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This weekend we're watching: Building Jerusalem, Kanarie and Evil Genius

Want to know what your favourite Daily Maverick writers will be watching this weekend? We round up some of the hot picks.
This weekend we're watching: Building Jerusalem, Kanarie and Evil Genius Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist. Photo: Netflix
Antoinette Muller
By Antoinette Muller
26 May 2018
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Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist

 

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This four-part documentary series is horrifying, gripping and a whole bunch of other adjectives.

Let’s set the scene.

Back in 2003, Brian Wells robbed a bank in Erie (pronounced quite fittingly, eerie), Pennsylvania. So far, nothing special.

Here's the thing, Wells did it with a collar bomb strapped around his neck – possibly against his will – while carrying a shotgun disguised as a walking stick.

Nope, this is not a dramatised version of events. It happened and there’s CCTV footage to prove it.

The series, short enough to binge and long enough to waste an afternoon, explores the details of what might have happened, gives some insight to two of central characters Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Bill Rothstein and reveals that yes, apparently people do sometimes keep dead bodies in freezers.

Available on Netflix.

Building Jerusalem

 

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James Erskine examines England's win in the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final through archive footage, interviews and anecdotes. It tracks how rugby in the country transformed from amateur to the slick machine that eventually won the William Webb Ellis Cup. It shares insights that will fascinate anyone with an interest of what happens behind the scenes, including the story of the South African “eye doctor” who taught the Poms Afrikaans so that they could understand the Springboks’ line-out calls.

Available on Netflix.

We’re looking forward to: Kanarie

 

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Christiaan Olwagen's Kanarie will premiere at the OUT Toronto LGBT Film Festival on Tuesday, 29 May, but this trailer will set things up.

The rather tame description of saying it is but a mere “coming-of-age musical war drama” does the upcoming flick little justice.

The film is about being gay in the South African National Defence force in the 1980s and features the exquisitely hysterical Schalk Bezuidenhout in a more serious role where he is almost unrecognisable.

Not to harp on with clichés too much, but just like the film is a “coming-of-age” drama, so too, could this be a coming-of-age role for Bezuidenhout.

The comedian fits in perfectly with the type of narrative Olwagen’s work usually portrays. The director is all about smashing what it means to be Afrikaans, even if you as an Afrikaner think you have redefined it yourself. And, from the trailer at least, there seems to be no better person to take on the lead role.

Air date: TBA.

Flixation: To Kill a Mockingbird: Making malice out of opportunity, guilt out of accusation

Maycomb, Alabama is really Anywheresville, Anywhere. It’s where Harper Lee’s seminal novel To Kill a Mockingbird is set, where we first meet Atticus Finch, Jem and Scout, where we wonder about the invisible Boo Radley, and where the subsequent film (1962) unfurls this unsettling but beautiful story. You’ll find it through a Netflix title search.

Read Tony Jackman’s full take here

Video of the week: Ginger Cat vs Paper Army

 

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Cats have long terrorised pieces of paper in households around the world. Although always entertaining to watch, the paper has had enough. Today, paper fights back.

Quick hits

We’ve got one eye on the Super Rugby studio this weekend where Nick Mallet, Naas Botha and Ashwin Willemse definitely won't be presenting while Pauli van Wyk and Stephen Grootes insist time is better spent binging on Billions. DM

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