New_Zealand_Listener_09_14_2019

66 LISTENER SEPTEMBER 14 2019

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

WASHING IT CLEAN: How

to make something

as complicated as the

Panama papers com-

prehensible to anyone

who isn’t a forensic

accountant? Steven

Soderbergh is having

a crack by applying an

Ocean’s 11 sensibility

to the story of law firm

Mossack Fonseca and

the 11.5 million documents leaked in 2016 that

showed just how the rich stay rich. Soderbergh’s

film, The Laundromat, debuted at the Venice

Film Festival to much acclaim. It stars Meryl

Streep as an intrepid granny who keeps follow-

ing the shell companies, and Gary Oldman and

Antonio Banderas camping it up as Jürgen Mos-

sack and Ramón Fonseca. It’s due out on Netflix

next month. Trailer: tinyurl.com/NZLLaundromat.

SELFIE RESPECTABILITY: You know the selfie

has gone mainstream when the Auckland War

Memorial Museum is asking for submissions to

add to its collection. The museum holds more

than three million photographs and would

like Aucklanders to send in selfies that have a

unique flavour of Tāmaki Makaurau. Some may

even end up in an exhibition opening next year.

Submissions close on September 30. More info

here: tinyurl.com/NZLMuseumSelfie.

Temple, Sunday.

we are today, more in love

with rugby than ever? Docu-

mentary By the Balls, which

debuted at the International

Film Festival in July, looks

at the All Blacks after 1985,

when the reciprocal tour to

South Africa was scuppered in

court and the infamous rebel

tour by the “Cavaliers” went

ahead. Among those featured

are David Kirk, who didn’t

go to South Africa, and Buck

Shelford, who did. The doco

argues that if the 1981 tour

divided our nation, the 1987

Rugby World Cup healed us.

South Africa was excluded and

we beat France in the final, just

two years after French agents

bombed the Rainbow Warrior

in Auckland.

Te mp l e (SoHo, Sky 010, 8.30pm).

The Norwegian series Valkyrien

was much admired in the UK

(“One heck of a ride”, said

the Times) and the story of

a doctor who retreats under-

ground – literally – in order to

work on a cure for his dying

wife is a sitter for a British

remake, there plausibly being

abandoned underground train

stations going spare. Mark

Strong is that doctor and his

Online

Catch of the Week

Notre-Dame: Race Against the

Inferno (National Geographic,

Sky 072, Tuesday, 7.30pm) was

quickly made, by documen-

tary standards: the famous

cathedral caught fire on April

15 this year and was nearly

destroyed but for the actions

of the Paris Fire Brigade.

The special follows in detail

the 15-hour fight to keep the

church’s edifice standing, from

the moment that a smoke

alarm interrupted Mass at

6.20pm.

More than 400 firefighters

were on site, 13 extinguish-

ing arms were employed

and a hydraulic system

pumped water from the

Seine. A high-tech robot

capable of climbing stairs and

Documentaries

SVOD HIGHLIGHT: What’s

good in subscription video

on demand. Documentary

streaming service DocPlay

is adding The Brink to its

line-up on September

19. It’s a fascinating look
    at the machinations of
    former White House
    chief strategist and
    Trump campaign chief
    Steve Bannon as he travels the world talking
    to far-right political leaders and discussing
    a nationalist agenda. It is directed by Alison
    Klayman (Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry), who merely
    points her camera and waits.

Meryl Streep

Steve Bannon