Seen on Screen: The Anthony Bourdain Biopic, and Last Call for a Beloved Aussie Rom-Com

International viewing options often overshadow homegrown fare, especially during the northern hemisphere’s outsized summer season. And yet August sees Australian products rising to the forefront, from a period horror flick and a returning rom-com, to a low-budget satire and a literary adaptation.

As for offerings from beyond our shores, we’ve got easy laughs from Jake Johnson (with help from Aaron Chen), a feminist twist on serial killers, a fever-dream slasher and one downright risky biopic. In other words, there’s no shortage of variety this month.

The Birthday Trip

Writer-director James Robert Woods walked a long road to get his feature debut into cinemas. But Australian audiences can finally see The Birthday Trip, a scathing satire of Sydney finance bros and content creators shot on a shoestring budget. The story follows three couples who meet up in the Southern Highlands for a joint birthday party, only to buckle under pressures both internal and external. This is a pointed snapshot of modern upper-middle-class life, with everyone trying to find their lane and say the right thing while presenting an idealised image of themselves to the world. Despite its DIY origins, the film culminates in a house being dramatically toppled by a bulldozer – a well-deserved source of catharsis after so much pent-up discomfort. In cinemas July 30.

My Brilliant Career

A core text of the Australian literary canon, the 1901 novel My Brilliant Career not only ensured the legacy of author Miles Franklin but introduced the wider world to Judy Davis and the dearly departed Sam Neill via Gillian Armstrong’s 1979 film adaptation. Now Netflix has snapped up a six-part television version starring Home and Away’s Philippa Northeast as Sybylla. Living in rural Australia at the turn of the 20th century, Sybylla is an aspiring writer, but her family would rather see her married off. The tone here looks similar to the Apple series Dickinson, which also saw a young woman with a gift for words in an era when that wasn’t exactly celebrated. On Netflix August 13.

Penny Lane Is Dead

The buzz is loud for Penny Lane Is Dead, an Australian horror movie set at a beach house in the summer of ’86. The ABC describes it as a mix of Puberty Blues and Wake in Fright, which makes sense for a movie about a group of teenage girls beset by a hellraising gatecrasher and her entourage of toxic blokes. This also marks the feature debut for writer-director Mia’Kate Russell, a prominent name in local make-up and special effects. Perth newcomer Bailey Spalding plays the titular hero, while Ben Mendelsohn’s daughter Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn appears as her ferocious cousin Kat. Expect a blood-splattered potboiler with fun period touches, queer romance and a lean 91-minute run time. In cinemas now.

Colin From Accounts season three

When we last left Colin From Accounts, Gordon had just awkwardly proposed to Ashley at a friend’s wedding, only to get knocked back. The rom-com’s third and final season picks up three years later, with both leads dating other people. But creators, writers, spouses and stars Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer waste no time in reuniting for romantic uncertainty and ultra-cringey laughs. It’s no wonder Colin grew from a modest homegrown hit to an international word-of-mouth sensation: Brammall and Dyer perfectly balance dry, rapid-fire jokes with much broader comedic strokes and one of the most solid ensembles around. While it’s sad to see the show go, its short, sharp episodes have proven eminently repeatable. On Binge now.

Tony

Making a movie about a figure as revered as Anthony Bourdain isn’t for the faint of heart. But if anyone can pull it off, it’s Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson, who has threaded the needle between laughs and pathos in projects like BlackBerry and Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. Johnson is definitively taking creative risks here: Tony condenses a full decade of Bourdain’s formative years – as chronicled in his memoir Kitchen Confidential – into a single summer. Yet the overall arc seems to come through intact, with a headstrong young writer finding his feet (and a healthy dose of humility) in a kitchen rather than at a desk. Flanked by a trusty supporting cast that includes Antonio Banderas and Leo Woodall, The Holdovers star Dominic Sessa is the one stepping into Bourdain’s formidable shoes. In cinemas August 20.

The Dink

Jake Johnson is as affable as ever leading this low-stakes pickleball movie, which calls to mind goofy 2000s sports comedies like Dodgeball and Blades of Glory. Johnson plays a one-time tennis prodigy now reduced to teaching bratty kids at a club run by his father (a stony Ed Harris). After being drawn into the orbit of a perky older woman (Mary Steenburgen), Johnson’s character begins to secretly play the game that tennis types mock so much: pickleball. Easy laughs are in ready supply here, thanks in large part to a supporting cast that includes Ben Stiller, Patton Oswalt and a couple of real-life tennis legends. But it’s our own Aaron Chen who steals the show as Johnson’s blissfully ignorant sidekick. On Apple TV now.

Furious

Best known for creating the much-loved sitcom New Girl, Elizabeth Meriwether has more recently shown off her dramatic chops with women-centred shows like The Dropout and Dying for Sex. Now comes Furious, a cat-and-mouse crime thriller about a newly minted FBI agent (Emily Rossum) pursuing a female serial killer (Lola Petticrew), who lures rich men to their doom while donning various disguises. It turns out both have deeper reasons for what they do – there are some parallels in the traumas they’ve experienced – and a kind of symbiotic relationship develops between the two. Based on the 1987 film Black Widow, this eight-episode series has earned strong reviews, with critics especially praising its feminist angle and unflinching performances. On Disney+ now.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

As their 2024 slow-burn I Saw the TV Glow continues to expand its cult following, writer-director Jane Schoenbrun has prepared another coming-of-age horror story seen through a hazy and nostalgic pop-culture lens. This one features Gillian Anderson with a Southern accent, and it loosely riffs on Sunset Boulevard’s Norman Desmond as well as the Friday the 13th movies. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma stars Hacks breakout Hannah Einbinder as a queer filmmaker assigned to revive a slasher franchise, including bringing back the “final girl” (Anderson’s character) from the very first outing. The trailer suggests shades of David Lynch and David Cronenberg, along with the soft pinks and purples that already feel like Schoenbrun’s visual signature. In cinemas August 6.