F1 The Movie — rent or buy Apple TV+
As they did for the Top Gun franchise with Top Gun Maverick, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski take a tried-and-tested formula and breathes new, loud life into it. Though it doesn’t reinvent the storyline of the racing movie genre, this big screen sports drama offers plenty of tyre-screeching, engine-roaring, white-knuckle thrills. It follows one-time F1 rising star Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who is cajoled by his former teammate Ruben (Javier Bardem) to take one last chance to achieve glory, decades after his career ended in a brutal crash. Buckle up and enjoy the ride as Sonny’s devil-may-care arrogance meets the ego of his young teammate, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris).
Superman — rent or buy Apple TV+
Few films have arrived carrying as much on their shoulders as director James Gunn’s much-anticipated reboot of the story of the Man of Steel. Starring David Corenswet as Superman, Gunn’s film adds new life and fun into the beloved superhero’s origin story, thanks to some dynamic world building and a strong grounding of the adventure in the present. It’s lots of escapist, high-flying fun and, though a little overstuffed at times, it mostly lives up to expectations.
The Thursday Murder Club — Netflix
Richard Osman’s light, breezy, bestselling murder caper gets a light screen adaptation carried by its stellar cast of veteran actors, including Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie. When a group of retiree friends who spend their time solving cold case murders for fun find themselves in the middle of a real-life murder, they’re off on an awfully big and exciting adventure as they find out whether they’re able to put theory into practice.
Katrina: Come Hell and High Water — Netflix
As the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina arrives this weekend, Netflix’s hard-hitting and angry docuseries — directed by Geeta Gandbhir, Samantha Knowles and Spike Lee — reminds us how the events that unfolded were due more to racial prejudice and anti-poor policies than the natural disaster. Building on the important work done by Lee in his excellent 2006 docuseries When the Levees Broke, the series paints a depressing picture of the ways in which structural racism and indifference to the plight of the mostly black and poor residents helped to create a situation that was so much worse than it should have been.
Jaws: The 50th Anniversary Re-Release Edition — on circuit
“You’re going to need a bigger screen,” roars the publicity slogan for the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s game-changing shark horror. It is back to scare the hell out of a new generation as effectively as it did in 1975, when it terrified swimmers around the world and helped to make us all think twice about dipping anything into the water.
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