James R | On 21, Sep 2019

MUBI celebrates the distinctly exuberant talents of Edgar Wright with a double-bill of Scott Pilgrim and Shaun of the Dead, while continuing to look back at the work of Dominga Sotomayora and Martin Rejtman, as well as its comprehensive Straub-Huillet retrospective.

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What’s new, coming soon and leaving soon on the subscription service? This is your weekly MUBI Digest:

 

This week on MUBI

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – 21st September

Edgar Wright’s hyperactive style is a perfect fit for Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novels about Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), a member of the band Sex Bom-Omb and a video game obsessive. Torn between two women, one of whom (Ramona Flowers) is literally his dream love, Scott has to fight all of Ramona’s exes to date her. This coming-of-age comedy tackles everything from projecting your ideals onto others and getting over past relationships to the way a young man uses computer games to understand the world. The stunning visuals, exciting action and laugh-out-loud jokes are the icing on a pixellated cake.

Shaun of the Dead – 22nd September

“You’ve got red on you.”

Thursday Till Sunday – 23rd September

As she and her family embark on a four-day holiday to the north of Chile, teenager Mazda slowly comes to the realization that her parents might be splitting up. Their journey that starts so cheerfully quickly acquires melancholy undertones. This will be their last trip as a family.

Workers, Peasannts – 24th September

Amateur actors from the regional Buti theater, many of them ordinary laborers and farmers, recite passages from a novella which centers on a group of workers who rebuild their lives in the the aftermath of the Second World War.

The Magic Gloves – 25th September

This film follows the crisscrossed fortunes of, among others, a rock musician, a flight attendant, a dog walker with an alarming penchant for over-the-counter medication, and a cab driver, who doesn’t really care about his life spiralling out of control, as long as he can sit in his old Renault 12.

Manta Ray – 26th September

Near a coastal village of Thailand, a local fisherman rescues a stranger, who does not speak a word, offers him his friendship and names him Thongchai. When the fisherman suddenly disappears at sea, Thongchai slowly begins to take over his friend’s life—his house, his job and his marriage.

Other new releases on MUBI

Purple Noon

Alain Delon is iconic in this 1960 French adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, which brings sun-starched atmosphere to the tale of an American conman hired by a wealthy businessman to bring his son back come from Italy, who uses the opportunity to steal his identity.

The Deep Blue Sea

Tom Hiddleston and Rachel Weisz star in Terence Davies’ romantic melodrama, which follows the wife of an upper-class judge and a free spirit, who is trapped in a passionless marriage and turns to a relationship with a young former RAF pilot.

Too Late to Die Young

Chile in the summer of 1990. As the country comes to terms with the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship, Sofía, Lucas and Clara, a group of adolescents living in a rural commune, attempt to make sense of their own burgeoning desires and tangled relationships while preparing for New Year’s Eve.

How Fernando Pessoa Saved Portugal

Eugene Green’s short, set during the 1920s, sees the poet Fernando Pessoa conceives an advertising slogan for the drink Coca-Louca, which panics the authoritarian government of that time.

My Life as a Courgette

This delicately heartwarming study of loss, family and friendship is a tiny stop-motion masterpiece. “Read our full review

Mobile Homes

A young mother drifts from one motel to the next with her dangerously intoxicating boyfriend and her 8-year-old son. When a crisis tears them apart, the mother finds a mobile home community that provides the possibility of a better life.

Martin Rejtman Silvia Prieto

MBUI continues its Martin Rejtman retrospective with this 1999 comedy-drama, which follows Silvia Prieto, who sells soap to passers-by, pores over phone books to find women who share her name, and won’t concede to settle down with either of the boyish men in her orbit. When she discovers that there are other women who share her name, she develops a bizarre obsession with the “other” Silvias.

Almodovar: The Flower of My Secret

Leo, a middle-aged writer of popular romantic novels who writes under a pseudonym, despises her own work. At home she is also miserable. Her husband, who works overseas, is distant both physically and emotionally. Yet the appearance of a new editor offers an opportunity for Leo to reassess her life.

Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot

Joaquin Phoenix stars in Gus Van Sant’s thoroughly charming and hopeful comedy-drama celebrating the life of cartoonist John Callahan. “Read our full review

No Data Plan

Living in the United States illegally for over 20 years, Miko Revereza takes the Amtrak train from Los Angeles to New York in this critical moment of hostility against migrants in the country he has come to know as home. The journey seems daring, perhaps reckless, yet urgent and necessary.

Spoor

Janina, a crusader for animal rights, lives in a mountain village on the Polish-Czech border. One day her beloved dogs disappear. Shortly afterwards she discovers her neighbour’s corpse and, next to it, deer tracks. More men die in a similarly mysterious way. All of them were passionate hunters.

Rapado

After the theft of his motorcycle, Lucio bums aimlessly around Buenos Aires drifting from one arcade and record store to the next, indulging in short chats with friends and, more often, setting out onto the streets alone.

Joanna Hogg: Exhibition

A penetrating, impossibly elegant exploration not only of a marriage among artists but also of how your home shapes your life.

Joanna Hogg: Archipelago

Co-starring Tom Hiddleston, Archipelago sees how a family vacation pushes the limits of relationships and the spaces that define and confine them.

Viewfinder: Pig

Iranian cinema tends to be associated to the poetic realism of Abbas Kiarostami, but MUBI uncovers a different side with this priceless dark comedy by maverick auteur Mani Haghighi. An intrepid, mordant, deliriously absurd look at a film industry marked by both censorship and narcissism.

Lawless

Brutal action and brilliant performances make for a compelling gangster flick with above-average knitwear.

Straub-Huillet: The Death of Empedokles

An enemy of the priestly state, the philosopher Empedocles is cast into darkness, suffering the torments of loneliness and doubt, but finds renewed strength, even immortality, through the will of the people.

byNWR: Ears, Eyes and Throats: Restored Classic and Lost Punk Films 1976-1981

This collection of short films represents a hint of the tectonic shift in the underground film world in connection with the punk rock “movement.” Restored from original negatives, it showcases the reasonably well-known alongside the extremely rare, from music shorts to impressionistic documentary.

Almodovar: Law of Desire

Pablo loves Juan but Juan is lukewarm about the relationship. Antonio becomes obsessed with Pablo after one evening intended to be a mere one-night stand. Paralleling this dangerous love triangle is the story of Pablo’s sister Tina, a transgender woman about whom Pablo is writing a play. All these lives collide in Pedro Almodovar’s 1987 outing,

Almodovar: Kika

Kika, a young cosmetologist, is called to the mansion of Nicolas, an American writer to make-up the corpse of his stepson, Ramon. Ramon, who is not dead, is revived by Kika’s attentions and she then moves in with him. They might live happily ever after but first they have to deal with some things…

 

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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

What Have I Done to Deserve This?
Available until end of: 21st September

Junun
Available until end of: 22nd September

Searching for Sugar Man
Available until end of: 23rd September

Slack Bay
Available until end of: 24th September

The Student
Available until end of: 25th September

Our House
Available until end of: 26th September

Killer Joe
Available until end of: 27th September

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Available until end of: 28th September

A Bigger Splash
Available until end of: 29th September

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