Best Films to Stream This Week in the UK
From a twisty Juliette Binoche thriller to a documentary about two of hip-hop's most influential people, here are our top picks for streaming and renting...
Going to cinema might not be an option right now, but bringing the magic of the big screen directly into your home is – especially as so many studios are opting to release the latest films on VOD platforms instead. What better way to take refuge from the bizarre situation currently gripping our world than with a host of unique, inspiring, and entertaining films?
As always, we’ve assembled the best of what’s showing (read as: streaming) and gathered them here to make choosing a great movie as easy as possible. Whatever you’re in the mood for, WeLoveCinema has you well and truly covered…
[New Releases…]
Who You Think I Am
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema (rent)
The inimitable Juliette Binoche stars in this twisty thriller about a 50-something who, fed up with her lot in love, decides to go online and pose as a much younger woman. Directed by French filmmaker Safy Nebbout, it offers a timely look at the ways in which we conduct our romantic lives today – and Binoche is as good as she’s ever been.
What we said: “The narrative bends and breaks in unusual places, pushing the limits of credible storytelling within the high-stakes genre without ever veering into delirium (read our full review).”
Tigertail
Where to watch it: Netflix (stream)
Alan Yang, perhaps best known for his work on Netflix’s Master of None, writes and directs this drama about a factory worker who leaves home in search of a new life in America. Starring Lee Hong-chi and Tzi Ma (Arrival, The Farewell), its story spans multiple generations, and asks bold questions about how the circumstances of our birth affect and limit who we are. The result is touching, poignant, and funny.
LA Originals
Where to watch it: Netflix (stream)
Netflix doc LA Originals explores the legacy of artist Mister Cartoon and photographer Estevan Oriol, whose groundbreaking work established them as icons within the hip-hop scene. It’s the sort of eye-opening documentary that provides context for a whole movement. But perhaps Snoop Dog, appearing here, says it best when he claims: “If you ain’t get tatted by Cartoon, you ain’t got no tats. If you ain’t get shot by Estevan, you got a weak photographer.”
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[Still Streaming…]
Standing Up, Falling Down
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Google Play (rent)
Alternately working as a showcase for comedian/actor Ben Schwartz and as a mini comeback vehicle for legendary comedian Billy Crystal, Standing Up, Falling Down is by no means ambitious. In telling the story of a failed comedian returning to his home town only to befriend his drunk of a dermatologist (?), it settles as a hodgepodge of things we’ve seen countless times in other films – but charmingly so. Sort of impossible to hate?
What we said: “It’s a film as aimless as its main character, but there’s a warmness to the material, and to the characters, both central and secondary, that makes watching not unlike tuning into an episode of your favourite sitcom (read our full review).”
Elephant
Where to watch it: Disney+ (stream)
Elephant is exactly what is says on the tin. It’s light and accessible, clearly designed as something that families can sit and watch together as it follows a herd of elephants trekking through the Kalahari Desert. Oh, and it’s narrated by Meghan Markle, who gets to deliver lines like: “The mud has a dark side.”
What we said: “As you hear Markle smiling through her script, you could imagine this being spun as a bedtime story without needing to make a single adjustment (read our full review).”
System Crasher
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema (rent)
Nine-year-old Benni, brilliant but difficult, is shipped from one foster home to the next, earning her the title of “system crasher.” Nora Fingscheidt’s frantic drama, set in Germany, is a vastly uncompromising debut, featuring a brilliant lead performance from Helena Zengel, and an aptly energetic score from composer John Gürtler.
What we said: “Sometimes System Crasher is fun, and sometimes it makes you feel sick. The film operates on a constant seesaw of extremes, as Benni crosses lines with horrific brutality at one turn, before retreating to comfort a crying carer at the next (read our full review).”
[New to Streaming…]
Pink Wall
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema (rent)
An unconventionally-structured romantic drama starring Jay Duplass and Tatiana Maslany, Pink Wall concerns a wannabe photographer and a TV producer, whose relationship is presented to us through six scenes, all told out of order. It’s a little bit like musical The Last Five Years crossed with recent historical drama Cold War, in that we’re left to deduce what may or may not have happened in the gaps.
What we said: “[The film captures] the push and pull of modern relationships; the ways in which a couple can move so quickly between feelings of hatred and love, almost within the same breath (read our full review).”
Ordinary Love
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video (rent or buy)
This film’s title isn’t messing around: Ordinary Love is more than happy to exist in the most banal of places, as emphasised by the relationship between retired couple Tom and Joan, played by Liam Neeson and Leslie Manville, whose quiet existence is thrown into disarray after Joan receives a breast cancer diagnosis.
What we said: “McCaffery’s script captures the slow and uneasy feeling of taking tests and waiting for results, and he displays a talent for minutiae in both the hospital setting and at home (read our full review).”
Just Mercy
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video (rent or buy)
This gripping, timely drama stars Michael B. Jordan of Black Panther fame as a young Harvard graduate who sets out to defend a man (Jamie Foxx) accused of killing a white woman in 1986 Alabama. It’s based on the work of real life attorney Bryan Stevenson, who frequently offered free legal advice to those he felt had fallen prey to an unjust and racist system.
This post was categorised in Archive.