The Best Movies and TV Shows New to Netflix, Amazon and Stan in Australia in November – The New York Times
Every month, streaming services in Australia add a new batch of movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for November.
New to Netflix
November 1
‘American Son’
Shortly after the playwright Christopher Demos-Brown’s “American Son” closed on Broadway earlier this year, the director Kenny Leon reconvened the cast to film this show, shooting without an audience and mostly on a single set. Kerry Washington plays a worried mother with a missing teenage son. Over the course of one intense night, she becomes increasingly frustrated with an unhelpful Miami police officer (Jeremy Jordan), who seems more inclined to answer questions from her estranged white husband (Steven Pasquale). As provocative and complex as the original production, this movie is a valuable document of a major new play.
‘The King’
Timothée Chalamet plays King Henry V in this thoughtful reimagining of William Shakespeare’s “Henriad” cycle of history plays. Directed by David Michôd and co-written by Michôd with Joel Edgerton (who also plays the young monarch’s loving, boisterous adviser Falstaff), “The King” features a modernized spin on Shakespeare’s language, and has a more streamlined narrative. The tweaks mostly freshen the material, distilling the original texts into the story of an underprepared rich kid, forced to rise to the occasion and become a leader.
‘Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!’
Last year, the “Queer Eye” gang did a one-off episode in New South Wales. This year, the between-season palate-cleanser will be this four-episode mini-series, shot in Tokyo. If the special is anything like its predecessors, while the show’s five self-improvement experts are working to help some locals take better care of themselves, they’ll also be absorbing a lot of the culture.
November 8
‘Green Eggs and Ham’
Very loosely based on a perennially popular Dr. Seuss picture-book, the animated series “Green Eggs and Ham” features the voices of Adam Devine as the enthusiastic gourmand Sam-I-Am, and Michael Douglas as the persnickety Guy-Am-I. Rather than focusing entirely on Sam’s attempts to get Guy to eat the title breakfast, this show is more of a road trip adventure. Characters speed across a colorful, beautifully rendered Seussian landscape, encountering allies and enemies voiced by the likes of Ilana Glazer, Jeffrey Wright, Diane Keaton and John Turturro.
November 15
‘Klaus’
Netflix will be adding a lot of new original Christmas movies to the service this holiday season, but likely none will be as ambitious as “Klaus,” an expensive and handsome-looking animated feature with the potential to become an Oscar nominee. J.K. Simmons voices Santa Claus, who at the start of this origin story is a reclusive carpenter in an unfriendly Arctic island village. Jason Schwartzman voices a bumbling postman, who hatches a scheme to get the community to loosen up, and in the process inadvertently inspires the annual Christmas traditions that so many people know and love.
November 17
‘The Crown’ Season 3
After two seasons of Claire Foy playing Queen Elizabeth II in the period drama “The Crown,” Olivia Colman takes over for season three, which will follow the queen’s reign from the late ’60s to the late ’70s. Tobias Menzies will be playing her husband Prince Philip, while Helena Bonham Carter will take on the role of her sister Princess Margaret. This was an eventful decade for the monarch, as England went through dramatic cultural changes and labor strife, at the same time that the young Prince Charles began preparing — under intense public scrutiny — for the job of one day replacing his mother.
November 22
‘Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings’
The country music singer-songwriter Dolly Parton has already seen some of her more story-driven songs turned into successful TV movies. Now she’s serving as executive producer on the anthology series “Heartstrings,” featuring a variety of approaches to converting her music into television. In the first season, Parton hits like “Jolene,” “Two Doors Down” and “Cracker Jack” will be brought to life with the help of guest stars like Julianne Hough, Ginnifer Goodwin, Delta Burke and Melissa Leo.
November 27
‘The Irishman’
“The Irishman” stars Robert De Niro as a contract killer looking back on his life and reconsidering his associations with a notorious mobster (played by Joe Pesci) and with the labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Directed by Martin Scorsese (from a Steven Zaillian screenplay, adapting the Charles Brandt novel “I Heard You Paint Houses”), this movie is a decades-spanning reflection on American crime, with cutting-edge digital “de-aging” technology used to make the characters look era-appropriate. The film is also an elegiac genre piece, made by the modern masters of the gangster picture, and is Netflix’s most high-profile attempt yet to compete with the traditional Hollywood studios.
November 29
‘I Lost My Body’
Based on a novel by Guillaume Laurant (best-known for co-writing the movie “Amélie”), the animated feature “I Lost My Body” is imaginatively fantastical and poignant, telling the story of a North African immigrant looking for love and personal purpose in Paris. The story is told mostly in flashback, narrated by the hero’s severed hand, as it crawls across the city, looking for its original owner. Part action-adventure and part low-key character sketch, this is a cartoon like no other.
Also arriving: “Ash vs. Evil Dead” Season 1 (Nov. 1), “Atypical” Season 3 (Nov. 1), “Holiday in the Wild” (Nov. 1), “The Man without Gravity” (Nov. 1), “Matilda” (Nov. 1), “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (Nov. 1), “The End of the F***ing World” Season 2 (Nov. 5), “Outlander” Season 4 (Nov. 5), “Seth Meyers: Lobby Baby” (Nov. 5), “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power” Season 4 (Nov. 5), “Scams” (Nov. 6), “Busted!” Season 2 (Nov. 8), “I’m with the Band: Nasty Cherry” (Nov. 8), “Let It Snow” (Nov. 8), “Phantom Thread” (Nov. 9), “Blockers” (Nov. 11), “Jeff Garlin: Our Man in Chicago” (Nov. 12), “Maradona in Mexico” (Nov. 13), “Joe Versus the Volcano” (Nov. 15), “Seven” (Nov. 15), “The Toys That Made Us” Season 3 (Nov. 15), “Iliza: Unveiled” (Nov. 19), “Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator” (Nov. 20), “Z Nation: Season 5” (Nov. 20), “The Dragon Prince” Season 3 (Nov. 22), “The Knight Before Christmas” (Nov. 22), “Nailed It! Holiday!” Season 2 (Nov. 22), “Narcoworld: Dope Stories” (Nov. 22), “Final Space” Season 2 (Nov. 24), “Mike Birbiglia: The New One” (Nov. 26), “Holiday Rush” (Nov. 28), “Merry Happy Whatever” (Nov. 28), “Atlantics” (Nov. 29), “Sugar Rush Christmas” (Nov. 29), “The Movies That Made Us” (Nov. 29).
New to Amazon
November 1
‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’ Season 2
The first season of Amazon’s “Jack Ryan” was a pleasant surprise, thanks in part to its unusually mature and nuanced take on the global fight against terrorism, and also to the star John Krasinski’s reimagining of Tom Clancy’s C.I.A. action hero as an affable nerd. In season two, the show will continue to balance shorter missions and stories about Ryan’s personal life with a longer narrative arc. This year we’ll see the good guys trying to contain insurgencies, and the rising strain of authoritarianism in South America.
November 8
‘One Child Nation’
The documentary filmmakers Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang were both born in China after 1979, the year the country instituted a “one child policy,” placing strict conditions on the number of children families could have. Wang and Zhang combine the personal, the political and the sociological in their film “One Child Nation,” which looks back at the policy’s intentions. They contrast those intentions with the policy’s unexpected and ongoing effects on this global superpower, whose citizens have developed new and sometimes damaging ways of thinking about parenting and relationships.
November 15
‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’
The comedian Jillian Bell stars in this uplifting comedy-drama, playing the title character: a debauched, self-absorbed young New Yorker who needs to lose weight for health reasons. Brittany takes up jogging just as a cheap, fast way to get her doctor off her back; but through her exercise regimen she makes new friends, and discovers truths about herself and others. As charming as it is inspiring, “Brittany Runs a Marathon” is a reminder of how the biggest tasks are best approached one step at a time.
‘The Man in the High Castle’ Season 4
When the alternate history science-fiction series “The Man in the High Castle” debuted on Amazon in 2015, it seemed like a wildly speculative fantasy, about life in a timeline where the Nazis won World War II. The show now reaches its fourth and final season, in a time when it’s gained more contemporary relevance. This often mind-blowing adventure tale is ultimately about a world still fighting the wars of centuries past, and about ordinary people striving for freedom.
November 29
‘The Report’
The writer-director Scott Z. Burns delivers a fast-paced and informative dramatization of how Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) and her staffer Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) painstakingly compiled and then released a Senate report on C.I.A. “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The film’s villains shift throughout: from the hard-line Bush-era operatives who don’t think they should be second-guessed, to the Obama administration staffers who didn’t want to rock any boats. On the whole, “The Report” is an exciting piece of cinematic journalism, helped by the clarity of the storytelling and the fervor of Driver’s performance.
Also arriving: “A Dog’s Way Home” (Nov. 2), “Escape Room” (Nov. 18), “What Men Want” (Nov. 22), “Christmas with the Kranks” (Nov. 24).
New to Stan
November 21
‘Summer Camp Island’ Season 1
Reminiscent of animated favorites like “Steven Universe” and “Adventure Time,” this loopy series follows a group of ordinary preteen animals at a seemingly endless summer camp, populated by bossy teenage witches, nerdy monsters, and countless inanimate objects that suddenly come to life and start talking. These short, cute “Summer Camp Island” episodes are wry and witty, and a treat for animation buffs — or for any child or adult who enjoys lighthearted surrealism.
November 22
‘Catastrophe’ Seasons 1-3
At once hilariously raunchy and sneakily heartbreaking, the British sitcom “Catastrophe” documents the relationship between two middle-aged strangers, who have a one-night stand, wind up pregnant, and then try to make a life together despite their many personal flaws. The series’ co-creators Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan play the accidental couple — also named Rob and Sharon — who fight a lot and fail a lot but somehow make their marriage work, thanks to their wicked sense of humor and their lowered expectations.
Also arriving: “Kiri” Season 1 (Nov. 1), “The Brothers Bloom” (Nov. 2), “Wayne’s World” (Nov. 2), “Birth” (Nov. 3), “Indecent Proposal” (Nov. 5), “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” (Nov. 6), “Scorpion” Season 4 (Nov. 7), “The Sea Inside” (Nov. 8), “To the Wonder” (Nov. 9), “Safe” (Nov. 11), “Bad Lieutenant” (Nov. 12), “Collateral” (Nov. 15), “The Firm” (Nov. 15), “Jack Reacher” (Nov. 15), “Mission: Impossible” (Nov. 15), “Top Gun” (Nov. 15), “Vanilla Sky” (Nov. 15), “Grease” (Nov. 16), “Saturday Night Fever” (Nov. 16), “Good Night, and Good Luck” (Nov. 19), “I Love You, Man” (Nov. 19), “The Square” (Nov. 19), “Rellik” Season 1 (Nov. 20), “Napoleon Dynamite” (Nov. 21), “No Activity” Season 3 (Nov. 21), “Liar” Season 1 (Nov. 22), “The Usual Suspects” (Nov. 24), “Innocent” Season 1 (Nov. 25), “Shutter Island” (Nov. 28), “Beverly Hills Cop” (Nov. 29), “Drag Race Thailand” (Nov. 29).
Let’s block ads! (Why?)
