This month, there’s a host of great movies lined up to hit streaming on Showmax in South Africa… here are some of the highlights.
ELVIS
Nominated for eight 2023 Oscars, including Motion Picture of the Year, Elvis tracks the life of Elvis Presley from his childhood to becoming the undisputed “King of Rock and Roll” in the 1950s.
As Elvis, Austin Butler was nominated for the Oscar and won at the BAFTA, Golden Globes and People’s Choice Awards, among other accolades.
Oscar winner Tom Hanks plays his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, with Olivia DeJonge as his wife, Priscillla. The cast also includes the likes of Oscar nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog), BAFTA nominee Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Cyrano, The Trial of the Chicago 7), Critics Choice Award winner David Wenham (Faramir in The Lord of the Rings films), and multi-award winner Richard Roxburgh (Catherine the Great, Moulin Rouge!), with multiple-Grammy nominee Yola as the “godmother of rock n roll”, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and four-time Grammy winner Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup.
Directed by two-time Oscar nominee Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby, Romeo + Juliet), Elvis is the second-highest-grossing music biopic of all time – and the 16th biggest blockbuster globally last year.
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION
The third-highest-grossing movie of 2022 globally, Jurassic World: Dominion is set four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed. Dinosaurs now live—and hunt—alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.
Dominion unites two generations of Jurassic stars for the first time: Teen Choice winners Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are joined by Oscar winner Laura Dern, Oscar nominee Jeff Goldblum and Emmy nominee Sam Neill.
From director Colin Trevorrow (who smashed seven Guinness World Records with Jurassic World) and Oscar-winning franchise creator and executive producer Steven Spielberg, Dominion was nominated for the People’s Choice Movie of 2022 and was up for Favourite Movie and Actor (Pratt) at the 2023 Kids’ Choice Awards, as well as Visual Effects Society and Annie Awards this year.
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
South African actress and model Charlbi Dean stars in Triangle of Sadness, in what many believe would have been her breakout role had she not tragically passed away shortly before the film’s international release late last year.
Previously known for her roles in the Spud films and the series Black Lightning, Dean plays Yaya, one half of a celebrity model couple who join a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged captain.
Triangle of Sadness was up for Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay at this year’s Oscars, as well as Best Comedy at this year’s Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes. The wickedly funny satirical black comedy has already won 21 awards, including the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
BAFTA nominee Harris Dickinson (Where the Crawdads Sing, The King’s Man) co-stars alongside Dean, with three-time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Natural Born Killers) as the captain. As Dimitri, Zlatko Burić won Best European Actor at the European Film Awards, while Dolly de Leon became the first Filipino actor to be nominated at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes, for her supporting role as Abigail.
Hailed by Empire as “hilariously, breathlessly entertaining,” Triangle of Sadness is the English-language feature film debut of Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure, winner of the Critics Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and the Oscar-nominated The Square, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes).
TICKET TO PARADISE
Oscar winners George Clooney and Julia Roberts reunite in Ticket To Paradise as exes who find themselves on a shared mission to Bali to stop their lovestruck daughter (Emmy nominee Kaitlyn Dever from Unbelievable) from making the same mistake they once made.
A romantic comedy about the sweet surprise of second chances, Ticket To Paradise was the 28th biggest box office hit of 2022. As Independent (UK) puts it, “It’s a joy to watch Julia Roberts and George Clooney fall in love. It’s an even greater joy to watch them bicker.”
Ticket To Paradise is directed and co-written by BAFTA nominee Ol Parker (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, writer of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films).