Christian Bale as Augustus Landor in The Pale Blue Eye. Photo / Netflix
Christian Bale as Augustus Landor in The Pale Blue Eye. Photo / Netflix
THE PALE BLUE EYE
Netflix
Unlike Netflix’s other big murder-mystery movie Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery which is played for laughs. The Pale Blue Eye takes its crime deadly seriously. There are no nods, winks or meta-humour to be found in this purposefully sombre, gothic horror that’s set in the chilly winter of 1830. Where it is similar, however, is that it too has assembled an all-star cast to puzzle over the discovery of a hanged cadet whose heart has been cut out from his body at a military academy. Academy Award winner and former Batman Christian Bale stars as the gruff, jaded detective called in to work the case and Harry Melling stars as a helpful cadet who assists him named Edgar Allan Poe. Yes, that one. They’re joined by Gillian Anderson, Timothy Spall, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Robert Duvall, among others. Streaming from tomorrow.
Dame Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent lead the action in this heartwarming true-crime story. That’s a genre mash-up you don’t see too often, typically because crimes are bad. Here, it was a means to an end. Broadbent stars as Kempton Bunton, an unassuming, happy, 60-year-old taxi driver, who pulled off an incredible art heist, becoming the only person to successfully swipe a painting from London’s National Gallery.
Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren in The Duke.
Once he had the painting, a Goya portrait of the Duke of Wellington, he ransomed it. Only, he didn’t ask for personal riches. Instead, he demanded that the Government invest more in elderly care and that they drop the TV licence fee for pensioners. Critics were delighted by this charming frolic of a film with one calling it “gloriously witty, and comic... a wonderful film”. Streaming from Sunday.
Aussie irreverence meets the superhero genre in this new adult-orientated animated series. The show follows Kevin, a middle-aged dad by day and the masked crime-fighter Koala Man by night. Unlike his more famous peers from Marvel and DC, Koala Man has no real powers to speak of, unless you count being a stickler for rules. His secret identity is also not much of a secret as everyone knows who he is.
Kevin, a middle-aged dad, is Koala Man by night.
The art style is pretty basic so you won’t be tuning in for world-class animation. Instead, the appeal is the firecracker-quick Aussie humour and the bizarre situations Koala Man’s obsessive rules policing gets him into. Like most animated shows there are also plenty of celeb cameos to watch out for including Hugh Jackman, Miranda Otto, Hugo Weaving as well as our very own Jemaine Clement and Rachel House. Streaming from Monday.
