The Top 15 movies added to the streaming services this week.
3rd - 9th July 2021
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THE BEST MOVIES STREAMING THIS WEEK
The Top 15 movies added to or extended on the streaming services this week:
1) MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE
A wonderfully affecting French-Swiss stop-motion masterpiece based on Gilles Paris’s book "Autobiographie d’une courgette", a young boy is sent to a children’s home in a frank and affecting animation about abused youngsters finding strength through solidarity. ~
A superlative family film, and one that dares to be different; there’s magic in every stop-motion frame of this miniature gem from Claude Barras and Céline Sciamma. ~
Its silly title and adorable characters belie a sober story whose colourful visuals delight the senses even as it braves dark emotional depths. ~
The Oscar-nominated stop-motion animated feature is as poignant and as well observed a film about the darker side of childhood as you could ever hope to see. It touches on bereavement, bullying and the desperate plight of young orphans but does so in a way that is humorous and ultimately redemptive.. ~
A beautifully balanced visual marvel about children in care, it is full of decency and kindness. ~
In the middle of the end credits there’s another treat: an animated rendition of the audition of Gaspard Schlatter, the young boy who voices Courgette in French. It’s a disarming, funny bit and a lovely coda to a graceful and inspiring picture. ~
Wry, self-aware, and uncharacteristically sweet., stars and worlds collide as Quentin Tarantino serves up his most thoughtful and personal work to date. It's top drawer QT. ~
It is a film that somehow transcends charges of tastelessness and his best, bravest and most confrontationally impudent movie since "Pulp Fiction". ~
It is the sort of high-wire, playful and madly enjoyable riff on movie-world folklore that only Quentin Tarantino could make and get away with. It’s a massively fun LA shaggy-dog story that blends fact and fiction by inserting made-up characters right at the heart of real, horrible events and then daring history to do its worst. It’s also a glorious love letter to LA and the movies. ~
With Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt playing a TV actor and stuntman who cross paths with the Manson cult, Tarantino has created outrageous, disorienting entertainment with his dazzling LA redemption song. ~
He’s finally done it. Quentin Tarantino has made his masterpiece. The plot is a tapestry template that drops in characters like shining beads and watches the story weave slowly around them.. ~
The iconic director's most satisfying work in decades juxtaposes a washed-up actor with a star on the rise in this mature and masterful take on the changing fates of Hollywood figures. ~
An audacious, surprising and mind-bending narrative that sees Tarantino firing on all cylinders. All three leads are on scintillating form, and there are memorable cameos from Al Pacino and Bruce Dern.~
It’s so layered and ambitious, the product of a confident filmmaker working with collaborators completely in tune with his vision. Every piece fits. Every choice is carefully considered.. ~
He luxuriates in bringing this prelapsarian heyday roaring back to life, and the effect is pure movie-world intoxication, laced with in-jokes and nibble-ably sweet period detail. ~
Every element – from the carefully curated 60s songs that populate the film (including the wry use of The Mama’s & The Papa’s ‘California Dreaming’) to the palate of azure blues and deep ochres – is exceptional.. ~
Thrillingly unrestrained yet solidly crafted, it tempers Tarantino's provocative impulses with the clarity of a mature filmmaker's vision. ~
One of the happiest and most engaging movies you are likely to see this year, and it comes from a Glasgow director who has made a specialty out of characters who are as real as you and me, and nicer than me. ~
The film never overplays its hand at presenting, as in "Local Hero", an insular community of lovably preoccupied folks. Few directors can match Bill Forsyth with that kind of achievement. ~
This gentle comedy, set in the midst of Glasgow's ice cream wars, still resonates with its superbly observed characters. ~
Forsyth's film is too amiable to see any kind of menace in the Mafia terrorists, but as an urban fairy tale it works well and contains a few quirky surprises.~
Director William Gazecki's documentary on 1994's 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, which ended with the destruction of the compound by fire and the death of 70 members inside, is a strong and compelling piece of journalism that raises reasonable and troubling questions about how the FBI and the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) handled the matter. ~
Watching Gazecki's remarkable documentary,' I am more inclined to use the words "religion'' than "cult,'' and "church center'' than "compound.'' Yes, the Branch Davidians had some strange beliefs, but no weirder than those held by many other religions. And it is pretty clear, on the basis of this film, that the original raid was staged as a publicity stunt, and the final raid was a government riot - a tragedy caused by uniformed boys with toys. ~
What happens when your child is not the victim of a shooting like Columbine – but the perpetrator? A powerful depiction of nightmarish pain, from denial to loss, this documentary tells the stories of three such families. ~
A sombre hour of television, the focus of this documentary is firmly on the parents and their complex mixture of guilt, anger and grief. ~
A portrait of love without limits – even for a murderer. The film is an astounding piece of work, treating the parents of school shooters with compassion. ~
Life goes on, even when your child was a killer, in Frida and Lasse Barkfors's thoughtful, unsensational film. ~
Many stepfamilies will find solace in this exceptional film in which Rio Ferdinand and Kate Wright open up about the delicate process of moving on from grief with the children. ~
Documentaries set in footballers’ homes are usually blingy, boastful and tediously banter-heavy. Rio Ferdinand delivers the precise opposite with this vulnerable, poignant, emotionally intelligent and, like Being Mum and Dad, which was made after the death of Ferdinand’s wife Rebecca from breast cancer in 2015, shows us how bereaved children grieve. ~
It's a painful, honest account of remarrying after being widowed. ~
Director George Roy Hill's freewheeling, Oscar-winning comic western was one of the biggest box-office hits in the genre's history. It features the unforgettable pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, whose exhilarating performances turn the ruthless real-life desperados into lovable rogues and, ultimately, tragic heroes.~
Like "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967, glamorous outlaws Butch and Sundance were in tune with the late-'60s counterculture, but the movie's humour - and its Oscar-winning Burt Bacharach/Hal David song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" - softened the revisionist blows amid impending tragedy. ~
With its iconic pairing of Newman and Redford, jaunty screenplay and Burt Bacharach score, it has gone down as among the defining moments in late-'60s American cinema. ~
Note-perfect performances, a screenplay steeped in both nostalgia and a timely sense of insight, and anti-heroes you can't help but love: Butch and Sundance may be the most likeable film ever made. ~
Hugh O’Conor, making his debut as a feature director, and Paul Murray, moving from novels to screenplays, aren’t tearing up much new ground in this charming comedy – in which the spirit of John Hughes haunts middle-class Dublin – but the film, directed by the former child actor, is so stuffed with good dialogue spoken by good actors that the familiarity hardly matters.. ~
Every once in a great while - perhaps only a handful of times each decade - that rare film comes completely out of left field to let us know that there are still some original ideas out there, and that cinema can still be fresh and exciting. This is just such a film. ~
A modern rarity: an adventure thriller which proves that science fiction can tell us as much about the world we live in as any social documentary.~
The brilliant feature film debut from South African Neill Blomkamp is a towering achievement. A thundering blitzkrieg of seat-rattling entertainment with a sociopolitical message; a cerebral sci-fi and apartheid allegory that is as heavily armed with provocative ideas as it is with armour-piercing, tank-splattering torpedoes. ~
The best sci-fi flick in years. Two hours fly by as if you’re watching "Alien" or "Terminator" for the first time and Blomkamp’s film offers thought provoking thrills that have the audience rooting its CGI characters. ~
Technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching, it has action, imagination, and all the elements of a thoroughly entertaining science-fiction classic. ~
If anybody was born to play a cantankerous-yet-charismatic U.S. marshal in a movie with a title like "True Grit", it's John Wayne, who received his sole Academy Award for his self-referential turn as the acrimonious tough guy. ~
This movie has acquired a reputation for being a rollicking fun western, but actually it is surprisingly violent for a John Wayne film (a p-it of rattlesnakes, Dennis Hopper's fingers being severed), and, with its finely hewn, semi-Biblical dialogue (by Marguerite Roberts from Charles Portis's marvellous novel), it's not - unlike Wayne's earlier westerns - really suitable for family viewing, despite its strong moral theme. ~
It rides along on the strength of a lived-in late-period John Wayne performance, adding its own entertaining spin to the oft-adapted source material. ~
One of the glories of "True Grit" is that it recognizes Wayne's special presence. It was not directed by John Ford, but it was directed by another old Western hand, Henry Hathaway, who has made the movie of his lifetime and given us a masterpiece. This is the sort of film you call a movie, instead of the kind of movie you call a film. ~
The scope of Christopher Nolan’s on-screen ambition is seemingly limitless, particularly his relentless desire to destroy the accepted standard that a big Hollywood blockbuster is inherently mindless. He nails it again with his personal mix of cerebral celluloid cement and the mind-blowing action for which he is now equally revered. ~
Smart, innovative, and thrilling, it is that rare summer blockbuster that succeeds viscerally as well as intellectually. ~
The story can either be told in a few sentences, or not told at all. Here is a movie immune to spoilers: If you knew how it ended, that would tell you nothing unless you knew how it got there. And telling you how it got there would produce bafflement. The movie is all about process, about fighting our way through enveloping sheets of reality and dream, reality within dreams, dreams without reality. It's a breathtaking juggling act. ~
Like "The Matrix" mated with "Synecdoche, New York" — or a Charlie Kaufman 007. To paraphrase "Casino Royale’s" Vesper Lynd, it’s a meaningful pursuit with physics-defying, thunderous action, heart-wringing emotion and an astonishing performance from DiCaprio, as Nolan delivers another true original: welcome to an undiscovered country. ~
By turns overpowering, spectacular and truly awe-inspiring. Nolan has just taken it to the next level. It may not be art and it certainly isn’t truth. But it fulfils one of the basic tenets of cinema: it takes the breath away. ~
Damon Cardasis' film would make a great companion piece to the 1990 film "Paris Is Burning" and the 2017 documentary "Kiki," which showed the world of the underground ballroom scene in New York City, where the different neighborhood clubs are safe havens for LGBTQ youth, often kicked out of their homes and living on the streets. It shows the importance - in some cases, life-or-death importance - of creating your own family, and finding your own home. ~
A remarkable debut feature for the writer-director, it explores gender identity with wisdom and striking sensitivity. ~
Filmmakers Pippa Scott and Oreet Rees explore the reprehensible legacy of Belgium's King Leopold II in this documentary adaptation of Adam Hochschild's best-selling book. His envy growing as powerful neighbours France, England, and the Netherlands began claiming valuable African coastal land in order to access a variety of precious resources, Leopold eventually opted to follow the path carved out by explorer Henry Morgan Stanley that led directly into the heart of the Congo. ~
In its hard-hitting depiction of a legacy of unspeakable brutality, this film shows that the ghosts of Leopold are alive and well. ~ The Hollywood Reporter
Although it dwells perhaps too long on the viciousness, it does offer clues on how it became a circle. ~ Los Angeles Times
Florence Pugh is plunged into a terrifying pagan bacchanal in a magnificent folk-horror tale which is an outrageous black-comic carnival of agony. ~
A savage yet evolved slice of Swedish folk horror, Ari Aster's hallucinatory follow-up to ‘Hereditary’ proves him a scare master with no peer. ~
With this genuinely disturbing tale of nature-worshiping pagans, it almost feels like he’s testing the limits of what he can now get away with. ~
Sick but also beautiful, the film gets away with an impressively audacious running time, simply because it can. It dazzles you with dread.~
Slow-burning escalation and the thundering atmospherics, as powered along by Bobby Krlic’s eerie score, ensure the film’s length goes unnoticed. There’s a game of rune bingo that might have thrilled Shirley Jackson and a ritualistic deflowering that would have shocked Ken Russell. Pawel Pogorzelski’s blazing, hypnotic cinematography is an unsettling brightness from which there can be no escape or place to hide. ~
Some will be troubled by the excess. The unburdened surplus of lengthy customs does overshadow some of the film’s potentially ripe avenues of interest, but the invigorating reward here is the ultimate sovereignty you will find in Florence Pugh. ~
A visceral, unique, utterly fucked-up experience that demands to be seen on the big screen, It is the horror movie to beat in 2019 and makes the famous ending of "The Wicker Man" look like a documentary on the Fyre Festival. ~
"Star Trek" fans may have grumbled, but this Leonard Nimoy-directed instalment is easily the most entertaining of the spin-offs from the cult TV series. After three impressive but rather po-faced adventures, the Enterprise regulars got the chance to let their hair (what was left of it) down a little for this hugely enjoyable trek. ~
Displaying a flair for directing comedy, Nimoy never lets it descend into farce, keeping the pace, while gently poking fun at the characters. The end result remains one of the series' strongest episodes and proof that the franchise could weather the absence of space-bound action and the iconic USS Enterprise, and still be highly enjoyable. ~
In fact, the whole cast shows a facility for comedy not previously seen. Combine that with a tightly focused and genuinely exciting plot, as well as an unobtrusive environmental message, and the result is a film that stretches far beyond the bounds of science fiction. ~
When they finished writing the script, they must have had a lot of silly grins on their faces. This is easily the most absurd of the "Star Trek" stories - and yet, oddly enough, it is also the best, the funniest and the most enjoyable in simple human terms. I'm relieved that nothing like restraint or common sense stood in their way. ~
This is hands-down the best Trek flick made so far. ~
This big-screen sequel to the 1967 TV episode "Space Seed " is truer in spirit to the beloved space opera than the first feature and a firm favourite with some fans. ~
It was this sequel, 15 years on to the classic TV episode, that put the franchise on the right track as the spirit of Gene Roddenberry's 60s television series was harnessed to spectacular effect. ~
Although I liked the special effects in the first movie, they were probably not the point; fans of the TV series wanted to see their favourite characters again, and “Trek II” understood that desire and acted on it. . ~
Director Nicholas Meyer gives the film a light, literate tone similar to his work on 1979's time-travel fantasy "Time After Time"; it's arguably the most enjoyable Star Trek film. ~
The action is aided by the witty, literate script. Themes of pursuit, death, and regeneration are skilfully woven together. and the film quotes frequently from the novel "Moby Dick." ~
Considered by many fans to be the best of the Star Trek movies, it features a strong plot, increased tension, and a sharp supporting performance from Ricardo Montalban. ~
You think you’ve seen everything. Then you get to see Imelda Staunton brandishing a large pink rubber dildo and laughing so hard she nearly falls off the bed in this terrific British film that is set to be the next "The Full Monty." ~
A film about the gay community’s support for strikers during the 1984 UK miners’ dispute sounds like a worthwhile project. Worry not. Social history just doesn’t get more fun than. Yes, it offers a timely reminder that subcultures and alt.communities weren’t always interested in joining the ruling elite. (Indeed, there was a time when the priority was to club together against that dominant class.) But this wonderful film – and this is meant as robust compliment – already plays like the foot-tapping musical it is sure to become. ~
It wears on its sleeve the desire to make its audience stand up and cheer. It is willing to occasionally plumb the depths of familiar formula to achieve its goal. Here is a true story that could have been played as straight drama, yet the filmmakers opted for a lighter approach to capture hearts and minds. The Brits do this type of crowd-pleaser far better than Hollywood, if only because films like “The Full Monty” and “Billy Elliot” were unafraid to temper sweetness with darker elements of reality. ~
It’s the holy grail for filmmakers: to tell a story with something to say about our world that is also shamelessly entertaining, moving and funny. That’s not to say ‘Pride’ is especially daring; but for a defiantly mainstream film, it’s free of coyness or embarrassment and unashamed of shouting about the powers of solidarity, friendship and empathy. It’s a joyous film, full of love and warmth but unafraid to admit that with sticking out your neck comes struggle and sorrow. Truly lovely. ~
Earnest without being didactic and uplifting without stooping to sentimentality, it is a joyous crowd-pleaser that genuinely works. ~
Arguably the best mother-son film since "Psycho", Xavier Dolan comes of age with this ecstatic, aspect ratio-bothering melodrama concerning a strained relationship. ~
As challenging as it is rewarding, it finds the French-Canadian writer-director taking another impressive step forward. ~
Vibrant, chaotic and masterful his tale of a troubled teen and his mum establishes him as one of the era’s essential auteurs. ~
His charming and artful film keeps us guessing, via an oddly effective range of screen ratios (mostly the square 1:1 to reflect its characters' isolated intimacy) and frequent bursts of joyous FM pop music. It borders on pretentious but never is, thanks largely to Anne Dorval's wonderful, authentic performance as the titular everywoman. ~
Dorval is simply amazing as the indomitable working-class mum, who refuses to cut the apron strings even as they threaten to choke the life out of her. In her and a lonely housewife neighbour with a stutter and a painful secret, the film’s second maternal figure, Dolan pays glowing tribute to the unbreakable bonds of motherhood. Because even twisted little bastards deserve love. ~
It’s the holy grail for filmmakers: to tell a story with something to say about our world that is also shamelessly entertaining, moving and funny. That’s not to say ‘Pride’ is especially daring; but for a defiantly mainstream film, it’s free of coyness or embarrassment and unashamed of shouting about the powers of solidarity, friendship and empathy. It’s a joyous film, full of love and warmth but unafraid to admit that with sticking out your neck comes struggle and sorrow. Truly lovely. ~
I’m not saying that James Lort is a bad dad, but his definition of single parenthood includes introducing his 12-year-old son to booze, cigarettes and weed, mocking the size of his penis and throwing the boy’s social services mentor into a swimming pool. James, an army veteran, recovering alcoholic, registered sex offender and former rodeo clown, is played with swivel-eyed intensity by Shia LaBeouf, who wrote the screenplay based on his father. ~
As actor, scriptwriter and self-portraitist, he sets his ducks in a row and takes perfect aim. ~
It is a fluent, heartfelt, tightly structured and well acted personal story; the script reportedly drafted by LaBeouf in rehab. ~
Somewhere between a primal scream, a self-acceptance and even a forgiveness of sorts, this is an utterly unique bit of autobiography. Brave, bold, and a little batshit. It’s hard to recall any other film that does what this does, an actor laying himself bare like this. ~
An effectively raw account of the maverick’s dysfunctional upbringing, this open-sore autobiography feels like the missing piece in the puzzle of this frequently brilliant, invariably self-jeopardising actor. ~
LaBeouf has taken painful memories and tried to work through them. He's an actor, and so the best way to understand why his father treated him the way he did is to put on the man's shoes and walk around in them for a while. It's an astonishing performance. ~
As candid an exploration of stardom as they come, LaBeouf - sweet but never sickly – has never been better. ~
The icing on the cake of his indie redemption phase. ~
In the hands of director Alma Har’el, the film delicately bears its scars and finds peace by acknowledging how childhood pains can make and break us. ~
It serves as an act of cinematic therapy for its screenwriter and subject - one whose unique perspective should strike a chord in audiences from all backgrounds. ~
An Irish teen comedy about two lads tracking down beached cocaine has moments of childish companionship amid the slapstick. ~
It is a hoot – another in the long list of Irish shaggy dog story-style movies made in recent years - and has the feel of a ruder, coarser, Irish version of "Huckleberry Finn". ~
Raucously funny and winningly played, this is the best Irish comedy since "Sing Street." ~
With a homegrown charm that is hard to resist, it has already set domestic box-office records, and is a perfectly pitched comic-drama tale of a pair of gloriously feckless 15-year-old aspiring drug dealers. ~
It's the bromantic banter between the hapless, but touchingly steadfast heroes and the moments of bleakly bruising slapstick that make this impeccably paced saga so genial and enjoyable. ~
