What to watch: Oh. What. Fun, Songs Inside, Bump: A Christmas Film, Picnic At Hanging Rock, With Love, MeghanClare RigdenThe West AustralianSat, 29 November 2025 5:19AMCommentsCommentsOh. What. Fun.Wednesday, streaming on Prime Video
If you believe those schmaltzy ads doing the rounds, you’d be forgiven for thinking Christmas was actually . . . fun. Look, there’s children making a giant festive carrot in a field (Woolworths)!
There’s Aussie singer Sycco strumming a reworked version of Jamiroquai’s You Give Me Something (Myer)! There’s a bloodhound in some Christmas antlers (Coles)!
How charming!
But for those of us with a house full of people to entertain, small children to create magic for and still eight hours of our regular nine-to-fives to be done each day in the run-up, the reality is a far cry from these filtered festive vignettes.
Enter: Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer (how does that woman not age?) plays Claire Clauster, a busy mum who tries every year to make Christmas special for her family. But after she plans an outing for them all and they forget to take her, she decides she’s had enough, packs a bag and buggers off.
This premise! Perfection. And let’s face it: who among us hasn’t fantasised about doing just that?
This comedy, from Michael Showalter, has an insanely great supporting cast, including Denis Leary, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria, Chloe Grace Moretz and Dominic Sessa, but let’s face it: we’re all there for Pfeiffer playing a p-d off mum to adult children who’s up to pussy’s bow with it all.
Unfortunately I can’t tell you more, but if you’re already feeling exhausted by just the thought of Christmas, something tells me you’ll relate to this on a visceral level.
Songs InsideMonday, 8.40pm, ABC
This emotional doco is all about a group of incarcerated women who take part in a unique songwriting program at Adelaide Women’s Prison. They’re preparing for a concert, set to take place in four months time, the biggest of its kind.
Ten women have been selected to be part of the program — most have never picked up an instrument before. This charts their progress, and the effect the rehab program has on them. This won best documentary at the Sydney Film Festival for good reason.
Bump: A Christmas FilmSunday, streaming on Stan
If you’ve been missing the crazy adventures of the Hernandez-Chalmers-Davis clan since Bump finished up, then you’ll love this Christmas movie — they’re all there!
Set between the events that play out in episodes 9 and 10 of the final season, it sees the family set sail on a Christmas cruise aboard a Colombian cruise liner. As you might expect, things don’t go according to plan.
Stan has done some great Aussie Christmas movies these past few years, and this is one to add to the canon.
Picnic At Hanging Rock: The Director’s CutMonday, streaming on Max
Can you believe it’s been 50 years since Peter Weir’s seminal 1975 flick first hit screens? I know — way to make us all feel old.
To mark the milestone, HBO Max is screening a new remastered director’s cut of the film, which was recently voted the greatest Australian film of all time by the Victorian Centenary of Cinema Committee and the National Film and Sound Archive.
Panpipes in surround sound — sign us up. Can’t wait to peep this one when it drops Monday.
With Love, Meghan: Holiday CelebrationWednesday, streaming on Netflix
We’ve all got that one friend who goes totally overboard every Christmas, out festive-ing us all in spectacular ways — Meghan is clearly that girl. Here she is, making Christmas craft, cooking perfect-looking festive food, laying her immaculately stylish holiday table.
It’s all so PERFECT. Personally, I’m here for the fantasy — others might prefer a good old-fashioned hate-watch. Either way, you know you’ll be watching.
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