Five things to watch this week
‘The Gentlemen’, a quest for justice, long-lost cowboy lovers, drug smuggling and a dark comedy about the media
THE GENTLEMEN — NETFLIX
Guy Ritchie makes his entry into the series universe with this expansion on the premise and world of his 2019 caper. This time around, Theo James stars as Eddie Horniman, British son of an aristocratic family, who, after he inherits his family estate, is surprised to find that it is home to a booming marijuana growing operation. The syndicate that runs it has no plans to leave, and Eddie soon realises that he is in for some serious headaches and a series of confrontations with a cast of dangerous and eccentric madmen if he’s to have any hope of keeping his family’s fortune secure.
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TO KILL A TIGER — NETFLIX
Nominated for best documentary feature for the 2024 Oscars, director Nisha Pahuja’s hard-hitting film tackles the horrible topic of rape in India, a country where a rape is reported every 20 minutes and only 30% of cases result in successful convictions. The story centres on Ranjit, an Indian farmer, who after his 13-year-old daughter is brutally gang raped, embarks on a furious quest for justice that sees him having to fight against the prejudices of his community and the indifference of the justice system.
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STRANGE WAY OF LIFE — RENT OR BUY FROM APPLE TV +
Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal star in this gently funny short film from Spanish master of mischief Pedro Almodóvar, as a pair of long-lost cowboy lovers who reconnect after many years. Though it might end just at the point at which it gets interesting and seem as if it’s the first part of a longer film, its two leads give enjoyably dedicated performances and Almodóvar’s visual flair and melodramatic touches help to make it an entertaining if not completely emotionally satisfying affair.
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ZEROZEROZERO — SHOWMAX
It’s taken far too long for this sprawling crime drama from 2020 to be readily available for SA viewers and, though it only ran for one season, Italian creator Leonardo Fasoli’s international-spanning examination of the web of modern drug smuggling is a thoroughly engaging and gripping show. Written by renowned journalist and enemy of the Italian mafia Roberto Saviano, the story focuses on a shipment of cocaine from South America and draws in a wide cast of intriguing characters who are all linked with the fortune of the shipment to weave an engrossing and often brutal narrative that shows the ways in which players across the world and at every level of the drug trafficking business are interlinked.
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NETWORK — PRIME VIDEO
Almost five decades since Peter Finch immortalised the line, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more,” in legendary screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky’s dark comedy about the US media industry, Sidney Lumet’s film remains a classic and a seldom-bettered, bitterly funny takedown of the nefarious damage caused to journalism by ruthless corporatism. Finch, who won a posthumous Oscar for his role as disillusioned, end-of-his-tether-and-career news anchor Howard Beale, leads a brilliantly shining cast that includes Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall and veteran Hollywood Golden Age star William Holden. Not all its attitudes — especially towards radicals and women — may have stood the test of time but its righteously angry attack on its central target still offers lessons that are as depressingly relevant today as they ever were.
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