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The Age
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
What to stream this week: Richard Roxburgh as Joh and five more to watch
This week's picks include a sun-soaked Spanish crime drama, a documentary about former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson, a potential Yellowstone successor and silly action thriller Heads of State. When No One Sees Us ★★★★ (Max) 'We're in Easter: pain, passion, expiation of sins,' notes a laconic medical examiner early in this compelling Spanish crime drama, and he's not wrong. Inner turmoil and the public acts that can't quite remedy them are essential to this lean eight-part series. Avoiding the icy realms of Scandi-noir, this is a sun-soaked procedural where guilt and responsibility play as two sides to the same coin. The show has an understated calm: even as the crimes accumulate, life goes on for better and worse. The plot engineered by creator Daniel Corpas fuses two different realms. The first is the town of Moron, where the community is gearing up for a headline week of religious celebrations that has police detective Sargeant Lucia Gutierrez (Maribel Verdu) in her ceremonial uniform even as a teenage boy goes missing. The second is the vast nearby United States Air Force base, a transplanted America where an IT specialist with security clearance is AWOL, necessitating the deployment of investigator Lieutenant Magaly Castillo (Mariela Garriga). Both women are to the point and inclined to put work above all else, including, in Lucia's case, a rebellious daughter and ailing mother-in-law. But even as they liaise, each retains a formality that emphasises how their professionalism anchors them. When No One Sees Us is a particularly observant show, and that starts with how Magaly and Lucia prepare, the way they finesse their uniform and crease their hair. They don't become partners, bonding with confessions. They're weighing each other up. Without rushing, much happens as the authorities search for links between the two disappearances. You get a sense of the systems that underpin Moron and the air base, and how they might be corrupted, plus the pressing weight of faith's burden. Images of religious ecstasy, whether divine or drug-induced, punctuate the narrative, and the Catholic imagery that adorns the town feels like a backbeat to the many sins characters bear like their own crosses. As with Netflix's outstanding recent mystery Dept. Q, little here is radical in outline. But this genre piece's detail and specificity – whether geographic, logistical, or familial – is immersive without becoming overwrought. A pair of Lucia's mismatched subordinates investigating the drug overdoses become a dry comic duo. You watch When No One Sees Us not just for motives, but to learn more about these disparate lives. Note how locals practice carrying an ornate ceremonial float, dozens of people in the dark underneath slowly shuffling forward. It's the striking encapsulation of this show: small steps made in shared hope. Joh: Last King of Queensland ★★★★ (Stan) The impact of Joh Bjelke-Peterson, the power-wielding premier of Queensland from 1968 to 1987, cannot be underestimated. A prototype populist who promoted sunshine state exceptionalism, Bjelke-Peterson was a farmer's son who became a cunning politician and stood atop a state ultimately revealed to be rife with corruption. It's easy to describe him as a one-off, but his beliefs endure and his playbook has been streamlined for 21st century use. Brisbane-born filmmaker Kriv Stenders combines his eye for the dramatic (Red Dog, The Correspondent) and documentary (The Go-Betweens: Right Here) in this thorough examination of Bjelke-Peterson's rule. Richard Roxburgh captures Bjelke-Peterson's essence in a series of 'dramatised' soliloquies, offering a can-do philosophy from the back blocks and dismissing historic criticisms. It's an illuminating accompaniment to the narrative, as if the archival voice is happily reclaiming prominence. Bjelke-Peterson was a satirist's delight, but Last King of Queensland always casts a sombre eye. Loading In collaboration with writer Matthew Condon, Stenders calls on various sources: historians and Bjelke-Peterson's children, former colleagues and Queenslanders brutalised by an unregulated police force because they believed in their right to demonstrate in public. There is no definitive description of Bjelke-Peterson's, but the many perspectives have a cumulative weight. Hubris and investigative journalism brought him down, finally overcoming a gerrymandered electoral system, but hindsight shows that Bjelke-Peterson's's brazen failings shouldn't be forgotten. The Waterfront ★★★ (Netflix) There's been no shortage of hopeful Yellowstone successors recently, but this drama about a fractured clan trying to keep their North Carolina commercial fishing empire afloat may be the best of a bad bunch. Dawson's Creek and Scream creator Kevin Williamson lays out lashings of plot, with every character in conflict with several others, starting with patriarch Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany) and his just-rehabbed daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist). Neither the escalations nor resolutions are particularly striking, but on this waterfront the churning complications get by via never relenting. Loading Heads of State ★★½ (Amazon Prime Video) Just three months after Viola Davis played the US president in the Die Hard at a global summit action-thriller G20, this goofy action-comedy rejigs the leadership formula with Jon Cena as a Hollywood movie star turned US president who gets into a world of trouble with the British prime minister (Idris Elba) after Air Force One is shot down with both on board. The two bicker and blow away bad guys in a formulaic take from Nobody director Ilya Naishuller that has only a hint of the gonzo energy it requires to transcend its limitations. Ironheart ★★ ★ (Disney+) This is the 14th and latest television show in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and thankfully it makes a more lasting impact than most of its lacklustre predecessors. Introduced in the margins of 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, science prodigy and inventor Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) returns home to Chicago with a barely functional armoured suit, disregard for official channels, and some flashback-friendly trauma. At just six episodes, this is a small-scale Marvel venture, leaning towards an adolescent audience, that's not tied to previous stories but does possess a fair measure of galvanising energy. Loading Watchmen ★ ★ ★½ (Paramount+) Published nearly 40 years ago, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel may well be the Citizen Kane of comic books. It's complex, bittersweet weave of historic vigilantes and alternate history conspiracies was too big for Zach Snyder's 2009 live action movie, but this two-part animated adaptation manages to encompass a little more of the storytelling and the underlying sense of tragic wonder. The voice work from Matthew Rhys (Night Owl) and Titus Welliver (Rorschach) is supple and sympathetic, while the visual palette is true to Gibbons' original panels.
Sydney Morning Herald
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
What to stream this week: Richard Roxburgh as Joh and five more to watch
This week's picks include a sun-soaked Spanish crime drama, a documentary about former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson, a potential Yellowstone successor and silly action thriller Heads of State. When No One Sees Us ★★★★ (Max) 'We're in Easter: pain, passion, expiation of sins,' notes a laconic medical examiner early in this compelling Spanish crime drama, and he's not wrong. Inner turmoil and the public acts that can't quite remedy them are essential to this lean eight-part series. Avoiding the icy realms of Scandi-noir, this is a sun-soaked procedural where guilt and responsibility play as two sides to the same coin. The show has an understated calm: even as the crimes accumulate, life goes on for better and worse. The plot engineered by creator Daniel Corpas fuses two different realms. The first is the town of Moron, where the community is gearing up for a headline week of religious celebrations that has police detective Sargeant Lucia Gutierrez (Maribel Verdu) in her ceremonial uniform even as a teenage boy goes missing. The second is the vast nearby United States Air Force base, a transplanted America where an IT specialist with security clearance is AWOL, necessitating the deployment of investigator Lieutenant Magaly Castillo (Mariela Garriga). Both women are to the point and inclined to put work above all else, including, in Lucia's case, a rebellious daughter and ailing mother-in-law. But even as they liaise, each retains a formality that emphasises how their professionalism anchors them. When No One Sees Us is a particularly observant show, and that starts with how Magaly and Lucia prepare, the way they finesse their uniform and crease their hair. They don't become partners, bonding with confessions. They're weighing each other up. Without rushing, much happens as the authorities search for links between the two disappearances. You get a sense of the systems that underpin Moron and the air base, and how they might be corrupted, plus the pressing weight of faith's burden. Images of religious ecstasy, whether divine or drug-induced, punctuate the narrative, and the Catholic imagery that adorns the town feels like a backbeat to the many sins characters bear like their own crosses. As with Netflix's outstanding recent mystery Dept. Q, little here is radical in outline. But this genre piece's detail and specificity – whether geographic, logistical, or familial – is immersive without becoming overwrought. A pair of Lucia's mismatched subordinates investigating the drug overdoses become a dry comic duo. You watch When No One Sees Us not just for motives, but to learn more about these disparate lives. Note how locals practice carrying an ornate ceremonial float, dozens of people in the dark underneath slowly shuffling forward. It's the striking encapsulation of this show: small steps made in shared hope. Joh: Last King of Queensland ★★★★ (Stan) The impact of Joh Bjelke-Peterson, the power-wielding premier of Queensland from 1968 to 1987, cannot be underestimated. A prototype populist who promoted sunshine state exceptionalism, Bjelke-Peterson was a farmer's son who became a cunning politician and stood atop a state ultimately revealed to be rife with corruption. It's easy to describe him as a one-off, but his beliefs endure and his playbook has been streamlined for 21st century use. Brisbane-born filmmaker Kriv Stenders combines his eye for the dramatic (Red Dog, The Correspondent) and documentary (The Go-Betweens: Right Here) in this thorough examination of Bjelke-Peterson's rule. Richard Roxburgh captures Bjelke-Peterson's essence in a series of 'dramatised' soliloquies, offering a can-do philosophy from the back blocks and dismissing historic criticisms. It's an illuminating accompaniment to the narrative, as if the archival voice is happily reclaiming prominence. Bjelke-Peterson was a satirist's delight, but Last King of Queensland always casts a sombre eye. Loading In collaboration with writer Matthew Condon, Stenders calls on various sources: historians and Bjelke-Peterson's children, former colleagues and Queenslanders brutalised by an unregulated police force because they believed in their right to demonstrate in public. There is no definitive description of Bjelke-Peterson's, but the many perspectives have a cumulative weight. Hubris and investigative journalism brought him down, finally overcoming a gerrymandered electoral system, but hindsight shows that Bjelke-Peterson's's brazen failings shouldn't be forgotten. The Waterfront ★★★ (Netflix) There's been no shortage of hopeful Yellowstone successors recently, but this drama about a fractured clan trying to keep their North Carolina commercial fishing empire afloat may be the best of a bad bunch. Dawson's Creek and Scream creator Kevin Williamson lays out lashings of plot, with every character in conflict with several others, starting with patriarch Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany) and his just-rehabbed daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist). Neither the escalations nor resolutions are particularly striking, but on this waterfront the churning complications get by via never relenting. Loading Heads of State ★★½ (Amazon Prime Video) Just three months after Viola Davis played the US president in the Die Hard at a global summit action-thriller G20, this goofy action-comedy rejigs the leadership formula with Jon Cena as a Hollywood movie star turned US president who gets into a world of trouble with the British prime minister (Idris Elba) after Air Force One is shot down with both on board. The two bicker and blow away bad guys in a formulaic take from Nobody director Ilya Naishuller that has only a hint of the gonzo energy it requires to transcend its limitations. Ironheart ★★ ★ (Disney+) This is the 14th and latest television show in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and thankfully it makes a more lasting impact than most of its lacklustre predecessors. Introduced in the margins of 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, science prodigy and inventor Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) returns home to Chicago with a barely functional armoured suit, disregard for official channels, and some flashback-friendly trauma. At just six episodes, this is a small-scale Marvel venture, leaning towards an adolescent audience, that's not tied to previous stories but does possess a fair measure of galvanising energy. Loading Watchmen ★ ★ ★½ (Paramount+) Published nearly 40 years ago, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel may well be the Citizen Kane of comic books. It's complex, bittersweet weave of historic vigilantes and alternate history conspiracies was too big for Zach Snyder's 2009 live action movie, but this two-part animated adaptation manages to encompass a little more of the storytelling and the underlying sense of tragic wonder. The voice work from Matthew Rhys (Night Owl) and Titus Welliver (Rorschach) is supple and sympathetic, while the visual palette is true to Gibbons' original panels.
Borneo Post
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Borneo Post
Conflict and contemplation
A photojournalist takes photos of what is left of a residential building, which was recently hit in an Israeli strike, in Tehran. — AFP photo 'YOUNGER children were quite shaken as we heard and felt the explosions. Our glass doors shook.' This was an excerpt of the report on Tuesday from my cousin living in Doha, similar to a multitude of accounts from Malaysians who observed Iran's missiles the evening before (June 23, 2025) targetting Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which hosts the United States Air Force, among others. Qatar has become increasingly familiar to Malaysians over the years: I was offered a job there in 2007 (after my stint in Washington, DC) but I didn't take it up because I was already committed to be home – and Doha did not yet have the glitz and glamour it is now famous for. Hundreds of Malaysians visited Qatar for the football World Cup in 2022, and today many of us fly Qatar Airways to connect around the world (two daily flights), the National University of Malaysia (UKM) has a branch there, and the frequency of official bilateral visits have been steadily rising. Thus, we associate Qatar with opulent luxury amid energetic development and geopolitical deftness, and that is why a single barrage of missiles becomes a significant talking point, even though it is absolutely minuscule in impact compared to what people in Gaza experience every minute of every day. Many games are being played, of course, in war just as in diplomacy, with shows of strength and submission being used either to pacify domestic audiences or intimidate enemies and allies alike. US President Donald Trump swore on live television in expressing anger with both Israel and Iran in violating the ceasefire that he claimed he had brokered, having ordered the use of sophisticated bunker-busting bombs to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, even though his presidential campaign stressed that he would not get the USA involved in more foreign wars. This, of course, after Israel began those attacks, its prime minister insisting (as he has been for decades) that Iran was imminently close to developing a nuclear bomb. In the end, a leaked Pentagon report claimed that the nuclear sites were not, as Trump claimed, completely obliterated – rather, the bombs pushed back Iran's progress by a mere few months. Iran, for its part, showed restraint in warning Qatar of its counter-attack beforehand, indicating a desire to respond, but also to not escalate things further. Domestically, there is no sign of an uprising against Iran's leaders (as the attackers had hoped), on the contrary as I write, there is reportedly a crackdown on internal dissent. Meanwhile, the leaders of Arab countries – many of whom have long regarded Iran as a major threat to their stability – continue walking the tightrope between dissatisfaction among their populations (for not doing enough to help Palestine, chiefly) and maintaining good relations with the West. It was just a month ago that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) feted Trump amid ostentatious scenes of camel and horse-lined motorcades and traditional dances, with billions of dollars' worth of business deals and investments announced – and sanctions on the transitional government of Syria lifted. Certainly, many Malaysians online and over 'teh tarik' are blunt in expressing admiration for Iran for appearing to support Palestine and confront Israel more robustly. Arab friends – who almost always characterise the tension as an ethnic (Arab/Persian) rather than a theological (Sunni/Shia) one – are quick to point out that they tried to confront Israel militarily before but failed, and now, the living standards are higher for millions around the region as a result of peace: 'You guys are far away, you don't understand.' Reactions elsewhere were keenly watched: China and Russia condemned the attack, but did not offer Iran any material support, while Europe meekly called for a return to diplomacy, characterised by several ambassadors in Kuala Lumpur as essentially a capitulation to President Trump that probably would not be rewarded anyway. But there is some interesting news from US politics, or rather New York politics in particular. On Wednesday, Zohran Mamdani emerged victorious in the Democratic Party primary for New York mayor, meaning that he will be the party's official candidate for the election in November. If successful, he would become the Big Apple's first Muslim mayor, and the first to describe himself as a democratic socialist, who has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Running on a platform of freezing housing rents, free buses, and free childcare, he has the opportunity to energise the Democratic Party by offering a new kind of leadership that is not reliant on billionaire donors that made it increasingly difficult to distinguish against the Republican Party. The reinvigoration of political parties is vitally important in a mature democracy, and perhaps his story will trigger bold thinking across Muslim democrats the world over. * Tunku Zain Al-'Abidin is Founding President of IDEAS. Gaza Israel middle east us war
Perth Now
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee calls on UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer to reveal the truth about the 1980 Rendlesham UFO incident
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is being called on to release the truth about the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident. Leading ufologist Mark Christopher Lee's new documentary film The Rendlesham UFO – The British Roswell sees him and collaborator Guy Thompson travel to the woodland in Suffolk, England, which was the location of a major UFO incident on 26 December 1980. The events occurred just outside RAF Woodbridge, which was used at the time by the United States Air Force, and military personell went to investigate "lights" in the surrounding forest. United States Air Force deputy base commander Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt even went on record to say he'd witnessed a UFO. The incident became headline news in the UK and books, films have been made with theories ranging from whether it was an actual alien visit, military testing, human time travellers from the future or a hoax. Mark and Guy's visit left them stunned to discover a non-stop electronic clicking noise, orbs floating through the forest and terrifying howling noises, which, for him, are proof the landing happened and something is still there. At the time late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would not reveal any findings, so now Mark has called on the current PM Starmer to open the files and give the public the truth. Speaking at the premiere of the documentray at the Raindance Film Festival in London, Mark said: "We're looking at the most credible UFO case in the world, in my opinion. People think it's Roswell, but it's not, it's Rendlesham Forest in Sussex in the UK. 'Something massive happened in 1980 and something is still happening in this location. 'We went there last year to film an investigation, we caught weirdness on the film, in sound, and its unexplained 'We're calling on the UK government to release the truth because Margaret Thatcher shut it down. She closed the case on it and she told a UFO researcher at the time, 'You can't tell the people.' 'Now is the time for Sir Kier Starmer to tell the people what the truth is about UFOs in the UK." Mark - who is a member of indie punk band The Pocket Gods - admits that he experienced a "strange presence" in Rendlesham Forest and whatever is still going on amongst the trees is a direct result of what occured back in 1980. He added: "There's a strange presence in the forest, I can't explain it. I think it might have something to do with the surrounding areas where a lot of secret government military testing went on. At Marsham Heath and other places they were testing new military technology, including this thing called copper mist. Something to do with that. 'Some people speculate that a portal was opened to other dimensions, I don't know, that seems a bit far out to me. But we picked up strange energies, the EMF reading was going crazy, we saw orbs, we heard sounds. Something weird was happening in Rendlesham Forest." The Rendlesham UFO – The British Roswell is available to stream on Amazon Prime now.
Evening Standard
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Evening Standard
Did Trump's strikes set Iran's nuclear plans back decades?
'Iran, for now, is not to be feared as an opponent — but its very weakness is evolving into a new threat to the stability of the region. Even now, America has not destroyed all of Iran's capability, in terms of know-how, personnel and, crucially, the stocks of enhanced uranium it may have transported out of the underground bases before the B-2 bombers had time to take off. The United States Air Force has therefore not 'totally obliterated' the Iranian nuclear effort, as the president claims. If there is indeed regime change, then the immediate effect will not be the swift appearance of a friendly, democratic government.'
