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 most worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.
Top Picks: TV
Clarice season one (February 12)
What an absolute ask. This psychological horror series is set in 1993, returning to the troubled but unyielding career of Clarice Starling a year after the young F.B.I. trainee was at the centre of Jonathan Demme’s masterful 1991 thriller The Silence of the Lambs. Australian actor Rebecca Breeds takes over the title role from Jodie Foster, in a series created by Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married) and Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek, The Mummy).
Bryan Fuller had planned to include a version of Agent Starling in the unproduced fourth season of his ornate Lecter at large study Hannibal, but putting the character at the centre of her own series is quite the escalation. Crime scenes and moody flashbacks set the tone in the first trailer.
Doll & Em season one + two (February 2)
Screening in 2014 and 2015 with easily binged seasons of six half hour episodes, this affectionate and keenly observed Brits in Hollywood sitcom puts a new spin on celebrity machine satire and digs down on the bonds of female friendship. The dynamic between best pals Em (Emily Mortimer) and Doll (Dolly Wells) is stress-tested when the latter, struggling to find a career path, goes to work for the former, a successful actress, as her personal assistant in Los Angeles.
Famous names abound—watch out for John Cusack and Olivia Wilde—but it’s the connections between the leads, who created the series, that’s the fulcrum.
The Virtues (February 5)
Acclaimed when it premiered on British television last May, this compelling limited series from the British independent filmmaker Shane Meadows—whose previous television credits include the invaluable This is England series—immerses itself in barely buried trauma and the struggle to find a viable emotional perch.
After his face-off with Al Pacino in Netflix’s The Irishman and his restless, precise performances in crime thriller such as Line of Duty, the English actor Stephen Graham no longer qualifies as underrated, but his performance here as a separated father struggling with alcoholism who adds to his burden when he returns home to Ireland may well go down as a signature role. The show is harrowing and exceptional.
Top Picks: Movies + Specials
Ex-Machina (February 15)
A paranoid thriller of identity for the 21st century, Alex Garland’s directorial debut after a celebrated progression from young novelist to the science-fiction screenwriter of choice (28 Days Later, Never Let Me Go) is flinty chamber piece about humanity’s destructive traits. When a near-future coder, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), is summoned to the remote home of his tech titan boss, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), the young man is asked to evaluate Ava (Alicia Vikander), an otherworldly A.I. shaped into female form.
Shifting allegiances and revelations of misogyny’s next frontier jar the sleek surfaces. By this fascinating movie’s end any breakthroughs are deeply troubling.
Children of Men (February 21)
One of the pre-eminent films of the 21st century and the equal of Blade Runner in terms of future shock prescience, Alfonso Cuaron’s dystopian masterpiece is set in the fractured Britain of 2027. No child has been born worldwide in 18 years, an environmental shock so sustained that nations have collapsed and repression has become the official response—refugees are publicly caged, laws ignored.
A former activist, Theo (Clive Owen), who has been defeated by past loss, is asked by his still underground ex-wife, Julian (Julianne Moore), to assist on a covert mission which steadily reawakens him. A handful of lengthy single-take set-pieces are celebrated, but the film’s overall aesthetic is the true immersive triumph.
Scarface (February 26)
Made with an energy that still feels fearsome nearly four decades on—emanating equally from a young Oliver Stone’s rampant screenplay, Brian De Palma’s operatic direction and Al Pacino’s strutting, ravenous central performance—Scarface is the movie that predicated both countless lesser tributes and gangsta rap.
It’s organised crime as an extreme form of capitalism, with a craving for power and the accoutrements of success that verges on the nihilistic, beginning with the arrival of Cuban criminal Tony Montana (Pacino) in Miami, where he relentlessly accumulates power and an icy blonde wife (Michelle Pfeiffer). An American success story has rarely been so striking or consumed with bloody comeuppance.
All titles arriving on Stan in February
February 1
The Watch: Season 1, Episode 6
The Circus: Season 6, Episode 4
Desus & Mero: Season 3, Episode 1 – Premiere
Against the Law
Room
February 2
All American: Season 3, Episode 3
Doll & Em: Season 1 – 2
My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend
February 3
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Season 2, Episode 5
Race to Perfection: Season 1 – Premiere
Liar, Liar
February 4
The Pleasure Principle: Season 1 – Premiere
Stage Mother
Deadbeat: Seasons 1-3
Fire Will Come
February 5
Walker: Season 1, Episode 3
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK: Season 2, Episode 4
Desus & Mero: Season 3, Episode 2
The Virtues: Season 1 – Premiere
Oblivion
Advantages of Travelling by Train
February 6
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 13, Episode 6
RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked: Season 13, Episode 6
Field Of Dreams
Sorry Angel
Tom of Finland
February 7
Your Honor: Season 1, Episode 10
Heavy Craving
February 8
The Watch: Season 1, Episode 7
The Circus: Season 6, Episode 5
Desus & Mero: Season 3, Episode 3
Red Dog: True Blue
Sex is Comedy
February 9
All American: Season 3, Episode 4
The Green Mile
Lucia’s Grace
February 10
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist: Season 2, Episode 6
Edge of Tomorrow
Rosemary’s Baby (Miniseries)
Between Two Waters
February 11
Hassle: Season 1 – Premier
February 12
Walker: Season 1, Episode 4
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK: Season 2, Episode 5
Clarice: Season 1, Episode 1 – Premiere
Desus & Mero: Season 3, Episode 4
Chasing Life: Seasons 1 – 2
Lucy
Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup
February 13
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 13, Episode 7
RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked: Season 13, Episode 7
Paycheck
February 14
Bolero
The Barefoot Contessa
February 15
The Watch: Season 1, Episode 8
The Circus: Season 6, Episode 6
Desus & Mero: Season 3, Episode 5
Ex Machina
Women with Red Hair
February 16
All American: Season 3, Episode 5
Made in Italy
Post Coitum – Animal Triste
February 17
United 93
Lhamo and Skalbe
February 18
Perfect Places: Season 1 – Premiere
Diary Of An Uber Driver
Above Suspicion
The Cloud in Her Room
February 19
Walker: Season 1, Episode 5
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK: Season 2, Episode 6
Clarice: Season 1, Episode 2
Desus & Mero: Season 3, Episode 6
The First Team: Season 1 – Premiere
Supernatural: Season 15
Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass 2
February 20
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 13, Episode 8
RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked: Season 13, Episode 8
The Longest Night
February 21
Children Of Men
February 22
The Circus: Season 6, Episode 7
Desus & Mero: Season 3, Episode 7
Wayne
Love Hotel
February 23
All American: Season 3, Episode 6
Indian Summers: Seasons 1 – 3
Casino
The Stroller in the Attic
February 24
Hot Fuzz
Lovers are Wet
February 25
Angel of Death (The Rime): Season 1 – Premiere
Flesh & Bone: Season 1
Night of the Felines
February 26
Walker: Season 1, Episode 6
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK: Season 2, Episode 7
Clarice: Season 1, Episode 3
Punky Brewster (2021): Season 1 – Premiere
Desus & Mero: Season 3, Episode 8
Scarface (’83)
The Oldest Profession
February 27
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 13, Episode 9
RuPaul’s Drag Race Untucked: Season 13, Episode 9
American Gangster
February 28
Power Rangers (2017)
See also
* Best new movies and TV series on Netflix Austalia
* Best new movies and TV series on Amazon Prime
* Best new movies and TV series on Disney+
* All new streaming movies & series
