British crime dramas can be a production line:grim aesthetic,menace emerging from the past,and a disaffected lead detective are all recurring features. This lean four-part thriller ticks all those boxes,but it stands out for a deep wellspring of regret that permeates the story. The various conspiracies woven through the narrative are not just criminal or even political,they’re also deeply intimate.

Inspired by Hideo Yokoyama’s acclaimed 2012 novel – transposed from Japan to Scotland – the story begins with a married couple,Glasgow police detective Chris (Kevin McKidd) and former officer Michelle O’Neill (Vinette Robinson),buckling under the strain of their 18-year-old daughter going missing three weeks prior. Michelle flees to London,while Chris is drawn to a cold case from years before where a teenage girl also went missing.

From there on Gregory Burke’s story moves at a serious clip,with a particular skill for giving you the outline of answers that raise worrying questions. Robinson’s performance suggests a deep rift inside her character,while McKidd makes his burly cop reticent and unmoored;it’s not just the plot that has effective twists. In a crowded fieldSix Four doesn’t stand out,instead it steps back into the shadows.

Class of ’09
Disney+
While it has a timely subject in the use of predictive AI inside the FBI’s investigation and a terrific cast headlined by Brian Tyree Henry and Kate Mara,this limited series from British creator Tom Rob Smith (London Spy) is so caught up in its intricate plotting – which is spread over concurrent timelines in 2009,2023/25 and 2034 – that at times it feels more like an intricate diagram than a human drama. When the parts tie together it can be satisfying,but the early episodes can be hard work.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
DocPlay

Simultaneously a wrenching personal portrait of a celebrated artist and an unyielding portrayal of their activism in the face of a societal crisis,this compelling documentary from Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) charts how photographer Nan Goldin,a recovering Oxycontin addict,protested against the art world’s acceptance of the billionaire Sackler family,who developed and marketed the opioid. The film is thoughtfully constructed and shot through with genuine pathos – when Goldin campaigns to force institutions to refuse the Sackler’s considerable philanthropy it recalls her previous battles in the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

Buwindja Collection
NFSA Player

A welcome initiative of the National Film and Sound Archive (nfsa.gov.au),the 17 titles in this collection,curated for NAIDOC Week,serve as a cross-section of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling that spans many decades. Assembled as streaming rentals (with several works available for free),the pieces include masterful feature films such as Warwick Thornton’sSamson&Delilah,the 2000 music documentaryBuried Country,and the NFSA’s digital restorations of archival works such as Essie Coffey’s 1978 documentaryMy Survival as an Aboriginal.

Amy Schumer:Emergency Contact
Netflix

As much as stand-up served as the connective tissue for her breakthrough comedy seriesInside Amy Schumer,the American comic has always been better known for her sketch work and early feature films. A concise live performance that clocks in at approximately 50 minutes,Emergency Contact won’t radically change perceptions of the 42-year-old comic,but it has a tangy succession of punchlines that undercut familiar forms. As with her scripted 2022 Disney+ comedy seriesLife&Beth,some of the strongest material explores Schumer’s marriage and her husband’s subsequent realisation that he was autistic.

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