New releases and coming soon to MUBI UK (17th December)
Not getting your arthouse fix from Netflix? Wish there were more indie films on Amazon Prime Video? Every week, we round up the new releases on MUBI, the subscription VOD service that hand-picks new and old classics from around the world.
This week, MUBI builds up to its big Christmas Day release of The Son of Joseph, out now in cinemas. You can read our interview with the director, Eugene Green, here.
Here’s what’s new and coming soon to MUBI:
This week on MUBI
Barfly – 17th December
At once miserable and romantic, Barbet Schroeder’s film pairs Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rourke for a semi-autobiography of poet Charles Bukowski. Henry Chinaski spends his life in Los Angeles bars. One day he meets and falls in love with Wanda, also an alcoholic.
Big Night – 20th December
MUBI serves up a two-course Christmas Feast ready for 25th December. As an appetiser, Big Night follows a failing Italian restaurant run by two brothers gambles on one special night to try to save the business.
La Grande Bouffe – 21st December
Four successful middle-aged men – Marcello, a pilot; Michel, a television executive; Ugo, a chef; and, Philippe, a judge – go to Philippe’s villa to eat themselves to death. After the first night, Marcello insists that women should join them.
The Son of Joseph – 25th December
Summer in Paris. 15-year-old Vincent refuses to join in with his schoolmates torturing rats or selling sperm on the Internet. He lives with his single mother Marie and finally wants to find out who his father is. His investigations lead him to a famous, obnoxious publisher.
Other new releases on MUBI
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
The animated legends of MTV get their own feature-length adventure, which follows what happens when the duo’s TV disappears.
Films About Films: Room 237
Rodney Ascher’s documentary, Room 237, fuses fact and fiction to tell the story of ardent fans, scholars, and conspiracy theorists who are convinced they’ve decoded the secret messages of The Shining. Read our full review.
Films About Films: Lost in La Mancha
It’s been years and there’s still no sign of Terry Gilliam’s long-awaited film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Get a taste of the frustration and misfortune that has plagued the director and his passion project with the next best thing: a documentary on the production and its subsequent abandonment. A not-making-of film, if you will.
Films About Films: This Is not a Film
A day of the life of an Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, before the celebration of the new Iranian year.
Edvard Munch
The troubled life and career of one of Norway’s most celebrated artists is examined with documentary-style realism in this biography from The War Game director Peter Watkins.
King of Devil’s Island
Stellan Skarsgard is formidable in this bleak drama about the true story of a rebellion in a boys’ home on a Norwegian island in the early 20th century – a string of events that are kick-started by the arrival of new inmate Erling, who is not cowed by the firm discipline of housefather Brathen. Read our full review.
Melancholia
An untold number of persons have disappeared in the Philippines over the years, before, during and after the Marcos dictatorship. MUBI continues its Lav Diaz retrospective with a film devoted to the grief and search for meaning over such disappearances, told across a vivid array of Philippine society.
The Cove
Closer to a thriller than a talking heads piece, this Oscar-nominated documentary follows a group of activists exposing animal abuse in a cove near Taijii, Japan.
Hard to Be a God
An Earth scientist is sent to a planet that resembles our own during the Middle Ages in Aleksei German’s epic — and he must not interfere in the planet’s political or historical development. Treated by the planet’s natives as a kind of divinity, he is both godlike and impotent in the face of chaos and brutality.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is proof that American adaptations of Scandi tales can not only be brilliant, but can even be better than the original. Rooney Mara is fantastic as hacker Lisbeth Salander, who finds herself caught up in journalist Mikael Blomkvist’s (Daniel Craig) investigation into an old disappearance in a wealthy Swedish family. Dark, disturbing secrets are revealed, with Fincher keeping a crisp, chilled and classy atmosphere throughout. Read our full review.
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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon
I, Olga – read our full review
Available until end of: 17th December
54
Available until end of: 18th December
The Big Mouth
Available until end of: 19th December
Three on a Couch
Available until end of: 20th December
Secrets
Available until end of: 21st December
48 HRS
Available until end of: 22nd December
A Taste of Honey
Available until end of: 23rd December
Single White Female
Available until end of: 24th December
Office Killer
Available until end of: 25th December
The Station Agent
Available until end of: 26th December
London to Brighton
Available until end of: 27th December
The Bishop’s Wife
Available until end of: 28th December
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Available until end of: 29th December
Humpday
Available until end of: 30th December
I Am Cuba
Available until end of: 31st December