Untamed — Netflix
Eric Bana, Sam Neill and Rosemarie DeWitt star in this man-against-nature mystery series created by The Revenant writer Mark L Smith and his daughter Elle. When a young woman’s body is discovered at the foot of the infamous El Capitan rock face in Yosemite National Park, Bana’s Kyle Turner, an investigator for the national parks department, begins an investigation that leads to him confronting the dark secrets hidden in the park, and long-buried secrets from his own past.
Brazil — Prime Video
Terry Gilliam’s black comedy, dystopian, sci-fi parable celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Starring Jonathan Pryce as a low-level bureaucrat with a recurring dream of himself as a heroic saviour, it still stands up as a visually inventive and original piece of cinema. The film, which depicts a society enslaved by a maniacal authoritarian regime, rings depressingly more true to life than it did when it first appeared.
This Boy’s Life — Prime Video
Michael Caton-Jones’ 1993 adaptation of the emotionally shattering memoir by Tobias Wolff stars Robert De Niro, Ellen Barkin and Leonardo DiCaprio, then a 19-year-old breakout star. The film remains a classic thanks to its carefully felt evocation of the 1950s and sensitive performances from its trio of stars. It is a simply told but moving story of a young boy, his long-suffering single mother and the havoc an abusive stepfather wreaks on their lives.
Tides of Youth: Two by Shinji Somai — Mubi.com
Japanese director Shinji Somai is revered by more celebrated colleagues like Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Kiyoshi Kurosawa for his quiet but emotionally inspiring coming-of-age films. Mubi.com offers a double bill of two of his 1990s’ dramas — Moving and The Friends — as testament to his skills as a director, who handles sensitively “adolescent conundrums”, the “tempestuous emotions of youth” and the certainty that after rain has fallen into each life, the sun will eventually return.
The Americas — Showmax
America’s favourite typewriter collecting reassuring dad, Tom Hanks, serves as narrator for this epic 10-episode docu-series that’s been five years in the making. It explores all the miracles of the natural world that make up the Americas — the world’s largest land mass and one that spans across both north and south poles.
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