Get comfy on the couch with a new Soderbergh and a bravura turn from Eddie Murphy, the first of the streaming giant’s big autumn films
Autumn is upon us, and with it the long, often tedious publicity trail to the Oscars. The late-summer film festivals, from Venice through to
London, have had their say, while nomination lists for some of the season’s earliest precursor prizes are being compiled. For
Netflix, this now means the rollout of their shiniest awards hopefuls on a near-weekly basis: Martin Scorsese’s mob epic The Irishman and Mati Diop’s Cannes sensation Atlantics are among the streaming service’s November attractions.
This month, however, they’re kicking off with two of their lighter prestige offerings. Fresh from the Venice fest, Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat has been available to stream since Friday, while blaxploitation biopic Dolemite Is My Name, which prompted murmurs of Oscar buzz at
Toronto for its star, Eddie Murphy, goes up on the platform on Friday. I have a hard time imagining either film scooping huge amounts of golden hardware in the next few months, but as springy, couch-based entertainment, both have a lot to offer.