2018 is nearly over and, as the festive period approaches, we will soon be settling in to catch up on some of the quality movies we may have missed during the year. One of the biggest players in the movie world in 2018 is streaming giant Netflix who have, quite honestly, released some of the boldest and best films to their audience throughout 2018. As Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, undoubtedly a contender for the best film of the year, is released onto the streamer, we examine five of the best new Netflix films on the platform you’ll be able to watch over the holiday break.
Best New Netflix Films
Roma
Netflix | Best New Netflix Films
We’ll start with Cuarón’s masterpiece, a semi-autobiographical tale which some say has a big chance of winning Best Picture at next year’s Oscars. After receiving its world premiere at August’s Venice Film Festival, the film went on to play in at the subsequent Toronto and London’s fests garner all kinds of awards in the process. The film is set in Mexico City’s Colonial Roma district and focusses in on a middle-class family and live-in nanny Cleo (played by newcomer Yalitza Aparicio). Filmed in stunning black and white, the feature follows this group of people through a series of life events and is largely based on Cuarón’s own upbringing in the 1970s. We named it as one of the best films of the year when we originally saw it, and we still stand by that statement many months on. If there is a screening near to you on the big screen, do seek it out, but if your Netflix is the only option, still seek it out. You won’t regret it.
Read our full review of Roma
Outlaw King
Netflix | Best New Netflix Films
David McKenzie’s Outlaw King received its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Grand in scale and epic in its ambition, the historical feature follows Robert The Bruce (Chris Pine) and his charge to reclaim his throne after being forced into exile by the English. The film opened to mixed reviews at TIFF, but we really liked what McKenzie served up in his first film since the acclaimed and very different modern western Hell Or High Water a couple of years previous. Outlaw King’s scale is huge – It had a reported budget of $120 million – and it’s all up there to be seen on the screen. Pine is superb as ‘The Bruce’ while there’s brilliant support from the likes of Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Florence Pugh. Well worth your time and the perfect companion piece to Mel Gibson’s 90s Oscar-winner Braveheart.
Read our full review of Outlaw King
22 July
Netflix | Best New Netflix Films
A very hard-hitting drama, 22 July is based on the devasting true events in Norway in 2011. Directed by Paul Greengrass, the film starts with the attack on Regjeringskvartalet, the government quarter in the country’s capital, Oslo, where Anders Behring Breivik, a right-wing extremist arrived dressed in a police uniform before detonating a bomb which killed eight people. From there, the film continues to depict the massacre of a further 69 at a Workers’ Youth League summer camp on the island of Utøya less than three hours later. The film only focuses on the terror for the first part of the film, British director Greengrass, who also wrote the script, dedicating more time to the aftermath of these terrible events, including the arrest, incarceration, and imprisonment of Brevil, the impact everything had on the survivors. Not an easy watch by any means, but 22 July is one of the most urgent and important films of 2018.
Read our full review of 22 July
The Christmas Chronicles
Netflix | Best New Netflix Films
Something a little lighter, and indeed a lot more festive. Kurt Russell leads the cast of The Christmas Chronicles, a new film from director Clay Kaytis (The Angry Birds Movie) and co-producer Chris Columbus (the man who brought us holiday classic Home Alone). The story is set on Christmas Eve 2018, a fateful night when Russell’s Santa Claus is caught on camera by siblings Kate Pierce (Darby Camp) and Teddy Pierce (Judah Lewis). Crashing his sleigh and losing his reindeer, not to mention his magical hat and bag full of presents, Santa must team with the two children to ensure that he delivers all of his gifts by Christmas morning. The Christmas Chronicles has the charm and necessary magic to potentially become a modern classic and Russell more than delights as old Saint Nick.
Read our full review of The Christmas Chronicles
Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle
Netflix | Best New Netflix Films
An adaptation of beloved tale The Jungle Book, Andy Serkis’ film was set to be his directorial debut. Delays and other factors meant that the superb festival fave Breathe was his first helming gig released into cinemas, but Mowgli could be his most impressive -at least on a technical scale. A much darker adaptation than Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book from a couple of years back, Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle may have lost some of the bare necessities of the musical – don’t expect any joyous interludes here – but the feature will strike you as a braver, wiser stab towards fresh territory of a long-told story.
Read our full review of Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle
Roma is released on Netflix on Friday 14th Dece
