Our streaming highlights for the next month revealed…
Layer Cake
A mid-level cocaine dealer (Daniel Craig) in London makes plans to step away from the criminal life. Before he can cut ties, the dealer’s supplier Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) draws him into a complicated pair of jobs involving kidnapping the teenage daughter of a rival gangster (Michael Gambon) and brokering the purchase of a large shipment of ecstasy pills from a dealer known as “the Duke” (Jamie Foreman), leading to a series of elaborate double-crosses from all corners.
Available from 3 October, until 10 October
Murder on the Orient Express
Kenneth Branagh directs and leads an all-star cast, including Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench and Leslie Odom, Jr., in this stylish, suspenseful and thrilling mystery based on the best-selling novel by Agatha Christie. Everyone’s a suspect when a murder is committed on a lavish train ride, and a brilliant detective must race against time to solve the puzzle before the killer strikes again.
Available from 4 October, until 11 October
I Am Not a Witch
When eight-year-old Shula turns up alone and unannounced in a rural Zambian village, the locals are suspicious. A minor incident escalates to a full-blown witch trial, where she is found guilty and sentenced to life on a state-run witch camp. There, she is tethered to a long white ribbon and told that if she ever tries to run away, she will be transformed into a goat. As the days pass, Shula begins to settle into her new community, but a threat looms on the horizon. Soon she is forced to make a difficult decision — whether to resign herself to life on the camp, or take a risk for freedom.
At times moving, often funny and occasionally surreal, I Am Not a Witch offers spellbinding storytelling with flashes of anarchic humour. Audacious and unforgettable, it showcases Rungano Nyoni as a fresh and fearless new voice in British film.
Available from 5 October, until 4 November
My Life as a Courgette
Nominated for an Academy Award® and BAFTA for Best Animated Film, My Life as a Courgette is a vibrant, heartfelt and unique stop-motion animation. After losing his mother, nine-year-old Icare (nicknamed “Courgette”) is taken to a foster home to live with other kids his own age. Although he has trouble finding his place at first, Courgette soon learns to love those around him as he finds a new family of his own.
Available from 6 October, until 5 November
Loveless
Zhenya and Boris are going through a vicious divorce marked by resentment, frustration and recriminations. Already embarking on new lives, each with a new partner, they are impatient to start again, to turn the page — even if it means threatening to abandon their 12-year-old son Alyosha. Until, after witnessing one of their fights, Alyosha disappears.
Available from 8 October, until 7 November
Seven Psychopaths
Boozy writer Marty (Colin Farrell) is a man in search of a screenplay. He has a catchy title but no story to go along with it. Marty has a couple of oddball buddies, Hans (Christopher Walken) and Billy (Sam Rockwell), who make a living by kidnapping rich people’s dogs, then returning them and collecting the reward. However this time, the fur flies when Hans and Billy kidnap the beloved pooch of a gangster (Woody Harrelson), and Marty uses the ensuing events as fodder for his screenplay.
Available from 9 October, until 8 November
Thelma
From acclaimed director Joachim Trier comes a supernatural thriller about a young woman who, upon falling in love for the first time, discovers that she has terrifying and inexplicable powers. Praised particularly for its visual stylings and direction, as well as Eili Harboe’s commanding performance, Thelma is a powerful drama exploring the unknown.
Available from 11 October, until 10 November
Force Majeure
A model Swedish family — handsome businessman Tomas, his wife Ebba and their two beautiful children — are on a skiing holiday at a high-end resort in the French Alps. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular, but during lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche suddenly bears down on the happy diners. With people fleeing in all directions and his wife and children in a state of panic, Tomas makes a decision that will shake his marriage to its core and leave him struggling to reclaim his role as family patriarch. This wickedly funny and precisely-observed black comedy marks Ruben Östlund as one of Europe’s most piercingly intelligent filmmakers.
Available from 12 October, until 11 November
Skate Kitchen
Timid Long Island skater-girl Camille (Rachelle Vinberg) befriends an all-girl, New York City-based skateboarding crew (the eponymous Skate Kitchen). The confident, independent girl gang help Camille come out of her shell and provide a support system when she falls out with her mother.
In her first fiction feature, (following her documentary hit, The Wolfpack) Crystal Moselle captures a sense of authenticity with this tale of teenage self-discovery.
Available from 13 October, until 12 November
Sweet Country
A sweeping, historial epic sent against the brutal backdrop of a stunning Australian landscape, Sweet Country follows the story of Sam (Hamilton Morris), a middle-aged Aborigine man who becomes a wanted criminal after a violent altercation with a bitter war veteran. When Sam is forced to flee across the harsh desert country, pursued by a hunting party led by the local lawman (Bryan Brown), the true details of his supposed crimes start to surface, and the community begins to question whether justice is really being served.
Available from 15 October, until 14 November
The Handmaiden
From visionary director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy and Stoker) comes a sumptuous and exhilarating period thriller inspired by Sarah Waters’ best-selling novel ‘Fingersmith’.
Set during the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1930s, a young handmaiden named Sookee (Kim Tae-ri) is hired by Hideko (Kim Min-hee), a reclusive heiress who lives in a sprawling mansion under the watchful eye of her domineering Uncle Kouzuki (Cho Jin-woong). But Sookee harbours a secret: she has been recruited by Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo), a scheming con artist posing as a Japanese Count, to trick Hideko into entrusting him with her fortune. However, when Sookee and Hideko begin to develop unexpected emotions for each other, they start putting together a plan of their own.
Available from 17 October, until 16 November
