SBS On Demand has an amazing and diverse range of movies to choose from, but where do you start? SBS On Demand’s movie library can be intimidating though, so the On TV Tonight team have sat through this month’s best SBS On Demand movies just for you.
THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY
In this emotional story, Srinivasa Ramanujan is a man of boundless intelligence that even the abject poverty of his home in Madras, India, cannot crush. Eventually, his stellar intelligence in mathematics and his boundless confidence in both attract the attention of the noted British mathematics professor, G.H. Hardy, who invites him to further develop his computations at Trinity College at Cambridge. Forced to leave his wife behind, Ramanujan finds his cultural values hindered by the stringent academic requirements of the college.
Director: MATTHEW BROWN
Cast: DEV PATEL, JEREMY IRONS, DEVIKA BHISE, TOBY JONES, JEREMY NORTHAM
THE IDEAL PALACE
This is a captivating and emotional story of Joseph Ferdinand Cheval, a simple postman who travels every day in the mountains of the Drôme, from village to village at the end of the 19th century. Cheval has a love of Hindu temples and Arabic palaces and when tragedy befalls him, he throws all his energy into building one of the wonders of France, a fantasy palace erected from stones, fossils, pebbles and shells, which takes 33 years. It becomes a wondrous place for his daughter, Alice, to play and a triumph of his tenacity and strength.
Director: NILS TAVERNIER
Cast: JACQUES GAMBLIN, LAETITIA CASTA, ZELIE RIXHON, NATACHA LINDINGER
SON OF SAUL
This is a powerful, harrowing story, but the suffering is mostly suggested rather than depicted. Saul Auslander is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from Auschwitz in 1944 who were forced to assist the Nazis by cremating the bodies of the dead. Saul discovers the corpse of a boy he believes is his young son. As the other Sonderkommando plan a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial. This is a film that requires patience and attention.
Director: LASZLO NEMES
Cast: GEZA ROHRIG, URS RECHN, LEVENTE MOLNAR, MARCIN CZAMIK
AMERICAN ANIMALS
In this thrilling crime docudrama written and directed by Bart Layton, best known for the documentary Locked Up Abroad, four bright and well-off college students in Kentucky plot to steal some rare books from their university’s Special Collections Library in a misguided quest for personal glory. Based on a true story, the film includes interviews with the foursome who actually attempted the bizarre heist. Watch out for The Handmaid’s Tale’s Aunty Lydia, Ann Dowd, who appears as the Librarian in charge of the rare books.
Director: BART LAYTON
Cast: EVAN PETERS, BARRY KEOGHAN, BLAKE JENNER, JARED ABRAHAMSON
THE PIANO
This is an absolutely remarkable film from the extremely talented Jane Campion. And it has the added bonus of a naked Harvey Keitel, which he’s gone on to repeat in quite a few films. A young Anna Paquin won an Oscar for her role and has forged a stellar career in film and TV. The story revolves around Ada, who cannot speak, and her young daughter, Flora. In an arranged marriage she leaves Scotland accompanied by her daughter and her beloved piano. Life in New Zealand’s rugged North Island is not as she imagined and nor is her relationship with her new husband Stewart. She suffers torment and loss when Stewart sells her piano to a neighbour, George. Ada learns from George that she may earn back her piano by giving him piano lessons, but only with certain other conditions attached. At first Ada despises George but slowly their relationship is transformed, and this propels them into a dire situation.
Director: JANE CAMPION
Cast: HOLLY HUNTER, ANNA PAQUIN, HARVEY KEITEL, SAM NEILL, CLIFF CURTIS, KERRY WALKER
THE BOOKSHOP
Based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s acclaimed novel, this is a film that rolls along at a leisurely pace. There’s not a lot going on in this English village in 1959 until a free-spirited widow, Florence Green, risks everything to open a bookshop in the conservative East Anglian coastal town. While bringing about a surprising cultural awakening through works by Ray Bradbury and Vladimir Nabokov, she earns the polite but ruthless opposition of a local grand dame and the support and affection of a reclusive book loving widower, played by the man who is everywhere, Bill Nighy. As Florence’s obstacles amass she is forced to wonder if there is a place for a bookshop in a town that may not want one.
Director: ISABEL COIXET
Cast: EMILY MORTIMER, PATRICIA CLARKSON, BILL NIGHY, HONOR KNEAFSEY, JAMES LANCE
AN EDUCATION
In this excellent story adapted by the prolific Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy, Brooklyn), based on the memoir of writer Lynn Barber, this is a coming-of-age journey of a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London. Jenny’s life of study, with Oxford as the goal, and a socially inept boyfriend, changes dramatically with the arrival of David Goldman, a sophisticated playboy nearly twice her age. Carey Mulligan gives a wonderful performance as Jenny, a young girl craving real life experience who becomes enamoured with David and his trendy cohorts.
Director: LONE SCHERFIG
Cast: CAREY MULLIGAN, PETER SARSGAARD, ROSAMUND PIKE, ALFRED MOLINA, OLIVIA WILLIAMS, DOMINIC COOPER
LUCKY GRANDMA
This is a highly amusing black comedy with a difference. In the heart of Chinatown, New York, an ornery, chain-smoking, newly widowed 80-year-old grandma – the wonderful Tsai Chin – is eager to live life as an independent woman, despite the worry of her family. When a local fortune teller predicts a most auspicious day in her future, Grandma decides to head to the casino and goes all in, only to land herself on the wrong side of luck, suddenly attracting the attention of some local gangsters. Desperate to protect herself, Grandma employs the services of a bodyguard from a rival gang and soon finds herself in the middle of a Chinatown gang war. This is one very cool Grandma.
Director: SASIE SEALY
Cast: TSAI CHIN, HA HSIAO-YUAN, WAI CHING HO, YAN XI
THE INTERVENTION
Clea DuVall writes, directs and appears in this comedy drama where a group of friends confront young couple Peter and Ruby about their constant bickering and propose they divorce. Reacting in anger, the couple clearly realise the truth in what their friends are trying to say; nonetheless, they remember their old feelings for each other and decide instead to strive to improve their relationship. However, the situation is turned around on Annie, who proposed the intervention, as to her alcohol problem, and her suppressed doubts about her own impending wedding. So, the lesson here is don’t go intervening in your friends’ affairs because they’ll turn it round and let you know where you are also going awry in your life.
Director: CLEA DUVALL
Cast: MELANIE LYNSKEY, COBIE SUMLDERS, CLEA DUVALL, NATASHA LYONNE, BEN SCHWARTZ, VINCENT
SOMETIMES, ALWAYS, NEVER
Bill Nighy seems to be everywhere! In this poignant comedy/drama he appears as Alan, a stylish tailor with moves as sharp as his suits. He has spent years searching tirelessly for his missing son Michael who stormed out over a game of scrabble. With a body to identify and his family torn apart, Alan must repair the relationship with his youngest son Peter and solve the mystery of an online player who he thinks could be Michael, so he can finally move on and reunite his family. As scrabble features prominently, one can also pick up a few tips on those pesky two letter words.
Director: CARL HUNTER
Cast: BILL NIGHY, SAM RILEY, JENNY AGUTTER, TIM MCINNERNY, ALEXEI SAYLE