We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+.
If you enjoy dreamy love stories: Before Sunrise (Neon, December 10)
Although dismissed by many critics upon its release in 1995, Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise has become an iconic indie classic. Jesse (Ethan Hawke), a young Texan, and Celine (Julie Delpy), a young Parisienne, meet on a train in Austria. Their mutual attraction is instant and electric. Jesse has an admittedly insane idea: When the train pulls into Vienna, why doesn’t she hop off with him so they can continue chatting and explore the city? What follows over 90 hyper-verbal minutes is possibly cinema’s “most perfect depiction… at once concrete and intangible, of two people beginning to realize that they are falling in love.” Ooh la la.
If you love video games: Secret Level (Prime Video, December 10)
From Tim Miller, the mad genius behind Deadpool and the hit sci-fi anthology series Love, Death & Robots, comes Secret Level. The adult-animated anthology series features original stories, but all set within the worlds of some of the most beloved video games. Even if you aren’t an hardcore gamer who doesn’t know what griefing or smurfing means, you’ll have heard of treasured franchises such as Dungeons & Dragons, Pac-Man and God of War. With breathtaking animation, visionary storytelling and a stellar voice cast that includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kevin Hart, Keanu Reeves and Temuera Morrison, Secret Level is sure to push all the right buttons.
If you love Pixar films: Dream Productions (Disney+, December 11)
Set in between the events of Inside Out and Inside Out 2 is Dream Productions, a charming mockumentary-style series “about the studio inside Riley’s mind where dreams really do come true – every night, on time and on budget.” In the series, acclaimed “day-dream director” Paula Persimmon’s (Paula Pell) signature combo of dreams featuring princesses, fairies and unicorns doesn’t interest the now-tween Riley. To save her career, Persimmon teams up with Xeni (Richard Ayoade), a smug hotshot looking for his next big break, to create the next hit day-dream. You’ll turn blue with sadness if you don’t watch this one.
If you think Die Hard is a Christmas film: Carry-On (Netflix, December 13)
The Kingsman’s Taron Egerton is a TSA agent blackmailed by a mysterious traveller into slipping a dangerous package onto a jam-packed Christmas Eve flight. In a thrilling cat-and-mouse game of life and death, Egerton must outsmart Ozark’s Jason Bateman, a brooding Hans Gruber-like antagonist. Behind the camera is B-movie action auteur Jaume Collet-Serra, the master of the one-location thriller. With the tagline “Every holiday season, millions travel safely by air. This Christmas will be different.” Carry-On looks as explosive as a festive season political bust-up.
If you like natural disaster documentaries: Tsunami 2004: The Day the Wave Hit (December 15)
On Boxing Day 20 years ago, one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history occurred when 230,000 people in 14 countries around the Indian Ocean basin were killed in a devastating tsunami. The docuseries Tsunami 2004: The Day the Wave Hit, provides a minute-by-minute account of the catastrophe through jaw-dropping archival footage and harrowing interviews with survivors. Described as “horrifying, heart-rending and essential”, Tsunami 2004: The Day the Wave Hit serves as both a historical record and a memorial to the lives that were tragically lost.
Pick of The Flicks: The Lost City Of Z (TVNZ+, December 11)
In the same year Tom Holland was introduced to the world as Spiderman, he also co-starred in the epic adventure flick The Lost City of Z. The film, “a lush, melancholic story of discovery and mystery,” is helmed by James Gray, a modern master of American cinema. Holland, Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller and Robert Pattinson are revelatory in the tracing of the true-story Col Percival Fawcett and his doomed obsession with finding the illusive El Dorado-like city he called “Z.” One critic called The Lost City of Z an “enthralling masterpiece.” Check-out the film if you dare adventure into the Amazonian abyss.
The rest
Netflix
Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… (December 10)
Polo (December 10)
Rugged Rubgy: Conquer or Die (December 10)
The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga (December 11)
Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World (December 11)
One Hundred Years of Solitude: Part 1 (December 11)
Queer Eye S9 (December 11)
Dune: Part Two (December 12)
La Palma (December 12)
No Good Deed (December 12)
1992 (December 13)
Carry-On (December 13)
Disaster Holiday (December 13)
TVNZ+
DNZ: Predict My Future (December 9)
Britannia S1-S3 (December 10)
The Replacement Killers (December 10)
My Kitchen Rules S10 (December 10)
We Are Your Friends (December 11)
Lowdown Dirty Criminals (December 11)
The Lost City Of Z (December 11)
Dracula (December 12)
Love Triangle UK (December 13)
Last Holiday (December 14)
The Divergent Series: Allegiant (December 14)
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (December 15)
Trainwreck (December 15)
Tsunami 2004: The Day the Wave Hit (December 15)
Inside Prison: Britain Behind Bars (December 15)
Forensics: The Real CSI (December 15)
ThreeNow
9-1-1 Lone Star S4 (December 11)
Mean Girl Murders S1-S2 (December 12)
Deep Water (December 13)
In Limbo (December 15)
Borderline (December 15)
Neon
The Capture S1-S2 (December 9)
The Accidental Tourist (December 9)
Before Sunrise (December 10)
Before Sunset (December 10)
Feasting with the Stars (December 11)
Dune: Part Two (December 12)
Bookie S2 (December 13)
Darkness of Man (December 13)
Fred Claus (December 13)
Treadstone (December 15)
Seven (December 15)
Prime Video
Secret Level (December 10)
Bandish Bandits S2 (December 13)
Disney+
Sugarcane (December 10)
Dream Productions (December 11)
Elton John: Never Too Late (December 13)
Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae (December 13)
Invisible (December 13)
Apple TV+
Wonder Pets: In the City (December 13)
Eva the Owlet (December 13)
Hayu
Paris and Nicole: The Encore (December 13)
Acorn TV/AMC+/Shudder
Annika S1 (AMC+, Acorn TV, December 9)