Critics' picks: Best of SBS On Demand

Dive into a selection of movies and TV series that get a big tick from those in the know.

Critics' Picks

Source: SBS

Blood (Brand new series)

When her mother dies suddenly, Cat Hogan returns to the family she’s left behind and spent years trying to avoid. While her father and siblings insist her mother’s death was an accident, Cat suspects otherwise and digs deeper. This psychological thriller from Ireland is magnetic, the scenes between Cat (Carolina Main) and her father Jim (Adrian Dunbar), especially captivating.

Back to Life

Miri Matteson (played by the show’s creator, Daisy Haggard) has just been released from 18 years in prison. She’s back living with her parents Caroline (Geraldine James) and Oscar (Richard Durden) who are thankfully not the boring couple they at first appear to be. (Haggard has given all the characters meaty storylines to chew on.) Miri faces the challenge of navigating an increasingly unfamiliar world in a small town community hellbent on reminding her of her past. The laugh-out-loud moments are welcome in this wonderful moving series. 

Borgen

From the producers of The Killing, the critically acclaimed Danish drama Borgen follows the intricate and complicated lives of politicians, media spinners and reporters. Sidse Babett Knudsen stars as Birgitte Nyborg, who becomes the first Danish female Prime Minister after scoring her party a landslide victory through her idealism and tenacious work ethic. Will she be able to be a successful and professional top politician and stay true to herself at the same time?

The Weekly

The Weekly brings the unparalleled journalism of The New York Times to the screen for the first time. Each half-hour episode features a Times journalist investigating one of the most pressing issues of the day, told in a visual and unforgettable way.

Butterfly

International Emmy Award-winning Anna Friel stars in a heartfelt story from BAFTA award-winning writer Tony Marchant. Butterfly is about the acrimonious relationship between separated parents, Vicky and Stephen, and their division in opinion over how to support their gender variant child, Max. From a young age, their now 11-year-old son has identified as a girl and presented signs of gender dysphoria. When Max was 8, Stephen had walked out on his family, unable to understand or cope with his son's gender issues. But when Max self-harms, Stephen seizes the opportunity to return to live at the family home and support his son. What unfolds for all the family members involved is the greatest challenge and test of love and understanding imaginable.

 

The Bureau

Based on real accounts and inspired by contemporary events, this French spy thriller follows the daily lives and missions of members of the country's external security service -- France's equivalent of the CIA. One of its top agents, Guillaume Debailly aka MALOTRU, returns to Paris after a six-year undercover mission in Damascus.

The Teach

Teacher Paweł Zawadzki aka “The Teach” finds himself forced to take up a new job at an elite high school in Wroclaw. A few days after he joins, a tragic eventtakes place at the school - leaving many questions, but no answers. As he begins to investigate, Paweł discovers that the school’s prestigious facade may be a deceptive illusion… For this is no ordinary school, and these are not ordinary students - a murderous game is being played and the new teacher is there for a reason.

Woodstock

In August 1969, nearly half a million people gathered at a farm in upstate New York to hear music. What happened over the next three days, however, was far more than a concert. It would become a legendary event - one that would define a generation and mark the end of one of the most turbulent decades in modern history. Occurring just weeks after an American set foot on the moon, the Woodstock music festival took place against a backdrop of a nation in conflict over sexual politics, civil rights, and the Vietnam War. A sense of an America in transition - a handoff of the country between generations with far different values and ideals - was tangibly present at what promoters billed as an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music.

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

After returning to Los Angeles from a group therapy session, documentary filmmaker Bob Sanders and his wife, Carol, find themselves becoming vigilante couples counselors, offering unsolicited advice to their best friends, Ted and Alice Henderson. Not wanting to be rude, the Hendersons play along, but some latent sexual tension among the four soon comes bubbling to the surface, and long-buried desires don't stay buried for long.

Easy Rider

Two drop-outs on motorbikes travel the long road from Los Angeles to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras. They are searching for freedom and are thwarted by that streak of ingrained bigoted violence in the United States. They soon pull a dope-selling deal in Mexico to get the stake that is to free them.

Cactus Flower

Distraught when her middle-aged lover breaks a date with her, 21-year-old Toni Simmons (Goldie Hawn) attempts suicide. Impressed by her action, her lover, dentist Julian Winston (Walter Matthau) reconsiders marrying Toni, but he worries about her insistence on honesty. Having fabricated a wife and three children, Julian readily accepts when his devoted nurse, Stephanie (Ingrid Bergman), who has secretly loved Julian for years, offers to act as his wife and demand a divorce.

The Model Shop

While trying to raise money to prevent his car from being repossessed, George is attracted to Lola, a Frenchwoman who works in a "model shop" (an establishment which rents out beautiful pin-up models to photographers). George spends his last twelve dollars to photograph her, and discovers that she is as unhappy as he.



 

 


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5 min read
Published 16 August 2019 4:21pm
Updated 16 August 2019 5:00pm
By SBS Guide
Source: SBS

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