Best new movies and TV series on Amazon Prime Video NZ: June 2023

Each month, new films and TV shows are added to Amazon Prime Video’s New Zealand library. Eliza Janssen presents her picks for titles worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top picks

Deadloch: Season 1 (June 2)

Two extremely different detectives solve a murder in a sleepy rural hamlet—sounds like a million, gritty British crime dramas that you’ve already seen, no? The comic creativity of the Kates (Aussie humorists McCartney and McLennan, that is) should add a streak of hilarity to such a familiar format. Over eight episodes, you’ll be able to spot top characters from the Australian comedy scene as the mismatched Sergeant Dulcie and Investigator Eddie close in on their killer.

She Said (June 15)

Finally streaming after its cinema release last year, this sobering, neatly-told drama takes the journalistic expose of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s abuses as its shocking source material. It’s based on the book of the same name by New York Times’ reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, played here with immense sensitivity and realism by Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan. Most bravely of all, actress Ashley Judd appears in the film as herself, and Gwyneth Paltrow provides her own voice—no doubt a cathartic, if difficult, decision. The movie got mixed reviews from some critics, compared to a Wikipedia explanation of the industry-shaking revelations, but now we can give it a stream to make up our own minds.

I’m A Virgo: Season 1 (June 23)

Boots Riley made an audacious splash with his surreal dark comedy Sorry To Bother You a few years back, and has only just resurfaced with another strange project about the awkwardness of modern Black life. The wickedly talented Jharrel Jerome takes on a literally larger-than-life role, as a 13-foot-tall kid only just beginning to experience love, friendship and rebellion. Set loose on the streets of Oakland after a hermetic childhood surrounded by comic books, he’ll own his absurd situation and even get to meet his idol: a superhero played by my fave Walton Goggins. Expect the unexpected.