The best new TV shows to stream in June
Another month, another stack of streaming titles to add to your roster. There are shows that are going to hit some hard-to-reach spots, whether it's Stan's idiosyncratic sibling comedy Hal & Harper (with bonus dad energy from Mark Ruffalo) or Apple TV+'s hard-nosed arson drama Smoke. Let's get your watching squared away!
Apple TV+
My top Apple TV+ recommendation is Smoke (June 27).
One sure sign that the creative voices on a show genuinely enjoyed their collaboration is when they sign up to do it all again. That's the case with British star Taron Egerton (Rocketman) and American crime novelist and series creator Dennis Lehane (Mystic River), whose 2022 Apple TV+ crime drama Black Bird drew widespread praise. The pair have reunited for this investigatory thriller, which is inspired by true events in America's Pacific Northwest, where an arson investigator (Egerton) and a police detective (Jurnee Smollett, The Order) reluctantly team up to track down not one but two serial arsonists. The stacked supporting cast includes Rafe Spall (Trying), John Leguizamo (The Menu) and Greg Kinnear (Shining Vale).
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Also on Apple TV+: Owen Wilson, good to see you! The Wedding Crashers star brings his deadpan delusions to Stick (June 4), a screwball sports comedy about a washed-up former professional golfer who seeks redemption via coaching a young prodigy. Created by screenwriter Jason Keller (Ford v. Ferrari), the limited series stars Wilson as the not entirely reliable Pryce Cahill, who is dodging divorce proceedings when he discovers teenage phenomenon Santi Wheeler (Peter Dager). Qualifying tournaments and goofy golf philosophy ensue, with Marc Maron (Glow) as an unconvinced sounding board.
Meanwhile, Sydney Sweeney continues to diversify her Hollywood profile. Having already ticked off a romcom (Anyone But You), a horror flick (Immaculate), and a bad superhero movie (Madame Web), the coronated screen queen stars opposite Julianne Moore in the crime thriller Echo Valley (June 13). Written by Brad Ingelsby (Mare of Easttown) and directed by Michael Pearce (Beast), the feature begins with a tearful, bloodied Claire Garrett (Sweeney) arriving at the horse ranch of her estranged mother, Kate (Moore), claiming that she had to kill her abusive boyfriend in self-defence. When Kate covers up the crime, she becomes an accomplice even as Claire's actions on the night raise questions.
May highlights: Should a security cyborg binge space soaps or protect its human clients? Sci-fi black comedy Murderbot had the answer, plus culinary thriller Careme brought Kitchen Confidential into the Napoleonic era.
Netflix
My top Netflix recommendation is The Survivors (June 6).
Netflix has first-rate source material for its new Australian drama: a Jane Harper novel. The author of The Dry creates menacing mysteries that resonate, as is the case with this story of a small seaside town where a tragedy that left several people dead 15 years prior returns to the public eye when a new murder takes place. Confronting the town's collective amnesia is a young couple, Kieran (Charlie Vickers), the son of a local clan returned home with his young family, and his partner, Mia (Yerin Ha), who sees the community's failings. Adapting Harper's novel is Tony Ayres, whose previous shows include Stateless and Fires.
Also on Netflix: Squid Game (June 27), the blockbuster South Korean series that helped change the definition of event television, comes to an end with its third season. These new episodes were filmed back-to-back with last December's second season, which culminated in a failed rebellion among the players of the dystopian competition that once again left player turned saboteur Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) facing a very uncertain future. Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk will steer the show to its conclusion, safe in the knowledge that Squid Game fascination has not eased. The second season's first three days smashed Netflix viewing records.
May highlights: Julianne Moore was compelling as a billionaire's controlling wife in Sirens, Tina Fey and Steve Carell starred in the bittersweet comedy The Four Seasons, and Conan O'Brien: the Kennedy Centre Mark Twain Prize for American Humour was an uproarious celebration.
Stan *
My top Stan recommendation is Hal & Harper (June 26).
Mark Ruffalo is in his do-anything era. After big-screen turns as a cad in Poor Things and a pompous interplanetary dictator for Mickey 17, the former Marvel star comes back to Earth in this bittersweet comic drama. Ruffalo plays a suburban single father whose child-raising techniques have resulted in stunted, co-dependent lives for his now 20-something children, Hal (Cooper Raiff, the show's writer and director) and Harper (Lili Reinhart, Riverdale). The pair's attempts to understand where they're at, and engage with their emotionally shifty dad, form the basis of this limited series. Raiff turned heads with his last movie, Apple TV+'s idiosyncratic rom-com Cha Cha Real Smooth, so there's real promise here.
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Also on Stan: There are currently many shows about London's fictional crime gangs, including Stan's Gangs of London, so thankfully the setting for this latest British organised crime drama moves north to Liverpool. This City is Ours (June 4) stars Sean Bean (Snowpiercer) as Ronnie Phelan, a drug dealer who has cornered the city's narcotics business and built an empire. Wealth and age have Ronnie thinking of retirement, but that soon creates chaos and instability when he leans towards his right-hand man, Michael Kavanagh (James Nelson-Joyce, A Thousand Blows), over his impatient son, Jamie (Jack McMullen, Hijack). The unofficial mediation process, as fans of this genre well know, is violent and vengeful.
May highlights: The murder mystery is never more fun than when Natasha Lyonne's rogue detective is solving them on Poker Face, plus The Walking Dead devotees got a new season of post-apocalyptic New York with the return of Dead City.
Disney+
My top Disney+ recommendation is The Bear (June 26).
I love this outstanding show's scheduling commitment – late June every year, a new season appears. The fourth instalment of Christopher Storer's celebrated comic-drama about an obsessive chef turning his family's Chicago sandwich spot into a fine-dining restaurant has plenty to resolve. The third season ended with a crucial newspaper review leaving Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), once more, torn between satisfaction and torment, while the bills mount and the staff start to fray. All the 'yes, chef!' cast return, plus a further appearance by Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy's troubled mother, Donna. I wouldn't be completely surprised if the show recalibrated after the third season and leant more into its drama.
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Also on Disney+: Having previously flooded Disney+ with spin-off superhero series, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has tapped the breaks these past two years. Quality over quantity has been the goal. The latest offering is Ironheart (June 25), a six-part comic-book drama about young scientist Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), who was introduced in the 2022 blockbuster Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as the creator of her own Iron Man-like suits. Williams returns to her hometown of Chicago, where her belief in technology comes up against magic in a show that leans into community struggle and personal responsibility.
May highlights: The accolades continued for Andor, the Star Wars show that matters, while Tucci in Italy was a truly delicious food and travel documentary.
Max
My top Max recommendation is Mountainhead (June 1).
Succession hive assemble! The tech billionaires are far richer and far less regulated than everyone's favourite toxic media moguls in the new feature film from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong. The British satirist, whose inspired dialogue can cause whiplash, charts a weekend retreat for a quartet of digital titans – played by Steve Carell (The Four Seasons), Ramy Youssef (Ramy), Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City), and Cory Michael Smith (May December) – just as new AI features on one of their platforms is stoking violence and economic panic around the world. A crisis? No, it's an opportunity. Armstrong, who also directs, dissects his delusional new subjects with one tech bro nightmare after another.
Also on Max: Mariska Hargitay is one of television's most enduring stars. Since 1999, she's played Olivia Benson, the unyielding New York detective investigating sexual crimes on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The 61-year-old has always been open about the void in her own life – when Hargitay was just three her mother, Hollywood bombshell Jayne Mansfield, died in a car accident; Hargitay was asleep in the vehicle's back seat. My Mum Jayne (June 28) is a documentary about Hargitay's attempts to delve into her mother's personal and public legacy. Hargitay, who directs, calls it a, 'a labour of love and longing'.
Amazon Prime Video
My top Amazon Prime recommendation is We Were Liars (June 18).
Shows about the young and privileged are timeless: wealth porn, aristocratic beauty, and unfulfilled privilege have powered everything from Gossip Girl to Elite. The latest variant is an adaptation, by Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries), of E. Lockhart's 2014 best-selling young adult novel about a teenager, Cadence Eastman (Emily Alyn Lind, the Gossip Girl reboot), trying to fill in the trauma-induced gap in her memory connected to a summer she spent at her family's island compound with her cousins and best friends. Something bad obviously happened, but the truth gets twisted in a narrative that leans more towards psychological thriller than pouty melodrama.
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Also on Amazon Prime: Adding to the conspiratorial thriller genre – think Condor, Deep State and Rabbit Hole – Countdown (June 25) is a law enforcement drama about an LAPD detective, Mark Meachum (Jensen Ackles), assigned to a task force responding to the murder of a government official. Once the investigators start to unwind the plot, the stakes are very much raised. Derek Haas, who kept procedural television afloat with both Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D., is responsible for a series that should add to Amazon Prime's Reacher -led stable of tough guy TV.
May highlights: The Marvellous Mrs Maisel crew put their mark on the ballet world with Etoile, while a new season of Nicole Kidman's Nine Perfect Strangers continued to do heads in (including our critic).
ABC iview
My top iview recommendation is Bay of Fires (June 15).
The first season of this Australian drama was the anti- SeaChange: at-risk finance CEO Stella (co-creator Marta Dusseldorp) and her children are given new identities and relocated to a small Tasmanian town, only to discover that it's full of suspicious criminals, a budding cult and other untrustworthy former government assets. If the debut season required Stella to fight for survival, with a tone that mixed heightened black comedy and thriller tension, the second instalment finds her trying to hold together the fractious coalition she built. It's a very different kind of local politics. This is a chance for the ABC to build a series that doesn't just endure, it evolves.
May highlights: It was a month of hardy crime dramas that crisscrossed Britain – The One That Got Away was a gritty Welsh mystery, while Bergerac rebooted the Channel Islands detective, plus feel-good reality series The Piano hit all the right notes.
SBS On Demand
My top SBS On Demand recommendation is Families Like Ours (June 20).
Much like the British drama Years and Years, which viewed that nation's fictional dystopian descent through the lens of an everyday Manchester clan, this Danish drama tackles the vastness of climate change through an ordinary family's struggle. A what-if set in the not-quite near-future, it's driven by the need to evacuate Denmark as rising sea levels will flood the nation. Certainty ends as the country's millions of citizens explore immigration options or forced relocation, facing separation and a loss of a lifestyle taken for granted. The co-writer and director is Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration, Another Round), who has stressed that his focus is more personal than political.
May highlights: A dedicated team of German police detectives made The Black Forest Murders a gripping investigation drama, while an iconic character got a new twist in the period adventure Sherlock & Daughter.
Other streamers
My top recommendation for the other streaming services is Binge's Mix Tape (June 12).
A romantic second chance couched in the past's unquenchable promise and the siren's song of beloved teenage tunes, this Irish-Australian limited series tells a then-and-now story. In 1989, in Britain a connection is slowly forged between teenagers Alison (Florence Hunt) and Daniel (newcomer Rory Walton-Smith), only for them to be irrevocably separated. Cut to the current day and both have built lives of their own, only for Daniel (Jim Sturgess) to discover that Alison (Teresa Palmer) is living in Sydney. What they do next – with a soundtrack of vintage classics – is in the hands of writer Jo Spain (Harry Wild), who adapted Jane Sanderson's 2020 novel of the same name, and director Lucy Gaffy (Irreverent).
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Also: The Agatha Christie mystery-industrial complex rolls onwards with the BBC's new three-part adaptation of a 1944 novel from the doyenne of detective fiction. Towards Zero (June 3) is very much classic Christie, albeit with an impressively credentialled cast, set at a 1930s British country estate where the imperious order maintained by Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston) is interrupted by visitors and then a murder. It falls to Inspector Leach (Matthew Rhys) to interview the assembled suspects and sift the clues.
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He is very compassionate and works hard to make sure that his conservation efforts benefit people as much as the environment. "I am always impressed by his knowledge and dedication and in the conversations I have had with him, I often learn something new. Most importantly though, he truly cares about a healthy planet for our future generations." He said: "I have the privilege of carrying on a conservation legacy that my dad and my family created, and that is something very important to me. It makes me feel incredibly excited and hopeful when I get to join forces with like-minded causes dedicated to making the world a better place. To be part of an initiative that shares the values of our own charity efforts through Wildlife Warriors is a great honour." Conservationist Robert Irwin can see that Prince William "truly cares" about the environment. The 21-year-old son of late Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin recently teamed up with the heir to the British throne after he was was named a Global Ambassador for the Prince of Wales' Earthshot Prize. Ahead of the two joining forces again at the London Climate Action Week, Irwin said the royal is clearly dedicated to "putting a spotlight" on the issue. He told The Sunday Mirror newspaper: "I love being around passionate people, it inspires me. The prince is just that - passionate, curious and thoughtful. I've been fortunate enough to share many great discussions about the things we love about the natural world. And it's clear that he has a profound love for wildlife and wild places. "He knows that he can put a spotlight on people making a real difference. He takes this responsibility very seriously, and he has a great ability to direct attention to where it needs to be. He is very compassionate and works hard to make sure that his conservation efforts benefit people as much as the environment. "I am always impressed by his knowledge and dedication and in the conversations I have had with him, I often learn something new. Most importantly though, he truly cares about a healthy planet for our future generations." He said: "I have the privilege of carrying on a conservation legacy that my dad and my family created, and that is something very important to me. It makes me feel incredibly excited and hopeful when I get to join forces with like-minded causes dedicated to making the world a better place. To be part of an initiative that shares the values of our own charity efforts through Wildlife Warriors is a great honour." Conservationist Robert Irwin can see that Prince William "truly cares" about the environment. The 21-year-old son of late Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin recently teamed up with the heir to the British throne after he was was named a Global Ambassador for the Prince of Wales' Earthshot Prize. Ahead of the two joining forces again at the London Climate Action Week, Irwin said the royal is clearly dedicated to "putting a spotlight" on the issue. He told The Sunday Mirror newspaper: "I love being around passionate people, it inspires me. The prince is just that - passionate, curious and thoughtful. I've been fortunate enough to share many great discussions about the things we love about the natural world. And it's clear that he has a profound love for wildlife and wild places. "He knows that he can put a spotlight on people making a real difference. He takes this responsibility very seriously, and he has a great ability to direct attention to where it needs to be. 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Robert Irwin can see that Prince William 'truly cares' about the environment
Robert Irwin can see that Prince William "truly cares" about the environment. The 21-year-old conservationist - who is the is the son of late Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin - recently teamed up with the heir to the British throne after he was was named a Global Ambassador for the Prince of Wales' Earthshot Prize, and ahead of joining forces with him again at the London Climate Action Week, he admitted that the royal is "clearly" dedicated to "putting a spotlight" on the issue. He told The Sunday Mirror newspaper: "I love being around passionate people, it inspires me. The prince is just that - passionate, curious and thoughtful. I've been fortunate enough to share many great discussions about the things we love about the natural world. And it's clear that he has a profound love for wildlife and wild places. "He knows that he can put a spotlight on people making a real difference. He takes this responsibility very seriously, and he has a great ability to direct attention to where it needs to be. He is very compassionate and works hard to make sure that his conservation efforts benefit people as much as the environment. "I am always impressed by his knowledge and dedication and in the conversations I have had with him, I often learn something new. Most importantly though, he truly cares about a healthy planet for our future generations." The Crikey! It's The Irwins star - whose father died at the age of 44 in 2006 after being pierced by a stingray barb in the Great Barrier Reef - is able to continue the "legacy" that his dad created and feels "hopeful" to be able to connect with prominent figures such as the Prince of Wales in his work. He said: "I have the privilege of carrying on a conservation legacy that my dad and my family created, and that is something very important to me. It makes me feel incredibly excited and hopeful when I get to join forces with like minded causes dedicated to making the world a better place. To be part of an initiative that shares the values of our own charity efforts through Wildlife Warriors is a great honour."
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Infectious zombie sequel breathes new life into horror genre
Danny Boyle is back at the helm, not quite 28 years later, for the second sequel to his brilliant 2002 zombie movie 28 Days Later, a film that breathed new life into that particular horror genre. Here he delivers a film experience that feels just as fresh as the first. In fact, this film feels closer in tone to Boyle's breakout hit film Trainspotting, in terms of pace, of editing, of music use, of grimy visual spectacle. Boyle's original film's stars are nowhere to be seen, but there are visual touches that throw us back, and I felt nostalgic at a character stepping over a derelict billboard for the British soft drink Tango. Both Boyle and his screenwriter collaborator Alex Garland are at the top of their game, all these years later, with Boyle's mantlepiece home to a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Garland was quite prescient with last year's Civil War, a film he wrote and directed, with a message that felt just a few weeks ago, as citizens of Los Angeles had the National Guard called on them by their President, like it was a crystal ball into a likely future. In their first zombie film, England has been ground zero for an infection called Rage, passed on by bodily fluids - a sneeze, the saliva of a bite, a drop of blood - that turns its victims almost immediately into fast-moving killing machines that aren't zombies so much as carriers of an aggressive human form of distemper. We learn as the film opens that the rest of the world has written England off to keep the infection under control, the entire island a quarantine zone that no remaining human is allowed to leave, which is fairly Brexit-coded. Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives with dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), grandfather Sam (Christopher Fulford) and ma Isla (Jodie Comer) in a community of survivalists thriving on an island just off the Scottish coast. Jamie is taking his son for one of the community's rites of passage, a hunting trip to mainland Scotland to make his first kill of the infected, which in 28 years have evolved into two species, one a slow slug-like eater of worms, and one athletic and sentient. Isla is bedridden by a mystery ailment that has her rambling and feels like it might scarily turn into the Rage virus at any moment, and full of his own success at having survived his mainland killing trip, Spike takes his mother with him back to the mainland on the trail of a rumoured doctor who might heal her. They find this doctor, Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), but he has tragic observations to share about Isla, but also about the evolving nature of the infected. Like Garland did with his Civil War screenplay, there's been some dramatic upheavals in real-life that allow him to make some keen observations about us as a society with this script, knowing his audience have already survived their own infectious pandemic. He must have had a bunch of insights to share, because 28 Years Later is actually the first in a planned trilogy, the final instalment filmed back-to-back with this film and due out in cinemas just after Christmas. The performances are very strong and sometimes against type, like Jodie Comer's non-action film tragic figure, or Aaron Taylor-Johnson's very action-film approach. Danny Boyle and his crew do some fairly amazing technical work, including filming with an array of iPhones that give gorgeous crisp visuals and are carried in a lightweight frame specially designed to allow cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to follow his cast into tight spaces or up ladders and hills at a matching speed. It really amps up the film's pull-your-legs-up-onto-the-seat-with-you terror. Danny Boyle is back at the helm, not quite 28 years later, for the second sequel to his brilliant 2002 zombie movie 28 Days Later, a film that breathed new life into that particular horror genre. Here he delivers a film experience that feels just as fresh as the first. In fact, this film feels closer in tone to Boyle's breakout hit film Trainspotting, in terms of pace, of editing, of music use, of grimy visual spectacle. Boyle's original film's stars are nowhere to be seen, but there are visual touches that throw us back, and I felt nostalgic at a character stepping over a derelict billboard for the British soft drink Tango. Both Boyle and his screenwriter collaborator Alex Garland are at the top of their game, all these years later, with Boyle's mantlepiece home to a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Garland was quite prescient with last year's Civil War, a film he wrote and directed, with a message that felt just a few weeks ago, as citizens of Los Angeles had the National Guard called on them by their President, like it was a crystal ball into a likely future. In their first zombie film, England has been ground zero for an infection called Rage, passed on by bodily fluids - a sneeze, the saliva of a bite, a drop of blood - that turns its victims almost immediately into fast-moving killing machines that aren't zombies so much as carriers of an aggressive human form of distemper. We learn as the film opens that the rest of the world has written England off to keep the infection under control, the entire island a quarantine zone that no remaining human is allowed to leave, which is fairly Brexit-coded. Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives with dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), grandfather Sam (Christopher Fulford) and ma Isla (Jodie Comer) in a community of survivalists thriving on an island just off the Scottish coast. Jamie is taking his son for one of the community's rites of passage, a hunting trip to mainland Scotland to make his first kill of the infected, which in 28 years have evolved into two species, one a slow slug-like eater of worms, and one athletic and sentient. Isla is bedridden by a mystery ailment that has her rambling and feels like it might scarily turn into the Rage virus at any moment, and full of his own success at having survived his mainland killing trip, Spike takes his mother with him back to the mainland on the trail of a rumoured doctor who might heal her. They find this doctor, Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), but he has tragic observations to share about Isla, but also about the evolving nature of the infected. Like Garland did with his Civil War screenplay, there's been some dramatic upheavals in real-life that allow him to make some keen observations about us as a society with this script, knowing his audience have already survived their own infectious pandemic. He must have had a bunch of insights to share, because 28 Years Later is actually the first in a planned trilogy, the final instalment filmed back-to-back with this film and due out in cinemas just after Christmas. The performances are very strong and sometimes against type, like Jodie Comer's non-action film tragic figure, or Aaron Taylor-Johnson's very action-film approach. Danny Boyle and his crew do some fairly amazing technical work, including filming with an array of iPhones that give gorgeous crisp visuals and are carried in a lightweight frame specially designed to allow cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to follow his cast into tight spaces or up ladders and hills at a matching speed. It really amps up the film's pull-your-legs-up-onto-the-seat-with-you terror. Danny Boyle is back at the helm, not quite 28 years later, for the second sequel to his brilliant 2002 zombie movie 28 Days Later, a film that breathed new life into that particular horror genre. Here he delivers a film experience that feels just as fresh as the first. In fact, this film feels closer in tone to Boyle's breakout hit film Trainspotting, in terms of pace, of editing, of music use, of grimy visual spectacle. Boyle's original film's stars are nowhere to be seen, but there are visual touches that throw us back, and I felt nostalgic at a character stepping over a derelict billboard for the British soft drink Tango. Both Boyle and his screenwriter collaborator Alex Garland are at the top of their game, all these years later, with Boyle's mantlepiece home to a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Garland was quite prescient with last year's Civil War, a film he wrote and directed, with a message that felt just a few weeks ago, as citizens of Los Angeles had the National Guard called on them by their President, like it was a crystal ball into a likely future. In their first zombie film, England has been ground zero for an infection called Rage, passed on by bodily fluids - a sneeze, the saliva of a bite, a drop of blood - that turns its victims almost immediately into fast-moving killing machines that aren't zombies so much as carriers of an aggressive human form of distemper. We learn as the film opens that the rest of the world has written England off to keep the infection under control, the entire island a quarantine zone that no remaining human is allowed to leave, which is fairly Brexit-coded. Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives with dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), grandfather Sam (Christopher Fulford) and ma Isla (Jodie Comer) in a community of survivalists thriving on an island just off the Scottish coast. Jamie is taking his son for one of the community's rites of passage, a hunting trip to mainland Scotland to make his first kill of the infected, which in 28 years have evolved into two species, one a slow slug-like eater of worms, and one athletic and sentient. Isla is bedridden by a mystery ailment that has her rambling and feels like it might scarily turn into the Rage virus at any moment, and full of his own success at having survived his mainland killing trip, Spike takes his mother with him back to the mainland on the trail of a rumoured doctor who might heal her. They find this doctor, Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), but he has tragic observations to share about Isla, but also about the evolving nature of the infected. Like Garland did with his Civil War screenplay, there's been some dramatic upheavals in real-life that allow him to make some keen observations about us as a society with this script, knowing his audience have already survived their own infectious pandemic. He must have had a bunch of insights to share, because 28 Years Later is actually the first in a planned trilogy, the final instalment filmed back-to-back with this film and due out in cinemas just after Christmas. The performances are very strong and sometimes against type, like Jodie Comer's non-action film tragic figure, or Aaron Taylor-Johnson's very action-film approach. Danny Boyle and his crew do some fairly amazing technical work, including filming with an array of iPhones that give gorgeous crisp visuals and are carried in a lightweight frame specially designed to allow cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to follow his cast into tight spaces or up ladders and hills at a matching speed. It really amps up the film's pull-your-legs-up-onto-the-seat-with-you terror. Danny Boyle is back at the helm, not quite 28 years later, for the second sequel to his brilliant 2002 zombie movie 28 Days Later, a film that breathed new life into that particular horror genre. Here he delivers a film experience that feels just as fresh as the first. In fact, this film feels closer in tone to Boyle's breakout hit film Trainspotting, in terms of pace, of editing, of music use, of grimy visual spectacle. Boyle's original film's stars are nowhere to be seen, but there are visual touches that throw us back, and I felt nostalgic at a character stepping over a derelict billboard for the British soft drink Tango. Both Boyle and his screenwriter collaborator Alex Garland are at the top of their game, all these years later, with Boyle's mantlepiece home to a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Garland was quite prescient with last year's Civil War, a film he wrote and directed, with a message that felt just a few weeks ago, as citizens of Los Angeles had the National Guard called on them by their President, like it was a crystal ball into a likely future. In their first zombie film, England has been ground zero for an infection called Rage, passed on by bodily fluids - a sneeze, the saliva of a bite, a drop of blood - that turns its victims almost immediately into fast-moving killing machines that aren't zombies so much as carriers of an aggressive human form of distemper. We learn as the film opens that the rest of the world has written England off to keep the infection under control, the entire island a quarantine zone that no remaining human is allowed to leave, which is fairly Brexit-coded. Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives with dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), grandfather Sam (Christopher Fulford) and ma Isla (Jodie Comer) in a community of survivalists thriving on an island just off the Scottish coast. Jamie is taking his son for one of the community's rites of passage, a hunting trip to mainland Scotland to make his first kill of the infected, which in 28 years have evolved into two species, one a slow slug-like eater of worms, and one athletic and sentient. Isla is bedridden by a mystery ailment that has her rambling and feels like it might scarily turn into the Rage virus at any moment, and full of his own success at having survived his mainland killing trip, Spike takes his mother with him back to the mainland on the trail of a rumoured doctor who might heal her. They find this doctor, Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), but he has tragic observations to share about Isla, but also about the evolving nature of the infected. Like Garland did with his Civil War screenplay, there's been some dramatic upheavals in real-life that allow him to make some keen observations about us as a society with this script, knowing his audience have already survived their own infectious pandemic. He must have had a bunch of insights to share, because 28 Years Later is actually the first in a planned trilogy, the final instalment filmed back-to-back with this film and due out in cinemas just after Christmas. The performances are very strong and sometimes against type, like Jodie Comer's non-action film tragic figure, or Aaron Taylor-Johnson's very action-film approach. Danny Boyle and his crew do some fairly amazing technical work, including filming with an array of iPhones that give gorgeous crisp visuals and are carried in a lightweight frame specially designed to allow cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to follow his cast into tight spaces or up ladders and hills at a matching speed. It really amps up the film's pull-your-legs-up-onto-the-seat-with-you terror.
