April on Netflix is not for fools

From dystopian YA sagas to crime-solving beyond the grave and futuristic eye-candy, it’s a jam-packed month. CONSTANTINOS PSILLIDES looks at some of the films, documentaries and series coming in the next 30 days!

Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel

Even if you don’t know who he is, you’ve definitely heard of his work. Hans Zimmer is one of the best music composers in Hollywood, with a career spanning over 40 years. In this 2022 documentary, Zimmer talks about how he redefined film scoring, pioneering new techniques and introducing new generations to the drama of orchestral music. An exhilarating glimpse behind the curtain.

The Matrix/Reloaded/Revolutions

“You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland. And I’ll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes”. Chills, man, chills. Get your glasses and black trench coats on, we take a trip back in time to revisit a trilogy that became a milestone for modern sci-fi films and launched the careers of the Wachowski sisters.

Neo (Keanu Reeves) is a lowly computer programmer who gets a strange phone call one day that plunges his life into chaos as he realises that everything around him is a lie.

Ripley

Andrew Scott stars as Tom Ripley, a two-bit hustler in New York in the 60s, who manages to con his way into the social circle of a wealthy businessman. The elderly man tasks Ripley with travelling to Italy to persuade his carefree son, Dickie, to come back home. Taking on this task marks Tom’s initiation into a world filled with lies, scams and even homicide, setting the stage for a tangled web of intrigue and danger.

Based on The Talented Mr Ripley, the first of Patricia Highsmith’s five novels starring Tom Ripley, the series serves as a reinvention of the character, straying away from Matt Damon’s 1999 film adaptation. The eight-episode series stays faithful to the book. Early reviews rave about Scott’s performance and if successful is sure to lead to all five novels being adapted.

Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer

Did you catch him live in Nicosia a couple of months ago? If not, you are in luck as the edgy UK comedian brings his show to Netflix. Known for his dark sense of humour, Jimmy Carr is back to walk the thin line between offensive comedy and being cancelled. In his new special, Carr talks about gun control, being cancelled, consent and, of course, his favorite hobby: ripping hecklers and audience members to pieces.

Dead Boy Detectives

Written by fantasy master Neil Gaiman (who is actually one of the nicest people online, you should follow him), the Dead Boy Detectives is a new series about two boys who specialise in solving crimes that deal with the supernatural. Also, they are dead.

Well, ghosts to be exact. Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine are best friends and they decided to not move to the Afterlife but stay on Earth to solve crimes. Created originally for The Sandman graphic novel (also on Netflix, the second season coming soon), Gaiman liked the boys so much he kept inserting them into other stories until he decided to give them their own comic book run.

The Maze Runner series

The Maze Runner trilogy is an angst of Young Adult films (‘angst’ is the collective noun for YA series that I just coined, trademark pending) that were hugely successful in the 2010s. The setup is almost identical to all other YA lore of the time: dystopian future, adults controlling everything and a special one coming along to save the day.

Thomas (played by Dylan O’Brien) finds himself in a clearing surrounded by a massive maze, just like the other teenagers who were mysteriously brought here. Struggling with amnesia, Thomas integrates into the group and soon proves himself by offering fresh insights, earning him the role of a Runner tasked with exploring the maze for an exit. Alongside Teresa, the sole female among them, Thomas tries to persuade the others that he possesses knowledge of a possible escape route.

Rebel Moon – Scargiver

The finale of Zack Snyder’s epic space saga, Scargiver comes in to wrap up the story we were introduced to in December with Rebel Moon-Child of Fire. With flashy CGI, visually stunning cinematography and a plot reminiscent of Star Wars, the first movie was deeply polarising. The vast majority of people either hated it or absolutely adored it. If you liked the first one, by all means, have at it. If you hated it, best stay away, it’s not going to get any better.