Film recommendations from the HOME team

We’ve brought #HOMEhome with streaming deals from MUBI, Curzon and the BFI, but with so many top notch films it can be hard to know where to begin! Luckily HOME’s expert film team are on hand to recommend their favourite films. Whether you’re new to independent film or are usually first in line at HOME, here’s a good place to start:

High Life

High Life 

Jessie Gibbs, HOME’s Project Coordinator says: “If you want to see what complete isolation feels like, choose Claire Denis’ post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama High Life, a dystopian vision of the future aboard a spacecraft deep in outer space. The film is an eerie and intriguing experience with disturbing twists, incredible visual spectacle, a moody electronic score, and plenty of food for thought.”

  • Available on Curzon

 

The Wild Goose Lake

Andy Willis, HOME’s Senior Visiting Curator, and Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford, says: “Director Diao Yinan followed up the award-winning Black Coal, Thin Ice with this, another take on the crime film from China. Once again stretching the codes and conventions of the genre, here we get flashbacks and set pieces aplenty as two characters explain how they arrived at a station where their paths cross. Not the easiest of watches but certainly rewarding for those who make the effort.”

  • Rent on MUBI

 

The Whalebone Box

Jason Wood, HOME’s Artistic Director: Film says: “The latest collaboration between Andrew Kötting, daughter Eden and eternal wanderer Iain Sinclair is a characteristically fantastical folk/fairytale work elements of truth. Working from a broad palette of film textures, it serves as a strangely soothing balm for troubled times…”

 

Leto

Another choice from Andy Willis, who says: “Leto is a playfully entertaining take on the rock scene in early 1980s Leningrad. As well as carefully creating the atmosphere of the underground in the late Soviet Union, director Kirill Serebrennikov utilises some refreshingly inventive musical numbers to tell the story of the emergence of the rock band Kino against the backdrop of the personal and political machinations of the Leningrad rock club. Certainly worth catching if you missed it when it played at HOME.”

  • Rent on MUBI

 

The Truth

Andy Willis’ final choice is The Truth. He says: “Multi-award winning Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda won the hearts of HOME audiences with his 2018 success Shoplifters. With The Truth we get the chance to see what a top filmmaker can do when working abroad. Here, in this family drama set amongst the French film industry, he is joined by heavyweight stars Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke.”

  • Available on Curzon

Do you want even more recommendations of the best films to watch via our streaming partners? Check out our Head of Film, Rachel Hayward’s pick of films directed by women to watch now.


We have been overwhelmed by the love and support we’ve received since announcing our temporary closure due to the coronavirus crisis. This is a difficult time, and we appreciate everyone who has asked how they can help. If you would like to make a one-off donation, you can do so via our Response Fund here: https://homemcr.org/about/support/donations