Carry-On ★★★
Netflix
A holiday season thriller set on December 24 at Los Angeles airport, Carry-On does everything a decent Hollywood genre movie should: concise on the plotting, tense when time gets tight, and a showcase for star Taron Egerton, who gets to clench his jaw, test his character’s moral depth, and run as if he’s a candidate for Tom Cruise’s crown. Is competency a compliment? It shouldn’t be, but Netflix’s original movies have been spotty this year.
Rocketman star Egerton plays Ethan Kopek, who mans a metal detector at the airport and is coasting through life, despite the encouragement of his pregnant girlfriend and airline staffer, Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson). When Ethan gets an unexpected shot on a baggage scanner he becomes the target of an anonymous interloper, played with quiet disdain by Jason Bateman, who tells him via earpiece that Nora will be killed unless he lets a suspicious bag through.
Sounding like a malicious career coach, Bateman’s operative coaxes and chides Ethan – just be your usual apathetic self. Naturally, Ethan can’t stomach potential harm to others, so he rebels. Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra, who specialised in 2010s Liam Neeson crime dramas, cleanly escalates the action, placing Carry-On in the lineage of previous LA transportation thrillers such as Speed and Collateral. Bonus points for choreographing a fight scene to Wham’s Last Christmas.
Patrick Gibson, left, as the young Dexter in Dexter: Original Sin.Credit: Paramount+
Dexter: Original Sin
Paramount+
Turns out there’s still blood – just a few drops – to be squeezed from everyone’s favourite vigilante serial killer. Set in 1991, this prequel stars Patrick Gibson (The OA) as a 20-year-old Dexter Morgan, newly interned as a forensics technician with the Miami Police Department, even as his homicidal urges are being channelled by his father, Harry (Christian Slater). The original Dexter, Michael C. Hall, supplies flashback narration, but it’s worth noting that this era was often referenced by the original series. Still, it’s great to see Buffy’s Sarah Michelle Gellar in a supporting role.
Social Studies
Disney+
With The Queen of Versailles and Generation Wealth, the American documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield provided a telling vision of how money is the lifeblood of her homeland. Her new five-part series follows a group of Los Angeles teenagers over a year, details how social media influences their adolescent experiences. For this generation born into digital platforms, the accumulated impact is often worrying and occasionally terrifying. Even with subjects from a different country, this is still deeply relevant to an Australian audience.
Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) and Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) in Fly Me to the Moon.Credit: Apple TV+
Fly Me to the Moon
Apple TV+
Cinema audiences did not rush to see this romantic-comedy, which stars Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum as NASA adversaries turned allies in the lead-up to the 1969 moon landing, when it debuted in July, but it deserves a second chance on streaming. Fans of the genre will appreciate the chemistry between the stars, and the skill with which the plot connects them personally and tests them professionally. Directed by prolific television creator Greg Berlanti (You, The Flash), the film gathers in diverse elements, and just enough of them take flight.
Pantheon
Amazon
I’m late to this adult animated science-fiction drama, which AMC+ debuted in 2023 and Amazon Prime thankfully picked up for a recent second season, but I am enjoying its knotty concepts, high-tech global stakes, and defiant young characters forging unlikely bonds. Voice work from the likes of Paul Dano, Taylor Schilling and Aaron Eckhart anchors a multi-pronged plot that revolves around “Uploaded Intelligence” – that is, your consciousness on the cloud. Unsurprisingly, the technology is not exactly being deployed for altruistic purposes. Kudos to the animation studio Titmouse: the visual aesthetic has a classical elegance.
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
