You are what you watch, and by that we mean that selecting films that show you something outside your comfort zone is a great way to educate and entertain yourself. The big screen might be a hard ask right now, but you can still bring cinema home.
As such, we've put in the time and sifted through Amazon Prime Video to pick out the best films you can stream without leaving home. These include critically acclaimed movies like The Father and Silence of the Lambs, indie gems Palm Springs and Compliance, and foreign language masterpieces like Parasite.
If you're only using your Amazon Prime membership to expedite a crate of loo roll to your house, you're missing out.
Best drama movies on Amazon Prime UK
Raiders of the Lost Ark
A mate of mine says his favourite film of all time is Jurassic Park, because he's never not in the mood to sit down and watch it. Likewise, there is no gathering at which it is ever not the right time to watch Raiders. Back at your parents' for Christmas? Whack Raiders on. Stuck for inspo on a big Friday night in? Raiders. Trying to woo someone and not sure how basic their tastes are yet? Raiders. All day everyday, and twice on Sundays. Raiders is like a highlights reel of everything Steven Spielberg does best, and has there ever been a more handsome man than Harrison Ford here? Gonna say no. And the Nazis get melted when the Holy Spirit decides it's time to stop mucking about. Perfect.
8 1/2
If you're wondering why filmmakers love making films about filmmakers making films, blame Federico Fellini. His opus about a dried up director called Guido (it's really Fellini himself, you'll be surprised to hear) drifts in and out of daydreams, up and down through layers of consciousness, this way and that through time and space. As Guido frantically turns to pretty much everyone he knows for advice on how to finish his film, he starts to realise that making it won't fix the big hole in the middle of his soul. Ironically, Fellini's film about a director out of juice shows him absolutely bursting with the stuff.
Tenet
Now that we're a couple of years down the line from Tenet, we can assess it a little more level-headedly. Is this time-turning action thriller Christopher Nolan's best film? No. Is it the most confusing film ever made? No. Is it good to see John David Washington and Rob Pattinson wearing nice suits and pinging back and forth through temporal portals? Undoubtedly. Don't worry if you can't really hear what people are saying at points – Nolan insists he did it on purpose – and look forward to one of the great comedy film deaths at the end. As Washington's character says: don't try to understand it – feel it.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Now, for a few months it seemed like this was going to be the single greatest film ever made. Social media was absolutely aflame with lust for Everything Everywhere All At Once. Then it died down into being just a really, really, really good film, which is really inventive and fun and probably about 20 minutes too long. However: were you really going to do anything more enjoyable with that 20 minutes? Unlikely. Michelle Yeoh is Evelyn Wang, a woman whose marriage, business and family is falling apart. The last straw is a meeting with the IRS. Or, more accurately, the last straw turns into a myriad more straws. It turns out Evelyn is one of an infinite number of Evelyns across all of space and time, and she's the worst of all of them. She's even worse than the one where everyone has hot dogs for fingers. But the universe is being torn to pieces, and Evelyn can draw on the skills and power of her other selves to sort things out. Delirious, and now nominated for a whopping 10 Oscars.
House of Gucci
Ridley Scott's telling of the true story of how Maurizio Gucci was murdered in 1995 is one of those films it's impossible to take your eyes from, despite a bit shonky being on quite a lot of levels. Lady Gaga reckons she was in character for 18 months as Gucci's wife Patrizia, which may or may not be true. Adam Driver does his darnedest as Gucci himself. And, flickering around the edges of it all, Jared Leto does some of the most absolutely berserk work you will ever see on a cinema screen. The man does not know the meaning of the word 'overacting'. For Jared Leto, there is only 'lots of acting', 'more acting' and 'the most acting'. Here, as Paolo Gucci, he's jammed the dial all the way around. It might be the most acting anyone's ever done. High camp at its finest.
No Time To Die
Amazon's big Bond deal is good news for Prime customers, as the entire back catalogue of 007 is now available to stream on Prime Video. That includes the latest film and final outing for Daniel Craig, No Time To Die, in which 007 finds himself up against a formidable opponent in Rami Malek's pockmarked Safin. There's also the return of many of the Bond Cinematic Universe, with the likes of Léa Seydoux and Ben Whishaw back for Craig's last hurrah, and in the director's chair is Cary Fukunaga, the auteur behind that first, perfect season of True Detective.
The 25th Bond film has the difficult task of bringing together the various different storylines of the Craig era, and as a result the plot doesn't stand on its own two feet as much more than a climax of what has come before. Still, there's plenty of visual delights courtesy of cinematographer Linus Sandgren, from a creepy overhead opening shot that descends through the mist, to a car chase that rips through a Nordic forest and demolishes everything in its wake. There's also plenty of callback references for Bond purists, with hints at Dr No in Malek's character, numerous nods to George Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and echoes of the trippy villain lairs of films like GoldenEye. The script has been spruced by Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge, meaning there's some overdue development of female characters like Naomie Harris's Moneypenny, as well as a challenger to Bond's 00 status in new agent Nomi. And if you have somehow managed to avoid the details of the film's dramatic climax after all these months, well, we'll say no more.
Deep Water
Front and centre of your chaotic bingo card for 2022 is the long-awaited release of erotic thriller Deep Water, the film in which Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck (the couple whose whirlwind romance and very public break-up formed its own chapter of the pandemic) show off their on-screen chemistry. From director Adrian Lyne, the man behind steamy thrillers such as Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal, Deep Water is a classic tale of jealousy, lust and getting it on in the swimming pool. The meat and potatoes plot involves Affleck's Vic looking the other way as his wife Melinda engages in extramarital affairs, but with her relationship with dishy Ricky (Jacob Elordi), he becomes pulled into the undertow himself. With more than a few shades of Gone Girl, and with a sexed-up driving scene that will feel familiar to fans of Elordi's work on Euphoria, Deep Water heralds the return of the trashy and highly implausible Friday night thriller. Welcome home, we've missed you.
Spencer
It's 25 years since her death and The People's Princess is a figure that pop-culture remains obsessed with, but this new feature from Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight and Jackie director Pablo Larraín is more concerned with the history and weight of Diana's last name, than with the fanfare surrounding her first. Told over the three days that Diana spent at Sandringham in the Christmas of 1991 – the stretch of days in which she reportedly decided to end her marriage – Spencer shows a lonely figure wondering the halls of a cold and cavernous building, one haunted by forced weighings, awkward meals and eyes watching her whenever she goes. Based on eye-witness accounts of people there that Christmas and from speaking to people who knew her, Spencer is the story of Diana behind closed doors; both a ghost story and a horror.
Being the Ricardos
Aaron Sorkin's latest tracks one week of production on the iconic American sitcom I Love Lucy, following star Lucille Ball (Oscar-nominated Nicole Kidman) and her husband slash co-star Desi Arnaz (similarly Oscar-nominated Javier Bardem). Told through the perspectives of three writers on the show, interspersed with flashbacks and the preparation to tape an episode in 1953, the film dials up the tension on the leading couple's marriage and shows them as they crack under pressure. There's also a supporting performance from JK Simmons (yep, him too) which is as good a reason as any to watch a movie.
Once Upon a Time in America
Sergio Leone's sprawling Prohibition-era crime saga originally ran to 10 whole hours before eventually being trim to a lean three and three-quarter hours. Fair warning: it is LONG. But give it the time and you'll be rewarded. Robert de Niro is Noodles, a street kid from New York City's Lower East Side who starts putting together a gang of petty criminals running liquor and nicking bits and pieces here and there. But things quickly get a lot more serious. It's a graphic, brutal film – especially to its women – and one which continues to divide critics, but the master of the Western brings all his lyricism to the heart of a dark city.
The Green Knight
Dev Patel’s turn as the super-serious decapitationist Sir Gawain has got a lot of acclaim, and it arrived on Amazon Prime at the same time as it did cinemas. After a challenger whose head he chopped off unexpectedly hops up from the floor and says he’ll see Gawain in a year’s time for his own swing, Gawain has to find a way to survive while maintaining his honour. David Lowery’s expansive, immersive visuals add a burning intensity to Gawain’s quest. One minor quibble: the original poet wrote in a dialect native to the Wirral, so it’s a slight shame nobody took the chance to go full medieval Scouse.
The Mauritanian
The story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the 50-year-old who was detained at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years without being charged with a crime, is dramatised in this slow-burning movie featuring a breakthrough role from The Serpent's Tahar Rahim, as well as performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Jodie Foster. While it might be the kind of hardboiled drama which isn't as successful at the Oscars these days, it's still a fascinating, and troublingly relevant, story.
Sound of Metal
What does deafness sound like? This is the complicated and moving question at the heart of this film about a drummer whose tinnitus causes him to suddenly lose his hearing; overnight cutting him off from both his music and his girlfriend. Riz Ahmed gives a career-best performance as the lead character, and there's also an excellent, Oscar-nominated appearance from Paul Raci, a journeyman actor who grew up the child of deaf adults. Sound of Metal is a reminder that deafness is not something that needs to be fixed, showing that listening to someone is about more than hearing them.
The Hunt
No, not the one about a war between liberal elites and rightwing nutters – instead this 2012 film sees Mads Mikkelsen play a schoolteacher whose world is rocked when a student of his claims she witnessed him engage in a lewd act. From Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg – the director of Another Round, for which Mikkelsen was nominated for an Oscar – this slow-burning drama is a compelling character study anchored by a performance from one of cinema's most versatile actors.
Short Term 12
Two years before Brie Larson took home the Oscar for her role in Room, the actress gave a commanding lead performance as a counsellor to at-risk teenagers at a group home in California in Short Term 12. Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the film is adapted from his short of the same name which followed one day in a care unit, based on his experience at a facility. The film shows how tensions rise amongst the teenagers and Larson's Grace begins to unravel as she is reminded of her own past. There's also a strong performance from LaKeith Stanfield in this multiple award winner.
Gone Girl
David Fincher's 2014 thriller, based on Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel of the same name, is both a visual feast for cinephiles and a gripping blockbuster that will suck you in. The story concerns the disappearance of Amy Dunne and how her husband Nick is blamed for the murder, in a film with brilliantly hairpin twists and turns, and two excellent performances from Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.
I Care A Lot
Fyre Festival, Anna Delvey, the impossibility of cancelling a free trial – the age of the scammer is truly upon us, and this Rosamund Pike-fronted drama will scratch just that itch. The crime drama follows a woman who tricks elderly people into appointing her as their legal guardian before making off with their money. The enterprise comes unstuck when she targets a victim who has ties to a gangster, played by the wry Peter Dinklage. What appears a slick drama ends up making salient points about our obsession with wealth and hustling.
Heat
Heat might not have been recognised at the Oscars of its day, but the 25 years since its release have seen Michael Mann's crime thriller cemented as the classic of the genre. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are a formidable pair in this story of a detective trying to catch a seasoned criminal pulling his very last heist. Mann spent nine months shadowing an LAPD officer every Friday and Saturday night in the run up to Heat, responding to calls across the city to get a taste of what the crime there really looked like. The result is a film which exploits every hidden corner of the city in a relentless game of cat and mouse, with what we'd wager is the best telephone scene in cinema history.
Parasite
It is no understatement to say that Bong Joon Ho's satirical horror, and masterpiece of class warfare, is the best film of 2020. Winning the Korean auteur four Academy Awards, and in doing so becoming the first foreign-language film to win the 'Best Picture' Oscar, it's hard to overstate its impact. As well as being an important dissection of privilege and the precarious nature of modern life, it is also hugely entertaining for the farcical story, which just keeps ramping up. If you haven't yet seen it, it's best to go in uninformed, but the story follows two families living in South Korea – one rich, one poor – and slowly shows us the folks at the bottom invading the beautiful, sprawling home of their wealthy compatriots. Parasite is a film with such bite it leaves you feeling wounded for days.
One Night in Miami
A fictional account of a real night in history, One Night in Miami imagines the conversations which took place behind closed doors when Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown met in a hotel room after Ali's win against Sonny Liston in 1964. Adapted by Kemp Powers from his play of the same name, and directed by Regina King, the film creates a four-way verbal boxing match between the men as they discuss activism, art and politics and the burden on famous Black men to speak up against injustices. Powers's story taps into the lesser-known, more private aspects of these infamous men's personalities, tackling some of the myth and in doing so showing us more of the men behind them. A gorgeously shot and slow burning drama which draws an unfortunate line from the civil rights movement to our polarised present day.
The Salesman
Emad and Rana are a young couple living in Tehran, Iran, who are forced to move out of their apartment, and the history of their new building by chance brings a violent encounter to their doorstep which threatens to undo them. The recipient of two awards at Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award, The Salesman simmers with a tension that always feels about to boil over.
The Report
Long-time Steven Soderbergh screenwriter Scott Z Burns makes his directing debut in the compelling true story of Senate staffer Daniel J Jones, the man who forensically compiled a report into CIA Detention and Interrogation Program, a scheme which saw the brutal torture of suspects in the wake of 9/11. Adam Driver is excellent as Jones, a character who makes the case for speaking truth to power even at extreme personal cost.
Beautiful Boy
Chronicling a boy's descent into meth addiction and the repeated relapses that follow, Beautiful Boy is told through the eyes of David (Steve Carell), a father who watches his son, Nic (Timothée Chalamet) gradually be consumed by the drug. A role in which Chalamet cements his status as one of the most exciting actors of the moment after his Oscar-nominated performance in Call Me By Your Name.
Fight Club
The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club.
Crown Heights
Adapted from an episode of the podcast This American Life, Crown Heights looks at the flaws in the criminal justice system through the story of incarcerated Colin Warner. Warner was wrongfully charged with murder after being arrested in Brooklyn and served 20 years for a crime he did not commit. The film focuses on Carl King, Warner's best friend who battles to clear his name and prove his innocence, giving the prison drama format a new angle by showing the people left behind on the outside.
Best comedy movies on Amazon Prime UK
Zoolander
The sheer confidence of a film which can toss in a two-minute David Bowie cameo is something to be admired. But then again, sheer blustering confidence and the powers it can bestow are central themes in Zoolander. After losing many of his closest male model friends in an unfortunate gasoline fighting accident and being deposed as the greatest male model in the world by scooter-riding New Age dilettante Hansel (Owen Wilson), Derek Zoolander finds himself tumbling into a Manchurian Candidate-style plot by the powers that be in the fashion world to assassinate the Prime Minister of Malaysia. It's as good as you remember it being, though some of the cameos could not have happened outside of a four-month window in 2001. Fred Durst! The bass player from System of a Down!
Paddington 2
Before Paddington became the Queen's best mate and a slightly weird focal point for mourning her death, he was the star of what was, for a time, the best-reviewed film of all time. (An 80-year-old review for Citizen Kane knocked it off Rotten Tomatoes' ranking, and Paddington took his rightful place.) Where the first Paddington adventure was lovely but slightly manic tonally, Paddington 2 dialled up the sweetness without leaving behind the first film's slightly offbeat humour. This time Paddington is framed for the theft of a pop-up book he'd had his eye on for his Aunt Lucy's birthday present – unbeknownst to him, dark forces have nicked it because it contains clues to a long-lost treasure trove. Ben Whishaw's perfect as Paddington, Sally Hawkins absolutely Sally Hawkinses it out of the park, and it created a niche for Hugh Grant in his third act, camping it up as the dastardly luvvie Phoenix Buchanan. Joyous stuff.
Easy A
In the grand lineage of movies which plonk a plot from classic literature into an American high school – thus neatly adding some knowingness while making plotting and possible IP infractions a breeze – Easy A is an update of The Scarlet Letter for the turn of the 2010s, crossed with some John Hughes pep. Hence, Emma Stone turns the high school rumour mill to her advantage, pretending to have snogged, banged or otherwise hooked up with a rapidly escalating clientele of outsiders who want a bit of clout. Naturally, things get out of hand and suddenly everyone wants her gone. This was Stone's breakthrough role, and backup comes from the traditional comedy adults, with Stanley Rucci, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell and Natasha Bedingfield's 'Pocketful of Sunshine' all doing sterling work.
Triangle of Sadness
While you can’t move for productions skewering the one-percenters at the moment, Triangle of Sadness is just the film to give the final word on what’s arguably now become an overexposed genre. Coming to the issue with fresh eyes is Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who tells his tale of obnoxiously wealthy people and their terrible behaviour in three parts: a glimpse into the relationship of a really, really, ridiculously good looking model couple, Carl and Yaya (played by Harris Dickinson and the late Charlbi Dean); a super yacht trip featuring the pair and other questionable millionaire guests that highlight the chasm between them and those working below deck; and a tropical island, where stripped of their riches, there’s an uprising and power grab. With the blackest of humour ( you’ll need the strongest of stomachs for one scene) this Palme d’Or-winning film showboats what a farce the capitalist class system is – and why you should never underestimate the underdog.
24 Hour Party People
Michael Winterbottom's film manages to conjure the full madness of Factory Record's semi-mythic journey from grotty punk club night to the very heart of everything that mattered in youth culture in a way no mass of BBC4 talking heads ever could. Steve Coogan plays prime mover Tony Wilson, who narrates the whole trajectory, while a ludicrously strong ensemble, including John Simm, Shirley Henderson, Paddy Considine and Andy Serkis, bring life to the gigantic characters around the label. In a meta twist, real Hacienda and Factory figures like Dave Haslam, Dave Pickering, Howard Devoto and Tony Wilson himself pop up too. "I'm being postmodern," Coogan's Wilson explains, "before it was fashionable."
A Hard Day's Night
![london august 11 rock and roll band "the beatles" in a still from their movie "a hard day's night" which was released on august 11, 1964 l r paul mccartney, john lennon, george harrison, ringo starrphoto by michael ochs archivesgetty images](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/gettyimages-74253221-1638374187.jpg?resize=980:* "The Beatles In "A Hard Day's Night"")
If you're on a bit of a Beatles on film jag after watching The Beatles: Get Back, start with the scene on the train here. "I fought the war for your sort," huffs an old colonel as he confiscates Ringo's radio. "Bet you're sorry you won," Ringo snaps back. Alun Owen, the Welsh playwright who had written the 1959 television play No Trams to Lime Street – a favourite of the band, not least because it was extremely Scouse – was picked to follow them around while they toured Ireland, trying to pick up their gags, their slang and their vibe. He did it brilliantly, and along with Dick Lester's anarchic direction and some genuinely excellent comic turns from the band – especially George, witheringly dismissing a teen TV confection: "She's a drag, a well-known drag. We turn the sound down on her and say rude things."
Palm Springs
Does any genre capture the repetitive mundanity of the pandemic better than the time-loop movie? This millennial update on Groundhog Day manages to be much more than that by using the format as a mechanism for both comedy and darkness. The romantic comedy follows a couple who end up trapped at someone else's wedding and struggle to free themselves from the saccharine speeches and bad dancing, much as they try. Forced to relive the same events over and over again, they realise they must face their past in order to move into the future.
The Big Sick
Arguably one of the great romantic comedies of the last decade, this Academy Award-nominated film is based on the real-life romance between Pakistani-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his partner Emily, played in the film by Zoe Kazan. Balancing laugh-out-loud moments and sucker-punch moments of sadness as Emily's health deteriorates, The Big Sick is a story that stays with you.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Almost 15 years after terrorising America, Kazakh television presenter Borat Sagdiyev is back to do it all over again. His 2020 update finds him returning to America in the run up to the Presidential election, and having to don disguises thanks to how recognisable he has become around the world. Again, Borat stages outrageous provocations and stunts in a shockumentary which exposes the anti-semitism, racism and misogyny rife across America, as well as showing the sad reluctance of anyone to step in. Of course, we knew all this already, but it's still a worthwhile reminder of how far things have slipped.
Best horror movies on Amazon Prime UK
Army of Darkness
The final part of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy completes the shift from sincere low-budget video nasty, to knowingly OTT shocker with a comic touch, to proper early Nineties action-adventurer. Having been through hell in the first two instalments, Bruce Campbell's Ash finds himself booted back in time to medieval England – which, erm, looks quite a bit like California – and shorn of his car, his chainsaw and his shotgun. Though initially a pariah in the court of Lord Arthur, he becomes the kingdom's only hope against the hordes of Ray Harryhausen-style living skeletons which are bent on destroying it.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
For all its gruesome reputation, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a masterpiece of Hitchcockian suggestion and editing. Yes, a family of freaks uses the blood of sexy young hippies to feed its decrepit grandpa. Yes, someone gets bonked on the head with a gigantic mallet. And yes, there's a bit where someone gets hung up on a big metal hook. But! It's also really funny! Way funnier than a slasher flick has any right to be!
And there's some deeply subversive politics at the heart of it too. The voiceover tells you that the film you're about to see is true – a straight-up lie that director Tobe Hooper decided to include as a response to being lied to by the American government about Watergate and Vietnam, and the hippies are claimed by the blood-sucking, necrotic establishment, just as the dream of the flower children had.
Silence of the Lambs
Jonathan Demme's iconic serial killer story, which last year turned 30, is as sinister as when we were first introduced to Anthony Hopkins's take on Hannibal Lecter, a role which he won an Oscar for despite only being on screen for a grand total of 16 minutes. Truth be told, when you are playing a chilling serial killer who carefully delivers lines like, "whenever feasible, one should always try to eat the rude", a quarter of an hour really is plenty.
Scanners
The recent uptick in the amount of skull trauma in horror films is mostly to do with Ari Aster’s clear glee in bonking his characters on the head, but David Cronenberg was handing out pulverised noggins before Aster had belted his first soft-boiled egg to pieces as a toddler. Scanners is about a tiny and apparently dangerous group of said ‘scanners’, people who have telekinetic and mind-reading powers. They can also, if you cross them, make your head explode. One scanner, Cameron, is enlisted to infiltrate and take down a particularly militant sect of scanners, who have been attacking dissenting scanners.
Dawn of the Dead
George A Romero returned to the zombie apocalypse for a second time after the incomparably excellent Night of the Living Dead with this one, which really is incomparable to its predecessor. Where Night of the Living Dead was a visceral scream which sank its teeth into single one of 1968’s flashpoint issues, Dawn of the Dead is altogether jollier, more colourful and more thoroughly laced with a sly humour, but still with a satirical edge. This time, a group of survivors hole up in a shopping mall and discover that – whoda thunk? – buying stuff won’t make you happy. Or, you know, immune to zombies. Make sure you’re watching the 1978 version, by the way.
Saint Maud
The debut from British director Rose Glass's is a horror as supernaturally freaky as The Exorcist, one which echoes Ingmar Bergman's faith trilogy while also conjuring an aura that feels totally its own. We meet young Maud (a chilling debut from Morfydd Clark), a disturbed nurse caring for elderly dancer Amanda (Jennifer Ehle) who spirals into madness as she becomes obsessed with her patient. From the sickly green palette of the seaside town to the array of horrific sounds on display, Saint Maud is truly stomach-turning stuff.
Best documentaries on Amazon Prime UK
Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes
It's not every cricketer who gets Sir Sam Mendes asking the questions in his feature-length doc, but Ben Stokes isn't every cricketer. Ben Stokes is an absolute freak. Even if you don't know cricket, you probably know this. You might recall him managing to drag England across the tightrope that was the World Cup final in 2019. You might also remember the cartoonishly brutal way he thwacked, clouted and hurrrnnngghhh-ed his way to a Test win against Australia at Headingley from an absolutely impossible position. You probably don't know, though, the particulars of his struggles with his mental health after his dad's death, which took him away from the game for an extended break in 2021. Indeed, the long interview with Mendes comes from around that period, and Stokes' eyes – glassy and distant – speak volumes more than his answers. A fascinating document of a singular guy.
The Sound of 007
Mat Whitecross, whose Oasis doc Supersonic did as much as anyone outside the Gallaghers themselves to make everyone forget about the last 13 years of their career, has made another doc about another British institution which also started out with one heavily eyebrowed man smacking another heavily eyebrowed man in the face. From Dr No in 1962 to No Time To Die in 2021, this is a 90-minute tour through the music and musicians who've given James Bond the particular swagger, élan, and whatever it was Madonna's 'Die Another Day' gave him.
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All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
Want to get into Adam Curtis but put off by his 8-hour opuses? This film is a good gateway into the BBC archivist’s work, as he cuts and pastes unseen footage, images and tracks into a collage-like documentary to explain overarching societal issues. This particular 2011 documentary tackles the rise of the computer and how it has failed to “liberate humanity”, by way of linking it to and exploring events such as the rise of Silicon Valley, the financial crash of 2007-2008 and even the genocide in Congo. This is definitely something to give those old grey brain cells a workout with; a sort of cribbed connect-the-dots of major world events of the past 100 years, and how nothing ever happens in a vacuum.
Make Us Dream
There are a lot of moon-eyed sports docs out there, and Steven Gerrard's hits most of the usual notes. You've seen him bang in that equaliser in the 2006 FA Cup final before. You know how the 2005 European Cup final ended. However, there is one thing that elevates it. It's all framed from his dotage in Los Angeles, where he was doddering around for LA Galaxy, giving everything an elegiac, king-across-the-water feel.
Class of 92
Anyone who's still narked at how decidedly United-centric the BBC's Fever Pitch, a retelling of the early years of the Premier League, ended up will want to give this one a miss, but if you've even the tiniest of soft spots for the buccaneering Manchester United of the Nineties then there's a lot to enjoy here. It goes back into the archives to show how this motley crew of wild and crazy guys came through the youth ranks and ended up forming the spine of the Treble-winning team of 1999. There's beautiful, charming David Beckham; taciturn Nicky Butt; taciturn Ryan Giggs; taciturn Paul Scholes; giddy Gary Neville; and the permanently pie-eyed Phil Neville, who says everything with the slightly incoherent fervency of a 15-year-old who's just watched his first Jordan Peterson TED Talk. Most affectingly, the gang all get back together for a kickabout where everyone except Beckham looks like the middle-aged dads they are.
Diego Maradona
Asif Kapadia, the director behind hard-hitting and acclaimed documentaries about Amy Winehouse and Ayrton Senna, here turns his attention to the footballing legend Diego Maradona and tries to untangle the man who became more than a myth. Made before Maradona's death, Kapadia gets access to the man himself, though he is typically evasive and contrarian. What is more interesting is hearing from his coaches and family members and understanding how a boy from a shantytown on the outskirts of Buenos Aires went on to become the greatest footballer ever. The story has it all: shady mobsters, a secret love child, a godlike figure who fell from grace and the “Goal of the Century”, at least according to FIFA.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
The level of craft that goes into making some of the world's best sushi becomes almost ASMR porn in this charming documentary about Jiro, the 94-year-old owner of a three-Michelin star restaurant in a Tokyo subway station. Telling the story of the pressure his two sons face in trying to live up to his name and continue the family business, Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a moving family portrait which unpacks the customs of cooking in Japan.
Time
This love story tells of the two decade battle of mother Fox Rich to free her husband from Louisiana State Penitentiary, where he is serving a 60-year prison sentence for a robbery they both committed in the early Nineties in an act of desperation. Garrett Bradley's beautifully shot black and white documentary shows Fox attempting to survive while raising for her six sons, the film's title a nod to the sentence Rob G Rich must serve, as well as representing the passage of time which his wife is condemned to suffer without him. Time is a reminder of the people behind bars, and a condemnation of the brutal prison industry.
Halston
2021 brought us a new mini-series version of the storied designer, but this 2019 documentary offers a less Ryan Murphy, more forensic look at the life of Roy Halston Frowick. Threading together rare archival footage as well as interviews with the friends and family members who knew him best to paint a portrait of the man who upended the fashion scene, it transports you to Seventies New York in the process.
Super Size Me
When Morgan Spurlock's fast food jeremiad was released back in 2004, it revealed the pushy practises deployed by McDonald's to shift ever-increasing quantities of junk food on people, putting their health at serious risk. The Sundance-winning documentary sees Spurlock spend a month chowing down solely on food from the golden arches, watching as he rapidly gains weight, struggles with his energy levels and other, more worrying, side effects. The clean eating and wellness movements might have swept in in the time since Super Size Me, but the reliance on quick and affordable food has only grown as wealth inequality has spiralled. As such, this exposé on the food many people have no choice but to eat is still sadly relevant today.
