Netflix

Squid Game season 2

TV, South Korea, 2024 – out 26 December

Squid Game was a smash-hit sensation nobody saw coming, although the dystopian survival tournament genre has many well-known precedents – from Battle Royale to The Hunger Games and Australia’s own Turkey Shoot. Netflix is no doubt keen for the follow-up series to also reach stratospheric heights, queueing it up for a Boxing Day release.

The story continues to focus on former gambling addict Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), who, having survived the previous games, returns for another bout, determined to unearth the truth behind the competition and the company that runs it. Season one transformed innocuous childhood games such as “red light, green light” into gnarly adult horror. What games will the second reinvent – hide and seek? Hopscotch? Musical chairs? Hot potato?!

Dune: Part Two

Film, US, 2024 – out 12 December

Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel is truly epic, as every critic and their dog noted. The first does much of the heavy lifting, plot and context wise, and the second smashes it out of the park with grandiose spectacle. Timothée Chalamet returns to the starring role as Paul Atreides, a messiah-like figure fighting for the Fremen tribe, facing off against foes such as Austin Butler’s Feyd-Rautha, the creepy nephew of Stellan Skarsgård’s mud-bathing despot Baron Harkonnen. Villeneuve is stingy with the sandworm scenes, making us relish every one of them.

Black Doves

TV, UK, 2024 – out 5 December

Billed by Netflix as “an early Christmas gift”, this six-episode, London-set spy series pairs Keira Knightley with Ben Whishaw, as a British undercover agent and former assassin respectively. After the lover of Knightley’s Helen Webb is killed, Whishaw’s Sam is tasked with keeping her safe. Both characters become ensnared in a knotty plotline involving government conspiracies and good old-fashioned jiggery-pokery.

Honourable mentions: Paper Dolls (TV, out now), That Christmas (film, 4 December), Churchill at War (TV, 4 December), Birdeater (film, 7 December), Spy (film, 8 December), No Good Deed (TV, 12 December), Carry On (film, 13 December), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (film, 26 December).

Stan

Significant Others

TV, Australia, 2022 – out 19 December

This six-part mystery-drama created by Tommy Murphy and directed by Tony Krawitz landed on the ABC in 2022, but I don’t think it got the attention it deserves, so I’m plugging it again here. The show revolves around a fractured family brought together again, at least in terms of physical proximity, by the disappearance of Jacqueline McKenzie’s Sarah, presumed to have drowned in the ocean during an early morning swim. I love how Krawitz and cinematographer Hugh Miller bathe the frame in blue. An obvious choice, perhaps, given the show’s connection to water, but it’s also a colour that encourages contemplation and suits the drama’s rich and moody vibes.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Film, Italy, 1966 – out 17 December

Sergio Leone is one of cinema’s most distinctive stylists, best known for spaghetti westerns. The Italian auteur directed several great films, with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly considered by many as the cream of the crop: a Civil War-set kablamo of guns-a-blazin’ action, tense drama and angry dialogue. The story follows three key characters played by Clint Eastwood (“the good”), Lee Van Cleef (“the bad”) and Eli Wallach (“the ugly”), who famously face off in a sensationally great cemetery-set ending. The editing, the cinematography, Ennio Morricone’s big brassy score … magnificent!

Honourable mentions: My Best Friend’s Wedding (TV, out now), Earth Abides (TV, 2 December), Click (film, 2 December), The Drover’s Wife (film, 6 December), Burning (film, 7 December), Lantana (film, 8 December), Mandy (film, 10 December), Death Wish (film, 12 December), Creed 1-3 (film, 14 December), Rocky 1-6 (film, 14 December), Man on Wire (film, 15 December), A Fistful of Dollars (film, 17 December), Donnie Darko (film, 19 December), Legally Blonde 1 and 2 (film, 20 December), The Hobbit 1-3 (film, 25 December), Bump season 5 (TV, 26 December), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film, 29 December), District 9 (film, 30 December), Locke (film, 31 December).

Prime Video

The Sticky

TV, 2024, Canada – out 6 December

For years hordes of online maple syrup enthusiasts have been clamouring for a TV show about the “Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist”. Alright, maybe not. This show is based on an amusing real-life crime story involving an elaborate plan to “secretly drain the province of Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserve and then sell the illicit product”. Margo Martindale leads the cast as maple farmer Ruth Landry who breaks bad, in a very sticky way. With memories of Jerry Seinfeld’s terrible Pop-Tarts movie still lingering, now’s the time for a rich, sweet, breakfast-themed palate cleanser.

Longlegs

Film, US, 2024 – out 10 December

Nicolas Cage is virtually unrecognisable in this twisted blend of police procedural and gut-turning horror, his face melted like an extreme burns victim, his demeanor pure evil personified. So … good times! Maika Monroe stars as a potentially clairvoyant FBI agent tasked with tracking down Cage’s Satan-worshipping serial killer, in a case involving a mysterious doll and a spate of murder-suicides. The film was a massive hit, partly because of a clever marketing campaign that withheld key details including Cage’s appearance. Longlegs is precisely the 31st best Nic Cage movie, according to an irrefutable series of metrics – developed by yours truly – known as “The Cage Gauge.”

Honourable mentions: Love Actually (film, out now), Absolution (film, 3 December), Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Culpa Tuya (film, 27 December), Secret Level (TV, 10 December), Chaos Walking (film, 17 December), Singham Again (film, 27 December).

SBS on Demand

Firestarter – The Story of Bangarra

Film, Australia, 2021 – out now

The magic of theatre cannot be captured on screen; it’s special partly because it’s live and ephemeral. Thus directors Wayne Blair and Nel Minchin cannot really capture the magic of the Bangarra Dance Theatre in their film about it, but what a great production it is nonetheless: a rousingly made documentary full of colour and motion. Unpacking the story of the dance company, including of course its formation in 1989, the film, as I’ve previously written, is “a beguiling kind of history lesson and an engrossing, fast-moving celebration of artistic creation”.

Amadeus

Film, US, 1984 – out now

Miloš Forman’s film about Mozart (Tom Hulce) and the lesser known composer Antonio Salieri (F Murray Abraham) is very far from a stuffy period piece; it’s wonderfully splashy and ostentatious. In this version of history, Mozart is a silly, childish jokester with an outrageous laugh; the more civil Salieri is convinced that this “obscene giggle” is evidence that something has gone terribly wrong with the universe. How could such a talented person behave like an idiot? Tom Hulce bizarrely played Mozart with John McEnroe as a reference point, but it worked a treat: the results are crazy-good.

Daddy Issues

TV, UK, 2024 – out 19 December

Aimee Lou Wood, who was so warm and funny as Aimee in Sex Education, leads this comedy series as a hairdresser who becomes pregnant after a random hook-up and, desperate to keep her rental apartment, asks her father (David Morrissey) to move in with her. The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan describes it as “daft, honest, funny and tinged with bleakness”.

Honourable mentions: Triangle of Sadness (film, 1 December), Aftersun (film, 1 December), Thelma & Louise (film, 1 December), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (film, 1 December), The Importance of Being Earnest (film, 1 December), To Die For (film, 1 December), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (film, 1 December), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (film, 1 December), When Harry Met Sally (film, 6 December), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film, 15 December), The Night Manager (TV, 18 December), Miss Fallaci (TV, 19 December), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (film, 31 December), All the President’s Men (film, 31 December), Dog Day Afternoon (film, 31 December), Argo (film, 31 December), Purple Rain (film, 31 December), The Lost Boys (film, 31 December), The Witches of Eastwick (film, 31 December), The Year of Living Dangerously (film, 31 December).

ABC iview

Douglas is Cancelled

TV, UK, 2024 – out now

This exhilaratingly sharp four-parter created and written by Steven Moffat follows a newsreader whose life spirals into crisis after he makes a sexist joke at a wedding – which he can’t remember, because he was a bit sozzled. As a social media pile-on grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for Douglas (Hugh Bonneville) to know what to do, and how to tell friend from foe. Is his fellow presenter Madeline (Karen Gillan) on his side, or out to get him? Will the network hang him out to dry?

Moffat boldly combines laugh-out-loud dialogue with thriller-like elements that swing into full gear in its second half. The two lead actors are perfectly cast and the script navigates a minefield of modern sensitivities, giving Douglas is Cancelled a dangerous energy. I watched it all in a single viewing.

Whiplash

Film, US, 2014 – out 6 December

Who could forget JK Simmons’ performance as jazz instructor Terence “not quite my tempo!” Fletcher? The genius of his wickedly entertaining stroke of vein-popping acting is to infuse the role with the fury of the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket. Fletcher’s the kind of man you can’t tolerate in person, but can’t look away from on screen. He gives whiplash, indeed, to Miles Teller’s protagonist Andrew, a drummer at a prestigious music school who rubs up against Fletcher’s teaching style, which involves screaming loud enough to wake the dead. The characters are vividly formed and the drama crackles.

Honourable mentions: Love Me season 1 (TV, 1 December), The World’s Most Powerful Prince (TV, 2 December), Bluey Minisodes (TV, 8 December), The Forest (TV, 16 December), The Yearly With Charlie Pickering (TV, 18 December), Tracy: A Force of Nature (TV, 23 December), Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (TV, 31 December).

Binge

How to Make Gravy

Film, Australia, 2024 – out now

Can songs really be adapted into feature-length films? As I discuss in my review of How to Make Gravy, which of course originated as a beloved ballad from Paul Kelly, the process of turning a song into a film “inevitably treats the lyrics as a series of reference points, with an obvious temptation to be very visual and literal”. Thus, in director Nick Waterman’s mawkish Christmas drama, there’s reverential shots of gravy being served and plot elements incorporating the acquisition of ingredients, such as red wine (easier said than done when the chefs are in prison). Daniel Henshall can be a wildly great actor (consult Acute Misfortune and Snowtown) but his performance, as the incarcerated protagonist Joe, is very much on his B side.

Laid

TV, US, 2024 – out 19 December

So far I’ve only watched the first episode of this American remake of Marieke Hardy and Kirsty Fisher’s Australian show of the same name. But my appetite has very much been whet by this darkly funny series with a very entertaining lead performance from Stephanie Hsu. She plays Ruby, a woman who discovers several men she’s slept with have died, leading her to believe everyone on her “sex timeline” is at risk.

The show establishes a good groove from its very first scene, in which Ruby confronts a bank teller – who she had a brief sexual encounter with – and breaks the news that he may be dying. Hsu’s take on an “own worst enemy” character feels fresh, and full of interesting contradictions. Ruby is highly strung in some ways, unusually carefree in others; she’s charming and forthright, but also anxious and insecure.

Honourable mentions: Bookworm (film, 2 December), Call Me Ted (TV, 11 December), Dune: Part Two (film, 12 December), Godzilla x Kong: The Empire (film, 26 December).

Disney+

Skeleton Crew

TV, US, 2024 – out 3 December

No one can keep track of the Star Wars universe any more, except perhaps its most devoted appreciators. The official synopsis of this family-friendly series describes it as a “journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange galaxy”. In this galaxy they meet Jude Law’s enigmatic Jod Na Nawood, who pledges to help them find their way home. The trailer includes Law reciting lines such as “we have to move fast!” and “a crew of murderous pirates is coming”. Yawn. I mean: how exciting!

Dream Productions

TV, US, 2024 – out 11 December

Chronologically based between Inside Out and Inside Out 2, this short, snackable, four-episode series (with a cumulative running time of 82 minutes) extends Pixar’s beloved franchise about lil characters who work inside the mind of a girl named Riley, literally managing her emotions. Dream Productions has a fun twist, focusing on the construction of Riley’s dreams, which are produced by an acclaimed director (voice of Paula Pell).

Honourable mentions: Sugarcane (film, 10 December), Elton John: Never Too Late (film, 13 December), Blink (film, 17 December), What If...? season 3 (TV, 22 December).

Apple TV+

Fly Me to the Moon

Film, US, 2024 – out 6 December

The makers of this Nasa-themed, 60s-set romantic comedy obviously intended to woo us with the sheer charm of its two lead actors: Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson. They play, respectively, the launch director at the Kennedy Space Center and a marketing executive brought on to rebrand the space program and “sell the moon” to the general public. The film has generated a mixed response from critics: Peter Bradshaw describes it as “relentlessly mediocre and misjudged” while Variety’s Peter Debruge calls it a “smarter-than-it-sounds” crowd-pleaser “of the Rock Hudson/Doris Day variety”.

Honourable mentions: Wonder Pets: In the City (TV, 13 December), The Secret Lives of Animals (TV, 18 December).