Hous of Gucci (M18)
159 minutes, now showing in cinemas, 4 stars
In the late 1970s, Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), who works in her father's small freight company, bowls over bookish law student Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) - a man destined to take over his father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) in co-helming, with his uncle Aldo (Al Pacino), the fashion empire that bears the family name.
The runtime of over 21/2 hours is the result of director Ridley Scott packing in a miniseries' worth of glamour shots, true-crime drama and family politics into one movie.
Mind you, some of it, especially the peek into the lives of the Italian rich, is fantastic.
But the film sparks to life only when Lady Gaga's Patrizia is present. The singer-actress delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as the woman whose breezy charm curdles into murderous rage over time.
Ridley Scott movies on Netflix
The release of British director Ridley Scott's true-crime drama House Of Gucci is a good time to assess a long and artistically outstanding career. Space horror Alien, (1979), science-fiction noir Blade Runner (1982) and period epic Gladiator (2000) were crowd-pleasers that revitalised their genres.
Of the Scott films currently available on Netflix, the least successful is true-crime drama All The Money In The World (2017, NC16, 132 minutes), a tonally uneven and moralising study of the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III.
Period adventure Robin Hood (2010, PG, 140 minutes) sees the film-maker paired with frequent collaborator, actor Russell Crowe, in a misguided attempt at turning the classic hero into a dour, middle-aged ex-soldier.
More successful is the crime biopic American Gangster (2007, M18, 156 minutes), where Scott works with Crowe and Denzel Washington in a compelling study of the ruthless Frank Lucas, a mobster who was also a man of the people.
Finally, there is Gladiator (PG, 155 minutes), which snagged Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe. Here, Scott takes an old-fashioned genre - the sweeping historical epic - and updates it into a story that feels modern and emotional.
Promising Young Woman (NC16)
109 minutes, HBO Go, 4 stars
This 2020 Oscar-winning work by English writer-director Emerald Fennell defies categorisation. The story blends horror, satire on modern love, revenge thriller and comment on sexual politics into a polarising mix.
Cassie (Carey Mulligan) appears to be the usual failure-to-launch comic character. After meeting a string of self-professed "nice guys" who are only pretending, she runs into former classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham), a man who is as sweet and respectful of boundaries as he appears to be.
