Glen Powell goes ‘Mrs Doubtfire’, McConaughey fights fires and we meet Hollywood horror’s poster boy. These are the shows and films to stream this weekend.
“I’m going to do a Mrs Doubtfire - but with football.” Don’t you love it when a character sums up a show better than you ever could? Glen Powell slams his face into the metaphorical cream pie face mask in this football comedy series about a quarterback who screws up his career and tries to get himself a second chance at the big time. The answer? Fake teeth, a wig and a new name: Chad Powers. Powell might be best known as a big screen heart throb, but this TV comedy proves the man’s got funny chops.
As a kid, the movie that scared me the most was The Towering Inferno. Thinking back, watching it as a 10-year-old in primary school was probably a case of lazy, slightly outrageous teaching choices, but the idea of being stuck in a flaming high rise still fills me with dread any time I’m in a tall building. Yeah, so welcome to my trauma dump. I sincerely hope no tweens accidentally tune into Matthew McConaughey’s new flick, The Lost Bus. Based on a true story, he plays a school bus driver who puts himself in the line of danger, picking up a classroom of kids and their teacher (America Ferrera) in the heights of California’s deadliest wildfire in 2018. Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, Bourne Supremacy) directs - and he knows how to ramp up the tension on screen.
Warning: the following trailer contains some swearing
Another film about a school - but with far less (literal) fire. Cillian Murphy stars and produces this passion-project based on Max Porter’s novella, Shy. Murphy puts in a (now-expected) killer performance as a stressed out teacher in a mid-90s reform high school, where kids on their last educational leg get sent to try and get what they can out of school. Think constant fights, talking back, tragic back stories and teen bravado. The film is set over one day, when a TV crew turns up to film something for the local news, and a local MP makes a visit. As you can imagine, personal problems rise to the surface, rage is always bubbling just below and the cast are outstanding the whole way through.
I can’t think of Billy Joel without thinking about how much I hate my husband. Or, I should say, how much I hated him during a trip to New York a few years ago. Joel was in the midst of his Madison Square Garden shows, and when I suggested we get tickets, Husband No. 1 refused. Yes of course I should have just gone without him - hindsight is a wonderful thing - but I will always regret not getting to see The Billy Joel live. In this HBO doco, the Uptown Girl singer’s life is dissected: his loves, losses, song-writing genius and personal demons. The film features interviews with Joel, his immediate family, ex-wives and musical friends, including Bruce Springsteen, Sir Paul McCartney and rapper Nas (who knew, right?), plus live footage. It might not be Madison Square Garden, but at least at home the drinks are free.
Sir Sam Neill has made himself at home in Australian courtrooms in The Twelve. Now beginning its third season, the Aussie drama series sees gruff lawyer Bret Colby (Neill) take the case of a long-time friend’s husband, who has been accused of murder. This series has surprised viewers each step of the way over the previous two seasons, with drama, yes, but also a dash of wit and lots of twists and turns as courtroom battles overlap with the world outside. Neill is always a joy to watch, and this time he’s joined by fellow Kiwis Danielle Cormack and Sarah Peirse.
Right team, trigger warning: This series will certainly not be for everyone. The shocking (and honestly, that’s an understatement) true story of the infamous 1950s American murder and grave robber has inspired everything from Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Now, Ryan Murphy, who brought us the chilling Netflix dramas about Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez Brothers, has cast the Internet’s Boyfriend, Charlie Hunnam, (Sons of Anarchy) as one of history’s true terrors. He truly transforms into a character that is so foreign, but also, horribly familiar, thanks to Hollywood. It is truly scary stuff - but some people like that, right?
The last of our streaming films this week, Play Dirty has Mark Wahlberg doing what Mark Wahlberg does best - looking angry, cracking dry jokes and fighting bad guys without raising a sweat. But why just fight criminals when you can also try and get a bit of bang for your buck (or some cash in your pocket) while you do it? That’s always going to end well, isn’t it? Rosa Salazar, LeKeith Stanfield and Robert Downey Jr all co-star in this big, showy, explosion-filled film written by Shane Black (The Nice Guys, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lethal Weapon) that does all the things you would expect from this kind of movie. Grab the popcorn and lap it up.
Bridget Jones joined the New Zealand Herald in 2025. She has been a lifestyle and entertainment journalist and editor for more than 15 years.