weekend watchlist: the not-to-be-missed restaurant drama ‘Boiling Point’; more
it's one of the best films of 2021
Herewith a free taste of my new, subscriber-only Weekend Watchlist, in which I save you from endlessly scrolling Netflix and Amazon and point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
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Thank you, and enjoy!
—MaryAnn
both sides of the pond
One of the best movies of 2021, Boiling Point arrives in UK cinemas today, and debuts simultaneously as a premium rental on Amazon Prime UK, Apple TV UK, and Curzon Home Cinema. After a limited theatrical release in the US in November, it’s available for rent or purchase in the US on Amazon Prime US and Apple TV US.
This is an electrifying work of high-wire cinematic theater, a one-take, one-location wonder in which the always brilliant Stephen Graham has a glorious uncut 90-minute meltdown as the head chef and part owner at a trendy restaurant in east London. Documentary-esque but even more immediate, it’s simultaneously intimate and explosive, an unexpectedly nail-biting thrill. (Read my review.)
US
Another tiny, low-budget marvel debuted direct to video on demand (VOD) in the US this week. Delicate State offers a barely speculative, maybe terrifyingly prescient perspective on societal disruption and disorder in a fractured America. An expectant couple starts a pregnancy video diary for their future child, and soon find themselves trying to protect their little family amongst rising civil turmoil and, later, violent chaos. This is not a politically partisan film, more a cautionary tale about everyday precariousness coming for those previously sheltered from it. (Read my review.) For rent or purchase on Amazon Prime US and Apple TV US.
Netflix hidden gem
If you’re enjoying the GenX exhaustion of Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Resurrections (currently in cinemas and on HBO Max till January 22nd; my review coming very soon), then you’ll love him in Destination Wedding. This 2018 flick, a bitter bonbon of an anti-romcom, teams Reeves with Winona Ryder as a pair of unromantic misanthropes attempting to survive the horror of a California wine-country wedding. (Read my review.) Streaming on Netflix.
UK
It shamefully skipped UK cinemas, has not had a DVD release, and has flown way under the radar on streaming. But now, one of the best teen-romance movies ever made, 2013’s The Spectacular Now, makes its highest profile UK debut yet as it lands on Disney+. (It’s not a Disney movie.) This is a teen story that doesn’t shy away from acknowledging how complicated navigating adolescence is, but also gets that the things that adults panic over aren’t necessarily the ones to worry about. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are remarkable separately here, but when they’re together, they create a connection for their characters that goes far beyond what we expect from the genre. (Read my review.) Also for rent or purchase on Amazon Prime UK and Apple TV UK.
Netflix hidden gem
If you’re enjoying Jennifer Lawrence as a flinty scientist who speaks her mind in Netflix’s Don’t Look Up (my review coming very soon), don’t miss her early star-making turn in 2010’s Winter’s Bone. Her powerful performance as a poor teen searching for her missing father in Missouri’s Ozark Mountains earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination… making her, then 20 years old, the second youngest nominee in that category at that point. Streaming on Netflix.
leaving BBC iPlayer soon
The achingly melancholy and much-lauded historical French romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire leaves BBC iPlayer on January 10th. Catch it again, or for the first time, before you see director Céline Sciamma’s latest film, Petite Maman, currently in UK cinemas.
Hope you found this useful! Future Weekend Watchlists will be only for Substack (and Patreon) paid subscribers.
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