I’m about to declare streaming TV bankruptcy as the last few weeks have seen more intriguing series drop than it is possible to watch.
Ripley (Netflix), Shogun (Disney+/Hulu), 3 Body Problem (Netflix), The Regime and The Sympathizer (Neon/Max), Sugar, Palm Royale and Manhunt (AppleTV+), plus shows that my RNZ colleagues have been recommending like The Walk-In (TVNZ+) and Samurai Gourmet (Netflix) on top of the already very long ‘to watch’ list means the task in front of me is daunting.
Add the conundrum that what I might choose to watch for fun isn’t always what someone will pay me to write about, and something has to give.
Last night that something was Fallout, the new video game adaptation from the Westworld people. We gave it one episode and decided that life was, indeed, too short. It was too gleefully violent, too nihilistic, for our current mood. And, personally, I’ve seen too many futuristic shows where the aesthetic is a mix of 50s futurism and fantastical technologies. Get a new schtick, people.
Happy for readers to try and persuade me – that’s what the comment function is for – but for now Fallout has fallen out of the queue.
Today’s selection has its share of gleeful violence but also a surprising amount of ticker, thanks to writer-director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy).
I reviewed it on 11 August 2021 for RNZ (just before we went into another cinema crushing nationwide Covid lockdown):
Just like the first film, Viola Davis is a government security official recruiting criminals and assorted head cases to take on impossible but essential undercover missions.
In the latest version, she has chosen Idris Elba, also known as the assassin Bloodsport, John Cena as the deranged fascist Peacemaker, Daniela Melchior as a young woman who can summon rats and Sylvester Stallone as the voice of a shark who can walk on land.
Along with the rest of their team, the task is to infiltrate the Latin American island of Corto Maltese, which thanks to a military coup has a new leader who looks like just like Lionel Messi, and then destroy the secret American-funded Nazi research facility which contains an alien starfish with the capacity to destroy the world, by crikey.
Unbeknownst to them, the anti-hero of three previous films, Harley Quin, played with an enthusiasm commensurate with her love of the character as well as her obvious contractual obligation, by Margot Robbie, is also on the island and has a mission of her own.
The Suicide Squad was the first time I was conscious of the genius of David Dastmalchian, current star of the hit horror Late Night with the Devil:
The Suicide Squad follows a predictable path with its humour - set up and then rug pulling over and over - but is more interesting in its wider context. Unlike the pseudo-politics of the Marvel movies where no regime ever gets called out by name, this picture doesn't shy away from highlighting the victims of American exceptionalism in Latin America over the past fifty years, along with the corruption and degradation that goes along with it.
Ironic then that Panama, by offering the studio a backdrop for the recreation of their own exploitation and then giving the studios a subsidy, ends up kissing the ring of Western capitalists for Yankee dollars once again.
But, let's not forget that it's the Suicide Squad with the heart of gold. Almost every character has a traumatic backstory and a redemptive arc. This squad just needs a hug. Even someone who has to shoot lethal polka dots out of his skin twice a day simply to survive, has a desperately sad story of abuse and neglect at his heart. But we laugh at him just the same.
Also in that edition of At the Movies in August 2021: NZ thriller Coming Home in the Dark and the Chilean documentary The Mole Agent.
Where to watch The Suicide Squad
Aotearoa: Streaming on ThreeNow
Australia: Streaming on Foxtel Now
Canada: Digital rental
USA: Streaming on Max
UK: Streaming on Netflix
Further reading
The New Zealand edition of the Italian Film Festival runs for ten months (!) across the country from 29 April. I was lucky enough to be given a sneak preview of three of the titles that feature and wrote them up for RNZ.
Did you happen to watch any of the Peacemaker series that followed this movie? Not Emmy worthy but Cena is pretty great; dude has solid comic timing for an ex-wrestler - and choices like Ricky Stanicky show he’s keen to have a go.