Culture Guides
Destination Guides
Seasonal Guides
Our cinema guide becomes a streaming guide for the time being as we look at compelling new releases, some of the highlights of the year in film, and point the way towards a few familiar classics now available to watch from the comfort of your home.
Starting with our favourite film of the year, now streaming is American Utopia, Spike Lee’s blistering film of David Byrne’s Broadway concert. A state of the nation address and a reminder of both Byrne’s spectacular back catalogue and the power of live performance, this is a real tonic and a truly joyous experience. On another note, we’d recommend Hong Sang-soo’s quietly extraordinary The Woman Who Ran — it won’t garner the attention of fellow South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, but its unanswered mysteries are just as compelling.
From the exuberant to the understated to the downright unhinged, Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor is an unrelenting, visceral thriller that combines speculative techno-sci-fi with elements of horror and no little style. This is filmmaking that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and doesn’t let go — be warned. Infinitely gentler, but with its own sense of ferocity is Wolfwalkers, the charming new Irish animation about a young huntress and her shapeshifting companion from directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart.
We are so grateful to National Lottery players, The National Lottery, DCMS and Arts Council England for supporting our freelance writers during this crisis. This means that, although venues remain shut and campaigns cancelled, our writers can be reengaged to help arts organisations and artists across the North of England share their online content with our culture-hungry readers.
Here are our picks
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1. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets – Streaming on Curzon Home Cinema
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2. One Night in Miami – Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
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3. Make A Scene Valentine’s Special: Titanic
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4. BFI & ICA: The World of Wong Kar Wai
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5. BFI Future Film Festival 2021
BFI Future Film Festival, online, 18–21 February 2021, free entry - Find Out More
Aimed at young filmmakers, the BFI Future Film Festival arrives with a free programme of short films and online events streaming for free via BFI Player.
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6. American Utopia – Streaming on Amazon Prime
HOME -
7. The Woman Who Ran – Streaming on MUBI
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8. Possessor – Streaming on Modern Films
HOME Possessor at HOME Manchester, Manchester, Until 31 January 2021, from £9.99 - Book now
Support HOME when you stream Brandon Cronenberg’s visceral new techo-thriller Possessor.
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9. Manchester Film Festival
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10. Wolfwalkers – Streaming on Apple TV+
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11. African Apocalypse – Streaming on BFI Player
HOME African Apocalypse at HOME Manchester, Manchester and online, Until 31 March 2021, from £10 - Book now
Taking Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as a beginning, British-Nigerian poet and activist Femi Nylander journey from the libraries of Oxford University to Niger in order to follow the path of terror and genocide tread by French Captain Paul Voulet in 1898.
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12. Babyteeth – Streaming on Netflix
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13. Small Axe – Streaming on BBC iPlayer
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14. The Apartment – Streaming on YouTube
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15. On the Rocks – Streaming on Apple TV+
More in Cinema
Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Streaming on Mubi
Brittany, France 1770. Portrait painter Marianne (Merlant) is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse (Haenel), a reluctant bride to be who has just left the convent.
Bacurau – Streaming on Mubi
The follow-up to Aquarius from director Kleber Mendonça Filho, this time co-directing and co-writing with long term producer Juliano Dornelles merges sci-fi, the western, Brazilian bandit movies (cangaço) and horror for a highly original and ultra-violent look at a town under siege from a mysterious threat.
Dogs Don’t Wear Pants – Streaming on Curzon Home Cinema
Heart surgeon Juha has lived life at an unengaged distance since his wife’s passing. And although it is often debilitating, his grief also throws up some rather surprising sexual urges.
System Crasher – Streaming on Curzon Home Cinema
Controversial from the moment it premiered in Competition at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival, documentarian Nora Fingscheidt’s fiction feature debut portrays the life of a chaotic and troubled young girl.
The Irishman – Streaming on Netflix
Martin Scorsese’s epic saga of organised crime in postwar America, The Irishman weaves an engrossing and intricate web of connected events, audaciously cutting back and forth across decades.
Marriage Story – Streaming on Netflix
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson excel as a couple whose once enviable union crumbles under the weight of mounting resentments and divergent needs.
Stop Making Sense – Streaming on BFI Player
Jonathan Demme x Talking Heads. Find out why Stop Making Sense is widely regarded as the greatest concert film ever made.
Black Narcissus – Streaming on Apple TV
Bigger Than Life presents a 35mm screening of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 film, Black Narcissus at Stockport Plaza on Sunday 2nd September with an introduction by film scholar, Andrew Moor.
Beach Rats – Streaming on Netflix
Frankie, an aimless Brooklyn teenager is having a miserable summer. With his father dying and his mother wanting him to find a girlfriend, Frankie escapes with his delinquent friends and flirts with older men online.
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Classical Music in Manchester and the North
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Food and Drink in Manchester and the North
For the December guide, we’re looking at the best delivery options in Manchester, whether it’s for alcohol or food.
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Looking for things to do over the August Bank Holiday? Near fear, we’ve put together a handpicked list of things to do in Manchester and the North this August Bank Holiday weekend.
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