www.wakaticket.com –

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Netflix

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Apex

Film, US, 2026 – out 24 April

This survival thriller is the latest in a long line of films that plunge foreigners into unforgiving Australian landscape and introduce them to less-than-friendly locals. Charlize Theron’s grieving rock climber Sasha is targeted by a murderous sadist (Taron Egerton) who chases her through the bush. Which may be tough luck for Theron, but has her stalker seen Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, Æon Flux, or Monster? History suggests he’s picked the wrong quarry.

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Beef season 2

TV, US, 2026 – out 16 April

I’m a big fan of the first season of Beef, a masterclass in escalation that begins with a road rage incident between a wealthy businesswoman (Ali Wong) and a struggling independent contractor (Steven Yeun). The second season moves on from those characters to introduce an anthology format, the story still involving class-based tensions, now themed around an elite country club. A young couple (Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny) become embroiled in the tumultuous lives of a pair of wealthy married bluebloods (Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan).

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Sissy

Film, Australia, 2022 – out 3 April

If you’re partial to a queasily good horror movie, and a little sickened by influencer culture, boy do we have the film for you. Director-writing team Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes delivered this wickedly entertaining tale of a wellness influencer (Aisha Dee) who reluctantly agrees to attend the hen’s weekend of her former best friend (Hannah Barlow). It, erm, doesn’t go to plan, curdling into blood-drenched mayhem when old tensions resurface. As I wrote in my review: Sissy is a “deranged pleasure” that’s “impressively unpredictable all the way to the bitter end”.

Honourable mentions: The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson (film, 1 April), Rambo: Last Blood (film, 1 April), Interview with the Vampire season 1 (TV, 1 April), The Truman Show (film, 10 April), Civil War (film, 15 April), A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough (film, 17 April), Fight Club (film, 19 April), Man on Fire (film, 30 April).

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Stan

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The Miniature Wife

TV, US, 2026 – out 9 April

The appeal of watching humans magically shrink or expand is bound up in our fascination with scale and perspective, which has been played with since the dawn of motion pictures. It tends to be used for daffy spectacle, which appears to continue with The Miniature Wife, in which a best-selling author (Elizabeth Banks) is accidently shrunk to six inches tall by a device invented by her husband (Matthew Macfadyen). This, not unexpectedly, complicates their marriage, and of course enables plenty of kooky effects.

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Half Man

TV, UK, 2026 – out 25 April

Scottish comedian Richard Gadd follows up his very sharp and funny hit Baby Reindeer with what looks like a very differently toned production. He and Jamie Bell play two friends who were as close as brothers during adolescence but had a falling out, their dramatic stories fleshed out across flashbacks and flashforwards. Gadd recently told EQ that he was driven to “explore dysfunctional manhood, where it comes from, and how it kind of evolves over time”.

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Phone Booth

Film, US, 2002 – out 4 April

I love this near single-setting thriller from Joel Schumacher, starring Colin Farrell as a scheming silver-tongued publicist who becomes the target of a sniper (Kiefer Sutherland) once he steps inside a phone booth to call his mistress (Katie Holmes). As a tense, dialogue-heavy cat-and-mouse game unfolds, and a crowd gathers around the booth, the sniper’s motives are gradually revealed. It’s rigorously staged and has a sizzling pace that’s great for rewatchability; I’ve seen this film five or six times.

Honourable mentions: Whale Shark Jack (film, 2 April), Beating Hearts (film, 2 April), Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (film, 5 April), The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 (TV, 8 April), Snowtown (film, 9 April), Her (film, 10 April) Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (film, 13 April), Sonic The Hedgehog (film, 18 April), Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Seasons 1-8 (TV, 20 April), Monkey Man (film, 26 April), Van Diemen’s Land (film, 30 April).

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ABC iview

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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Film, US, 2004 – out 3 April

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but he’s kind of a big deal. Will Ferrell’s distinctively dopey shtick powers this riotously entertaining comedy about a vain newsreader (Ferrell) whose life – indeed, his entire raison d’être, not that he’d use that term – is upended when a female rival (Christina Applegate) arrives on the scene, wanting his job. Thank god Burgundy can play the hell out of a jazz flute. The film’s (less amusing) sequel lands on iview the same day.

Honourable mentions: Caper Crew (TV, 10 April), Minority Report (film, 11 April), Wild Isles with David Attenborough (TV, 12 April), Judgment: Cases That Changed Australia (TV, 14 April), Ghost (film, 17 April), Frankie Drake Mysteries seasons 1-4 (TV, 19 April), Good Will Hunting (film, 19 April), Cast Away (film, 24 April), Bad Company (TV, 26 April), Would I Lie to You season 19 (TV, 30 April).

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SBS on Demand

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The Audacity

TV, US, 2026 – out 15 April

I’ve never had much desire to visit Silicon Valley, and now I have even less after watching the first episode of Jonathan Glatzer’s prickly satire, which plunges us into a world filled with chatter about devices, apps, stocks, profits, server space, hirings and firings, etcetera. There are angry opportunists left right and centre, and perhaps none more than tech CEO protagonist Duncan (Billy Magnussen), who has a habit of blurting out thought bubbles like: “If I could Viagra the price, and keep it up long enough …”

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Intolerable Cruelty

Film, US, 2003 – out 1 April

The Coen brothers’ deliciously tart, screwball-ish comedy skewers the world of high-end divorce law. Amoral silver-tongued attorney Miles Massey meets his match with Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Marylin Hamilton, both of them gold diggers in their own way, bending the law to line their pockets. When Massey vanquishes Hamilton’s lawsuit against her husband, she embarks on an elaborate revenge campaign – but could real love be in the air? The script is very witty and the chemistry between the two leads crackles.

Honourable mentions: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (film, 1 April), Riot Women (TV, 2 April), John Wick 1-3 (film, 4 April), Mozart/Mozart (TV, 9 April), The Skin of Others (film, 10 April), Trap (film, 17 April), Empathy (TV, 30 April).

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Prime Video

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Balls Up

Film, USA, 2026 – out 15 April

You know it’s a quiet month on Prime Video when the key highlight is a raunchy comedy about two marketing executives (Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser) who launch a condom sponsorship with the World Cup and inadvertently create a global scandal. Or maybe I’m being too judgmental and this film, directed by comedy veteran Peter Farrelly, will be a lewd, rib-tickling delight. After all, Peter is one half of the Farrelly brothers, who gave us There’s Something About Mary.

Honourable mentions: The Boys season 5 (TV, 8 April), Kevin (TV, 20 April), Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (film, 26 April), Greenland 2 (film, 27 April).

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HBO Max

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Kangaroo

Film, Australia, 2025 – out 1 April

This crowd-pleasing family affair from director Kate Woods (her first feature since 2000’s Looking for Alibrandi) was the highest grossing local production at the Australian box office last year. It’s sweet, sentimental, and full of “aww, cute!” moments. Ryan Corr’s egotistical TV personality Chris gets stranded in a small town, where he discovers Important Life Lessons after deciding to care for a furry, big-eyed lil joey. As I wrote in my review: “You have to hold your nose a bit towards the end – though it remains a pleasantly staged, hard-to-hate experience.”

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The Life of Chuck

Film, US, 2025 – out 25 April

I didn’t love this Mike Flanagan adaptation of Stephen King’s novella of the same name, which is told in three acts that unfold in reverse chronological order over the life of accountant Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). But I appreciated several things about it, including how it fits into a recent suite of apocalyptic stories that approach the end of the world from a curiously ambiguous left-of-centre perspective. This one begins with, in the words of one character, “the end of everything”, as people evacuate California due to largely unknown globe-altering events.

Honourable mentions: Euphoria season 3 (TV, 13 April), The Dark Wizard (TV, 15 April), Police Academy 1-7 (film, 18 April).

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Binge

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Ludwig

TV, UK, 2024 – out 10 April

No British actor screams “puzzle enthusiast” like David Mitchell. The comedian was handed an ideal starring role in this lightweight but pleasurable whodunit, playing a socially reclusive puzzle designer who reluctantly agrees to impersonate his identical twin – a police detective – after he disappears. The fish-out-of-water premise allows John to deploy his fiercely logical brain on a series of weekly murder cases; it’s a bit silly, but you’re supposed to go with it.

Honourable mentions: Scrubs seasons 1-9 (TV, 1 April), Grimm seasons 1-6 (TV, 1 April), The Office: Superfan episodes, season 9 (TV, 1 April), Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (film, 17 April), Brooklyn Nine-Nine seasons 1-8 (TV, 20 April).

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Disney+

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Is This Thing On?

Film, US, 2025 – out 22 April

Bradley Cooper has directed three fine films about creative people: A Star is Born, Maestro, and now Is This Thing On?, which stars Will Arnett as aspiring comedian Alex Novak. It takes an unusually modest approach to exploring artistic pursuit, with Alex one night giving comedy a go in order to get inside a bar without paying. Comedy helps restore something inside himself, and helps repair his struggling marriage with Tess (Laura Dern), though Cooper never lays it on too thick.

Honourable mentions: King Kong (film, 1 April), Mamma Mia! 1 and 2 (film, 1 April), Now You See Me 1 and 2 (film, 1 April), The Princess Bride (film, 1 April), Secrets of the Bees (TV, 1 April), Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord (TV, 6 April), The Testaments (TV, 8 April), Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair (TV, 10 April)

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Apple TV

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Outcome

Film, US, 2026 – out 10 April

Keanu Reeves plays a megastar who retreated from the spotlight while battling a heroin addiction but is pulled back in after being blackmailed by someone with an incriminating video. Rather than brushing it off as a deepfake, he (gasp!) chooses to confront his inner demons and, as the official synopsis has it, “atone for his past”. The trailer is packed with shots of Reeves looking glum and contemplative.

Honourable mentions:Your Friends and Neighbours season 2 (TV, 3 April), Margo’s Got Money Troubles (TV, 15 April), Widow’s Bay (TV, 29 April).

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