Here are our five top picks of the movies that have recently been added to SBS On Demand.
Breathless (1960)
A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg
Classification: PG
Country: France
Runtime: 90m
What the critics said: Breathless has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus reads: ‘Breathless rewrote the rules of cinema – and more than 50 years after its arrival, Jean-Luc Godard’s paradigm-shifting classic remains every bit as vital.’
Binti (2019
Binti is a 12-year-old girl of Congolese origin who dreams of becoming a famous vlogger like her idol Tatyana. But when the police raid her home and try to deport her and her father Jovial, they are forced to flee. Binti meets Elias and befriends her. While Binti helps Elias to vlog about his ‘save-the-okapi-club’, she hatches the perfect plan: her dad has to marry Elias’s mom, so they can stay in Belgium.
Director: Frederike Migom
Cast: Bebel Tshiani Baloji, Baloji Tshiani
Classification: CTC
Country: Belgium
Runtime: 86m
What the critics said: Binti has a 3.4 average star rating on Letterboxd.
Monkey Beach (2020)
Five hundred miles north of Vancouver is Kitamaat, an Indian reservation in the homeland of the Haisla people. Growing up a tough, wild tomboy, swimming, fighting, and fishing in a remote village where the land slips into the green ocean on the edge of the world, Lisamarie has always been different. Visited by ghosts and shapeshifters, tormented by premonitions, she can’t escape the sense that something terrible is waiting for her. She recounts her enchanted yet scarred life as she journeys in her speedboat up the frigid waters of the Douglas Channel.
Director: Loretta Todd
Cast: Grace Dove, Adam Beach
Classification: M
Country: Canada
Runtime: 105m
What the critics said: Monkey Beach has a 3.2 average star rating on Letterboxd.
The Red Turtle (2016)
A massive sea turtle destroys a stranded man’s raft every time he tries to sail away from a tropical island. This dialogue-less animated feature was made in collaboration with Studio Ghibli.
Director: Michael Dudok de Witt
Cast: Tom Hudson, Baptiste Goy
Classification: PG
Country: Belgium/France/Japan
Runtime: 80m
What the critics said: The Red Turtle has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus reads: ‘The Red Turtle adds to Studio Ghibli’s estimable legacy with a beautifully animated effort whose deceptively simple story boasts narrative layers as richly absorbing as its lovely visuals.’
Angel Heart (1987)
A down-and-out Brooklyn detective is hired to track down a singer on an odyssey that will take him through the desperate streets of Harlem, the smoke-filled jazz clubs of New Orleans, and the swamps of Louisiana and its seedy underworld of voodoo.
Director: Alan Parker
Cast: Mickey Rourke, Robert DeNiro
Classification: R
Country: Canada/UK/USA
Runtime: 113m
What the critics said: Angel Heart has an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus reads: ‘Angel Heart lures viewers into its disturbing, brutal mystery with authentic noir flair and a palpably hypnotic mood.’
You can stream these films right now on SBS On Demand.
