The Prestige (Nolan, 2006)
New Zealand ad-supported streamer ThreeNow had a technical revamp late last year and, despite being mostly full of reality TV shows, has started adding some quality films to its slate.
Being owned by Warner Bros. Discovery means that they now have a decent library to draw on but I should warn you that the good stuff is still in the low single figures and also doesn’t hang around long. I recommended Interview with the Vampire here back in November and that has already disappeared.
With all of the Oscar-nominated fuss about Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, someone smart has decided that audiences might want to see a few more of his films and, thus, Inception, Tenet and The Prestige are currently free to stream.
Made between Nolan’s first and second Batmans (Batmen?), The Prestige is the one I like most of the three. Back in January 2007, I said this about it in my long summary of the summer holiday releases for the Capital Times:
The Prestige (Christopher Nolan) was always going to appeal to me due it’s subject matter and the presence of perfect distraction Scarlett Johansson and it delivered. The film is about stage magic and uses stage magic principles to tell its very twisty story – though some might say it has one twist too many.
Apologies for the sexism. I think I’m better than that now.
Another good reason for watching The Prestige is the presence of David Bowie as inventor Nikola Tesla, back in the days before the word Tesla became tainted by its relationship to that authoritarian idiot billionaire.
Where to watch The Prestige
Aotearoa: Streaming on Netflix and ThreeNow (free with ads)
Australia: Streaming on Netflix and Binge
USA: Streaming on Paramount+
UK: Digital rental
Further listening
I hosted the first RNZ At the Movies for 2024 yesterday (repeated on Sunday at 1.30pm). You can listen online here. The first segment is a quick summary of the holiday releases (repeating some gags and insights you might have read here last week…) but the other two segments are new: Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers and Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers.
