FILM
TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG (Cert 18, 125 mins, Picturehouse Entertainment, Western/Drama/Romance, available from June 22 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from July 6 on DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £17.99). Starring: George MacKay, Nicholas Hoult, Essie Davis, Russell Crowe, Charlie Hunnam, Orlando Schwerdt, Ben Corbett, Earl Cave
YOUNG Ned Kelly (Orlando Schwerdt) is the apple of the eye of his manipulative and resourceful mother, Ellen (Essie Davis), who loses her weak-willed husband Red (Ben Corbett) at the hands of scheming lawman Sergeant O'Neil (Charlie Hunnam).
The boy is forced to grow up before his time as man of the house and Ned learns to fend with tutelage from gun-toting, gnarly bush ranger Harry Power (Russell Crowe).
As Ned comes of age (now played by George MacKay), he declares war on Constable Fitzpatrick (Nicholas Hoult) by forming a gang with his younger brother Dan (Earl Cave) and a couple of friends.
Battle lines are drawn between the outlaws and Fitzpatrick's heavily armed officers, culminating in a terrifying night-time shoot-out.
True History Of The Kelly Gang is an unremittingly grim and muscular interpretation of Peter Carey's Booker Prize-winning novel based loosely on the exploits of outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang in the late 19th century.
In 2015, Australian director Justin Kurzel cut a stylish swathe through William Shakespeare's Macbeth with a bloodthirsty and emotionally bruising adaptation starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.
Here, the award-winning film-maker harnesses that same testosterone-soaked energy, pulling no punches with explosions of graphic violence.
He also generates a heady homoerotic charge between a sinewy MacKay and brooding Hoult in the film's most extraordinary sequence.
Kurzel playfully subverts toxic masculine stereotypes but allows his film to rumble and roar for slightly too long.
The middle act sags but regains its footing with a visually arresting last stand at Glenrowan.
WASP NETWORK (Cert 15, 127 mins, streaming and available to download from June 19 exclusively on Netflix, Thriller/Romance)
INSPIRED by Fernando Morais' book The Last Soldiers Of The Cold War, Wasp Network is a political thriller written and directed by Olivier Assayas, which dramatises the true story of The Cuban Five.
In the early 1990s, Cuban pilot Rene Gonzalez (Edgar Ramirez) steals a plane and defects to the US, leaving behind his wife Olga (Penelope Cruz) and young daughter for a new life in Miami.
Secretly, he join a spy network of Cuban exiles in South Florida known as the Wasp Network.
Led by undercover operative Manuel Viramontez aka Gerardo Hernandez (Gael Garcia Bernal), the pro-Castro collective infiltrates groups which intend to attack the socialist republic.
Far from home and the people he loves, Rene questions the bonds of trust between group members in a high-pressure world of shifting loyalties and competing ideologies.
INMATE NO 1: THE RISE OF DANNY TREJO (Cert 15, 108 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, available from June 22 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, Documentary)
DIRECTED by award-winning film-maker Brett Harvey, Inmate No 1: The Rise Of Danny Trejo is an intimate and revealing documentary about the Hollywood star, his Mexican roots and his Los Angeles upbringing.
Incorporating personal testimony from Danny and his closest family and friends alongside previously unseen footage and celebrity interviews, the film lays bare his formative years, marked by drugs, armed robbery and hard prison time, and his remarkable transformation into a popular figure on red carpets.
Trejo talks candidly about 46 years of sobriety and his determination to give back to the neighbourhood he was raised in.
BOX SETS
PERRY MASON (8 episodes, starts streaming from June 22 exclusively on NOW TV, Thriller/Drama/Romance)
MATTHEW Rhys slips into the shoes of the tenacious private detective created by author Erle Stanley Gardner for a stylish eight-part drama set in 1932 Los Angeles, which screens in weekly instalments on Sky Atlantic and streams exclusively on NOW TV.
Perry lives hand to mouth as a private eye, accepting cases from successful attorney Elias Birchard Jonathan (John Lithgow) to keep a roof over his head as most of America recovers from the Great Depression.
Tormented by the spectres of wartime service in France, Perry also nurses the deep emotional scars of a failed marriage.
A bungled kidnapping leads Perry into the city's underbelly to learn the shocking truth about the crime.
In the process, Perry encounters Sister Alice (Tatiana Maslany), leader of the Radiant Assembly of God, and questions the path he is destined to follow.
THE POLITICIAN – SEASON 2 (8 episodes, streaming and available to download from June 19 exclusively on Netflix, Comedy/Thriller/Romance)
BEN Platt reprises his role as Payton Hobart, who is convinced that he will rise to the office of President of the United States, in eight episodes of the satire created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan.
In the first series, Payton began his dizzying ascent by competing against popular and articulate straight-A student River (David Corenswet) to become student body president at Saint Sebastian High School.
Now, Payton sets his sights even higher by attempting to unseat greatly admired incumbent Senator Dede Standish (Judith Light) in the New York State vote.
Dede has years of experience and the unstinting support of her no-nonsense Chief of Staff, Hadassah Gold (Bette Midler).
However, Payton has an unquenchable thirst for power and he views the Senate as the next step on his path to the presidency.
Those plans may be scuppered, however, by his mother Georgina (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a momentous decision that could upend Payton's campaign before it has gained traction.
MY BRILLIANT FRIEND – SERIES 2 (8 episodes, starts streaming from June 19 exclusively on NOW TV, Drama/Romance)
The ambitious and beautifully crafted Italian drama adapted from Elena Ferrante's best-selling novels returns to Sky Atlantic this week and streams exclusively on NOW TV.
Recounted as before in flashback by an elderly woman called Elena Greco (Elisabetta De Palo), the second series begins with young Elena (Margherita Mazzucco) struggling with schoolwork and her relationship with Antonio (Christian Giroso).
Meanwhile, her beloved friend Raffaella Cerullo aka Lila (Gaia Girace) is on honeymoon on the Amalfi Coast with her beau Stefano (Giovanni Amura).
Lila returns with bruises visible on her body and it becomes clear that the young woman is trapped in a violent and abusive marriage.
She rebels against her spouse, determined to take her revenge.
PENNYWORTH - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (Cert 18, 525 mins, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, available now on Amazon Prime Video/iTunes/StarzPlay and other download and streaming services, available from June 22 on DVD £29.99/Blu-ray £39.99, Drama/Action/Romance)
BRUCE Wayne's trusty butler becomes the hero of his own story when the 1960s-set crime drama based on characters from the DC Comics universe arrives on home formats this week.
Dashing former British SAS soldier Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon) uses his unique skill set to set up his own security company in London when he isn't flexing his muscles as a nightclub bouncer.
He is targeted by a shadowy brotherhood called the Raven Society, which intends to corrupt the British Government from within the corridors of power.
In his pursuit of justice, Alfred encounters agents from the heroic No Name League including Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge) and Martha Kane (Emma Paetz).
London crime lord John Ripper (Danny Webb) becomes an unlikely ally for Alfred as he unravels a dangerous conspiracy that eventually pits him against his own father, Arthur (Ian Puleston-Davies).
The two-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets include all 10 episodes.
