Best Films to Stream This Week in the UK

We run down the week's best films to rent and stream, including a 50s sci-fi yarn and a feel good movie set in the world of music...

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 more studios opt 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 film as easy as possible. Whatever you're in the mood for, WeLoveCinema has you well and truly covered…

 

New Releases

The Vast of Night

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video

In 1950s New Mexico, two teens (Sierra McCormick and Jake Horowitz) set out to discover the origin of a strange frequency coming to them over the radio. But is what they're hearing part of a government conspiracy? An extraterrestrial force? As the debut feature from writer-director Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night unravels as a clever and twisty homage to the sci-fi yarns of old: Twilight Zone by way of Steven Spielberg (read our full review).

 

Only the Animals

Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema

French filmmaker Dominik Moll, who once had success at Cannes with his Harry, Un Ami Qui Vous Veut Du Bien, returns with the clever and haunting Only the Animals, a strange and gripping mystery set in a snow-covered French suburb. As an interconnected portrait of five lives, linked by a sixth, it unravels as a uniquely structured and fascinating exploration of fate and circumstance (read our full review).

 

I'm No Longer Here

Where to watch it: Netflix

A Mexican teen with one hell of a haircut and a passion for cumbia music makes an escape over the US border in this uniquely styled drama from writer-director Fernando Frías. After a misunderstanding with the cartel forces Ulises (Juan Daniel García) to flee his country, he must start a new life in New York's Queens neighbourhood, the film – vividly drawn and pulsating with great music – cutting back-and-forth between his old life and his new one (read our full review).

 

The High Note

Where to watch it: Various streaming services

Dakota Johnson stars in this affable music industry drama about an assistant to a fading pop icon who thinks she knows how to turn her boss's career around. Tracee Ellis Ross is the legend whose days are defined by the same old legacy shows and paid appearances. Can she break new artistic ground? Directed by Nisha Ganatra, who also helmed Mindy Kaling's similarly-styled Late Night, it's a feel good movie for these feel bad times (read our full review).

 

Mike Wallace Is Here

Where to watch it: Various streaming services

Mike Wallace broke ground as the feared and revered newsman of CBS's iconic show “60 Minutes,” his unique and no nonsense approach helping to usher in some of the 20th century's biggest news stories. This compelling and hard-hitting documentary, directed by Avi Belkin, sets out to chart Wallace's career through an assemblage of archive footage (read our full review).

 

Still Streaming…

Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema

Where to watch it: Various streaming services

Mark Cousins' landmark behemoth of a documentary, running at a whopping fourteen hours, charts a bold and brilliant path through the history of cinema, seen through the accomplishments of female filmmakers – many forgotten. Enlightening and absorbing, it works as an essential companion to his own The Story of Film.

 

Take Me Somewhere Nice

Where to watch it: MUBI

A Dutch teenager heads to Bosnia to meet with her dying father for the first time. Teamed with her reluctant cousin and his best friend, the trio embark on an unruly, cross country road trip through the Bosnian heartland. A quirky, stylish, and deadpan debut from writer-director Ena Sendijarević, taking its cues from Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Then Paradise (read our full review).

 

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Where to watch it: Various streaming services

Eliza Hittman's bold examination of US reproductive rights, Never Rarely Sometimes Always (not to be confused with a similarly-named Bill Nighy film) stars Sidney Flanigan as seventeen-year-old Autumn, who sets out from her home state of Pennsylvania to New York, cousin in tow, in order to get an abortion. It's an uncompromising look at a broken system, with perfectly pitched performances (read our full review).

New to Streaming…

The Lighthouse

Where to watch it: Various streaming services

After gifting us with one of the best horror films of the last decade with The Witch, writer-director Robert Eggers returned to blow us all out of the water with this unruly maritime nightmare, shot in beautiful black-and-white. Is it horror? Comedy? Try both! With Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson on blistering form, The Lighthouse unravels as a bold, unpredictable, and (ahem) flatulent fever dream. Don't even get us started on the seagulls (read our full review).

 

A Hidden Life

Where to watch it: Various streaming services

A return to form for divisive writer-director Terrence Malick, A Hidden Life finds inspiration in the true story of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian pacifist who refused to fight for the Nazis. All the Malick trademarks – fish eye lenses, swirling camera movements – are present, but A Hidden Life stands as his most complex and narratively satisfying work in years. A must-see for anyone who feels his recent output has mostly consisted of pretentious drivel (read our full review).

Other Features

Repertory Rundown: What to Watch in London This Week, From Little Women to Sergio Leone

From classics to cult favourites, our team highlight some of the best one-off screenings and re-releases showing this week in the capital

Repertory Rundown: What to Watch in London This Week, From Coppola to Cross of Iron

From classics to cult favourites, our team highlight some of the best one-off screenings and re-releases showing this week in the capital

20 Best Films of 2023 (So Far)

With the year at the halfway point, our writers choose their favourite films, from daring documentaries to box office bombs

Repertory Rundown: What to Watch in London This Week, From Mistress America to The Man Who Wasn’t There

From classics to cult favourites, our team highlight some of the best one-off screenings and re-releases showing this week in the capital

Reviews

The Innocent review – 60s-inspired heist movie with an existential twist

In his fourth feature film, writer-director Louis Garrel explores with wit and tenderness the risk and worth of second chances

Baato review – Nepal’s past and future collide in an immersive, fraught documentary

A mountain trek intertwines with a road-building project, granting incisive, if underpowered, insight into a much underseen world

The Beanie Bubble review – a grim new low for the “corporate biopic” genre

With none of the saving graces of Tetris, Air, or Barbie, this ambition-free look at the Beanie Baby craze is pure mediocrity

Everybody Loves Jeanne review – thoroughly modern fable of grief, romantic confusion, and climate anxiety

Celine Deveaux's French-Portuguese debut can be too quirky for its own good, but a fantastically written lead character keeps it afloat