The Squid Game — Netflix
This is another sharp allegory that dissects the glaring inequalities at the heart of the false promises of late capitalism in Korea, a country where these disparities are a depressing reality.
When a disparate group of struggling, indebted, ordinary citizens are cajoled into participating in a series of deadly children’s games for a life-changing prize and the amusement of a mysterious sadistic puppet master, they quickly realise that this is the best option they have for a chance to lift themselves out of the gutters of the rat race.
The violent, grim, cynical and singularly realised action drama smashes together elements of The Hunger Games, Battle Royale, Lord of the Flies and Snowpiercer into an intriguing critique of the evils of capitalism.
Lost Highway — Mubi.com
David Lynch’s 1997 surreal masterpiece stands the test of time as one of the more bleakly, beautiful and head-scratching macabre works of the era. Still difficult to describe but hard to forget, it’s also one of the few times in movie history that a director managed to make tinman Bill Pullman look like he could act.
The Chestnut Man — Netflix
A solid piece of twisty, grim Scandi noir in which a seemingly mismatched pair of Danish detectives must team up to chase a terrifying serial killer who uses the words of a children’s song to link his gruesome victims and taunt the cops on his trail.
The Nest — Showmax
Jude Law stars in Sean Durkin’s ominous and creepy show-don’t-tell psychological horror about the emptiness at the centre of the failed promises of Reagan era trickle-down get-rich-quick economic policies in the 1980s. When a self-made British stockbroker decides to uproot his family from the US back to London, his decision soon has a terrible and chilling effect on the psychological health of his family.
Seinfeld — Netflix
Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer bring their cringey 90s hair and outfits and their self-involved “yada yada yada” about every mundane aspect of middle-class Jewish pre-9/11 New York life to Netflix. They’re just in time to remind us that the “no learning, no hugging” show about nothing is still the show about everything and one of the most timeless and downright hilarious creations in sitcom history.
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