The rules of April Fool's Day stipulate that anyone playing a prank after midday on April 1st is the fool themselves. As such, SBS World Movies plays the fool with a four-week comedy series that begins on the week of April Fool's Day 2021 (starting Monday 29th March) and continues on weeknights throughout April at 9:30pm, with a mix of cult faves and hidden gems, broad LOLs and dry wit, and always with more fool that foil.
NOTE: Closed Captions (CC) available for: What We Do In The Shadows, Monty Python's Meaning Of Life, Withnail & I, Love and Other Drugs, In the Loop, The Death of Stalin / Audio Description (AD) available: Monty Python's Meaning Of Life, Love and Other Drugs, The Death of Stalin
Roxane
Monday 29 March, 9:30pm
M
France, 2019
Language: French
Director: Mélanie Auffret
Starring: Guillaume de Tonquédec, Lea Drucker, Lionel Abelanski, Kate Duchêne
What's it about?
Raymond (de Tonquédec), a chicken farmer in Brittany finds himself threatened with bankruptcy when the big supermarkets decide to cut out the local farms from their trade. Inspired by his favourite play, Cyrano de Bergerac, Raymond hatches a plan to save his farm and his business through the art of theatre.
Family
Tuesday 30 March, 9:30pm
M
USA, 2019
Language: English
Director: Laura Steinel
Starring: Taylor Schilling, Bryn Vale, Brian Tyree Henry, Allison Tolman, Kate McKinnon
What's it about?
An emotionally stunted (Schilling) aunt tries to bond with her thirteen year old niece (Vale), who wants nothing more than to run away from home and become a juggalo (a subculture of face-painted, anarchistic fans of horror-themed rap music, chiefly Insane Clown Posse). The Los Angeles Times' Katie Walsh described the film as a "charming, shaggy story of embracing oneself to authentically connect with others".
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
What We Do in the Shadows
Wednesday 31 March, 9:30pm
M, CC
New Zealand, 2014
Language: English
Director: Taika Waititi
Starring: Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh, Jemaine Clement
What's it about?
Three flatmates, Viago (Waititi), Deacon (Brugh), and Vladislav (Clement), are all vampires, hundreds of years old. The trio are finding modern society is not agreeing with them particularly well and it's creating conflict in the house they share together. Written & directed by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Jojo Rabbit), this cult mockumentary horror-comedy went on to spawn a TV series of the same name (now entering its third season).
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
Fletch
Thursday 1 April, 9:30pm
PG
USA, 1985
Language: English
Director: Michael Ritchie
Starring: Chevy Chase, Geena Davis, Joe Don Baker, Tim Matheson
What's it about?
While working undercover on a drug dealing ring in Venice Beach, investigative reporter Fletch (Chase) is approached by wealthy cancer victim with an odd request: he wants Fletch's help to murder him, so that his family can get his life insurance money. But Fletch smells a rat, and starts digging further into the story. This much-quoted '80s comedy fave was loosely adapted from the crime/mystery novel of the same name by Gregory McDonald.
NOTE: No catch-up at SBS On Demand
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Friday 2 April, 9:30pm
M, AD, CC
UK, 1983
Language: English
Director: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Starring: Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Michael Palin
What's it about?
Monty Python's hilarious final film returns to the group's original sketch comedy roots with side-splitting, irreverent vignettes on the stages and trials of life. Oscar-nominee Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones direct all your Monty Python favourites: Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Oscar-nominee John Cleese.
NOTE: No catch-up at SBS On Demand
Return of the Hero
Monday 5 April, 9:30pm
M
Belgium, France, 2018
Language: French
Director: Laurent Tirard
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Mélanie Laurent, Christophe Montenez, Fabienne Galula, Noémie Merlant
What's it about?
This historical comedy is set in early 19th Century France. Captain Neuville (Dujardin) is called to the front, leaving his future bride Pauline (Merlant) heartbroken. Her sister Elizabeth (Laurent) decides to write letters on his behalf to cheer her up, thinking he would never come back. When Neuville returns home unexpectedly, he is welcomed in glory, but in truth is a war deserter and an opportunistic coward, and a suspicious Elizabeth is determined to expose him.
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
My Big Gay Italian Wedding
Tuesday 6 April, 9:30pm
M
Italy, 2018
Language: Italian
Director: Alessandro Genovesi
Starring: Cristiano Caccamo, Salvatore Esposito, Diego Abatantuono, Monica Guerritore
What's it about?
Antonio (Caccamo) has finally found the love of his life, Paolo (Esposito), with whom he lives happily in Berlin. Even if still not sure about their families’ reactions, they decide to get married in Italy, in the small village from where Antonio’s parents live. Tradition and modernity clash heads in this heart-warming film.
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
Sink or Swim
Wednesday 7 April, 9:30pm
M
Belgium, France, 2018
Language: French
Director: Gilles Lellouche
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Guillaume Canet, Marina Fois, Benoit Poelvoorde
What's it about?
40-year-old Bertrand (Amalric) has been suffering from depression for the last two years and is barely able to keep his head above water. Despite the medication he gulps down all day, every day, and his wife's encouragement, he is unable to find any meaning in his life. Curiously, he will end up finding this sense of purpose at the swimming pool, by joining an all-male synchronised swimming team.
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
Withnail & I
Thursday 8 April, 9:30pm
MA15+, CC
UK, 1987
Language: English
Director: Bruce Robinson
Starring: Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Ralph Brown, Richard Griffiths
What's it about?
This cult British comedy follows a couple of destitute young actors living in drunken squalor in 1969, in the twilight days of swinging London. The elegantly wasted Withnail (Grant) is a depraved dandy without money or ambition, while his anxious sidekick is the younger and more impressionable Marwood (McGann). The demented duo drown their minds in booze and pills until finally escaping to the country, staying in the home of wealthy, lecherous Uncle Monty (Griffiths), who later takes a liking to young Marwood.
SBS ON DEMAND: The Movie Show reviews Withnail & I (Episode 46, September 1987)
Love and Other Drugs
Friday 9 April, 9:30pm
MA15+, AD, CC
USA, 2010
Language: English
Director: Edward Zwick
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Hank Azaria, Jake Gyllenhaal, Dorothy Silver, Oliver Platt
What's it about?
Maggie (Hathaway) is an alluring free spirit who won't let anything, including a formidable personal challenge, tie her down. But she meets her match in Jaime Randall (Gyllenhaal), whose relentless and nearly infallible charm serve him well with the ladies and in the cutthroat world of pharmaceutical sales. Maggie and Jamie's evolving relationship takes them both by surprise, as they find themselves under the influence of the ultimate drug: love. This sexy, romantic comedy-drama is based on Jamie Reidy's memoir.
NOTE: No catch-up at SBS On Demand
The Trouble with You
Monday 12 April, 9:30pm
M
France, 2018
Language: French, Czech
Director: Pierre Salvadori
Starring: Adèle Haenel, Pio Marmaï, Audrey Tautou, Damien Bonnard, Octave Bossuet
What's it about?
Detective Yvonne (Haenel) is the widow of police chief Santi (Bossuet), a local hero in a town on the French Riviera. When she learns he was in fact a crooked cop, she tries to right his wrongs. Crossing paths with Antoine (Marmaï), a victim of Santi, sets off a series of wild events.
Tschick [aka Goodbye Berlin]
Tuesday 13 April, 9:30pm
M
Germany, 2016
Language: German
Director: Fatih Akin
Starring: Anand Batbileg, Tristan Göbel, Nicole Mercedes Müller, Uwe Bohm
What's it about?
Mike (Göbel) is a loner: no friends, no hobbies, no girlfriend. That is until he meets Tschick (Batbileg), who's new in school, looks like he's been in a lot of fights and has a tendency to be drunk. At the beginning of the summer break, Tschick shows up at Mike's door with a stolen car and together they start the adventure of their lifetime: no parents, no maps, no plan - but definitely a lot of fun. From Fatih Akin, writer-director of the hit comedy Soul Kitchen (but better known for hard-hitting dramas Head-On, The Edge of Heaven and In the Fade.)
NOTE: No catch-up at SBS On Demand
Cyrano, My Love
Wednesday 14 April, 9:30pm
M
Belgium, France, 2019
Language: French, Russian
Director: Alexis Michalik
Starring: Thomas Solivérès, Olivier Gourmet, Mathilde Seigner, Tom Leeb
What's it about?
Paris, France, December 1897. The young playwright Edmond Rostand (Solivérès) feels like a failure. Inspiration has abandoned him. Married and father of two children, desperate and penniless, he persuades the great actor Constant Coquelin (Gourmet) to perform the main role in his new play. But there is a problem: Coquelin wants to premiere it at Christmas and Edmond has not written a single word.
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
Seven Psychopaths
Thursday 15 April, 9:30pm
MA15+
UK, USA, 2012
Language: English
Director: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits, Abbie Cornish, Sam Rockwell
What's it about?
Boozy writer Marty (Farrell) is a man in search of a screenplay. He has a catchy title but no story to go along with it. Marty has a couple of oddball buddies, Hans (Walken) and Billy (Rockwell), who make a living by kidnapping rich people's dogs, then returning them and collecting the reward. However this time, the fur flies when Hans and Billy kidnap the beloved pooch of a gangster (Harrelson), and Marty uses the ensuing events as fodder for his screenplay. A typically dark and acerbic comedy from Martin McDonagh, writer-director of In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
In the Loop
Friday 16 April, 9:30pm
MA15+, CC
UK, 2009
Language: English
Director: Armando Iannucci
Starring: Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, Gina Mckee, Anna Chlumsky
What's it about?
In the lead up to sanctioning American and British military action in the Middle East, a gaffe by a minor British government minister (Hollander) gives hope to anti-war supporters. The politician and a staffer are sent to Washington to appease Britain’s ally, but they soon become pawns in the backroom dealings that are seemingly at odds with the reality of what is about to occur. Based on the caustically satirical BBC series "The Thick Of It" (also starring Capaldi as the iconic Malcolm Tucker), this spin-off film was a 2010 Oscar nominee for Best Original Screenplay.
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
The ABCs of Love
Monday 19 April, 9:35pm
M
France, 2020
Language: French
Director: Noémie Saglio
Starring: Vincent Dedienne, Camélia Jordana, Samir Guesmi, Alix Poisson
What's it about?
Vincent (Dedienne), in his thirties without children, infiltrates a tribe with mysterious codes and language: the PTA. Finding himself at parent-teacher meetings, school trips and the end of year fair is quite a feat for him.
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
Tuesday 20 April, 9:30pm
M
Belgium, 2018
Language: English
Director: Ken Scott
Starring: Dhanush, Berenice Bejo, Erin Moriarty, Barkhad Abdi, Gérard Jugnot
What's it about?
This adventurous comedy-drama tells the story of Ajatashatru Oghash Rathod (Dhanush), a fakir who tricks his local village in Rajasthan, India into believing his possesses special powers and into paying him to fly to Paris to buy a bed of nails from an Ikea store.
The Death of Stalin
Wednesday 21 April, 9:30pm
MA15+, CC, AD
UK, 2017
Language: English
Director: Armando Iannucci
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Jeffrey Tambor, Adrian McLoughlin
What's it about?
When tyrannical dictator Josef Stalin (McLoughlin) dies in 1953, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to become the next Soviet leader. Among the contenders are the dweeby Georgy Malenkov (Tambor), the wily Nikita Khrushchev (Buscemi) and Lavrenti Beria (Beale), the sadistic secret police chief. From Armando Iannucci, creator of The Thick of It, In the Loop and Veep.
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
Lucky Grandma
Thursday 22 April, 9:30pm
M
USA, 2020
Language: Cantonese, English
Director: Sasie Sealy
Starring: Tsai Chin, Hisao-Yuan Ha, Michael Tow, Emma Hong, Yan Xi, Lyman Chen
What's it about?
Set in New York City's Chinatown, an ornery, chain-smoking Chinese grandma goes all in at the casino, landing herself on the wrong side of luck - and in the middle of a gang war. Reviewing for The Hollywood Reporter, Harry Windsor noted that "the film features hardly any spoken English at all, and very amusingly captures a hermetic immigrant culture in which nobody so much as considers calling the police."
Streaming after broadcast at SBS On Demand:
Mystery Men
Friday 23 April, 9:30pm
PG
USA, 1999
Language: English
Director: Kinka Usher
Starring: Ben Stiller, Geoffrey Rush, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo, Greg Kinnear
What's it about?
When Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), the prominent superhero of a major superhero city, is captured by his nemesis, Casanova Frankenstein (Rush), it's up to an inept group of amateurs to save the world. Imaginative and witty, director Kinka Usher delivers a side-splitting and subversive take on the superhero genre.
NOTE: No catch-up at SBS On Demand
