Love, basketball and the lives of the two-percenters satirised
10 February 2023 - 05:00
byTymon Smith
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A scene from ‘Triangle of Sadness’. Picture: APPLETV+
Triangle of Sadness — Rent or buy from Apple TV +
Double Palme D’Or winning Swedish director Ruben Östlund takes a viciously black humour aim at the absurdities of the lives of the 1% in this disturbingly dark and biting satire. Set mostly onboard a luxury yacht and featuring one of the most memorably uncomfortable extended vomiting sequences in serious cinema history, it’s a singular treatise on modern economic inequality that goes into macabre, nasty Lord of the Flies territory. While it certainly leaves you laughing, it also leaves a bad taste in the mouth when you consider broader questions of where global society has come to and where it might be headed.
In The Mood For Love — Mubi.com
In contemplation, rather than celebration, of the month of love and all the messy permutations of relationships, Mubi.com offers a selection of films from all the corners of the globe stretching across cinema history. The directors range widely from French legends such as Francois Truffaut, Agnes Varda, Alain Resnais and Claire Denis to Abbas Kiarostami, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Xavier Dolan and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who offer myriad intelligent considerations of the age-old mysteries of love in all its bittersweet glories and tragedies.
Bill Russell: Legend — Netflix.com
On the basketball court, Bill Russell was one of the US’s most celebrated and awarded players during his legendary career as the defensive backbone of the fabled Boston Celtics team that dominated the sport for 11 seasons from the 1970s. Off the court, as director Sam Pollard’s archive-rich, superstar-studded documentary convincingly shows, he was also a pioneering activist for civil rights who inspired generations of sportsmen and political game-changers before his death in 2022.
The Woman King — Rent or buy from Apple TV +
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s solid, old-school action historical drama about the warrior women of the Dahomey Kingdom stars a grizzled, tough-as-nails Viola Davis and SA’s own Thuso Mbedu. It offers a satisfying, CGI-free tribute to impressive, strong-willed women who valiantly battled the intrusions of colonialism with everything they had.
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House — Netflix
Palm D’Or winning Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Da unravels a languidly paced but emotionally satisfying human drama in this series about the friendship between two young women who leave their hometown to take up their apprenticeship as geisha entertainers in the city of Kyoto. Filled with lovingly created Japanese dishes and heartwarming relationship lessons it’s a delicate ode to the small pleasures to be found in day-to-day life and the people we share it with.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Five things to watch this weekend
Love, basketball and the lives of the two-percenters satirised
Triangle of Sadness — Rent or buy from Apple TV +
Double Palme D’Or winning Swedish director Ruben Östlund takes a viciously black humour aim at the absurdities of the lives of the 1% in this disturbingly dark and biting satire. Set mostly onboard a luxury yacht and featuring one of the most memorably uncomfortable extended vomiting sequences in serious cinema history, it’s a singular treatise on modern economic inequality that goes into macabre, nasty Lord of the Flies territory. While it certainly leaves you laughing, it also leaves a bad taste in the mouth when you consider broader questions of where global society has come to and where it might be headed.
In The Mood For Love — Mubi.com
In contemplation, rather than celebration, of the month of love and all the messy permutations of relationships, Mubi.com offers a selection of films from all the corners of the globe stretching across cinema history. The directors range widely from French legends such as Francois Truffaut, Agnes Varda, Alain Resnais and Claire Denis to Abbas Kiarostami, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Xavier Dolan and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who offer myriad intelligent considerations of the age-old mysteries of love in all its bittersweet glories and tragedies.
Bill Russell: Legend — Netflix.com
On the basketball court, Bill Russell was one of the US’s most celebrated and awarded players during his legendary career as the defensive backbone of the fabled Boston Celtics team that dominated the sport for 11 seasons from the 1970s. Off the court, as director Sam Pollard’s archive-rich, superstar-studded documentary convincingly shows, he was also a pioneering activist for civil rights who inspired generations of sportsmen and political game-changers before his death in 2022.
The Woman King — Rent or buy from Apple TV +
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s solid, old-school action historical drama about the warrior women of the Dahomey Kingdom stars a grizzled, tough-as-nails Viola Davis and SA’s own Thuso Mbedu. It offers a satisfying, CGI-free tribute to impressive, strong-willed women who valiantly battled the intrusions of colonialism with everything they had.
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House — Netflix
Palm D’Or winning Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Da unravels a languidly paced but emotionally satisfying human drama in this series about the friendship between two young women who leave their hometown to take up their apprenticeship as geisha entertainers in the city of Kyoto. Filled with lovingly created Japanese dishes and heartwarming relationship lessons it’s a delicate ode to the small pleasures to be found in day-to-day life and the people we share it with.
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