Feb is Looking Fab for Streaming! Here’s Why
It’s the shortest month of the year, but we’re not short of incredible viewing. In this month’s movie news, we’ve got an advanced screening that’s ripped straight from the news, a new film fund with a surprising Aussie twist, and our answer to why Emilia Pérez scored SO MANY Oscar nominations…
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Our Streaming Picks of the Month
We’ve peeked deep into every platform for some “all killer, no filler” streaming in Feb - because who’s got time for a boring binge. The only question is, what are you in the mood for?
Something truthful (or not so much)…
How’s your green juice intake lately? Whizz up a fresh jug for Netflix’s next take on a real-life con. After mastering the genre with “not quite who they say they are” takes like Dirty John and Inventing Anna, this new series (dropping Thursday) covers the Insta-rise and crushing downfall of Belle Gibson, the infamous Aussie wellness influencer turned convicted fraudster.
Shot entirely in Melbourne with support through the Victorian Screen Incentive, Netflix has been careful to tag the trailer with assurances that it’s “A True-ish Story” (can’t be too careful after those Baby Reindeer lawsuits). Gibson clearly courted her fame, and the perils of greedily forging a “media empire” are all in here. But what intrigues us most are the unintended consequences of her cancer-beating claims – like the unwell mums and kids who were suckered into her hopeless whirlpool.
The series stars Booksmart and Dopesick breakout Kaitlyn Dever (banging out an absolutely bulletproof Melb-fluencer accent – seriously, bravo) and even better, it was written and created by a trio of Australian women screenwriters. Give it a spin.
Something to mess with your head…
Sure, we’ve all fantasized about someone else doing the work for us. But Severance brings a whole new meaning to “work/life balance”. If you missed the first season, the dystopian, thriller-ish black comedy unfolds inside biotech corp Lumon, which cleaves its employees’ personalities into two totally separate halves: an “Innie” for work, and an “Outie” for everything else.
Yeah, that’s effed up. But there might be nothing on TV right now with such a “nailed it!” commentary on modern work culture. Dehumanization through bureaucracy? Yep. Corporate culture cranking up productivity to the max? Check. Where it’s addictive is the human relationships that bond to break through the corpy machine, like grass fighting its way out of cracks in the concrete.
With a killer cast and exec-produced (and often directed) by Ben Stiller, this brilliant series scored 14 Emmy nominations the first time around – and early word has it that Season 2 is even better.
Something sharp as a tack…
How’s your eye for detail? Probs nowhere near as good as Morgan (It’s Always Sunny’s Kaitlin Olson). She’s a single mum & nighttime janitor whose brain works like it’s on seven cans of Red Bull, with an amazing ability for recalling clues and sleuthing out suss behaviour. So when she accidentally solves an LAPD investigation overnight, she goes from dusting shelves to dusting for prints as a consultant, collaring crims at record speed.
If that concept sounds a bit on the nose, trust us when we say there’s more to High Potential than perky whodunnit plotting. The deeper series-long story follows an arc of Morgan’s missing first husband, and the series includes plenty of subtle observations on the pressures and stigma of single motherhood, alongside class dynamics (she’s “just the cleaner”) and her daughter’s internalised anger over the father she thinks abandoned them.
Bonus points: each episode is rapidly paced, with a high LOL hit rate, and Kaitlin Olson is straight-up gold as the laser-focused lead. It’s the low key superpower you never knew you wanted.
And keep your eyes peeled for…
Check-in is nearly open. The long-awaited third season of Mike White’s HBO anthology satire, set in high-end resorts around the globe, is just about to drop. And what better locale to follow up the deadly hijinks of Hawai’i and Italy than the tourist mecca of Thailand?
White created a surprise mega-hit in 2021, when The White Lotus’ first season found a post-COVID viewing audience who ate up the series’ scathing satire of privilege, wealth, and class inequality. It didn’t hurt that Season 2’s pitch-black look at sexual politics was even stronger (and that both starred everyone’s favourite comeback queen, Jennifer Coolidge).
What’s on the cards in Thailand? All White will say is that, while the first seasons aimed more at explorations of sex, this time around the focus is a different “big D” – death. Our mouths are watering harder than a poolside fountain for this one.
The White Lotus: Season 3 drops on February 17. Add it to your watchlist now so you don’t miss it!
A Sacred Screening Experience is Nearly Sold Out!
Tickets are almost GONE for The Seed of the Sacred Fig advanced preview screenings this Sunday! An Academy Award nominee for Best International Feature, The Seed of the Sacred Fig expertly laces a powerful script and performances with real footage from the Woman, Life, Freedom protests on the streets of Tehran.
The film has received some incredible five-star reviews, and also earned a double-page feature in The Australian and write-ups in Variety and Deadline about the travel ban imposed by Iran on the film’s lead actress. Director Mohammad Rasoulof himself is living in exile, having been forced to flee Iran after being sentenced to eight years in prison for “daring” to shoot his incendiary film.
"Its courage and relevance are beyond doubt."
~ The Guardian
"The world needs more films like this."
~ Vanity Fair
We’ve teamed up with Sharmill Films and our impact partners AUSIRAN to ensure The Seed of the Sacred Fig makes a positive impact beyond the movie screen. For every ticket sold through good.film, 50% of the profits are donated to AUSIRAN to support the Woman, Life, Freedom movement led by the Iranian people.
If powerful and timely stories speak to you, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a film you simply can't miss – and Sunday’s preview screening is your only chance to experience the film ahead of its Australian release on February 27. But only a FEW MORE seats remain in select cities, so grab yours now before they’re gone.
Buy your Seed of the Sacred Fig preview screening tickets here
What’s the Aussie Connection to a New Fund for Filmmakers?
You know our very own Cate Blanchett from her powerhouse roles like Elizabeth, Little Fish and Blue Jasmine. But if you ask us, she deserves an even bigger standing-O than the ones she got as conductor Lydia Tár, after making waves at the Rotterdam Film Festival this week with the launch of the Displacement Film Fund.
This ace initiative is set to empower refugee filmmakers and storytellers, giving them up to five grants of €100,000 each for short films that shed light on their experiences of displacement, aiming to bring these important stories into the mainstream. Cate, who's been a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador for nearly a decade, is chairing the selection committee.
The fund is launching at a time when audiences are more open than ever to fresh voices and perspectives – and Cate reckons short films are the perfect format for these displaced storytellers to grab their much-needed share of the spotlight. “There is a stigma around being a refugee,” Cate spoke at the festival’s open panel. “We want to help their perspectives reach the mainstream. The audiences are interested in their stories, and they’re not always given a chance to connect.”
Syrian filmmaker Waad al-Kateab, who crafted the intimate and Oscar-nominated documentary For Sama (pictured above) while she herself was displaced, said “When Cate mentioned this to me, I was over the moon. I remembered everything I have been through. It’s urgent, more than ever.” Speaking about filmmakers who would otherwise never get the chance to share their stories, al-Kateab says the Displacement Film Fund is “really going to make so much difference. It’s going to change their lives.”
Ultimately, the Displacement Film Fund is all about fuelling great screen stories that bring us closer to understanding the global refugee experience. We’ll have to wait to see them unspool at the Rotterdam Film Festival next year, but for now, you can check out Waad al-Kateab’s beautiful 98%-rated For Sama below.
Discover Where to Watch FOR SAMA on good.film
Our Guide to Little Gold Men
It’s like Christmas Day for movie lovers. The Oscar nominations dropped last week, and while the good old Academy can’t claim to nail it every time (we hear you, devastated Challengers stans!), there’s an undeniable golden shimmer that the Best Picture nominees of 2024 - shown above - can now all proudly wear.
We wrote up guides to five of these films, in case the Academy Award nominations have got you pondering why they made the cut. How did Timothée Chalamet (Best Actor) unlock the essence of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown? How did Demi Moore (Best Actress) turn The Substance into a weapons-grade takedown of the male gaze? And with a whopping 13 nominations, what makes Emilia Pérez the must-see movie of the year?
You can grab our takes on all of the above questions (and more!) with our good.film guides. Each week, we take a deep-dive into a new release that pushes the needle, and send it straight to your inbox. No spam. No AI. Just a good film review with a difference.
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