Comic Performers Play It Dark in Netflix Movies

“Cargo,” a Netflix Original movie that will have its premiere on May 18, has an exemplary slow-burn opening. On a quiet river in the middle of a beautiful Australian landscape, Andy, played by Martin Freeman, steers a houseboat. In its kitchen area, his wife, Kay, feeds their infant daughter. Things look idyllic. The boat eases toward the shoreline; some balloons in trees hint of a celebration. Andy looks across the water at a patriarchal figure, who stares back, deadeyed. The man raises his shirt to show a revolver tucked into his jeans.

Andy and his family, we learn, are running out of food. Something catastrophic is afoot. The movie, directed by Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke from a screenplay by Ms. Ramke, keeps the exact nature of the calamity hidden for a good long time. Long enough that I was rather disappointed to find out … yup, flesh-eating zombie pandemic. (It was only two weeks ago that I wondered how long it would take for every region in the world to deliver its own zombie movie. We now have southern Australia covered.)

But “Cargo” has more than a few terrifying, and provocative, tricks. In this movie’s zombie pandemic, people who are bitten don’t turn into flesh eaters immediately. When Andy is infected, he has 48 hours to find a nonzombie guardian for his daughter. As it happens, the indigenous people of this region seem to have a higher survival rate than others. They have gone back to the “old ways,” says Thoomi (Simone Landers, a newcomer who does excellent work), an indigenous teenage girl who befriends Andy. These ways include body and face paint to ward off the undead.

One of these survivors is played by David Gulpilil, who made his screen debut in the 1971 film “Walkabout” and whose presence in Australian and Australia-set cinema (his CV includes classics like “The Last Wave, ” from 1979, and the 1986 hit “Crocodile Dundee”) has rendered him a genuine icon. Mr. Freeman, the adept comic actor, is always good playing an ordinary joe, and here he portrays one in an extraordinary jam. The movie depicts his character’s heroism without creating a “white savior” tale; instead, it advocates community and communal action.

Two other recent Netflix Original movies feature comedy actors honing their dramatic chops. In “6 Balloons,” which had its premiere on April 6, Abbi Jacobson of the Comedy Central series “Broad City,” plays opposite Dave Franco, whose recent comedic turns include a role in “The Disaster Artist” and voice work on “BoJack Horseman.” Written and directed by Marja-Lewis Ryan (who is developing a reboot of the Showtime series “The L Word”), the film tells a fraught brother-sister story. Ms. Jacobson plays Katie, a young Angeleno preparing a surprise Fourth of July birthday party for her boyfriend. Running her errands, she makes the mistake of picking up her brother Seth, portrayed by Mr. Franco. A heroin addict who’s detoxed, rehabbed and relapsed more than once, he’s high again, with a toddler in tow.

Katie jettisons her celebration plans and tries to check Seth into a detox center, is turned away for insurance reasons, and seeks an alternative. As she tries to help her brother she reflexively lies to her friends and relatives. All the while she tolerates his petty insults. A recurring motif is a voice-over reading from a self-help book, “Letting Go With Love,” which compares the enabling relative’s plight to a person who repeatedly boards a boat he knows is bound to sink.

Ms. Ryan, the director, extends the metaphor by showing Katie’s car filling with water as the words from the book play on the soundtrack. The effect does not quite work, but both lead actors acquit themselves well, Ms. Jacobson especially. Her portrayal of a put-upon, constantly heartbroken woman whose concern for her brother places her in a state of misery and danger is never showy and always credible. Mr. Franco is at his best when his character is at his most crassly infuriating.

“Kodachrome,” which debuted on Netflix on April 20, is adapted from a 2010 New York Times article written by A. G. Sulzberger, who is now the publisher. It is, without question, the greatest motion picture ever made. (O.K., it’s not.) And the movie’s primary narrative, a father-and-son reconciliation drama, is not in Mr. Sulzberger’s story about a Kansas photo lab that, in its final days, became a sensation for being the only facility still processing Kodachrome film.

The closing of this real-life shop is the hook for a road trip in the film. Ed Harris plays Ben Ryder, a renowned photographer who’s dying; Jason Sudeikis is Matt, Ben’s son, long estranged from his father and struggling to keep his music industry job in New York. Summoned by Ben’s personal assistant, Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen) to drive to the Midwest with his dad, Matt flat-out refuses and isn’t shy about communicating how much of an affront he considers the proposal. But when Ben’s lawyer, Larry (Dennis Haysbert), dangles a career opportunity, Matt relents. And so the journey begins.

When Matt finally visits his father, the aging but still badass Ben is banging away at a drum kit, which, it turns out, once belonged to Matt. Ben chides Matt for giving up music. This is the kind of movie where you just know you’ll see Matt behind that drum kit before the end.

Mr. Sudeikis is a funny fellow but his default facial expression is that of a guy at a bar contriving his next wisecrack. He’s resourceful, though. In this film, he makes his narrow range work for him; it suits the character’s emotional estrangement, and by the time Matt is able to make a real connection, Mr. Sudeikis doesn’t have to overplay to put it across. “Kodachrome” is several times too slick for its own good; Mark Raso’s direction is a major culprit here. But the writing, from Jonathan Tropper, is more tart and frank than is customary in such exercises, particularly in the exchanges between Mr. Sudeikis and Mr. Harris. If you’ve enjoyed these performers before, you’ll enjoy them here.