This week’s streaming releases are headlined by Oscar-nominated thriller September 5, the latest (and last) Bridget Jones movie, and recent Stephen King adaptation The Monkey. However, there’s also the return of Ewan McGregor’s Long Way series, Rosemary’s Baby prequel Apartment 7a, and more!
SERIES
Long Way Home
9 May 2025 – Apple TV+
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are back! For twenty years the best friends have been engaging and educating fans with their Long Way adventure series, as they rode their motorcycles across the world, encountering different societies and the individual beauties they hold. And now, following Long Way Round, Long Way Down, and Long Way Up, the boys are ready for another adventure in Long Way Home! This time around they’re riding through 17 European countries on refurbished (but cranky!) vintage motorbikes from Ewan’s home in Scotland to Charley’s in England on a two month long trip that will see them head across the North Sea to Scandinavia, all the way up to the Arctic Circle and then down to the Baltics and through continental Europe, before eventually hopping back over the English Channel.
Happy Face S1
10 May 2025 – Showmax
True crime fans will probably get an extra kick out of new drama series Happy Face. Based on the shocking true-life story of Melissa Jesperson-Moore, who at age 15 discovered that her father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, was the serial murderer known as the Happy Face Killer. Annaleigh Ashford stars as the grown-up Melissa who thought she had escaped her dark childhood, only for her serial killer father (Dennis Quaid) to force his way back into her life after decades of no contact. When a possibly innocent man is set to be put to death for a crime her father may have committed, the talk show she works for decides to publicize her story, forcing her to confront the monster from her past.
Bet S1
15 May 2025 – Netflix
Homura Kawamoto and Toru Naomura’s hit Japanese manga Kakegurui gets a live-action series adaptation in Bet. The series follows the students at a boarding school for the global elite, where underground gambling determines the school’s hierarchy. When Yumeko, a mysterious transfer student arrives, her gambling prowess puts her in the crosshairs of the powerful Student Council, while her secret quest for revenge threatens to upend the school’s status quo entirely.
Love, Death + Robots S4
15 May 2025 – Netflix
Dinosaur gladiators, messianic cats, string-puppet rock stars, it can only be Love, Death & Robots. The fourth volume, presented by Tim Miller (Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate) and David Fincher (Mindhunter, The Killer), sees Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2, Kill Team Kill) return as supervising director for ten startling shorts showcasing the series’ signature, award-winning style of bleeding-edge animation, horror, sci-fi and humor. Buckle up.
MOVIES
Nonnas
9 May 2025 – Netflix
Hey, heads up! If somehow you still don’t know, it’s Mother’s Day in South Africa this coming Sunday! If you still don’t have plans to treat your mom, you may just be able to pull this one out of the fire with lunch and heartwarming movie. You’ll have to provide the former, but Netflix has you covered for the latter with Stephen Chbosky’s 2025 comedy Nonnas. Based on a true, Vince Vaughn stars as Joe Scaravella, a man who loses his mother and, in his grief, finds an unconventional method of honoring her memory – he opens a restaurant in Staten Island, New York, where all the chefs are local grandmas making their Italian specialties. Lorraine Bracco, Susan Sarandon, Talia Shire, and Brenda Vaccaro star as the nonnas, with Linda Cardellini, Drea de Matteo and Joe Manganiello rounding out the all-star cast.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
12 May 2025 – Showmax
If after all that heartwarming motherly love, you need to have yourself a good cry and see how an out-of-her-depth mother does it, check out Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Renee Zellweger’s much-beloved literary character is back on screen in this fourth and final film, as she finds herself trying to right her life after her husband, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) passed away tragically a few years earlier. When the still-ditzy Bridget has to be rescued from a tree by local park ranger Roxter (Lou Woodall), it starts off an unexpected romance with the significantly younger hunk. Meanwhile, her kid’s stern new teacher Scott Walliker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), ropes her into all sorts of extramural activities to help her connect with her grieving son. And it is at this point where I must warn you to please keep the tissues handy. As I said in my 8/10 review, the film packs “a lot more dramatic oomph to go with the ditzy physical comedy (sometimes a little too ditzy) that fans expect. There are some pacing/character issues, but this final chapters’ deeply emotional musings on grief are so good that you can’t help but love it, tears and all.”
Apartment 7A
15 May 2025 -Showmax
Despite the icky controversy surrounding filmmaker Roman Polanski, 1968 horror Rosemary’s Baby is a stone cold classic. The original starred Mia Farrow as the titular newlywed woman who becomes pregnant, but starts to suspect that her neighbours have very sinister intentions for her unborn child. The massively successful film launched a franchise that included a TV movie adaptation, a series adaptation, and now a prequel movie as well. Apartment 7A stars Julia Garner (Ozark) as an ambitious young dancer. After her dreams of fame in New York City are cut short by a devastating injury, a wealthy older couple welcome her into their home in the Bramford, a luxury apartment building, to live with them rent free – but something evil is living in that place!
Wicked Little Letters
15 May 2025 -Showmax
There are quite a few “Based on a true story” releases this week, and Wicked Little Letters looks to be most uproariously entertaining! Oscar winner Olivia Colman and Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley co-star as conservative Edith and rowdy Irish migrant Rose, two neighbours living in a sleepy 1920s English seaside town. When Edith and fellow residents begin to receive wicked letters full of unintentionally hilarious profanities, shocking the whole conservative community, the naturally foul-mouthed Rose immediately becomes the prime suspect. Rose is forced to defend herself – with some choice swear words – from the ridiculous accusations, all while trying to find the real author, to much hilarious result.
VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
September 5
Purchase: Apple TV – R170
Rental: Apple TV – R45
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you probably didn’t watch September 5 when it debuted in local cinemas earlier this year. Despite earning itself a Best Picture Golden Globe nomination and a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination, the historical thriller seemingly just sailed under the radar for most. Speak to the few who watched it though, and they will loudly proclaim it as one of the best and most intense thrillers of the year. And yes, it’s me. I’m “the few”. A dramatization of real-world events, the film is set during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, which are widely disrupted when a terrorist group storms the athletes’ village and takes a group of Israeli athletes hostage. Finding themselves in the unique position of being able to provide live coverage of the dramatic events as they unfold, the American ABC sports broadcasting team are suddenly thrust right into the frontlines of this situation. With this type of event never having been shown on live television before, they need to make up the rules as they go, to devastating effect.
The Monkey
Purchase: Apple TV – R170
Rental: Apple TV – R45
Let’s be fair: Stephen King adaptations are dime a dozen. The prolific author officially holds the record for having the most stories adapted to screen for any writer ever, so some may think another one is not really a big deal. It is though when the person doing the adapting is Osgood Perkins, the writer/director behind the absolutely unnerving Longlegs. This time he’s turning his off kilter focus to The Monkey in a collab with horror maestro James Wan to bring King’s 1980 short story to life. Theo James pulls double headline duty as he stars as twin brothers Hal and Bill Shellburn, who, as kids, saw their lives ruined by the appearance of a mysterious windup toy monkey that seemed to have nothing but death and misfortune follow in its wake. Two decades later, after thinking they were safe, the monkey shows up again, and horror follows with it once more. In her 7.5/10 review, Noelle cautioned fans of Longlegs to not expect that film’s level of grimly serious horror. Instead, The Monkey should be “viewed as an absurdist dark comedy, or live-action horror cartoon for grown-ups”, with it being “a gory good time, subverting audience expectations at every turn.”