Film

Four new films to stream this weekend

Clemency, The Night Eats the World, Landless, Come as You Are

Alfre Woodard in Clemency

Donald Clarke
Tara Brady
Fri Jul 17 2020 - 05:00

CLEMENCY ★★★★☆
Directed by Chinonye Chukwu. Starring Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff, Aldis Hodge, Danielle Brooks, Richard Gunn. VOD, 113 min 
A warden on death row struggles to carry out her gruesome task as honourably as possible. Among the best actors of her generation, Woodard, unshowy and preternaturally still, offers us a stubborn professional being steadily eaten up by her involvement with the glacially slow killing-machine. Clemency comprises a catalogue of stress bookended by two heart-rending executions: the first goes wrong, the second is "a success". In between we see how the protagonist gets worn down by stress and guilt. Woodard's final, silent scene is a masterclass. DC

THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD/LA NUIT A DÉVORÉ LE MONDE ★★★☆☆
Directed by Dominique Rocher. Starring Anders Danielsen Lie, Golshifteh Farahani, Denis Lavant, Sigrid Bouaziz. Shudder, 94 min

The Night Eats the World

We know what you're thinking: not another zombie movie. Come back! This first film from French director Rocher has fresh things to say about the genre. Lie makes for a compellingly thoughtful hero as he slowly comes to realise that: "Death is the norm; now I'm the one who's not normal." Non-vocal zombies make for a fine and creepy innovation. And not a rampaging horde in sight. It doesn't all work, but this is worth seeking out. TB

LANDLESS/CHÃO ★★★★☆
Directed by Camila Freitas. Featuring Natalina Vó Cândida, Wilmar P.C. Fernandes, Valtenir Gomes. Mubi, 110 min

READ MORE

Landless

Excellent Brazilian documentary that examines the struggles of the region's Landless Workers' Movement, a Marxist grassroots coalition of peasants and workers striving for land reform. Shot over four years, Landless chronicles everyday life among the 600 families who occupy 15 hectares of unused property owned by an indebted sugarcane plant. The minutiae – the conversations about phone use, the blocking of a train line – is precisely the point. Landless captures the stamina required for genuine political change. TB

COME AS YOU ARE ★★★☆☆
Directed by Richard Wong. Starring Grant Rosenmeyer, Hayden Szeto, Ravi Patel, Gabourey Sidibe, Janeane Garofalo. Curzon Home Cinema, 106 min

Ravi Patel, Grant Rosenmeyer and Hayden Szeto in Come as You Are

Wong's comedy concerns a bunch of disabled Americans who set out for a specialist brothel across the border with Canada. Well, Helen Hunt got an Oscar nomination for playing a sex worker who services disabled clients in The Sessions. So, it seems as if we're all right with that now. It's much better than that synopsis suggests. The cast play off one another delightfully and sentimentality is avoided until the very last moments. Shame the actors are all able-bodied. DC