Netflix

Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action

TV, USA, 2025 – out 7 January

Fishing through the entrails of the infamous The Jerry Springer Show sure is entertaining. This two-part series dives into the muck and mire while reminding us that it’s above the material, weaving in commentary about how awful and depraved the whole thing was. Was the talkshow like a carnival? A zoo? A pre-social media race to the bottom? A modern incarnation of Colosseum battles?

Core to its success was producer Richard Dominick, who features prominently and reminded me of Faye Dunaway’s character from Network: it’s all about ratings ratings ratings, the ends always justifying the means. The docuseries frames Springer himself in an interesting light: as a sensible, fundamentally decent person who took a dignity-shedding route to fame and fortune.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Film, UK, 2025 – out 3 January

Is it even possible to dislike this cheese-loving inventor and his loyal pooch? I have previously written about the visual wit and soul-invigorating qualities of Wallace & Gromit and other Aardman productions. And while Vengeance Most Fowl doesn’t quite reach the giddy highs of the duo’s previous movie, Curse of the Were-Rabbit, it’s still an absolute delight, rich with wit and humour.

The plot revolves around Wallace inventing a frisky “smart gnome” that initially does a good (if overzealous) job helping around the house. But villain Feathers McGraw – a brilliantly fiendish penguin – hatches a cunning plan to hijack it and recruit an army of minors to wreak carnage. As usual, good ol’ Gromit must save the day.

Cunk on Life

TV, UK, 2025 – out 2 January

The, erm, brilliantly talented and learned Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) has previously helmed some fascinating studies of the planet and the human condition. In the hilarious Cunk on Earth, for instance, she posed deeply interesting questions such as: “Why do they say it’s a mystery how the pyramids were built, when it’s obviously just big bricks in a triangle?” Cunk’s new series will up the ante, contemplating life itself.

Honourable mentions: Missing You (film, 1 January), Inside Man (film, 1 January), Step Brothers (film, 1 January), Scent of a Woman (film, 16 January), Meet Joe Black (film, 16 January), Back in Action (film, 17 January).

Stan

Last Tango in Paris

Film, Italy/France, 1972 – out 22 January

Bernardo Bertolucci’s notorious erotic drama is far from a conventional depiction of Paris. The film has a strange and sleazy rhythm and an outlook somewhere between amoral and nihilistic, neither condemning nor excusing confronting – and at times shocking – behaviour.

The story revolves around a middle-aged American, Marlon Brando’s Paul, and a young Parisian, Maria Schneider’s Jeanne, who engage in a sexual relationship, the former initially insisting they don’t share their names. “I want to know nothing about you,” he says, attempting to make the apartment separate from the universe, a kind of bonking haven outside space and time. The great critic Pauline Kael correctly predicted that Last Tango in Paris will be debated “for as long as there are movies”.

The Silence of the Lambs

Film, USA, 1991 – out 26 January

It’s always a good time to return to that cannibalistic psychopath who haunts Jodie Foster. He’s of course the impeccably mannered if culinarily niche villain Hannibal Lecter, played by a once-seen-and-never-forgotten Anthony Hopkins. Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’ superb page-turner is a quintessential “villain gets inside the hero’s head” narrative, even if that hero – Foster’s trainee FBI agent Clarice Starling – has an icy sangfroid. If the content is lurid, Demme’s direction is elegantly detached: a strange fusion that comes together brilliantly.

Honourable mentions: Joy Ride (film, 1 January), The Neon Demon (film, 7 January), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film 8 January), The Magnificent Seven (film, 10 January), Barbershop 1-3 (film, 11 January), Swiss Army Man (film, 14 January), Throw Momma From the Train (film, 20 January), The Terminator (film, 24 January), The Silence of the Lambs (film, 26 January), Tom of Finland (film, 28 January), The Death of Stalin (film, 30 January), Fargo (film, 31 January).

Binge

The Pitt

TV, USA, 2025 – out 10 January

The core gimmick of this well-crafted medical drama, set in the emergency room of a Pittsburgh hospital, is that each of its episodes comprises one hour in the shift of its wise but wearied protagonist, Dr Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch (Noah Wyle). One of the show’s strengths is its depiction of medical dilemmas that are complex, unclear and sometimes have no positive outcomes – only those that are less bad than others.

Few real-life settings are as inherently dramatic as hospitals, allowing for an endless array of narratively justified crises. I’m five episodes in, and engrossed.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth

TV, 2025 – out 2 January

Reviews have started to trickle in for this five-part British drama focused on a father, Colin Firth’s Swire, who demands truth and justice after his daughter dies during the Lockerbie plane bombing of 1988, which remains the worst terrorist attack in the UK to date. Early word is positive: the Independent, for instance, described it as a story that “must be told” which “sheds light on the conspiracy of systems that leave emotional wounds untended”.

Honourable mentions: Dead Calm (film, 4 January), Casino (film, 6 January), The Burbs (film, 7 January), It Came From Outer Space (film, 28 January), A Different Man (film, 28 January).

SBS on Demand

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Film, USA, 2022 – out 1 January

When does activism become terrorism? When is violence morally OK? Thorny questions are at the core of director Daniel Goldhaber’s twitchy tale of a group of American climate activists who, believing all other reasonable options have been exhausted, plot to explode part of an oil pipeline in west Texas. Goldhaber uses a thriller-like format, emphasising actions rather than their intellectual and philosophical context.

The Royal Hotel

Film, Australia, 2023 – out 26 January

Kitty Green is a great auteur, and this dust-baked, beer-stained outback thriller about American backpackers (Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick) who take a job at a pub in the back of beyond was one of the best Australian films of 2023. Following in the cinematic footsteps of other unlucky foreigners – like John Grant from Wake in Fright and Teddy from Welcome to Woop Woop – they discover true horror down under comes from the locals. I didn’t love the ending but the film is a class act, tense as all hell, exploiting a lingering feeling that something bad is just about to happen.

Honourable mentions: Showtrial (TV, 1 January), The Darkness (TV, 9 January), The Yellow Sea (film, 10 January), Homicide: Life on the Street seasons 1-7 (TV, 16 January), Like Water for Chocolate (TV, 16 January), Sweet As (film, 23 January), The Consultant (TV, 23 January), Playing Nice (TV, 29 January).

ABC iView

Optics

TV, Australian, 2024 – out 29 January

This six-part comedy series follows two 20-something women who are promoted to run a PR firm after the boss unexpectedly dies. According to the official synopsis, their clients include “a manchild AFL player” and a children’s toy company executive who “sells exploding hoverboards”. It was written by (and stars) the comedy duo Freudian Nip – Vic Owen and Jenna Zerbst – alongside Chaser alum Charles Firth.

Honourable mentions: Utopia season 5 (TV, 1 January), Until I Kill You (TV, 1 January), The Split: Barcelona (TV, 3 January), Brian Cox: Life of a Universe (TV, 11 January).

Amazon Prime Video

You’re Cordially Invited

Film, USA, 2025 – out 30 January

Comedy stalwarts Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon headline Nicholas Stoller’s wedding comedy, the former playing the father of a bride and the latter the sister of a bride. An island resort off the coast of Georgia has made a terrible boo-boo, double-booking two wedding parties, prompting various clashes and hijinx. The trailer includes Ferrell wrestling with an alligator, continuing the great tradition: when in doubt, throw in an animal joke.

Rain Man

Film, USA, 1988 – out 1 January

Barry Levinson’s classic road movie has a complex legacy: it was hugely influential in bringing awareness to autism, but enshrined in the public consciousness a particular view of people on the spectrum. Dustin Hoffman’s savant character, Raymond, is extraordinarily talented when it comes to counting and memory, but also has many special needs, as his hot-headed estranged brother Charlie (Tom Cruise) discovers.

In essence the film is about two very different people connecting with some Important Life Lessons along the way. But Levinson doesn’t lay it on too thick and creates a warming, tender film.

Honourable mentions: Jurassic Park 1-4 (film, 1 January), Carrie (film, 1 January), The Rig season 2 (TV, 2 January), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (film, 7 January), On Call (TV, 9 January), Unstoppable (film, 16 January), Elevation (film, 28 January).

Disney+

Alien: Romulus

Film, USA, 2024 – out 1 January

The most recent instalment in the Alien franchise was a hit at the box office and generally received well by critics. But I was left underwhelmed and irritated by the film’s willingness to tick boxes and follow the template, doing exactly what you’d expect from an Alien movie. When a group of thieves, including Cailee Spaeny’s protagonist Rain, break into an abandoned space station, they discover it’s not really abandoned: there’s a rather angry, rather slimy monster on board.

David Jonsson delivers the most memorable performance as Rain’s best friend, who’s a robot or “synthetic” named Andy. But even this element has been done before – and better – in this franchise; see Michael Fassbender’s intentionally robotic performance in the far bolder (and, I think, underrated) Prometheus.

Honourable mentions: Goosebumps: The Vanishing (TV, 10 January), A Real Bug’s Life: Season 2 (TV, 15 January), High Potential (TV, 23 January), Paradise (TV, 28 January), Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man (TV, 29 January).

Apple TV+

Severance season 2

TV, USA, 2024 – out 17 January

I loved the first season of this boldly original sci-fi series in which office employees hate their job so much they undergo a procedure to “sever” themselves from their work, removing any memory of what they do for a crust. The key players include Adam Scott’s protagonist Mark, the enigmatically titled “Head of Macrodata Refinement” who manages a team of three for a company called Lumon. What that company actually does is the show’s core mystery. Things got chaotic as season one wrapped up, the words “to be continued” practically put in floodlights. Fingers crossed for season two.

Honourable mentions: Prime Target (TV, 22 January), Mythic Quest season 4 (TV, 29 January).