Thai slow-cinema master Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s 2015 drama offers another example of the director’s particular blend of patient observation and mystical reflection. A lonely, middle-aged housewife finds herself caring for a soldier suffering from sleeping sickness, affecting only a group of soldiers in a small town on the Mekong River in Thailand. From there the film offers a patient series of arresting imagery and atmosphere that envelops viewers in its dream spell, where observed reality, personal reflection, collective memory and fantasy become one hypnotic experience.
Ulee’s Gold — Prime Video
Director Victor Nunez’s 1997 family drama features an Oscar-nominated performance from Peter Fonda as Vietnam veteran, now widowed beekeeper Ulysses “Ulee” Jackson. With his son in prison, Ulee is left to raise his two granddaughters away from the chaos of their parents’ lives. But when his son asks for help in extracting the children’s mother from a web of addiction and drug dealers, Ulee must do what he can to keep his family together. Relying on little more than the strength of Fonda’s performance and the small but relatable drama of Ulee’s journey, the film still packs a solid, emotional punch.
Class of ’96 — Netflix
Director John Barker follows the journey of his late father, coach Clive Barker, to turn the Rainbow Nation-era national soccer team from a hopeless embarrassment to 1996 Africa Cup of Nations champions and 1998 World Cup qualifiers. Featuring interviews with the stars of the era and footage of Barker’s trials and tribulations as coach, the docuseries provides a suitably inspiring portrait of a big moment of national sporting pride. As South Africa prepares for the 2026 Fifa World Cup, the first one it has qualified for since hosting the tournament in 2010, it may also provide some much-needed morale boosting.
I Love LA — Showmax
Rachel Sennott creates and stars in this breezy, satirical comedy about Gen-Z relationships and fame in a Los Angeles obsessed with Instagram and TikTok. Focused on a group of 20-something friends caught between endlessly chasing likes and attention on social media and the realities of human relationships, it’s a smart, funny and often unbearably cringey takedown of Gen-Z angst delivered with short, sharp and biting hilarity.
Laws of Gravity — Prime Video
Long before he became a sought-after television director on everything from The Sopranos and Oz to Chicago PD and New Amsterdam, Nick Gomez directed this 1992 shoestring indie thriller starring Adam Treese, Edie Falco and underappreciated cult favourite Peter Greene (who died in December last year). The gritty, tense and controlled crime drama centres on two bumbling Brooklyn wannabes whose lives spin out of control when a friend returns from Florida with a boot full of guns to sell.
