Five things to watch this weekend

Amsterdam — Disney Plus

In spite of its pedigree — five-time Oscar nominated director David O Russell and a cast that includes Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington and Robert De Niro —¯this much anticipated film was quietly shunted off the circuit release schedule in 2022. That’s probably due to the lukewarm response it received from international critics whose expectations based on its on-paper merits were impossibly high.

It’s a pity because, though the plot of this 1930s set conspiracy crime caper is often maddeningly tough to keep up with, there’s a smart screwball energy that harks back to the best of the 1930s madcap comedies and its twists and turns offer winking tribute to the classic film noirs of the era.

It’s not a perfect film but there’s more to it than simple nostalgia and pastiche and its loosely “inspired by historical events” conspiracy story has far too much resonance in the Republican nightmare unfolding in the US.

White Noise — Netflix

Novelist Don DeLillo’s singular ability to dissect the anxieties and existential dread of life in the dying days of American empire continue to be just that much too elusive for satisfactory screen translation. That said, director Noah Baumbach and a stellar cast including Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Don Cheadle, do their damnedest to capture the chaotic energy and morbidly comic, philosophically bleak reflections of the author’s 1984 masterpiece here.

Though the results are a little uneven, there are plenty of memorably captured set pieces from the novel to appreciate and with its “Airborne Toxic Event”, paranoia and big-question focus on death, spectacle and the breakdown of families in the predigital consumer-obsessed 1980s, there’s still much that to savour.

The cast gives dedicated performances even if they’re sometimes stilted by fidelity to De Lillo’s distinctively wide-ranging existential ruminations. Overall it’s an intriguing attempt that fails to quite capture the spirit of its source material, which is still more satisfying and intelligent than it could have been in other hands.

Dutch Angle: Chas Gerretsen and Apocalypse Now — Mubi.com

The story of the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War epic is as legendary as the film itself and was the subject of the 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness — one of the best films about filmmaking.

Baris Azman’s 32-minute short documentary from 2019, offers another, little-told story from the many that surround Coppola’s film as told by Dutch photographer Charles “Chas” Gerretsen who was invited by the director to be the film’s official still photographer. It was an experience that would change Gerretsen’s life and catapult him to global recognition and he still has the tales and pictures to prove it.

House of the Dragon — Showmax

If you were one of the few people who managed to avoid watching HBO’s hyped Game of Thrones prequel during its weekly release in 2022 this is your chance to catch up.

The undeserved winner of this week’s Golden Globe for best TV drama series, it’s not without some of the back-stabbing political intrigue and gory fantasy thrills of its blockbusting predecessor but its unlikeable characters and soap-opera style family drama may stretch the patience long before it comes to its predictable conclusion.  

Welcome to Chippendales — Disney Plus

Kumail Nanjiani gives a committed performance in this drama based on the bizarre behind-the-scenes true story of the creation of the 1980s beefcake male-dancer troupe. There’s just enough nostalgia energy, sharp period detail and ruthlessly ambitious greed-fuelled palace drama to keep you entertained, if not always interested in the fate of its unpleasant cast of slippery customers.