Five international movies to stream now
By DEVIKA GIRISH
This month’s picks include a British prison thriller, a Brazilian drama, an animated film from Japan and more.
‘Wasteman’
Cal McMau’s harrowing thriller unfolds entirely inside a men’s prison in London, where gangs rule, drugs abound and tempers run high. Taylor (David Jonsson) is a fairly meek prisoner who cuts hair in exchange for pills and spends most of his time high to survive the brutality of life on the inside. One day, he’s told that he has a chance to be released soon on parole because of a new law; all he has to do is stay out of trouble. Naturally, trouble soon arrives in the form of Dee (Tom Blyth), a hotheaded gangster and drug dealer who immediately incites rivalries with other prisoners.
“Wasteman” is a lot of things at once: a drama of breathtaking suspense, a story of tender male bonding and a grim portrait of what the inhumanity of prison can do to people. Punctuated by cellphone videos of violence inside and outside the jail that add a documentary quality to the proceedings, the film captures the claustrophobic, pressure-cooker environment of its setting with tight close-ups and percussive sound design. One can feel the fear, anger, sadness and desperation that fester inside the cells, thanks also to Jonsson and Blyth’s extraordinary, nerve-rattling performances. Blyth in particular is unforgettable as a man whose volatility and anger are belied, every now and then, by the flickers of grief in his eyes. (Stream it on Mubi.)
‘Cidade; Campo’
This Brazilian drama follows the journeys of two women: Joana (Fernanda Vianna), an older woman who moves from the countryside to her sister’s house in Sao Paulo after a flood destroys her town; and the younger Flavia (Mirella Façanha), who, along with her girlfriend, moves from the city to her father’s village, taking over his farm after his death. The two parts are connected by a serendipitous detail — and by the blurred lines between past and present.
As Joana, who joins an app-based cleaning service, learns both the ruthless ways of urban life and the sense of community it offers, she sees visions: of her long-gone son, her neighbor, her horse. Flavia, too, begins to see and hear ghosts, as the initial charm of a rural idyll fades into a deeper and more challenging confrontation with how time works outside the capitalist hamster wheel, among centuries-old forests and under a millennia-old sky. The cinematography lends an exquisite tactility to both women’s environs, inviting us to ponder humanity’s impulse for destruction — and our ultimate powerlessness in the face of nature. (Stream it on Tubi.)
‘Look Back’
Directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama, “Look Back,” an anime adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga of the same name, is a film of deceptive simplicity: a tale of two girls brought together by their shared love for drawing that explores profound themes of friendship, artistry, inspiration and fate. The story begins when the girls are in elementary school. Fujino is the resident manga artist for the school newspaper and takes great pride in her skills, until one day, the paper features beautiful art by another student, the reclusive Kyomoto. Fujino is consumed by jealousy and becomes maniacally committed to improving her drawing skills, but feeling defeated and unable to best Kyomoto, she gives up entirely.
All that changes once Fujino actually meets Kyomoto at the urging of a schoolteacher. A complex and intimate relationship ensues between the two, and the film moves fluidly through their preteen years into their adulthood, charting the ebbs and flows of their collaboration and friendship, as well as their unspoken resentments and desires. When a sudden tragedy strikes, “Look Back” opens up into an existential meditation on the accidents, both happy and sad, that shape a life, and the potential of art to reinvent reality. Oshiyama’s filmmaking addresses big emotions with uncommon delicacy; he homes in on his characters’ eyes to drive the story, and the film’s hushed and patient rhythm allows us to dwell in the cosmic possibilities of life’s quotidian moments. (Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.)
‘The Mehta Boys’
Bollywood actor Boman Irani directs and stars in this wry, moving film about a son who is forced to spend time with his estranged father in the wake of his mother’s death. An absurd series of accidents forces Amay (Avinash Tiwary), a young architect in Mumbai, to hole up with his retired and recently widowed father, Shiv (Irani), in his bachelor pad in the midst of the monsoon floods. The two get along like oil and water. Shiv is offended by Amay’s offers of help, and lugs his suitcases up four flights of stairs, huffing and puffing and sweating. The son likes to have the lights on and the father is obsessive about conserving electricity, so they move through the apartment constantly flipping switches on and off. A conversation about the digital age devolves into a fight, revealing deeper insecurities about Amay’s need for approval and Shiv’s feelings of obsolescence. There’s comedy, as well as pathos, as the film depicts the absurd ways in which love can beget animosity. The strength of “The Mehta Boys” is that it never pulls its punches; the characters are keenly observed and realistically complex, capable of both cruelty and intense affection toward their nearest and dearest. (Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.)
‘Elementary’
In her vérité documentaries, French filmmaker Claire Simon uses patient immersion and close observation to probe the intersection of the personal and the public. “The Competition” examines the admissions process at the prestigious French film school La Fémis; “Our Body” documents the workings of the gynecological ward at a hospital in Paris; “Writing Life: Annie Ernaux Through the Eyes of High School Students” travels to schools across France to document how young people from various backgrounds engage with the work of the Nobel Prize-winning writer.
Her latest film, “Elementary,” follows this tradition and takes as its microcosmic focus Makarenko, a public school in the Parisian suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine, which is attended by a diverse group of children. Simon films various classes — math, French, religion — and follows the children onto the playground or into the principal’s office. We also see exulting moments of kids being kids: They scream in excitement as they go under a bridge during a boat tour; they sing Rihanna’s song “Diamonds” in chorus, as if it were an anthem. While Simon never comments or editorializes, her patient and sustained gaze underlines that children are far wiser and more tolerant than adults give them credit for. At a time of mounting threats to public education, it is invigorating, for example, to see 10- and 11-year-olds debating religion with both seriousness and good humor. (Stream it on Film Movement Plus.)
