Best Films to Watch in London and Stream This Week
From cinema releases to streaming gems, including a meditation of male friendship and the return of everyone's favourite Kazakh reporter
Fancy a film but can’t make your mind up what to see? Look no further: we’ve assembled the best of what’s showing in London, plus the latest streaming releases, and gathered them here to make choosing a great movie as easy as possible. Whatever you’re in the mood for, out in the world or in the comfort of your own home, WeLoveCinema has you well and truly covered…
[New Releases]
The Climb
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes
Michael Angelo Covino’s deft and witty drama-comedy (huge emphasis on the comedy) is the rare film that sets out to tackle the experience of male friendship in a real and intelligent way. Covino and Kyle Marvin play two best pals whose bond is put to the test after it turns out one of them slept with the other’s fiancé. As the years go by, we watch the ebb and flow of their toxic – but oddly loyal – relationship across a series of comically rich but beautifully observed scenes.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video
Sixteen years after he first laid waste to the American landscape, skewering not only the US population, but the country’s misaligned perception of the rest of the world, Borat is back to do the same thing all over again. This time, though, the Kazakh TV reporter has some company in the form of his fifteen-year-old daughter, played with star-making comedy chops by newcomer Maria Bakalova. This is exactly what you’d expect from a Borat sequel se tin Trump’s America – for better or worse.
Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You
Where to watch it: Apple TV+
This rousing and spirited documentary coincides with the release of Springsteen’s brand new album of the same name, Letter to You, offering a look behind-the-scenes as the Boss and his E Street Band – all together for the first time in 35 years – make magic in his home studio. The results are, obviously, brilliant. But this works equally as a portrait of a more melancholy Springsteen searching for meaning in his twilight years (read our full review).
His House
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes
The refugee experience is expertly reinterpreted as an unsettling and timely horror in this nightmarish and socially minded thriller from filmmaker Remi Weekes. It tells the story of Rial Bol, played by Wunmi Mosaku, who arrive in England from war-torn Sudan house and are given a ruinous old house on a council estate. Weelkes cleverly aligns their situation – one of mounting tension and discomfort on account of their unfriendly neighbours – to that of a horror movie, driving towards an unforgettable climax.
Pixie
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes
A western set in modern day Ireland? Yes, please. Actor Olivia Cooke brings her usual charismatic self to this playful riff on the gangster movie – she is the titular Pixie – taking inspiration from everything from Pulp Fiction to the classics of the French New Wave. The plot is an purposeful explosion of chaos, as small time gangsters go head to head with gangster priests over – what else? – missing drugs. Alec Baldwin co-stars, but it’s Cooke who steals the show.
Over the Moon
Where to watch it: Netflix
Netflix make animated movies now, don’t you know? With the arrival of Over the Moon, the streaming giant are launched right into the stratosphere. This likeable and very watchable spin on the space movie centres on a young girl named Fei Fei who, furious over the fact that her dad has found a new girlfriend, sets off on an expedition to the moon. Somewhat of an overreaction, sure – but the animation itself is glorious, the film a witty delight.
Totally Under Control
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes or watch it on Curzon Home Cinema
Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney (best known for his revealing Scientology doc Going Clear) turns his sights to the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak in the timely exploration Totally Under Control – a day-by-day account of the Trump administration’s relentless mishandling of the pandemic, resulting in thousands of preventable deaths (read our full review).
Cinema Paradiso
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes
Sentimental, but who cares? This glorious ode to the lasting power of cinema is the classic film re-release that we need right now. Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, Cinema Paradiso unfolds in flashback as a famous movie director reflects on what the movies meant to him growing up in a small village in post-war Italy. It’s gorgeously made, with an unforgettably lush score by the late Ennio Morricone, building to one of the most heartbreakingly joyful montages ever put to celluloid. Chef’s kiss.
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[Still in Cinemas and Streaming]
Time
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video
This deeply moving and timely documentary explores the failings of the prison-industrial complex, seen through the experience of one woman – Sibil Fox Richardson – as she waits for her husband’s release. After he’s sentenced to sixty years behind bars for an attempted bank robbery, Garrett Bradley’s affecting film follows Sibil’s tireless efforts to secure her husband’s freedom, poising questions about the US justice system, relationships, and the very notion of time itself (read our full review).
Rebecca
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes
Did experimental British filmmaker Ben Wheatley need to remake Rebecca, one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most beloved classics? Of course not… and yet he’s found something interesting in this new reimagining of the Daphne du Maurier classic, which stars Armie Hammer as the dashing – but enigmatic – widower who begin a romance in the shadow of his wife’s death. If it doesn’t come close to the heights of the original, this Rebecca is, at least, a lush and gorgeously rendered counterpart… and you can’t deny the appeal of Hammer’s fantastic mustard suit (read our full review).
This post was categorised in Archive.