David Farnor | On 13, Jan 2018

After its run of feature debuts, MUBI brings us Jack Nicholson’s first work behind the camera this week, while also celebrating newer talent with the simultaneous online release of REY, currently in UK cinemas.

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

 

This week on MUBI

Drive, He Said – 13th January

Jack Nicholson’s enormously irreverent directorial debut, Drive, He Said, free-spirited and sobering by turns, is a sketch of the exploits of a disaffected college basketball player and his increasingly radical roommate.

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover – 14th January

Set almost entirely in a French restaurant, this bold, controversial film utilizes follows the exploits of a ruthless British gangster whose long suffering wife forges a relationship with one of the restaurant’s patrons behind his back.

The Crimson Kimono – 15th January

When a masked killer shoots Sugar Torch, a Los Angeles stripper, in the neck, homicide detectives Charlie Bancroft and Joe Kojaku, who happen to be roommates, investigate.

Superdyke – 16th January

MUBI begins a double-bill of Barbara Hammer shorts with this 1975 comedy about a troop of shield-bearing Amazons who take over city institutions before relaxing in the country.

Dyketactics – 17th January

MUBI concludes its Barbara Hammer double- with the first lesbian lovemaking film made by a lesbian. 110 images in 4 minutes make this sensate film a “lesbian commercial”, revealing Hammer’s aesthetic connecting sight and touch.

The Structure of Crystal – 18th January

The protagonists of Krzysztof Zanussi’s 1969 drama are two talented physicists – one of them leaves the city for the countryside and becomes a meteorologist, the other establishes a brilliant career in science. Both are bombarded by moral dilemmas regarding their choice in life.

Struggle for Life – 19th January

Mark Chestnut, intern at the Ministry of the Standard, is sent to Guyana to the compliance with EU standards of construction GUYANEIGE: Amazon first indoor ski slope intended to boost tourism in Guyana. Also, he’s gonna have to work with a teammate. Bad luck she’s a pin-up. Worse, she has character.

 

Other new releases on MUBI

REY

Available on MUBI at the same time in cinemas, Rey follows a French adventurer, who, in the nineteenth century, sets off to establish a kingdom in the inhospitable South of Chile, uniting the feared Mapuche under him. The response of the Chilean army is devastating. An intricately designed adventure film as well as powerful textural experiment.

Reprise

Following Joachim Trier’s unsettling Thelma, go back to the director’s first, a precise yet playful character study and occasionally satirical story about the pitfalls of two young, ambitious writers who are also best friends.

The Pleasure of Being Robbed

Impressed by Robert Pattinson’s Good Time? Get to know The Safdie Brothers with their scrappy, hard-scrabble, New York debut, The Pleasure of Being Robbed, which follows a curious and lost Eleonore looking for something everywhere, even in the bags of strangers who find themselves sadly smiling only well after she’s left their lives.

Before Midnight

After seeing Ethan Hawkes’ Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine meet on a train in 1995, Richard Linklater’s second follow-up, Before Midnight, isn’t just the next chapter in their relationship or a deeply honest exploration of love and reality (unlike the majority of romantic comedies produced today) – it’s like catching up with old friends. When was the last time you could say that about a film? Read our full review

JM Basquiat: The Radiant Child

The story of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose work defined, electrified and challenged an era, and whose untimely death at age 27 has made him a cultural icon.

A Spectre Is Haunting Europe

MUBI begins a triple-bill of Julian Radlmaier’s work with 2012’s A Spectre Is Haunting Europe. A Georgian temporary worker experiences unlikely adventures in today’s Berlin accompanied by the ghost of Vladimir Mayakovsky, poet of the soviet Revolution. Meanwhile, his friend Kasimir inherits a substantial amount but doesn’t know how to proceed.

A Proletarian Winter’s Tale

Three Georgians have to clean a castle where an arms manufacturer’s art collection is on exhibit. They aren’t welcome at the opening party and are banished to the attic, but downstairs the splendid buffet attracts them. Why not just ignore the unfair prohibition and cross the line of class society? The second of three Julian Radlmaier films.

Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino’s violent Western is a lot of things, but one thing it isn’t is boring. Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz pair up as a freed slave and German dentist to exact revenge upon white folk – but it’s away from the blood splattering that Django Unchained finds its unexpected depth, with Samuel L. Jackson stealing the show as a conflicted butler. Read our full review.

Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog

MUBI concludes its Julian Radlmaier trio, as young filmmaker Julian, ironically played by Radlmaier himself, falls for a young expat and offers her the leading part in his wannabe Communist fairy tale film.

The Protagonists

An Italian movie crew goes to London to make a documentary about a murder case that took place a few years before. Loved Call Me By Your Name? Be sure to catch up with Luca Guadagnino’s debut, starring Tilda Swinton.

Being John Malkovich

A lowly puppeteer takes a job as a file clerk in an office, only to discover a mysterious portal that transports a person into the mind of actor John Malkovich, only to be spit out alongside the New Jersey Turnpike fifteen minutes later.

A Serious Man

Larry Gupnick’s (Stuhlbarg) life is going off the rails. Or at least, the rails are rapidly disappearing. His wife, Judith (Sari Lennick), is leaving him. His son is soon to come of age, but is more concerned about stealing money to buy pot. And his colleague, Sy (Melamed), is the one joining Judith once they’re separated. Up for tenure and down on his luck, Larry turns to his church for help. Packed with existential enigma, the Coen Brothers have painted a personal portrait of the world they grew up in and, in doing so, created one of cinema’s most accurate depictions of faith – and all its ridiculous (and irrelevant) stubbornness. Read our full review.

Ava

A young woman finds out she is condemned to gradually lose her sight while spending her summer vacation at a beach resort. While her mother Maud has vowed to make Ava’s month of holidays an unforgettable experience, Ava decides to take a another route.

Mallrats

Following his cult classic Clerks with full support from Hollywood, Kevin Smith turned in Mallrats the similarly location bound slacker comedy which stands as a perfect portrait of the 90s.

Double Indemnity

“How could I have known that murder could sometimes smell like honeysuckle?” Billy Wilder’s noir classic, co-written with king of hard-boiled crime Raymond Chandler, sees an insurance salesman talked into a murder by Barbara Stanwyck’s femme fatale. Iconic, must-see cinema.

 
A monthly subscription to MUBI costs £5.99 a month, with a 30-day free trial.

 

Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon

Donnie Darko
Available until end of: 13th January

Bill Viola: The Road to St Paul’s
Available until end of: 14th January

The Age of Innocence
Available until end of: 15th January

The Age of Innocence
Available until end of: 16th January

Tokyo Godfathers
Available until end of: 17th January

Paprika
Available until end of: 18th January

Spotlight on a Murderer
Available until end of: 19th January

A Master Builder
Available until end of: 20th January

 

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