From a timely story of a toxic workplace to an uplifting portrait of a Mexican food expert, here are our picks for what to watch online...
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 movie as easy as possible. Whatever you're in the mood for, WeLoveCinema has you well and truly covered…
New Releases
The Assistant
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
Unofficially dubbed as “the Weinstein movie,” The Assistant hones in on twentysomething Jane, played by a brilliant Julia Garner, as she navigates the toxic work environment perpetuated by her unseen boss over the course of a day. An unflinching look at broken power structures, it's more than just a #MeToo thriller, but a demand that we do better.
What we said: “Utilising an ambient soundscape of keyboard-tapping and coffee-brewing in place of a traditional musical score, Green creates an environment of endless dread, where every ring of the phone feels like a bomb about to explode (read our full review).”
Ema
Where to watch it: MUBI
Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín refuses to be put in a box, having moved effortlessly between social-political works like No and biopics like Jackie over the course of his career. His latest, Ema, starringMariana Di Girolamo and Gael Garcia Bernal, might be his strangest yet. With a story about an adoption gone wrong, it pulsates with a bold and unique energy – and it's streaming for free for one day, May 1st, on MUBI.
What we said: “The woozy atmosphere, emphasised by Nicolas Jaar's electronic score and Sergio Armstrong's neon-addled cinematography, makes up for any ambiguity, for the film itself – part relationship drama, part music video, part experimental dance piece – is pleasurable to watch on purely aesthetic terms (read out full review).”
All Day and a Night
Where to watch it: Netflix
A young man named Jahkor (Ashton Sanders) winds up being incarcerated alongside his own father (Jeffrey Wright) in this taut drama from Joe Robert Cole, co-writer of Blank Panther, which – told in flashback – explores themes of destiny, redemption, and family ties.
The Half of It
Where to watch it: Netflix
This teen drama from Netflix finds lonely Chinese-American teen Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) in a predicament after jock Paul (Daniel Diemer) asks her to use her writerly talents to pen a love letter to his crush, the same girl Ellie also has feelings for. Writer-director Alice Wu subverts many of the more irksome tropes associated with the genre in a warm, uplifting, and very watchable look at love.
A Secret Love
Where to watch it: Netflix
The 65-year relationship between Pat Henschel and Terry Donahue, two women – one American, one Canadian – forms the basis of touching Netflix documentary A Secret Love, a vivid, moving portrait of love thriving in an unfair world.
What we said: “A Secret Love skilfully uses its limited scope to tell a heartfelt tale about the perseverance of love against all opposition, be it governmental bigotry, or the simple reality of time’s effect on us all (read our full review).”
Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
Move aside, Jiro Dreams of Sushi: here's another food-based doc about an elderly chef with very strong opinions. The subject of Elizabeth Carroll's fun and informative docu-portrait is 97-year-old food writer Diana Kennedy – an expert on Mexican cuisine who has spent much of her life living in the country, immersed in its culture and honing her culinary skills. The resulting film is absorbing and informative, and Kennedy makes for a marvellous subject.
Still Streaming…
Moffie
Where to watch it: Curzon Home Cinema
This sensitive, compelling film from director Oliver Hermanus hones in on gay, sixteen-year-old teenager Nicholas (Kai Luke Brummer) after he's enlisted into the army in apartheid-era South Africa. A meditation on sexual awakening, toxic masculinity, and the innocence of youth, it paints a vivid and unflinching picture of a society that's broken from the ground up.
What we said: “Hermanus manages to create coherence from all the different, sometimes contradictory aspects of Nicholas’s existence, revealing how a person continues to reassess their life and their self as they carry on living and encountering new challenges and possibilities (read our full review)”
Extraction
Where to watch it: Netflix
Chris Hemsworth is back in beefy action hero mode, this time to rescue the kidnapped son of an international crime lord as tormented mercenary “Tyler Rake.” Produced by the Russo brothers (Avengers: Endgame), Extraction marks the directorial debut of stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave, who brings his unique skill set to what is a blisteringly loud and explosively unsubtle thriller. Might help to alleviate some of that quarantine restlessness, though.
What we said: “If you can brush aside everything that's wrong with Extraction, from it mistreatment of exotic locales to its paper thin protagonist, it's entertaining in a mindless, overblown way, like The Raid as directed by Tony Scott (read our full review).”
Sea Fever
Where to watch it: Various streaming services
The latest in an endless line of films taking their cues from Ridley Scott's Alien, eerily prescient thriller Sea Fever – with its quarantine-themed story of a fishing trawler crew under attack from killer parasites – couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. Expect scenes right out of John Carpenter's The Thing, and one moment that's literally eye-popping.
What we said: “The acting, low-key and unshowy, brings a gritty realism, whilst the mumbly dialogue and lack of traditional heroics contribute to a film that seems refreshingly indifferent to the fates of its characters (read our full review).”
