Somehow, 2022 has passed its halfway point, which means that Australia’s streaming services have already accumulated more original movies this year than anyone can readily keep up with.

With winter in full swing and the couch calling, here are 20 new films (including a few that are imminent) you can choose from, whatever you’re in the mood for.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.

All the Old Knives

Espionage thriller, Amazon Prime

Chris Pine’s icy blue eyes and Thandiwe Newton’s coolly disruptive gaze are a match made in conspiracy heaven in this labyrinthine tale, which pairs the two as CIA agents and former lovers forced to reconnect when he’s assigned to look into a contentious case they both worked on. Love and betrayal are the currencies of this contemporary drama, which makes the most of the leads’ wary chemistry.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe

Animated comedy, Paramount+

Beavis: “he, heh, heh.” Butt-head: “Uh-huh-huh.” It gives me great pleasure to say that in the 26 years since Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, these teenage terrors have not changed one iota. They are still glorious idiots, and with creator Mike Judge back from his comedy series Silicon Valley, the duo is soon in a Bill & Ted-esque adventure involving alternate dimensions. Note to fans: Yes, Beavis’ alter-ego, Cornholio, does make an appearance.

The Bubble

Comedy, Netflix

As Judd Apatow comedies go, this is no Knocked Up or Trainwreck, but this COVID-era comedy about a Hollywood franchise production happening in chaotic lockdown has such an enjoyable and unexpected ensemble cast – Karen Gillan, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Kate McKinnon, Pedro Pascal and Peter Serafinowicz plus some bonkers cameos – that it’s not too hard to find enjoyable scenes as everything runs off the rails. Alternate take: this is secretly what every big-budget shoot is actually like.

Cha Cha Real Smooth

Romantic comedy, Apple TV+

Dakota Johnson continues her pivot away from the faux-kink debris of the Fifty Shades franchise with a terrific performance, in turn hopeful and overwhelmed, in this independent feature Apple snagged from the Sundance Film Festival. Writer-director Cooper Raiff plays a drifting university graduate who forges a bond with an engaged woman (Johnson) and her autistic daughter. The film’s lineage goes back through Garden State to The Graduate, but it has welcome mix of eccentricity and empathy.

Cheaper by the Dozen

Family comedy, Disney+

Speaking of Garden State, that movie’s creator and star, Zach Braff, has now graduated to playing the dad in the third edition of this ode to oversized families, taking the reins from Steve Martin in the 2003 version. It’s an agreeable, heartfelt comedy about the difficulties of making work and family fit together when you have 12 children running around the house. If you have 12 children, you can fact-check this movie. Otherwise, enjoy yourself.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Animated comedy, Disney+

This is weird, wonderful mash-up of 1990s kids TV, meta-commentary and the comic talents of Andy Samberg and John Mulaney. In a mix of animation and live-action performances, the pair voice a grown up and estranged Chip and Dale, chipmunks who were television stars in the 1990s and created originally by Disney in 1943. A kidnapping plot lets them hang with all manner of characters in an oddball comedy that owes a lot to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Maximum idiosyncrasy.

Gold

Dystopian thriller, Stan*

Shot in the scorching depths of the Australian outback but set in an indeterminate place and future, this concise survival tale is shorn of extraneous detail: names, back stories, and very quickly, hope. Zac Efron’s chiselled leading man looks are blistered and battered as a transient worker who, along with a taciturn driver (director Anthony Hayes), finds a huge gold deposit. When he elects to stay and guard it while assistance is fetched, circumstances spin out of control.

The Gray Man

Action, Netflix (July 22)

This is an action film so imposing that it’s meant to kick off Netflix’s version of the 007 franchise, but despite Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo reportedly spending $290 million, the trailer’s best special effect is the “trash ’stache” sported by former Captain America Chris Evans. He’s a CIA sociopath hunting a former colleague, a master assassin played by Ryan Gosling. With the assistance of Ana de Armas, who was actually in the last Bond film, they create a lot of rubble.

Hustle

Drama, Netflix

Adam Sandler’s Netflix originals have a disorientating range – Uncut Gems and The Ridiculous 6 belong on different planets – but in this sports redemption tale, he delivers a solid performance as a frustrated basketball scout for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers who stakes his fraying career on an unknown European prospect (former Utah Jazz player Juancho Hernangomez). You don’t need to be a hoops fan to follow the familiar story, but fans will pick up on a slew of famous cameos.

I Want You Back

Romantic comedy, Amazon Prime

Charlie Day and Jenny Slate strike sparks in this scrappy independent rom-com, which adds a hint of Hitchcock’s Strangers on the Train to a story of two newly dumped singles who not only bond on their shared state but decide to befriend each other’s exes and sabotage their new relationships. It’s a frisky concept, if somewhat unevenly developed, and the ending definitely stays true to the genre.

Jerry and Marge Go Large

Comedy, Paramount+

Directed by David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) and based on real-life events, this comedy makes the most of Annette Bening and Bryan Cranston, who play retirees who find a loophole in a lottery and use the winnings to revitalise their fraying Michigan town. It’s a sweet if slight movie, complete with some Harvard students as boo-hiss adversaries.

Nude Tuesday

Subtitled comedy, Stan

Nothing about this sex farce is normal. Set on a fictional Pacific island state, it’s the story of a couple with a faltering marriage (Damon Herriman and co-creator Jackie van Beek), who seek counselling from an eccentric sex therapist (Jemaine Clement). But everyone is speaking gibberish, which means the subtitles can say anything. The film, in fact, has three sets viewers can choose from, including a version written by comedians Celia Pacquola and Ronny Chieng.

Persuasion

Period romance, Netflix (July 15)

“It’s often said if you’re a five in London, you’re a 10 in Bath.” I’m fairly sure that’s not a line from Jane Austen’s revered 1817 novel of romantic loss and longing, but it’s in this film adaptation so devotees be warned. With Dakota Johnson in the lead role, this is a period drama with modern asides such as direct to camera commentary. Sign of hope: Richard E. Grant in the supporting cast.

Rise

Family drama, Disney+

This biopic also presents as an NBA story, but the basketball is second to the love and hopeful struggle of family in telling the story of how the world’s best player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, found his way to success in America as the child of Nigerian refugees struggling to survive in Greece. His parents’ endurance and the family’s dignity and resilience in the face of discrimination creates an uplifting if familiar arc.

The Sky is Everywhere

Coming-of-age romance, Apple TV+

Josephine Decker is one of the most intriguing filmmakers in the American independent scene (see Madeline’s Madeline and Shirley), so she brings a distinct vision and complicated threads to this coming-of-age drama about a teenage musician (Grace Kaufman) grieving her lost sister and dealing with romantic choices. This is a young adult novel adaptation that avoids the genre’s tropes.

Spiderhead

Science-fiction, Netflix

Chris Hemsworth does a reverse Superman in this experimental research thriller, donning glasses and putting aside his Thor persona to play a charmingly amoral scientist who uses prison inmates as guinea pigs for his emotion-laden drugs. Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski directs, with Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett as subjects who bond. Shout-out to Hemsworth’s commitment: his nefarious nerd has some sweet dance moves.

The Tender Bar

Drama, Amazon Prime

As a director, George Clooney has tried everything from academics in a World War II drama to post-apocalyptic science-fiction, but he finds a comfortable groove in this 1970s coming-of-age drama about a boy with divorced parents who finds a surrogate father in an uncle (Ben Affleck), who runs a Long Island bar stocked with all kinds of spirits. Based on J R Moehringer’s memoir, it’s a generous film that nails the final act.

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Shakespearean drama, Apple TV+

Joel Coen stepped aside from brother Ethan – the first separation in their five-decade partnership – for this reinterpretation of William Shakespeare’s play, and he made the most of it: Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand simmer in the lead roles, shooting in black and white on soundstages, and a boxy screen ratio. It’s a deeply atmospheric vision of both the original text’s and the cinema’s history, shorn of extraneous detail.

Turning Red

Animated comedy, Disney+

One of Pixar’s best films of the past five years went straight to Disney+, where you can enjoy Domee Shi’s fantasy comedy about a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian student (Rosalie Chiang) who discovers that whenever she experiences strong emotion, she turns into a giant red panda. It’s a film about being who you want to be as an adolescent and understanding your cultural lineage, with a little boy-band spice on the side.

Windfall

Thriller, Netflix

This knotty three-hander for the age of inequality snuck quietly onto Netflix earlier this year, but it’s well worth seeking out. When a tech mogul (Jesse Plemons, fresh from The Power of the Dog) and his privileged wife (Lily Collins) arrive at their vacation home, they’re taken hostage by angry intruder (Jason Segel) bearing a grudge against the digital tycoon. Recriminations and revelations play out during Charlie McDowell’s film, which builds to a convincing conclusion.

* Stan is owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.