Best Films to Watch in London and Stream This Week
From the latest cinema releases to unmissable streaming gems, including a Shirley Jackson biopic and the latest from Cartoon Saloon
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]
Shirley
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes or watch it on Curzon Home Cinema
Elisabeth Moss continues her run of fabulous performances, playing real life horror writer Shirley Jackson in this not-quite-biopic. As helmed by the artistically-minded Madeline’s Madeline filmmaker Josephine Decker, Shirley is a surreal and feverish ride into the writing process that takes well-worn material in a bold new direction, centered on a fabricated story about a young couple who move in with Jackson to disturbing ends (read our full review).
Wolfwalkers
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes
Cartoon Saloon, the animation studio that gave us the brilliant, beautiful Song of the Sea, is back with Wolfwalkers, a medievally-minded tale set in Kilkenny. Drawing from both classic folklore and Irish history, it tells the story of young woman with the ability to transform into a wolf. The animation is absolutely stunning, while the film’s themes of colonialism imbue it with an unmistakable, contemporary edge. Miyazaki, eat your heart out (read our full review).
The Painter and the Thief
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes or watch it on Curzon Home Cinema
The unbelievable true story of the improbable friendship between an artist and the man who stole her paintings his captured in this fascinating documentary from filmmaker Benjamin Rees. After having her work taken, Barbora Kysilkova, a Czech artist living in Norway, is given the opportunity to meet the thief, who agrees to sit for a portrait. What follows is a tale of the most unlikely coming together imaginable (read our full review).
Mogul Mowgli
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes
The great Riz Ahmed writes and stars in this deeply personal and emotionally-driven film about a British-Pakistani rapper named Zed, who has abandoned his roots and is on the verge of breaking America. Tragedy strikes, though, when he’s diagnosed with a rare degenerative condition after returning to London, leaving him to ponder what family means – and who he really is (read our full review).
African Apocalypse
Where to watch it: BFI Player
The ghosts of colonisation are brought to life in Rob Lemkin’s unsettling travelogue, as Nigerian poet Femi Nylander travels to Africa in search of a real life Kurtzian figure. His trip – framed as a rebuttal to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness – prompts uncomfortable questions about the victims of Imperialism and inherited guilt, offering up an eerie and fascinating meditation on a troubled continent and its bloody history.
Song Without a Name
Where to watch it: Get London showtimes or watch it on Curzon Home Cinema
Set in Peru in 1988, this heartbreaking drama follows a young woman named Georgina, whose daughter is stolen by a fake maternity clinic during a period of political turmoil. In order to track her down, she pairs with a young investigative journalist. The result makes for unpredictable and moving viewing, shot in stunning black and white.
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[Still in Cinemas and Streaming]
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 (read our full review).
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 or watch it on Netflix
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 (read our full review).
This post was categorised in Archive.