Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 2 September

Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua - Two Worlds (Ursula Williams, 2025)

For local subscribers, I’m delighted to let you know that the Marlon Williams documentary, Ngā Ao E Rua - Two Worlds, has just started streaming on Māori+.

I was very moved by it when I saw a preview earlier on this year:

I was introduced to Williams’ music by my sister, shortly before she died. She was in hospice because of her cancer but she wanted to play me a YouTube playlist of Williams songs – his breakthrough album Make Way for Love had just been released.

Watching the film was moving for me – obviously – because his voice has been precious to me ever since then, but while I was watching I realised that the anniversary of her passing – March 2nd – was approaching which meant the anniversary of her playing me his music was probably on or around that day I was sitting in the cinema.

After a few weeks reflection, this is what I said here when it reached cinemas:

The film is out now and I recommend you go and see it. It’s not a sanitised ‘record company approved’ promo for an album – Williams is too goofy and sincere and unguarded for that. But the film is about the making of a record – Te Whare Tīwekaweka which is his first album to be written and recorded in Te Reo Māori.

Williams’ tentative steps towards the project – and his own journey into the language – alongside his conviction that he cannot not make the record are very relatable. I’ve heard some tracks from the finished collection now and – from memory they are a lot more lush and polished than the versions we hear being recorded in that old community hall in Haast.

Also in that new releases column, Marvel’s Thunderbolts* which I enjoyed a lot, and is now streaming on Disney+:

The tonal shifts are bipolar in their own way. The road movie bickering among the gang is often pretty funny but this is a superhero film that finally acknowledges that you can’t punch your way out of trauma, and the deep wells of sadness that all the Thunderbolts have is made moving by real actors encouraged to do some real acting.

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Where to watch Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua - Two Worlds

Aotearoa: Streaming on Māori+ or digital rental from AroVision

Rest of the world: Not currently available online