With the country still in lockdown, we highlight the best new streaming releases, from disturbing dramas to charming docs
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 disturbing dramas to enlightening documentaries, WeLoveCinema has you well and truly covered…
New Releases
I Care a Lot
Where to watch it: Prime Video
Rosamund Pike gives a career-best performance as a heartless scam artist in this wildly entertaining thriller from filmmaker J Blakeson – one that brings new meaning to the term “American psychos.” As a timely satire on the growing industry of “elder abuse,” I Care a Lot manages to be massively gripping and hugely enlightening in equal measure, a socially-minded yarn that shines a light on America's inept approach to care work (read our full review).
The Twentieth Century
Where to watch it: MUBI
The strange life of Canada’s tenth Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, is given an even stranger biopic in this surreal and playful film from Matthew Rankin. Filmed on 16mm and Super 8, it's a singularly absurd rewriting of history that's as much about the act of experimental filmmaking as it is its subject (read our full review).
Bad Tales
Where to watch it: MUBI
The lives of several families are drawn together through their children’s tragic experiences in this grim and disturbing satire of Italian blue collar life. Directed by the D'Innocenzo brothers, Bad Tales is a beautifully shot but bleak look at modern moral decay, not to mention a powerful study of the internet's effect on young people (read our full review).
The Kiosk
Where to watch it: True Story
The last days of a Parisian newsstand are captured in this charming documentary, shot with a headcam by the artist and filmmaker Alexandra Pianelli, whose mother owns the titular kiosk. As both a joyful look into the day to day business behind a newsstand, it also doubles as a fondly melancholic portrait of the last days of print media.
Still Streaming…
News of the World
Where to watch it: Netflix
Bourne director Paul Greengrass changes lanes for this more traditionally-minded western starring Tom Hanks, who channels his everyman charm into a story of a Confederate soldier-turned-newspaper reader who must escort a young girl – played by the phenomenal Helena Zengel – home after her family are brutally murdered. Blending sweeping set-pieces, beautiful production design, and exceptional performances, it's as thrilling as it is heartwarming (read our full review).
Slalom
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema
The murky world of sports abuse is sharply deconstructed in Charlène Favier’s unflinching portrait of a talented young skier and her relationship with a toxic coach. Featuring a brilliant central performance from Noée Abita, Slalom probes the dangerous “win at all costs” mentality though the lens of a female coming-of-ager (read our full review).
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema
Funny people Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo star two middle-aged Midwesterners who embark on a no holds barred vacation to Florida in this wacky comedy from director Josh Greenbaum, co-starring Jamie Dornan. Blending a heartfelt story of friendship with irrelevant hijinks, it's the best alternate for a holiday at a time when they're not possible (read our full review).
PVT Chat
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
Uncut Gems breakout Julia Fox plays a cam girl-dominatrix in this timely blend of drama and thriller from filmmaker Ben Hozie, a New York-set exploration of sex at the intersection of the real and the digital. Peter Vack plays a “professional” gambler obsessed with Fox's cam girl. Complications arise when he spots her in real life and tries to merge two worlds (read our full review).
Dead Pigs
Where to watch it: MUBI
The irreverent debut film from Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan finally gets a release outside of China – a timely tale of disparate lives brought together in cash-crazed Shanghai, based around a real incident in which thousands of dead pigs were found floating in the Huangpu River. Watching this, it's plain to see how Yan got the DC job (read our full review).
Greenland
Where to watch it: Prime Video
A Gerard Butler disaster movie that is not a disaster… who'd have thought? Based on the actor's previous forays into this much-maligned sub-genre, it would have been easy to assume the worst of Greenland. In fact, this is a far more restrained piece of work than you might expect, for the most part eschewing overblown CGI in favour of sharp thrills and genuinely felt family drama (read our full review).
