Movie experts share their favourite new releases

The Showroom cinemaThe Showroom cinema
The Showroom cinema
With cinemas and the entire country spending more time at home, lockdown has turbocharged the video-on-demand market.

There are also a steady stream of new releases on streaming platforms and, while it’s a shame these fantastic films probably won’t see a theatrical release, there’s a huge potential audience ready to watch.

With that in mind, here are our top five recommendations for new and upcoming titles…

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Never Rarely Sometimes Always (15): Eliza Hittman’s heartbreaking and painfully authentic drama follows a teenage girl from small-town Pennsylvania as she travels to New York City with her cousin to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. A Reclaim the Frame Q&A with producers Adele Romanski and Sara Murphy is available to watch on The Showroom’s Facebook page.

The Assistant (15): Another brilliant and understated US indie, director Kitty Green’s #MeToo fiction feature debut is about a promising college graduate who finds herself working as the junior assistant for a media mogul.

Coincoin and the Extra Humans (15): Bruno Dumont’s follow up to his funny and absurd film/mini-series P’tit Quinquin catches up with the same cast of colourful and bizarre characters in a small town in Northern France. This time, the film’s buffoonish cop investigates some deeply weird extra-terrestrial goings-on.

The County (12): Grímur Hákonarson’s follow up to 2015’s Rams sees Inga, a middle-aged dairy farmer living in a small Icelandic farming community, rebel against the all-powerful local cooperative, who she blames for her husband’s suicide. Like last year’s Woman at War, it’s a heartfelt, funny, and bittersweet portrait of a woman using her resilience and resourcefulness to push back against powerful interests.

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Dreamland (15): Dreamland is a truly bonkers hard-boiled noir meets vampire B-movie from director Bruce McDonald (Pontypool). Surely destined to become a midnight movie staple, the film stars Pontypool’s Stephen McHattie in dual roles as both a grizzled hitman and a Chet Baker-esque trumpet player.

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