Here’s our pick of some of the best films around, that are currently available for streaming. Our selection includes recent releases, old favourites that we’ve screened at Phoenix over the years, and some lesser-known gems that you might not have seen before.
For each of these titles (which have all be released digitally over the lockdown) rental revenue is split between Phoenix and the film’s distributor, so you support us as you watch. Make sure you select Phoenix Leicester as your chosen ‘venue’ when you purchase the film for streaming.
“An intimate portrait, particularly in its big moments” – Screen Daily. 14-year-old Leigh (newcomer Frankie Box) lives with her neglectful father. A talented gymnast, she’s training hard for her first competition despite her lack of confidence and little money to pay for her fees. When an older half-brother appears at her house one night, Leigh’s lonely existence is altered as she starts to receive the attention she craves.
★★★★ – The Upcoming. Underground clubs thud to the beat of dance music as men and women, dressed to the nines, slip through checkpoints to party the night away. Meanwhile tensions mount between armed police forces and anti-government guerillas. This is Algiers in the 1990s, and what fashion student Nedjma – ‘Papicha’ to her friends – doesn’t know, is that her life is about to change forever.
“★★★★ – blood-spattered Mafia movie takes The Godfather head on” – Telegraph. In the early 1980s, an all-out war rages between Sicilian mafia bosses over the heroin trade. Tommaso Buscetta, a made man, flees to hide out in Brazil. Back home, scores are being settled and tragedy befalls Buscetta’s family. Knowing he may be next, Buscetta makes a decision that will change everything: to betray the eternal vow he made to the Cosa Nostra.
“★★★★ – Herzog’s fakery-filled docudrama sparks genuine joy” – Telegraph. A real-life Tokyo company’s rent-a-family service is the inspiration for Werner Herzog’s new Japanese drama, in which a man is hired to impersonate the missing father of a young girl. The Oscar-nominated auteur mixes fact and fiction in this sensitive exploration of loss, loneliness, and the emotional value of fabricated happiness.
★★★★★ – The Independent. Not just one of this year’s best films, but one of the best films you’re ever likely to see, period. This masterfully told story of forbidden love between a painter and her subject – the betrothed daughter of a countess – is utterly compelling, with what is sure to be considered one of the greatest final shots in the history of cinema.
Raja Nawathe’s classic mid-60s Indian suspense thriller is a hugely enjoyable adaptation of Agatha Christie’s mystery And Then There Were None. Seven people win an all-expenses-paid foreign holiday, but are instead dropped in a remote area by plane. They come across a mansion where a butler has been waiting for them, and find that they have been brought there to deliver justice for a crime in which they were all involved.
“★★★★★ – compelling” – Guardian. Winner of the 2015 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Pawel Pawlikowski’s drama is essential viewing. Poland 1962, and Ida, a novice nun about to take her vows, learns of her last living relative and her Jewish heritage. Reunited with her previously unknown aunt, the pair begin to uncover their past, leaving Ida with a choice between her heritage and the religion that saved her from the Holocaust.
“★★★★★ – Exerts an irresistible pull” – Guardian. Winning him his third Oscar, Federico Fellini’s hallucinatory 1963 masterpiece is regarded by many as the most iconic movie about filmmaking. Film director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) wrestles with his dreams and memories as he struggles to find inspiration for his next project. Blending visions with reality, his artistic crisis deepens as his life unravels around him.
★★★★★ – Guardian. South Carolina, 1902. Three generations of women from the same family grapple with the decision to migrate north, leaving behind the Gullah culture they inherited from their West African slave ancestors. An avowed influence on Beyoncé’s album Lemonade, Julie Dash’s masterpiece broke new ground in its representation of black women on screen, and is a luminous, vital portrait of black life.
“★★★★★ – A five-star symphony of love” – Guardian. Gorgeous and heart-breaking, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight scooped the Oscar for Best Picture against the odds, and should be regarded for its beauty and power rather than that La La Land blunder. Split into three chapters, the film follows the life of Chiron – a young black man growing up in Miami – through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood as he struggles with his sexuality.
★★★★★ – Guardian. Marina (Daniela Vega), a young trans woman in Santiago, has her life thrown into turmoil by the sudden death of her boyfriend, who is twenty years her senior. Grieving for her lover, she finds herself shunned by his family and under intense scrutiny from those with no regard for her privacy. Sebastián Lelio’s Oscar-winning drama is a sublime study of love and loss.
“★★★★★ – Basketball doc slam-dunks the power of hope” – Guardian. Steve James’s acclaimed, landmark film follows a pair of Chicago teenagers over the the course of five years as they tackle social and physical barriers on their quest to become NBA stars. Causing a sensation on its release in 1994, this undisputed epic is an essential study of race, class, and the American dream.
★★★★★ – Guardian. Condemned by the Vatican on its release 60 years ago, Federico Fellini’s satirical masterpiece put Italian cinema firmly on the map. Despite his girlfriend’s overdose, womanising journalist Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) gallivants around Rome, embracing a hedonistic life as he pursues an heiress and a movie star.
★★★★ – Empire. Antonio Banderas delivers a career-best performance as an ageing film director, wrestling with his mortality and confronting the ghosts of his life. Pedro Almodóvar’s deeply personal, semi-autobiographical drama is “bittersweet perfection” (The Guardian).
★★★★ – Guardian. Haifaa al-Mansour’s (The Perfect Candidate) landmark feature debut was the first Saudi Arabian film ever to be directed by a woman. Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) is a rebellious Saudi girl living in conservative Riyadh, where girls are barely seen and never heard. She dreams of owning a bicycle, much to her mother’s horror, so she enters a Koran recitation competition in the hope of winning enough money to buy herself one.
“★★★★★ – unravels with intelligence, biting wit and a real sense of playful ambiguity” – Empire. Nominated for nine Oscars, Orson Welles’ masterpiece is frequently voted one of the best films ever made. When newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Welles) dies, his final word – rosebud – sets reporters scrambling to uncover its meaning.
★★★★★ – Empire. Bill Forsyth’s “timeless masterpiece” (Mark Kermode) is gloriously reminiscent of Ealing’s comedies. A young Texas oil executive is sent to a remote Scottish seaside village to arrange the construction of a new refinery. But he find himself facing opposition from the locals.
“One of the most moving screen dramas of the 20th century” – Mark Kermode. 40 years since its original release, David Lynch’s Elephant Man remains one of the director’s most beautiful and haunting works, with stunning black and white photography from the Oscar-winning Freddie Francis and an incredible performance from John Hurt as John Merrick.
★★★★★ – Guardian. One of the defining films of the 1970s Hollywood New Wave, Michael Cimino’s Oscar-winning epic follows a group of young friends who enlist in the US Army during the Vietnam War and how they cope when they return home after the war ends. With bravura performances from its incredible cast, The Deer Hunter is essential viewing for cineastes.
“★★★★ – startlingly original” – Empire. Claire Oakley’s magnificent debut is a stylish psychological drama of jealousy and obsession. Visiting her boyfriend at the out-of-season Cornish caravan park where he works, quiet teenager Ruth (Molly Windsor) finds lipstick on his mirror and a strand of red hair on his T-shirt. Refusing to confront him, Ruth tries to find the mysterious red-haired girl. But her hunt threatens to destroy her relationship.
★★★★ – Empire. Richard Wong’s winning comedy-drama is a remake of 2011 Belgian movie Hasta La Vista, and is based on the real-life exploits of Asta Philpot. With the help of a hired carer, three young men with disabilities flee their overbearing parents for a road trip to visit a Montreal brothel, eager to lose their virginity and embrace independence.
“★★★★★ – a devastating tale of friends disunited” – Observer. The debut feature from acclaimed Leicester-born shorts director Fyzal Boulifa is an intense tale of a lifelong friendship tested to its limits. Friends since their schooldays, young mothers Lynn and Lucy now live opposite each other on an estate in Essex. The pair’s bond is put to the test when tragedy strikes, and they find themselves on opposing sides.
“★★★★ – tender tale of private lives and public scandal” – Guardian. Writer-director Franco Lolli presents a beautiful portrait of modern life in this affecting Colombian drama. Single mother Silvia has her hands full, balancing a stressful job with her responsibilities as a parent and a carer for her mother who has cancer. But things get even tougher when she discovers her boss has been involved in corporate corruption, and a public scandal erupts.
★★★★– Empire. On an isolated Shropshire farm in 1657, Fanny Lye (Maxine Peake) lives an oppressive life with her puritanical husband John (Charles Dance) and young son. But the discovery of two strangers in their barn, who claim to have been robbed and left for dead, leads to tension and violence as Fanny begins to reject her God-fearing life, with shattering consequences.
“★★★★ – classy courtroom drama” – Observer. When 16-year-old Lise is accused of murder, the trial begins to reveal her secret life. As the plot thickens, we find ourselves asking how well do we really know the ones we love? Newcomer Melissa Guers delivers a stunning central performance in this powerful and complex drama.
“★★★★ – A shimmering story of tribal culture” – Guardian. Stunningly captured on 16mm film, teenager Ihjãc, an indigenous Krahô, is called by his dead father’s voice to celebrate the funerary feast which allows his father’s spirit to depart to the village of the dead. Resisting his destiny, Ihjãc flees to the nearest city where he faces the harsh realities of being indigenous in contemporary Brazil.
“★★★★★ – an insurgent filmic uproar to match the uproar in the world” – Guardian. Academy Award winner Spike Lee’s latest is the story of four African-American Vietnam veterans who return to the country to search for the remains of their revered former squad leader. But their journey into the past opens wounds and unleashes emotional agonies – about the Vietnam War, race, Empire, and the many black lives lost in battle in America’s name.
“A timely and essential film for the era of fake news” – TIFF.net. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Yung Chang’s (Up The Yangtze) portrait of British reporter Robert Fisk follows Fisk’s career from his early coverage of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, to the ongoing Middle East conflicts in Israel, Palestine and Syria. An intelligent and valuable reflection on the importance of credible, reliable journalism in our tumultuous world.
★★★★ – Observer. When her teenage son’s trip to spend the summer with his father in Florida is cancelled, librarian Sue (the wonderful Monica Dolan) and sullen metalhead Daniel now face the prospect of six weeks together. Based on Joff Winterhart’s award-winning graphic novel, Simon Bird’s directorial debut is a “quiet treat of well-observed domestic ennui” (Veronica Lee, inews).
★★★★ – The Times. This new anthology of 20 short films from 20 directors offers a unique snapshot of the UK in 2020, exploring a wide range of themes including climate change, migration, sexuality, disability and homelessness. Presented in two volumes, this is a timely portrait of a country in uncertain times.
★★★★ – Observer. Dominik Moll’s stylishly-shot, elegantly structured and darkly funny thriller – starring Denis Ménochet – explores the seamier side of middle-class life in the French countryside. How are two depressive farmers, an unfaithful wife, a lovelorn waitress and an African con artist connected to the disappearance of a glamorous housewife?
Just like Portrait of a Lady on Fire, this romantic drama will sweep you off your feet with its passion and intensity. This modern day tale of rival dancers Merab and Irakli who fall for each other in Tbilisi challenges ideas of masculinity and tradition in Georgian culture. A compelling LGBT drama, mixing the vibrancy of dance with the exhilaration of young love to potent effect.
