Seven of the best new international movies on Showmax this September

Here are seven of the best new international movies on Showmax this September:

The Addams Family

The world’s kookiest family is coming to town and this poor little New Jersey suburb has no idea what’s about to hit it. When Wednesday Addams befriends the daughter of reality TV host Margaux Needler, who’s hell-bent on building the perfect planned community, the Addams family find themselves way out of their league when it comes to “assimilation.”

The all-star voice cast is led by our own Oscar winner Charlize Theron as Morticia Addams; Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac (Star Wars’ Poe Dameron) as Gomez; Teen Choice and Joey Award winner Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) as Wednesday; and People’s Choice and Teen Choice nominee Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) as the death-defying, gene-pool-skimming Pugsley. 

Emmy-nominated comedian Nick Kroll (Big Mouth) voices Uncle Fester, Emmy nominee Snoop Dogg is It, and Oscar nominee Bette Midler plays Grandma. The Needlers are voiced by Oscar winner Allison Janney as Margaux and Golden Globe nominee Elsie Fisher (Despicable Me’s adorable Agnes) as Parker. Also listen out for Emmy-winning comedy legends Catherine O’Hara (Beetlejuice) and Martin Short (SCTV, Three Amigos, Inner Space) as the voices of Grandma and Grandpa Frump.

When you’re finished, move straight on to Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 live action original with Anjelica Huston and Christina Ricci, which earned Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. Showmax also has 1993’s hit sequel, Addams Family Values.

Bombshell

Based on a true story, this blockbuster drama is superbly led by Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, and Oscar nominee Margot Robbie, all three of whom, Rolling Stone says, “come out blazing in this tale of how the women of Fox News brought down a predatory CEO,” adding, “It’s explosive entertainment that means to make a difference.“ 

Penned by the Oscar-winning co-writer of The Big Short, Charles Randolph, and directed by four-time Emmy winner Jay Roach (Trumbo), Bombshell won a 2020 Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Makeup, with Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Lead Actress (Theron) and Best Supporting Actress (Robbie). 

Los Angeles Times calls it “a ferociously entertaining dramatization of how an unlikely group of women exposed and deposed media titan Roger Ailes… as harrowing as it is triumphant in its depiction of the way it all came to pass.” 

The supporting cast includes Oscar winner Allison Janney (Bad Education, The Help) and Emmy winner Kate McKinnon (Yesterday, Saturday Night Live), with Oscar nominee John Lithgow (Perry Mason, The Crown) as Ailes.

Booksmart

On the eve of their high school graduation, two academic superstars realise they should have worked less and played more. Determined to catch up with their peers, the best friends try to cram four years of fun into one night.

Beanie Feldstein (Jenna in What We Do In The Shadows) earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical as Molly, with Golden Globe nominee Kaitlyn Dever (Unbelievable) as her best friend Amy. Golden Globe nominee Lisa Kudrow (Friends, Feel Good), Emmy nominee Will Forte (The Last Man On Earth), People’s Choice nominee Jason Sudeikis (We’re The Millers), Black Reel nominee Jessica Williams (Fantastic Beasts franchise), and Skyler Gisondo (The Righteous Gemstones, The Amazing Spider-Man) co-star.

The directorial debut of actress Olivia Wilde (Tron, House M.D.), Booksmart has won over 20 awards, including Best Debut at the Online Film Critics Society Awards. The comedy also picked up nominations at the Golden Globes for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical (Beanie Feldstein); at the BAFTAs and Writers Guild of America awards for Best Screenplay; and at the GLAAD Media Awards for Best Wide Release Film.

Booksmart has a 97% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus says, “Fast-paced, funny, and fresh, Booksmart does the seemingly impossible by adding a smart new spin to the coming-of-age comedy.”

Destroyer

Destroyer is a heavy-weight, neo-noir crime drama starring Oscar winner Nicole Kidman in a 2019 Golden Globe-nominated performance as a damaged ex-LAPD cop with a score to settle, some wrongs to right, and a history to set straight. As Variety says, “Nothing Nicole Kidman has done can prepare you for Destroyer.”  

The cast also includes Golden Globe nominee and Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany (Perry Mason, Orphan Black), Golden Globe nominee Bradley Whitford (Get Out, The West Wing, The Handmaid’s Tale), Critics Choice and Teen Choice nominee Sebastian Stan (Avengers’ Bucky Barnes), Scoot McNairy (Love Life, Narcos, True Detective) and Toby Kebbell (The Escape Artist, A Monster Calls).

In a traditionally male-dominated genre, “Kidman’s talents are unleashed with unexpected fury,” says The Wrap, adding that Cannes and Sundance award-winning director Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, The Outsider) is “a cinematic force.”  

The Verge calls Destroyer, “A tremendous piece of filmmaking, fueled by Kusama’s fearless creative vision and Kidman’s transformative performance.” 

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

This biographical crime thriller about one of America’s most notorious serial killers, Ted Bundy, is based on the memoir The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy, penned by Bundy’s former girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall. 

Teen Choice Award winner Zac Efron (High School Musical, Hairspray, The Greatest Showman) plays Bundy in a People’s Choice nominated performance Variety calls, “controlled, magnetic, audacious, committed, and eerily right.”

Oscar nominee John Malkovich plays the presiding judge at Bundy’s trial, with Kaya Scodelario (Crawl, Pirates of the Caribbean, Maze Runner) as Bundy’s wife Carole Ann Boone. The cast also includes Golden Globe winner Jim Parsons (Sheldon in Big Bang Theory);

Golden Globe nominee Lily Collins (Les Misérables, Rules Don’t Apply); Oscar nominee Haley Joel Osment (Future Man, The Sixth Sense); and Metallica frontman James Hetfield.

Nominated for the 2019 People’s Choice Award for Favourite Drama Movie, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is directed by Oscar-nominated, Peabody- and Emmy-winning nonfiction filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Under African Skies).

Five Feet Apart

Stella Grant (The Edge of Seventeen’s Haley Lu Richardson in a Teen Choice and MTV Movie Awards-nominated performance) is every bit a 17-year-old: she’s attached to her laptop and loves her best friends. But unlike most teenagers, she spends much of her time living in a hospital as a cystic fibrosis (CF) patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control – all of which is put to the test when she meets an impossibly charming fellow CF patient named Will Newman (Riverdale’s Cole Sprouse in a People’s Choice Favourite Drama Movie Star-winning performance).

There’s an instant flirtation, though restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them of five feet apart. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace that attraction. Further complicating matters is Will’s potentially dangerous rebellion against his ongoing medical treatment. Stella gradually inspires Will to live life to the fullest, but can she ultimately save the person she loves when even a single touch is off limits? The 72^nd biggest box office hit of 2019 globally, Five Feet Apart was nominated for both 2019 People’s Choice and Teen Choice awards for Favourite Drama Movie.

Ma

Octavia Spencer (The Help, The Shape of Water, Hidden Figures) kicks her Oscar-winning actress mould to the curb and stomps on it with her first starring role in this bonkers horror flick, with a little help from her best friend and former housemate, BAFTA-nominated writer/director Tate Taylor (The Help, The Girl on the Train), who hand-picked the stereotype-smashing role at her request.

Ma centres on a group of teens who luck out when middle-aged single Sue Ann (aka Ma) offers them her basement to hang out and party in. But just as it seems things couldn’t get sweeter, they begin to suspect there’s something a little off about Ma…

Produced by Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning producer Jason Blum (Get Out, Us, BlacKkKlansman), Ma scooped nominations at both the Teen Choice and Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film awards last year.

The cast includes Oscar winner Allison Janney, Oscar nominee Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear, Natural Born Killers), Diana Silvers (Space Force), and Teen Choice winner Luke Evans (Shaw in Fast & Furious 6, 7 and 8, and Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston). 

“Audiences will walk out with that good chiropractor feeling,” says San Francisco Chronicle, “the one that says, ‘Yes, I have been manipulated. I have been nothing but manipulated and pounded on for the last 90 minutes. And it was a very satisfying thing.’”