Best Films to Stream This Week in the UK
From unmissable dramas to fascinating docs, including the final film from Swedish director Roy Andersson and an Egyptian romance
Going to the cinema might not be an option right now, but there are still plenty of great films to enjoy from the comfort of your own home. As always, we’ve assembled the best of what’s streaming across a multitude of platforms and gathered them here to make choosing the perfect film as easy as possible. Whatever you’re in the mood for, WeLoveCinema has you covered…
[New to Streaming]
About Endlessness
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema
Acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson brings us his final film with the aptly named About Endlessness, yet another filmic tapestry featuring his iconic, white-faced humans. In just 78 minutes, the absurdist auteur takes us through scenes of Soviet despair to moments of gravity-defying joy, all the time his brilliantly intricate compositions posing questions about what it means to be alive. A miraculous sign-off from a master filmmaker (read our full review).
Queen of Hearts
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
May el-Toukhy’s gripping Danish drama tells the story of an upstanding lawyer, played magnificently by Trine Dyrholm, who makes a choice to seduce her stepson and in the process begins to discover darker sides to her personality. Queen of Hearts offers a sexually-charged ride that thrives not only on account of its great performances, but in its exploration of complex themes and several unpredictable narrative twists.
Luxor
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
The great (and often under-appreciated) Andrea Riseborough stars in this slow-moving, enigmatic sort-of romantic drama, revealing a quieter side to her usually frantic on-screen persona. As helmed by writer-director Zeina Durra, she plays a British aid worker who travels to the city of Luxor in Egypt. The result is a curious and thought-provoking travelogue that will leave you obsessing over its many intimately observed details (read our full review).
Love Child
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema
Filmed over the course of a six year period, this moving, life-affirming documentary hones in on an Iranian family – Leila, Sahand, and their young son Mani – as they seek asylum while situated in Istanbul, Turkey. Forced to flee Iran because of an illegal relationship (they were married to other people before meeting and had Mani out of wedlock), directors Eva Mulvad and Lea Glob evoke great empathy in their portrait of adrift refugees – though this is no miserable account. In fact, this family are defined by their relentless belief that things will work out in the end (read our full review).
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
The fascinating and mysterious life of former TV producer and – on the evidence put forward here – conceptual artist Marion Stokes is unveiled in this documentary, who from the late 70s until her death in 2012 set about the insane task of continuously recording footage from nine TV news stories – without pause. Why did she do it, and what did she achieve? Director Matt Wolf takes a deep dive into Stokes’ enigmatic history in a bid to find out.
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[Still Streaming…]
Shirley
Where to watch it: 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).
The Painter and the Thief
Where to watch it: 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).
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 (read our full review).
Song Without a Name
Where to watch it: 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 (read our full review).
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).
His House
Where to watch it: 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.