People sure have strong opinions about Valentine’s Day. In the run up to 14 February, we will hear everything from how it is a ‘charming celebration of romantic love’ to ‘soulless corporate holiday’. Perhaps it can be a bit of both; however you see it, love has certainly inspired tomes of literary pages, reels of movies and many memorable quotes.
This celebration of love does not just mean romantic tales with happy endings. Sometimes, people do not end up with their beloved because society frowns upon it. Other times, love brings out the worst in people. Sometimes, the unfolding of love is itself a process of learning and growth. And sometimes, a story of true love can be just the uplifting tide we need. With that, SBS On Demand offers a collection of and movies and series so you can both swoon and scoff at love.
Here are some highlights.
From the Valentine’s Day Collection:
The Matchmakers
The runaway success of Netflix reality TV series Indian Matchmaking has ushered in variations of matchmaking reality TV shows that centre the candidates’ culture, religion and family. While many of these series are US-centric (e.g. Jewish Matchmaking), The Matchmakers is a new and distinctly Australian series.
What’s more is that it follows successful matchmakers from the Indian (Hindu), Muslim and Jewish communities: Preeti and Heena, Sheikh Alaa Elzokm and Toby Lieder respectively. All four individuals are open and animated as they explain their motivation and modus operandi in this deeply personal line of business.
The cameras continue rolling as the matchmakers speak to candidates and their families, teasing out deal-breakers (“she must be minimum 5 feet 5”), and gauging level of independence (“I can cook and clean, it’s called adulting”). Their approach with the candidates is collaborative rather than directive or insistent.
As a result, the series will be eye-opening to many viewers because these are not commonly told narratives of how people meet their partners in Australia or even why they chose this route. It makes for warm, awkward, and occasionally uncomfortable viewing but then again, so is a first date from Tinder.
All 3 episodes of The Matchmakers will be available to stream free on SBS On Demand from Wednesday 14 February, with episodes airing weekly at 8.40pm on SBS. The Matchmakers will be available on SBS On Demand with subtitles in eight languages: Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Punjabi and Hindi. The series will also be available with audio description for blind and low vision audiences.
Roxanne
There was a time when Steve Martin dominated movies and nowhere does he do it better than this quirky 1987 movie. Here, Charlie Bales (Steve Martin) is a witty and brainy firefighter with an unusually large nose. He is very self-conscious about this feature and when he meets the beautiful astronomer Roxanne Kowalski (Daryl Hannah), he defaults to self-sabotage.
Instead of pursuing Kowalski, Bales decides to be a romantic ghostwriter for the traditionally handsome but dim Chris McConnell (Rick Rossovich) so that he can court Kowalski instead. What transpires is a series of comedic events that provide cover for vulnerability and acceptance.
This is a rom-com classic for good reason. The dialogue is witty and heartfelt, the leads and ensemble have excellent chemistry and it genuinely makes people believe the love of their life will sweep through their small town any moment now.
Roxanne is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Roxanne
Romantic comedy • 1987
Romantic comedy • 1987
Gaza Mon Amour
We may have been conditioned to think that romantic love is for the young and carefree but the Palestinian movie Gaza Mon Amour (released in 2020) begs to differ. This is a beautifully written story about a middle-aged fisherman, Issa, who is the opposite of a curmudgeonly old man. He is chatty, joyous, and optimistic about his future. When he dredges up a life-sized Greek statue from the sea, he is suddenly accused of being an antiques smuggler.
Issa must use his humour and good nature to stay out of jail because he is in love with Siham, a woman who works in a clothing store in the market. Uncertain about what to do or say, he keeps finding excuses to engage with her and their interactions are tender, poignant, and silly.
It is not often that we see people falling in love in an occupied territory, complete with the matter-of-fact realities of their daily life in 2020: power cuts, surveillance, airstrikes, raids. But within this bleak environment, Issa puts on his best suit and chooses to focus on love and companionship.
Gaza Mon Amour is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Gaza Mon Amour
romance • 2020
romance • 2020
Ammonite
This 2020 romantic drama slipped under the radar of many movie-goes, perhaps because it came out during the height of a pandemic. It is inspired by real-life, 19th century palaeontologist, Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and her fictionalised romantic relationship with Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan).
When the story opens, Anning is a scientist-shopkeeper who lives in the coastal town of Dorset and sweeps the area for fossils and the eponymous ammonites. She is intelligent but hardened by her circumstances. Enter, Roderick Murchison (James McArdle) who convinces Anning to provide lodging for his depressed wife Charlotte so she might benefit from the sea air. What transpires is that Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison’s friendship evolves into romance and more importantly, brings them happiness.
The movie chooses not to wholly engage with puritan attitudes towards same-sex relationships during that era and it helps that Anning and Murchison are cushioned by their relative wealth and status. But at the end of the day, it is a story about human connection and Winslet and Ronan are stellar in how they go from being stoic to joyful in a short period.
Ammonite is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
From the Anti-Valentine’s Collection:
Closer
This cynical movie revolves around two good looking couples: Dan (Jude Law) and Alice (Natalie Portman), and Larry (Clive Owen) and Anna (Julia Roberts). Each couple has a memorable meet-cute story but as the story unfolds, they all get caught in romantic entanglements and emotional manipulations. It is the very definition of people trying to have their cake and eat it too because Dan and Anna have a long-standing affair with each other but still believe they can keep house with their respective partners. When their partners inevitably find out, it triggers not just rage but also spite, which heavily propels the second half of the story.
Stylistically, it is an interesting exploration of modern relationships featuring characters with no redeeming qualities. The movie’s timeline also jumps years ahead at the end of a chapter and we must fill in the gaps of what has transpired and why.
Portman edges close into being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but ultimately, she (and the rest of cast) have enough material to be whole albeit messy characters.
Closer is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Decision To Leave
This complex South Korean thriller pays homage to Hitchcock’s films noir and femme fatales but director Park Chan-wook makes it his own. Here, Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is a married detective who meets Seo-rae (Tang Wei), the Chinese wife of a mountain climber who fell to his death while hiking. The police suspect Seo-rae of foul-play but her alibi is solid. Or is it?
Hae-jun becomes obsessed with Seo-rae both in a professional and personal sense and they engage in a game of cat-and-mouse during which he skirts the boundaries of appropriate workplace conduct. The closer he gets to Seo-rae, the more both their lives unravel, and more deaths happen around them. While the movie centres their doomed romance, it is also a whodunnit mystery.
Park might be the quintessential hero, but Tang Wei is simply mesmerising on screen as she oscillates between abused victim and ice queen.
Decision to Leave is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
As Tears Go By
This gritty Cantonese movie is Wong Kar-Wai’s directorial debut and it features actors he would later frequently collaborate with, particular Andy Lau and Maggie Cheung.
In this movie, Wah (Lau) is a small-time triad member in Hong Kong who is increasing conflicted about his criminal life. It does not help that his sidekick, Fly (Jacky Cheung), is luckless and talentless in this line of work and puts them both in danger.
Then there’s his cousin Ngor (Maggie Cheung), someone who Wah has never met till now. As he falls in love with her, it forces him to confront the complexities of loyalty, love and violence. The underworld, as shown through Wah’s eyes, is neither thrilling nor exciting. Instead, it is a dangerous, stressful and nerve-racking place where people make life-or-death choices in a split second.
It would be remiss to call this a gangster movie. Sure, there is gore and the violence is visceral. But as is expected in Wong Kar-Wai movies, it is also stylistic, slightly melodramatic and features an excellent musical score.
As Tears Go By is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Why Women Kill
It will not surprise people to learn that the creator for this series, Marc Cherry, is also the force behind the 2000s hit, Desperate Housewives. There are similarities here: dark comedy drama featuring stylish women in suburbia, their often-problematic men, and murders.
Season 1 of Why Women Kill is an ambitious anthology that follows three different women across three decades: the 60s (where the main character is played by Ginnifer Goodwin), 80s (Lucy Liu) and present day (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). These women inhabit the same house over time and irrespective of the decade, they have to contend with betrayal and infidelity which drives them to murder.
This sounds like a heavy and morbid topic, but it uses dark humour to deftly tackle evolving societal expectations, gender roles, and even what it means to be in a relationship. Lucy Liu is a standout as she plays a nuanced character while decked out in loud 80s styled blazers.
The second season sees Cherry at the helm again, this time with a story of the lengths people will go to in order to belong, set in 1949 and featuring Allison Tolman and Lana Parrilla.
Both seasons of Why Women Kill are streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Why Women Kill
series • crime
MA15+
series • crime
MA15+
Find more love-fuelled films and series in the or go the other way with the , all streaming free at SBS On Demand.
