From weird thrillers to offbeat comedies, including a documentary about corruption in Romania and a moving mother-daughter drama
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
Collective
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
Anyone who has ever wanted more insight into the corrupt nature of the Romanian state need look no further than this gripping, infuriating documentary about the healthcare scandal that led to the unnecessary deaths of sixty-four people in a nightclub fire. Collective follows the work of journalists at newspaper Gazeta Sporturil as they attempt to bring those accountable to justice, resulting in an essential expose of a most preventable tragedies (read our full review).
Asia
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema
The debut film from filmmaker Ruthy Pribar tells the story of young mother Asia (Alena Yiv) and her fractured relationship with daughter Vika (Shira Haas, star of Netflix’s Unorthodox), whose life is coming to an end due to an incurable disease and hopes to lose her virginity before she passes away. It's familiar territory, but the superb performances – and a slick, 85 minute runtime – make this well worthwhile (read our full review).
Spree
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
Stranger Things’ breakout Joe Keery stars in this cautionary black comedy of social media obsession from filmmaker Eugene Kotlyarenko, about a young man who's willing to do anything to find fame. Taking place entirely inside his car, Spree is not for the faint of the heart, though it firmly stands as a testament to Keery's range as an actor – and as a (read our full review).
Patrick
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema
No, not that film about a loveable pug. Instead this offbeat black comedy, set in a Belgian nudist camp and featuring Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, might be one of the year’s weirdest films. It tells the story of Patrick (Kevin Janssens), a middle-aged handy man who sets out on an obsessive quest to find his, uh, favourite hammer, leading him into confrontation with the camp's naked inhabitants.
Still Streaming…
To the Ends of the Earth
Where to watch it: MUBI
Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kirosawa, best known for his horror movies, changes lanes for this meditative travelogue about a TV host, played by Atsuko Maeda, who embarks on a life-altering trip around Uzbekistan. Part drama, part travelogue, it's an unusually observed portrait of a mid-twenties crisis, with shades of Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. A beguiling gem (read our full review).
Eastern
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema
A young girl is forced to honour the terms of a blood feud in first-time director Piotr Adamski’s weirdo crime-thriller, set in Poland, which also bears comparison to the early works of Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos. Riffing on – and subverting – western movie tropes (“Eastern,” geddit?), it's a gripping debut that's afraid to mix violence with social commentary and questions about family and legacy (read our full review).
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
Where to watch it: Apple TV+
After his Encounters at the End of the World and Into the Inferno, Werner Herzog continues his run of documentaries about the natural world with this typically existential meditation on the night sky: namely the ways in which comets and meteorites have helped to shape our world. The result is a mesmeric combination of Herzog's cosmic narration, stunning imagery, and mind-blowing science (read our full review).
Breathless
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
Jean-Luc Godard's endlessly influential classic of the French New Wave is back with a brand new 4K restoration, in time for its 60th anniversary. Playfully embracing and then subverting American movies, Breathless changed the medium of film forever, showing how something aimless and imperfect, with an emphasis on characters merely hanging out, might pave the way for the future of cinema. Six decades after its initial release, it still hasn't lost any of its cool (read our full review).
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 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).
