Each month, lots of new films and TV shows are added to Stan‘s library. Critic Craig Mathieson surveys each month’s selections and picks for titles mostworth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.
Top picks: TV
Billions season 5 (May 3, weekly episodes)
With Damian Lewis (Homeland) as a Wall Street billionaire and Paul Giamatti (Sideways) as a federal prosecutor who feud, friend up, and feud again, Billions has developed an anti-hero aesthetic rich in juicy plot twists, wealth porn, vintage NYC needle drops, and take no prisoners dialogue. No other show would describe a contract clause as being “tighter than AC/DC in ‘78”. The cast and production spends are top of the line, but the show is pulpy fun. It consumes storylines fast, with Corey Stoll (House of Cards) to be introduced as the new season’s latest alpha male provocateur.
The Great season one (May 16)
The script Australian writer and director Tony McNamara co-wrote for 2018’s alternately acerbic and moving period drama The Favourite bounced around the movie industry for years, until director Yorgos Lanthimos made it and Olivia Colman won an Academy Award for Best Actress as Queen Anne. McNamara’s new take on 18th century royalty has experience few delays, with Elle Fanning starring as the future Catherine the Great, the German princess who finds herself married to a less than exemplary Czar of Russia (Nicholas Hoult) and decides to do something about it. The tone is idiosyncratic, but the absurdism will need to take root in something genuine.
Love Life season one (May 27, weekly episodes)
Whether it’s Netflix’s Criminal or Amazon’s Modern Love, streaming services have embraced the compartmentalised storytelling potential of anthology series. Stan’s latest offering is a 10-part study of romance, with each episode taking a look at a love affair through differing lens of age, affection and suitability. The various individual headliners include Zoe Chao (Strangers), Scott McNairy (Halt and Catch Fire), Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) and Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect), with the latter also an executive producer alongside filmmaker Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy). An acceptable success rate? Seven out of 10 episodes have to be good or better.
Ramy season 2 (May 30)
The biggest surprise at January’s Golden Globe Awards was when Ramy Youssef beat out Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Bill Hader for Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy. Youssef’s vehicle was the deceptively incisive comedy he co-created, in which he plays Ramy Hassan, a laidback New Jersey dude working at a start-up who as the son of Egyptian immigrants carries his Muslim beliefs and family traditions into a secular American world. With his slacker inclinations Ramy has to be lured towards making a decision or taking a stand, and with admirably lived-in detail the first season avoided broad pronouncements for individual observations. Success should spur the new season on.
Top picks: movies + specials
McQueen (May 23)
One of 2018’s best documentaries, McQueen tells the story of the iconoclastic British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who from the 1990s until his death by suicide in 2010 changed the very parameters of high fashion with his sublime clothes and piercing catwalk shows. Co-directors Peter Ettedgui and Ian Bonhote track an enfant terrible from his working class roots to life atop the storied Parisian fashion house Givenchy. The rise, excess and tragic fall storyline are archetypal, but it’s imbued with genuine insight from those closest to McQueen, as well as telling cultural analysis and a wealth of archival material.
High Life (May 28)
From the vampires of 2001’s Trouble Every Day to romantic desire in 2017’s Let the Sunshine In, no genre has been anything but a springboard for Claire Denis, the finest French filmmaker of the last 25 years. Science fiction proved to be no different, with this tale of a convict-crewed spaceship approaching a black hole proving to be a study of time’s bond, humanity’ tenuous grip on existence, and technology’s corruption. Robert Pattinson is one of the inmates, alongside Mia Goth and Andre Benjamin, with a flagrant turn by Juliette Binoche as the ship’s doctor, determined to create new life. The ship is nondescript, but Denis’ feel for arresting moments is anything but.
Judy & Punch (May 30)
The traditional puppet show gets a revisionist live action remake for the #metoo age in the splendidly precise and confident directorial debut of Australian actor Mirrah Foulkes. In a Dickensian town that, like much in this movie, laces the present through the past, a puppeteer (Damon Herriman) lets his failings fall on his shrewd wife (Mia Wasikowska), whose tolerance does not come close to lasting the running time. The blackest of comedies, willing to make punchlines out of the unspeakable, but also able to articulate what few can say, this art house release is one of the most intriguing Australian movies of recent years.
All titles arriving on Stan in May
May 1
Ray Donovan: season 6
Macbeth (film)
Sesame Street: Monster Magic
Upstart Crow: Christmas 2018
Apple & Onion: season 1, Part 2 & 3
Line of Duty: season 5
Memory: The Origins of Alien
In Search of Greatness
Desus & Mero: season 2, episode 21
May 2
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 12, Episode 10
RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked: Season 12, Episode 10
RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race: Season 1, Episode 2
Liam Gallagher: As It Was
May 3
Billions: Season 5, Episode 1 – Premiere
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels: Season 1, Episode 2
Vida: Season 3, Episode 2
Monster Beach: Season 1, Episode 12
The Collector
May 5
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Season 1, Episode 12 – Final
MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A
Dogs
May 6
The Last OG: Season 3, Episode 5
Serenity
Great Minds
May 7
Good Trouble: Season 2
Land
May 8
Desus & Mero: Season 2, Episode 23
The Hummingbird Project
The Wiggles, Wiggly Wiggly Christmas
Sesame Street: Dance Party Magical Nights
May 9
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 12, Episode 11
RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked: Season 12, Episode 11
RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race: Season 1, Episode 3
Mother and Son: Season 5 & 6
Monster Beach: Season 1, Episode 13
Wolfblood: Season 4
May 10
Billions: Season 5, Episode 2
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels: Season 1, Episode 3
Vida: Season 3, Episode 3
Monster Beach: Season 1, Episode 14
We Need Your Vote
May 11
Meet the Scammers
Hail Satan?
The Blessed
May 12
The Baker and the Beauty: Season 1, Episode 5
Desus & Mero: Season 2, Episode 24
Very Small Business: Season 1
Back in Very Small Business: Season 1
May 13
The Last OG: Season 3, Episode 6
Exposed: The Case of Keli Lane
Ophelia (film)
May 14
Magical Land of Oz: Season 1
Bay of Angels
Lola
May 15
Desus & Mero: Season 2, Episode 25
Hannah Gadsby’s OZ
The Wiggles, Party Time
Fireman Sam: Season 11
Skin
May 16
The Great: Season 1 – Premiere
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 12, Episode 12
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Untucked: Season 12, Episode 12 – Final
RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race: Season 1, Episode 4 – Final
Werq the World: Season 1
Monster Beach: Season 1, Episode 15
May 17
Hightown: Season 1, Episode 1 – Premiere
Billions: Season 5, Episode 3
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels: Season 1, Episode 4
Vida: Season 3, Episode 4
Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
May 18
The Cleaners
Invisible Waves
May 19
The Baker and the Beauty: Season 1, Episode 6
Desus & Mero: Season 2, Episode 26
Who Kiilled Belinda Peisley?
May 20
The Last OG: Season 3, Episode 7
The Kindergarten Teacher
The Days to Come
May 21
Redfern Now: Season 1 – 2
Redfern Now: Promise Me Kink
May 22
Desus & Mero: Season 2, Episode 27
The Wiggles, Pop!
United States of Tara: Seasons 1 – 3
A Kid Like Jake
May 23
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 12, Episode 13
Monster Beach: Season 1, Episode 16
McQueen
May 24
Billions: Season 5, Episode 4
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels: Season 1, Episode 5
Vida: Season 3, Episode 5
Hightown: Season 1, Episode 2
Everyone Else
May 25
Anh’s Brush with Fame: Season 1
Bob the Builder: Season 21
Thomas and Friends: Season 21
Aguirre, Wrath of God
May 26
The Baker and the Beauty: Season 1, Episode 7
Rake: Season 5
May 27
The Last OG: Season 3, Episode 8
A Private War
Bedways
May 28
Hero or Villian
High Life
Valley of Love
May 29
The Wiggles, Go Santa Go
Pick of the Littler
Fiore
May 30
Ramy: Season 2 – Premiere
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 12, Episode 14
Judy & Punch
May 31
Billions: Season 5, Episode 5
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels: Season 1, Episode 6
Vida: Season 3, Episode 6 – Final
Hightown: Season 1, Episode 3
Self Made (2014)
See also
* Best new movies and TV series on Netflix Austalia
* Best new movies and TV series on Amazon Prime
* All new streaming movies & series
