STREAM
American television has the tendency to milk stories for all their worth, stretching thin plotlines over 13-episode seasons that can often turn into excruciating waiting games. That's why it's such a relief when British TV shows quietly show them how it's done, as they have with the new Netflix series Collateral. A co-production with BBC, the Carey Mulligan-lead drama takes place over a digestible four episodes, an example of brilliantly concise storytelling. Collateral follows the fallout of a mysterious random shooting, using that event to analyse racial tensions in a post-Brexit UK. Mulligan is a force of nature, and the level-headed pace of the show makes for an empathetic, deeply rewarding drama.
WATCH
Sebastian Lelio is a name you'll be hearing a lot over the next few years. The Chilean director's next film, Disobedience, a lesbian love story starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, is due later this year, and he's already wrapping up a remake of his own film Gloria, starring Julianne Moore. His most recent success, however, is A Fantastic Woman, which just won best foreign language film at the Oscars and is in NZ cinemas now. Starring the phenomenal Daniela Vega as a transgender singer and waitress who is rejected by her partner's family after his death, the film is a heart-breaking and beautiful look at the micro – and macro – aggressions faced by the trans community every day. It also features one of the best dance/dream sequences I've ever seen.
