The Top 20 movies added to or extended on the streaming services this week:
1) PATHER PANCHALI
So you think Star Wars is the best trilogy ever made? Watch Satyajit Ray's directorial debut (then follow up with its sequels, "Aparajito" and "Apur Sansar") and you might reconsider. ~ Empire
Fresh as a daisy after all these years, Ray's 1955 spellbinder comes underpinned by a tumultuous Ravi Shankar sitar and paints a ground's-eye portrait of life in an impoverished Bengali village. It is a luminous, transcendental masterpiece. ~ The Guardian
This masterpiece of world cinema is played with restraint by a non-professional cast and influenced by such Italian neorealist features as Bicycle Thieves; its story of a young Bengali boy's introduction to the ways of the world is remarkable for its simplicity and humanity. ~ Radio Times
The story that continues with the final two films in the Apu Trilogy is among the great achievements in all of movie history ~ All Movie
It is about a time, place and culture far removed from our own, and yet it connects directly and deeply with our human feelings. It is like a prayer, affirming that this is what the cinema can be, no matter how far in our cynicism we may stray. ~ Roger Ebert
Incredibly, Ray had never directed a scene before Pather Panchali, Mitra had never shot one, and the children who were cast hadn't even been tested. Just how this team of novices fashioned one of cinema's enduring classics is a miraculous mystery. ~ Total Film
Dark, dreamlike and dangerous, Guillermo del Toro's visionary project is a fairytale every bit as scary and moving as they were always meant to be. Compelling from first frame to last. ~ BBC
Dark, twisted and beautiful, this entwines fairy-tale fantasy with war-movie horror to startling effect. ~ Empire
Watching the unique explosions of Guillermo del Toro's mind realise themselves on screen is truly astounding. ~ Little White Lies
From his perfectly balanced screenplay to his assured skills as a visual storyteller, the fearless performances of an immensely talented cast, the sleepy lullaby that forms the foundation of Javier Navarrete's score, and special effects that have the power to dazzle and horrify, all the elements fall beautifully into place to form an genuinely affecting adult fairy tale. ~ AllMovie
Superbly acted, vividly beautiful, and uniquely imaginative, del Toro's mesmerising phantasmagoria packs a real emotional punch. This grim spin on Alice in Wonderland is one of his finest works. ~ Radio Times
The second and perhaps best of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy.~ All Movie
Even while Pather Panchali was triumphing at Cannes, Ray was already at work on a sequel, Aparajito (The Unvanquished). It went one better when it played the Venice Film Festival in 1957, winning the top prize, the Golden Lion. These are must-see movies - humanist film-making at its best. ~ Empire
What we sense all through The Apu Trilogy is a different kind of life than we are used to. The film is set in Bengal in the 1920s, when in the rural areas life was traditional and hard. The second film follows the family to Benares, where the father makes a living from pilgrims who have come to bathe in the holy Ganges. ~ Roger Ebert
It's not often you can say that five stars aren't enough to do justice to a TV drama, but Killed By My Debt presents one of those occasions. ~ The Times
A gut-punching drama about the horrors of Britain’s gig economy. ~ Telegraph
Another peppy and superbly rendered masterwork from animation house Pixar, pulling off their classic trick of delivering captivating colourful fun for kids along with wickedly smart insights. ~ Radio Times
They return to form with a dazzlingly imaginative adventure set inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl. ~ The Observer
The ordinary trauma of an 11-year-old girl coming to terms with a new life and school while losing all her old, comforting, childish certainties has become a glittering, bravura piece of cinema, a comedy both wise and tender. ~ The Times
Fittingly for a movie set inside someone's head, Pixar's 15th feature is a fireworks display of fizzing ideas and bursts of imagination. ~ Total Film
Inventive, gorgeously animated, and powerfully moving, it is another outstanding addition to their library of modern animated classics. ~ Rotten Tomatoes
This is a humane and heart-wrenchingly beautiful film; even measured alongside Pixar's numerous great pictures, it stands out as one of the studio's very best. ~ The Telegraph
Combining simplicity with extraordinary formal daring and sophistication, it is the universality of the film that makes it an instant classic. ~ The Independent
Audacious as it is silly, as funny as it is imaginative. It’s hard to think of a lovelier way to spend 102 minutes this summer. ~ Empire
Inside Out is animated cinema's brainstorm of the year, possibly the decade. ~ Financial Times
A sweet, cheerfully vulgar, and often very funny old-fashioned romantic comedy. ~ Empire
The teaming of Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal is perfect, while supporting stars Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby are outstanding and add a welcome suggestion of edge. ~ Radio Times
As well as the movies’ best fake-orgasm scene, Nora Ephron’s sharp script brought emotional literacy to relationship comedies. ~ The Guardian
What knocks it out of the park is the combination of Ephron's insights and Rob Reiner's matchless comic chops. ~ Total Film
Quite possibly the greatest romantic comedy since Some Like It Hot. ~ The Times
The foundation of online phenomenon Facebook comes in for scrutiny in this fact-based drama, which turns the site's formative years into a morality tale for our times This brilliantly assembled cautionary tale gets straight to the heart of the human needs and failings underpinning dizzying technological advancement, creating one of the truly defining films of its era. ~ Radio Times
Impeccably scripted, beautifully directed, and filled with fine performances, it is a riveting, ambitious example of modern filmmaking at its finest. ~ Rotten Tomatoes
Tom Cruise is 56 years old. Fifty. Six. And he’s been making Mission: Impossible movies for 22 of those 56 years. By all rights, his sixth high-flying mission, should be to M:I’ what A View to a Kill was to Roger Moore’s Bond (Moore being only a year older than Cruise is when he made his final 007): tired, creaky and a bit embarrassing.
Astonishingly, however, the opposite is true. This is easily the best, slickest and most daring Mission: Impossible instalment. ~ Time Out
This quick-witted, fleet-footed franchise shows no sign of flagging. ~ Total Film
Setting a new bar for exhilarating escapist adventure, the sixth episode in the spy franchise finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) posing as a terrorist to buy plutonium before MI6 rogue agent Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) can enact his psycho doomsday scenario. This explosive and awe-inspiringly ambitious extravaganza is simply impossible to resist.. ~ Radio Times
Spectacular and eye-popping, this is the blockbuster of summer 2018. ~ The Telegraph
A combination of thrilling stunts, insane daring and clever writing make this a stunning piece of action cinema. Just be sure to take your heart meds first, and hold on tight. ~ Empire
Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru is a 1918 Swedish silent film directed by Victor Sjöström, based on a play from 1911 by Jóhann Sigurjónsson. It tells the story of Eyvind of the Hills, an 18th century Icelandic outlaw.
Beginning in the mid-1910s, actor and director Sjöström created a series of features that were landmarks of both Swedish and international cinema. Prominent among these was The Outlaw and His Wife. While at moments the film may appear to be a routine melodrama, at the time of its release the mature approach towards the characters' psychological states and the stunning location photography were groundbreaking. The acting is filled with histrionics, but does have its moments of subtlety and insight, and if the film has not entirely aged gracefully, its importance to the development of filmmaking also remains evident. ~ AllMovie
The second film by Scottish writer/director Bill Forsyth has all of the gentle charm and quirky, unsentimental emotion (not to mention a befuddled person dressed as a penguin) that most Hollywood teen films lacked in the ensuing two decades. ~ AllMovie
This is a case of near-faultless film-making from Forsyth. As director, he keeps a wry eye on the triangle linking school goalkeeper John Gordon-Sinclair (then Gordon John), centre forward Dee Hepburn and her pal Clare Grogan. ~ Radio Times
