Best Films to Stream This Week in the UK
With the country still in lockdown, we highlight the best new streaming releases, from monsters movies to modern classics
With the UK still in lockdown, we’ll have to wait a while longer for the proper big screen experience. Fear not: we’ve rounded up the best of the latest streaming releases to keep you entertained until the capital’s dream palaces return. Whatever you’re in the mood for, from bold dramas to enlightening documentaries, WeLoveCinema has you well and truly covered…
[New Releases]
Minari
Where to watch it: Various digital platforms
Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung helms this beautiful and poignant evocation of immigrant life, set in Arkansas and loosely based on events from his own childhood. Steven Yeun stars as the patriarch of a Korean American family who relocate to a farm in pursuit of new pastures. Warm and tenderly written, it also features a scene-stealing turn from adorable young actor Alan S. Kim (read our full review).
Godzilla vs. Kong
Where to watch it: Various digital platforms
If you are in the mood for an excessively loud and unsubtle blockbuster – the kind made for Friday nights in the cinemas with a massive bucket of popcorn and a couple of beers – then look no further than Godzilla vs. Kong. Directed by Your Next filmmaker Adam Wingard, this fourth entry in the “MonsterVerse” is a blistering dumb but undeniably fun meeting of giant fists and bad tempers. Who’s your money on? (read out full review).
The Mauritanian
Where to watch it: Various digital platforms
Part old-school legal drama, part examination of the immense human cost of America’s heinous foreign policy, The Mauritanian tackles one of the great unanswered crimes of the 21st century – the USA’s wanton denigration of human rights and dignity at Guantanamo Bay. Directed by Andrew Macdonald, it features a sympathetic lead turn from Tahar Rahin, and co-stars Jodie Foster (read our full review).
Undine
Where to watch it: Various digital platforms
German filmmaker Christian Petzold, best known for his enigmatic historical dramas Phoenix and Transit, changes lanes with the deeply mysterious, water-logged romantic thriller Undine. Inspired by a character in European folklore, it tells the story of a museum curator (Paula Beer) who hides an aquatic secret. Strange and slippery in equal measure, this is ideal melodrama for open-minded viewers (read our full review).
Concrete Cowboy
Where to watch it: Netflix
Idris Elba stars in a quietly strange and heartfelt story of a young man – played by Caleb McLaughlin – sent to live with his estranged father for the summer, who lives as part of a community of Black cowboys in Philadelphia. If the film’s unique premise isn’t quite matched by the storytelling, this still makes for vibrant and poetic viewing, with typically excellent work from Elba (read our full review).
The Night
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
Set within the confines of an eerie L.A. hotel, this horror story from Iranian-American director Kourosh Ahari hones in on a couple and their baby as they’re plagued by a malevolent force that’s hellbent on exposing their innermost secrets. The Night takes a well-worn premise and delivers it with such style and verve that it almost seems brand new. So much for a sleepless night (read our full review).
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[Still Streaming…]
Ammonite
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are on typically fine form in a chilly, wind-swept romantic period drama about two women who find love and solace in Lyme Regis. Loosely based on the life of British palaeontologist Mary Anning and directed by Francis Lee (God’s Own Country), it’s a deeply felt study of emotional labour that refuses to give easy answers, set against a blustery seaside backdrop (read our full review).
Stray
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema
What happens when you embed yourself with a group of stray dogs in Istanbul? Elizabeth Lo’s unconventional “dogumentary” sets out to answer that question in this brilliantly liberating and life-affirming portrait of a city, told through the footsteps of the canines who inhabit it. Unpredictable and resonant, it’s a film as revealing of the humans who encounter the dogs as the mutts themselves (read our full review).
Violation
Where to watch it: Shudder
Madeleine Sims-Fewer both stars and co-directs this bold and disturbing reinvention of the rape-revenge film, set around a woman’s quest for revenge after she’s unexpectedly betrayed during a trip to visit her sister. Flipping familiar conventions of this well-worn genre on their head, Violation is both disturbing and emotionally shattering, not to mention a brilliantly subversive calling card for its lead actress and director (read our full review).
Tina
Where to watch it: Now
The inimitable pop sensation Tina Turner finally gets the chance to tell her own story in this vibrant account of a most extraordinary life and career, a lively blend of archive footage and candid interviews. Now in retirement and – in her own words – officially “done,” Tina works as both an essential introduction for the unfamiliar, and as a fond farewell for her legions of adoring fans (read our full review).
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