It is so hot in Australia that even snakes are seeking refuge… in your u-bend. Earlier this month, a Brisbane woman was relieving herself in a dimly lit bathroom, when she was bitten on the ass by a 1.6m long python. (She’s fine).
With Australia experiencing the hottest December and January on record this summer, all signs point to February making it a hat trick.
Here are the best Netflix titles have on while you’re fending off brown snakes from the outhouse:
Russian Doll (series)
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Try as she may, Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) can’t seem to escape her 36th birthday party. After some lurid activities, the witty game programmer ends up dying again and again in slapstick fashion.
After she’s hit by a car, Nadia respawns back at the party, topples down a flight of stairs, respawns, plunges into a basement… In order to solve this Bandersnatch-like glitch, Natasha must sift through past trauma and make amends with estranged loved ones.
Russian Doll features an all-female writing and directing team. It is co-created by Natasha Lyonne, Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland, who all serve as executive producers, with Headland and Lyonne as writers for the series.
All eight episodes of Russian Doll air February 1 on Netflix Australia.
Velvet Buzzsaw (film)
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Velvet Buzzsaw reunites director Dan Gilroy with his Nightcrawler stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo.
Set in the vainglorious art scene of Los Angeles, Velvet Buzzsaw is a satirical look at the disastrous consequences of treating art as commodity. Morf Vandewalt (Gyllenhaal) is LA’s resident art critic/savage, whose column keeps artists, gallery owners and agents on tenterhooks. When his lover Josephina (Zawe Ashton), assistant to top agent Rhodora Haze (Russo), finds an apartment filled with mesmeric art, she passes them off as her own and is met with demand that’s ready to kill.
Velvet Buzzsaw airs February 1 on Netflix Australia
High Flying Bird (film)
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In the midst of an NBA lockout, Ray (André Holland), a formidable agent, struggles to keep his business afloat and his star athletes in check.
Directed By Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s 11) and based on a screenplay by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight), High Flying Bird is a film entirely about sports, without any sports being played. Leaving behind the squeaking sneakers on hardwood floors, McCraney’s focus is on a different rhythm: disrupting the balance of power in the NBA.
With athletes on and off script facing scrutiny on social media and viral video, it is only fitting that Soderbergh shot High Flying Bird entirely on an iPhone.
High Flying Bird airs February 8 on Netflix Australia.
Ken Jeong: You Complete Me, Ho (standup special)
The Umbrella Academy (series)
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In 2007, at the height of My Chemical Romance fame, ex-front man Gerard Way created and wrote the hit comic book series The Umbrella Academy. A decade on, Netflix greenlit a live-action series adaptation, with Way serving as an executive producer.
The series follows a “dysfunctional family of superheroes” who try to solve the mystery of their adoptive father’s death and curb a potential apocalypse.
Among the motley crew are Vanya (Ellen Page), the black sheep of the family, and Cha-Cha (Mary J Blige), a ruthless hit woman.
The Umbrella Academy airs February 15 on Netflix Australia.
