that.' Not that he was giving me permission, but he was like, 'You've never done this before. It's normal.'" Dove also credits directors and intimacy coordinators for helping her to overcome her anxieties. The movie star said: "I think it actually helped me fast-forward in my evolution." Dove actually finds love to be "inspiring", and the actress - who has battled depression in the past - has admitted to feeling "very safe" with Damiano. She shared: "The thing about love is it's just, like, f****** inspiring. "I was enjoying this campy feminine moment that I was in, where I was suddenly someone's girlfriend. I was very healed, very in love, feeling very safe." Dove has actually recently returned to listening to some of her favourite artists from her young years. She said: "I was suddenly listening to what I grew up listening to: Marina, Robyn, Gaga, Lana. And I was like, 'Wait a minute. What happened to all that music that I rejected, that I grew up with, that I was formed by?' I was listening to that music again going, 'This would slap today. This would absolutely rule the radio. It's all I want to consume.'' Dove starred in Liv and Maddie, the Disney sitcom, between 2013 and 2017. But she recently confessed that it would be "f****** hard" to be on the Disney Channel these days. The actress - who also played the leading role in Disney's Descendants film franchise - told People: "I think even as an adult now, I would go back and be like, wow, this is f****** hard."
