Surviving Ohio State — Showmax
In 2020, journalist L Jon Wertheim published an article for Sports Illustrated entitled “Why aren’t more people talking about the Ohio State sex abuse scandal?”. The story exposed horrific allegations of sexual abuse of athletes and patients at the college by Dr Richard Strauss, who was employed as a physician in the athletics department and student health centre from 1978 to 1998. As a 2019 investigation revealed, Strauss abused at least 177 male students and patients during that time.
Oscar-winning director Eva Orner (Taxi to the Dark Side) takes a deep dive into the scandal, beginning with Wertheim’s article and discovering new allegations along the way to offer a deeply depressing and shocking portrait of Strauss’ terrible crimes and the system that allowed them to continue for so long.
To Live and Die in LA — Prime Video
American New Wave player William Friedkin made this cult classic crime noir in 1985 and it remains one of the era’s best coke-fuelled action classics.
William Petersen stars as Richard Chance, a rebellious, reckless Secret Service agent, who vows revenge by any means necessary after his partner is killed. He pursues Willem Dafoe’s violent counterfeiter Eric Masters through the dark underbelly of Los Angeles.
Chance’s new by-the-book partner (John Pankow) is torn between saving Chance from his demons and letting him have his final revenge. Featuring a legendary car chase, plenty of existential angst and a peak 1980s’ soundtrack, it’s a brooding obsessional revenge drama.
Viet and Nam — Mubi.com
Director Minh Quý Truong’s 2024 LGBTQ+ romantic drama offers a poignant love story set against the shadows of Vietnam’s violent wartime history.
In the pitch-black subterranean passages of a northern Vietnam coal mine, miners Viet and Nam begin to share stolen intimate moments that blossom into a romance. Though they must be careful, Viet and Nam cannot deny that they have found each other, despite plenty of obstacles, and hope that love can really conquer all.
Gerhard Richter Painting — Mubi.com
The monumental abstract paintings of German master Gerhard Richter form the backdrop for director Corinna Belz’s quietly patient 2012 documentary.
Long scenes of the painter are intercut with interviews with art world experts and critics to make sense of Richter’s singular process and creative expression, and his superstar status within the cultural zeitgeist of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Unfamiliar — Netflix
There are definite echoes of last year’s Steven Soderbergh spy caper Black Bag in this shadow-drenched German series. It is centred on two ex-spies who operate a safe house, leaving their past mostly behind them until they are forced to go on the run from hitmen, Russian agents, past lovers and their own agency in a race to save themselves and their marriage.
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