The Weekly MUBI Digest | 14th July 2018
David Farnor | On 14, Jul 2018
MUBI delves into Paul Schrader’s sleazy past, as First Reformed hits UK cinemas, but also finds time to showcase some of the new cinema coming out of Canada, not to mention its growing collection of highlights from the prestigious International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.
What’s new, coming soon and leaving soon on the subscription service? This is your weekly MUBI Digest:
This week on MUBI
The Canyons – 14th July
With First Reformed out now, MUBI revisits Paul Schrader’s sleazy thriller penned by Bret Easton Ellis and starring Lindsay Lohan. It follows Christian, an LA trust-fund kid with casual ties to Hollywood, who learns of a secret affair between Tara and the lead of his film project, Ryan. He spirals out of control, and his cruel mind games escalate into an act of bloody violence. Read our full review
Rust and Bone – 15th July
Marion Cotillard delivers a powerful performance in this anti-Free Willy drama that’s nasty and depressing – but strangely, wonderfully uplifting. Read our full review
Erase and Forget – 16th July
Bo Gritz is one of America’s highest decorated Vietnam veterans and the real life inspiration behind Rambo. Filmed over 10 years using impressive visual material, Andrea Luka Zimmerman’s portrait of Bo embodies contemporary American society in all its dizzying complexity and contradictions.
Disintegration 93-96 – 19th July
The insecurities and pent-up emotions of an immigrant in the USA give way to political ruminations and critical commentaries on the colonisation of the mind by the American Dream in Miko Revereza’s short. A montage of home movies from the title’s years presents an anatomy of family ties and a reliving of one’s own identity.
Werewolf – 20th July
Blaise and Nessa are outcast methadone users in their small Canadian town. Each day they push a rusty lawnmower door-to-door begging to cut grass. Nessa plots an escape, while Blaise lingers closer to collapse. Tethered to one another, their getaway dreams are kept on a suffocatingly short leash.
Other new releases on MUBI
Tamara Drewe
From versatile British director Stephen Frears (Dirty Pretty Things, The Queen) comes this comedy unexpectedly based on a graphic novel (!) inspired by Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd (!!), wherein a small community is turned upside down by a new (old) arrival. With Gemma Arterton.
Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal & a Whore
MUBI pays tribute to one of its favourite Filipino New Wave filmmakers, Khavn, with a double bill – beginning with a sincere mosaic of what feels like every emotion the filmmaker has encountered.
Alipato: The Very Brief Life of an Ember
The double bill continues with Kvahn further pushing the boundaries of cinema with Alipato – a spirited, futuristic vision of Manila, steeped in a apocalyptic, psychedelic chaos.
Mala Noche
Made for $25,000 on 16mm, this debut from Gus Van Sant (Elephant, Milk) is a quintessentially American classic, as well as an essential precursor of the New Queer Cinema movement. The film follows a romantic deadbeat with a wayward crush on a handsome Mexican immigrant in a world of transient workers, dead-end day-shifters, and bars or seedy apartments bathed in a profound nighttime.
The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company
Godard’s episode of the TV series, Série noire (1984), is a return to the themes of Passion and Contempt; a war of words between director, producer and actress during the production of a cheap television film.
Kuro
MUBI premieres a new film of bold form and deep humanity. Romi, a Japanese woman living in Paris, works in a karaoke bar. At home in the suburbs, she tends to her paraplegic lover Milou. To pass the time she recounts to him a story alluding to a period they once spent together in Japan.
Oberhausen Shorts: Creature Companion
Melika Bass’s beguiling, perhaps radical, reinterpretation of femininity in American suburban life.
Oberhausen Shorts: Carolee, Barbara and Guvnor
Lynne Sach’s portrait of three extraordinary women artists – warmly compassionate and sprightly inquisitive, the film captures personality and philosophy in equal measure.
Oberhausen Shorts: The Hymns of Muscovy
Turning Moscow upside down is no simple trick in Dimitri Venkov’s short. Its survey of Soviet architecture is monumental yet alien, a city symphony (set to the Soviet anthem) rendered concrete—yet unreal.
Oberhausen Shorts: A Branch of a Pine is Tied Up
This Japanese stop motion fable blends a multi-layered narrative, atmospheric richness and sociological relevance, while having the biggest of hearts.
Oberhausen Shorts: Harry Smith at the Breslin Hotel
Renowned photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank has made his first new film in years: A time capsule of a touching and unique encounter between two iconoclastic artists in New York.
So Long Enthusiasm
Margarita lives with her son Axel and his older sisters Antonia, Alejandra and Alicia. Their flat is like a cosy cave where they play music, eat, sleep and argue in the warm lamplight. An intimate family cocoon.
To Rome with Love
A flight back to Woody Allen’s unstructured era of hit-and-miss comedy, To Rome with Love’s impressive cast can’t shake the feeling of being shown a bunch of random Polaroids taken 30 years ago. Faded? Yes. But still colourful in places.
Mud
Ellis and his friend Neckbone are two boys who meet Mud (Matthew McConaughey), a fugitive hiding out on an island in the Mississippi. Skeptical but intrigued by his fantastic scenarios, they agree to help him. It isn’t long until Mud’s visions come true and their small town is besieged by bounty hunters. Jeff Nichols’ 2012 film is a remarkable, understated combination of poignant coming-of-age drama, southern gothic thrills and childlike adventure.
The Nights of Zayandeh-Rood
MUBI & Nang’s focus on “filmmakers in transit” resumes with Iranian New Wave pioneer—now living in exile—Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Originally removed from circulation by the censors, this incisive, formally intrepid socio-political critique sees the light 25 years late, having lost none of its relevance.
The Legend of the Holy Drinker
A tramp, haunted by a criminal past, is offered 200 francs by a stranger with one request, that when he can afford it, he return the sum to a chapel. The derelict rejoins a world he no longer knew, finding work, sleeping in beds or dining out with women. But he gets distracted from his obligation.
The Big Heat
Police Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of a corrupt cop, setting him on a collision course with an underworld kingpin, a cold-blooded henchman (Lee Marvin), and a gangster’s moll (Gloria Grahame) in this classic noir by Fritz Lang.
Human Desire
Carl needs the intervention of his beautiful wife Vicki to keep his job, so Vicki meets with Carl’s boss Owens, and Carl’s job is secure. Insanely jealous, Carl finds Vicki with Owens on board a train and kills Owens. Jeff, an off-duty train engineer, protects Vicki and they begin an affair.
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Bob and Carol Saunders attend a group therapy session at a remote cabin location. There they encounter other couples who learn to become open with their feelings and sexuality. When they return home they find that their friends Ted and Alice are too repressed.
The Homesman
Tommy Lee Jones’ revisionist Western considers women’s plight on the frontier, with a cast including Hilary Swank, Meryl Streep and James Spader. It followw Mary Bee, who, in the 1850s mid-West, is designated by church members to take 3 women who have lost their minds to a safe haven in Iowa. On the way, she saves the life of outlaw Briggs, a claim-jumper. He helps her in her mission, through perilous encounters and the harshness of the Frontier territory.
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Last chance to stream: Titles leaving MUBI soon
Casa Roshell
Available until end of: 14th July
Daddy Longlegs
Available until end of: 15th July
Streetscapes [Dialogue]
Available until end of: 16th July
Dieste [Uruguay]
Available until end of: 17th July
Polytechnique
Available until end of: 18th July
Ouroboros
Available until end of: 19th July
A Burning Hot Summer
Available until end of: 20th July
The Blob
Available until end of: 21st July
Mud
Available until end of: 22nd July
The Legend of the Holy Drinker
Available until end of: 23rd July