Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 20 May

Lion (Davis, 2016)

I’ve been looking for free stuff (at least free for local viewers) and I’m delighted to see that Garth Davis’ based-on-a-true-story Lion is now on TVNZ+.

I reviewed it for RNZ Widescreen when it was released to cinemas back in January 2017 (when At the Movies was on summer hiatus):

Don’t trust reviewers who pretend to be perfectly objective. It’s not possible. We come to the role with pre-existing conditions and if our editors had any sense they would have used those conditions to keep us out like an American health insurer but here we are.

My Achilles’ heel has always been the sweet spot where redemption stories meet displacement or diaspora. Preferably involving children. These are the stories that never fail to engage and move me. I can’t recuse myself and I won’t apologise.

So, I’m here to report that Lion kicked my ass big time to the extent that I was the last to leave the cinema at the end of the credits. It’s the confident debut feature from Australian Garth Davis (Top of the Lake) and I knew what to expect going in. I’d read a Vanity Fair article about Tasmanian-Indian Saroo Brierley and his long quest to find his original family a few years ago and thought at the time that it might make a good film.

Brierley arrived in Australia as a five-year-old lost boy, relocated after Indian authorities were unable to find his family. How he became lost is only the first heartbreak in the film. Dirt poor in the province of Khandwa in central India, Saroo was devoted to his older brother and insisted on going with him when Guddu went to the railway station to scrounge for work or beg for money.

…

The other reason to see Lion is the performance of Dev Patel as the adult Saroo, sporting the best Australian accent I’ve heard in years (and that includes most Australian actors if I’m honest). Patel was the star of another film about a grown man looking back on a perilous but colourful childhood, Slumdog Millionaire; that was my personal favourite of 2009 so I’m obviously a sucker for this sort of thing.

Incidentally, news for Aotearoa subscribers – last Tuesday’s recommendation, Frances Ha, has now dropped on TVNZ+ so you can watch it for free (with ads).

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Where to watch Lion

Aotearoa: Streaming on TVNZ+ (free with ads) or Beamafilm (free from participating public libraries)

Australia: Streaming on FoxtelNow, Binge or Beamafilm

Canada: Streaming on Prime Video or Starz

Ireland: Digital rental

India: Streaming on Prime Video

USA: Streaming on Netflix

UK: Digital rental