Best 5 films: quick view
Best 5 films to stream this week
1) Evil Dead Rise – 18 Dec (Stan)
Film (2023). The reunion of two sisters takes a turn for the worse with the arrival of flesh-possessing demons. Starring Mirabai Pease and Richard Crouchley. Watch the trailer.
From ScreenHub’s four-star review:
‘After an opening involving the traditional cabin in the woods and a fairly effective reminder that the Deadites do not mess around when it comes to messing up the people they’ve possessed (or anyone else close by) we flash back to the day before, where a completely unrelated set of characters are hanging around a gloomy Los Angeles apartment block.
‘Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) is a single mother with three kids: teenagers Danny (Morgan Davies) and Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and youngster Kassie (Nell Fisher). Dad recently split and their apartment (in fact, the whole building) is condemned, so the mood is pretty grim when Ellie’s younger sister Beth (Lily Sullivan) shows up after months on the road as a guitar tech.
‘She wants to hang and decompress, Ellie is pissed at her sister’s lack of support during her recent rough stretch, then there’s an earthquake and before you know it Danny’s climbed through a crack in the basement car park floor and found a vault that contains an evil book that seems to have teeth. Uh-oh.’
2) The Limehouse Golem – 19 Dec (BritBox)
Film (2016). In this British horror-mystery, an unidentified serial killer is causing havoc in Victorian London, leaving crypical messages written in victims’ blood. Cue Scotland Yard and a famous inspector.
It’s an adaptation of Peter Ackroyd’s 1994 murder mystery novel and has more UK gothic charm than you can swing an 1800s truncheon at.
Starring Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth, Olivia Cooke and Sam Reid.
3) Interstellar – 21 Dec (Stan)
Film (2014). A certain amount of debate has circulated this Christopher Nolan science-fiction epic since it lit its afterburners in 2014 but now there’s a fairly a strong consensus that it is (a) a masterpiece or (b) not a masterpiece.
When the world becomes uninhabitable in the mid-21st century, a widowed ex-NASA pilot farmer guy is given the task of flying a spacecraft alongside a team of researchers to find a new liveable planet.
A favourite in awards shortlists on its year of release, and for many viewers since, it’s worth it for the star power (in every sense) and the rendering of a black hole.
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain.
4) Your Christmas or Mine? – streaming now (Prime Video)
Film (2022). Is it even Christmas without a slightly cheesy, light-on but nevertheless enjoyable British romantic comedy film?
Students Hayley and James are young and in love. After saying goodbye for Christmas at a London train station, they both make the same mad split-second decision to swap trains and surprise each other.
Passing each other in the station, they are completely unaware that they have just swapped Christmases. Cue a series of misunderstandings made all the worse by barriers to resolving things and (maybe?) a happy resolution where love, in that very British way, reigns supreme.
Starring Asa Butterfield, Cora Kirk, Jim O’Hanlon.
Your Christmas or Mine 2 is also streaming now on Prime Video.
5) Something from Tiffany’s – streaming now (Prime Video)
Film (2022). Did we already mention that stuff about romantic comedies and Christmas?
Rachel and Gary are happy enough but not quite ready for that big commitment. Ethan and Vanessa, meanwhile, are just about to make it official. When a simple mix-up of gifts causes all of their paths to cross, it sets off a series of twists and unexpected discoveries that lead them where they’re truly meant to be.
Starring Zoey Deutch, Kendrick Smith Sampson and Ray Nicholson.
