Lynch (One) — Mubi.com
Director Jason S’s behind-the-scenes documentary about the late David Lynch working on his 2006 head-scratching opus Inland Empire is an intriguing film.
It does little more than watch Lynch at work, talking through ideas, smoking cigarettes and musing on everything from the film to life, the universe and meditation. It’s not an interrogation of its subject or his working methods but rather a patient, atmospheric look at moments from Lynch’s working process and the peculiarities that made him one of modern American cinema’s most singular and cult-worshipped creators.
Mother Mary — Rent or buy Apple TV+
It failed to ignite at the box office despite the talent assembled by director David Lowery (The Green Knight and A Ghost Story) for this intriguing and smart examination of the world of superstar pop divas in today’s internet fame era.
Anne Hathaway, giving arguably her best performance of the year, stars as the titular ageing pop legend Mother Mary, who is looking for new meaning to her art after an on-stage meltdown. When she meets up with her early-days fashion guru Sam (Michaela Coel in fine bitter-biting form), Mary thinks she’s doing the right thing by inviting her former collaborator back into the fold, but she soon discovers that old wounds have not healed.
What happens next demands patience and will not be for everyone, but there’s plenty of pertinent reflection on the new female-dominated pop world, the bonds between women and the price of success.
Lego Masters Australia — Prime Video
Everything is awesome, happy and wholesome in this reality TV series that’s refreshingly not interested in stirring conflicts between its participants but rather in highlighting their phenomenal skills at making magic from the beloved building blocks.
There are plenty of gimmicky setups — amateurs versus professionals and so on — but the real pleasures come from seeing the builds come to life and the two hosts of the Australian show offer a satisfying and easily entertaining balance between dad jokes and technical assistance to keep everything moving happily along.
Mississippi Mermaid — Prime Video
Some may find the plot of this 1969 film by Francois Truffaut familiar. That’s because it was remade in 2001 as the dismal Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas thriller Original Sin.
Truffaut’s version, based on the 1947 novel Waltz into Darkness by William Irish, stars long-time collaborator Jean-Pierre Belmondo as Louis Mahé, a wealthy tobacco plantation owner on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion. He is awaiting the arrival of his bride-to-be Julie Roussel (Catherine Deneuve), who he has never met but has been in correspondence with for some time. As the two quickly realise that they’ve both hidden truths from each other, things take a dark, twisty Hitchcock turn as suspicion overcomes them and they find themselves engaged in a bitter battle that could hold some hope for a possible future together.
The Professionals — Netflix
Not as celebrated as the great ensemble star-studded Westerns like The Magnificent Seven or the violent despair of The Wild Bunch, director Richard Brooks’ 1966 film features a stellar cast of legends, including Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Ralph Bellamy, Jack Palance and Claudia Cardinale.
Based on Frank O’Rourke’s novel A Mule for the Marquesa, it’s a slickly executed tale of four weathered mercenaries hired to rescue a kidnapped bride caught up in the turmoil of the Mexican revolution.
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