Screening Guide: Drugs, survival-horror, Alan Partridge and The Rock

Dwayne Johnson as John Hartley and Ryan Reynolds as Nolan Booth in Red Notice.

Red Notice
(Netflix)

This glossy action-comedy is reportedly the most expensive film the streaming giant has produced. Word is it spent a whopping US$200 million on the film - roughly the equivalent of nine seasons of Squid Game.
Well, the biggest stars on the planet don't come cheap and Red Notice boasts the services of three of the biggest; Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot.
Here The Rock stars as an FBI profiler tracking down Gadot's glamorous cat burglar The Bishop. To catch her, he's forced to enlist his sworn nemesis, Nolan Booth, the world's greatest art thief, played by Ryan Reynolds and his sarcastic smirk. What follows is a cat-and-mouse heist flick that jumps around the globe in big-budget, explosive fashion as the two thieves attempt to steal the cheese.
Streaming from tomorrow.

Juliette Lewis as Natalie in Yellowjackets. Photo / Paul Sarkis/SHOWTIME.

Yellowjackets
(Neon)

It may have adopted the name of a breed of wasp but Yellowjackets borrows a lot from Lord of the Flies. This time it's a teenage girls' soccer team that find themselves crash-landed in the woods. With their lives at stake, the team splits into violently savage clans as it becomes a deadly case of survival of the fittest.
Fast forward 25 years and the now-adult women that survived the ordeal find themselves forced together again when the tabloids start investigating what really happened out in the woods all those years ago.
The star power of Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci leads this chilling, bloody and suspenseful survival drama which one critic called "about as addictive as television thrillers get".
Streaming from Tuesday.

Dopesick is streaming on Star from tomorrow.

Dopesick
(Star)

Dopesick could be the most infuriating and shocking show on TV right now. Based on the New York Times best-selling novel of the same name, this premium drama charts how Big Pharma's lies and manipulation directly led to America's opioid epidemic and crisis.
Michael Keaton, Rosario Dawson and Kaitlyn Dever lead this dramatisation that follows the Sackler family as their company Purdue Pharma brings Oxycontin to market by trumpeting its non-addictive qualities, something they knew to be untrue, the doctors who unwillingly turned their patients into drug addicts when they prescribed the "safe" drug, and the police agents who tried to bring the company to justice.
It's bleak but riveting viewing which is as addictive as the drug it's rallying against.
Streaming from tomorrow.

Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) and Jennie (Susannah Fielding) in This Time with Alan Partridge. Photo / Colin Hutton

This Time with Alan Partridge
(TVNZ OnDemand)

A-ha! The return of comedian Steve Coogan's egotistically clueless chat show host Alan Partridge is something worth talking about.
Taking its cues from shows like Frontline and The Larry Sanders Show, This Time takes you behind the scenes of a breezy, Good Morning-style TV show, where Partridge has been brought in as a guest host while the show's regular host is off sick. Sensing his chance to get back on TV he determines to steal the gig and win over audiences at all costs. This being Partridge, awkwardness, cringe and plenty of laughs follow.
One critic said, "This Time brings Alan back, in all his glory and his tragedy, at just the right time," and we're inclined to agree.
Streaming from Saturday.