Best Films to Stream This Week in the UK

With the country still in lockdown, we highlight the best new streaming releases, from a time loop romance to Chloé Zhao's debut

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

Palm Springs

Where to watch it: Prime Video

Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti are forced to relive the same desert wedding over and over in this timely spin on the time loop comedy – as funny as it is thought-provoking. As an exploration of love, companionship, and the very idea of monogamy, Palm Springs is the rare Groundhog Day rehash that gets it right (read our full review).

 

Sequin in a Blue Room

Where to watch it: Various digital platforms

This luxurious and sensual exploration of online hookup culture from debut filmmaker Samuel Van Grinsven is bolstered by an excellent lead performance from Conor Leach, who plays a 16-year-old gay teen who finds himself obsessed with another man after an encounter in the enigmatic blue room of the title (read our full review).

 

Wilderness

Where to watch it: Various digital platforms

This jazzy, seaside-set romance about a couple – played by Katherine Davenport and James Barnes – caught up in the idea of their own love story is a testament to super low-budget filmmaking. Written by Falmouth University lecturer Neil Fox and crewed by student first-timers, it's a talky meditation on relationships, with two very fine performances at its core.

 

Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Where to watch it: MUBI

Before her career hit the big time with the one-two punch of The Rider and the Oscar-nominated Nomadland, filmmaker Chloé Zhao helmed this quietly powerful story of sibling relationships set on an Indian reservation on the American fringes, now available in the UK for the first time thanks to the fine folks at MUBI.

Still Streaming

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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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