The 5 best international movies to watch on Showmax this week, from Us starring Lupita to Little
The 5 best international movies to watch on Showmax this week, from Us starring Lupita to Little
US | Horror
Kenyan Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther, 12 Years A Slave)) stars as Adelaide Wilson, a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband, Gabe (Black Panther’s Winston Duke), and their two children. But their idyllic summer getaway turns to chaos when their doppelgängers begin to terrorise them.
Directed by Jordan Peele, Us was the 31st biggest box office hit of 2019 globally, won 73 awards, appeared in numerous Best of the Year lists for 2019, and has a 93% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, who just listed it at #2 behind Black Panther on their list of The 100 Best Black Movies Of The 21st Century.
As The Wall Street Journal says, “It’s compulsory seeing for everyone who loves the horror genre, the movie medium and the notion of saying sage things about contemporary life without straying from entertainment’s twisty path.”
ABOMINABLE | Animation
Three teenagers must help a Yeti return to his family while avoiding a wealthy man and a zoologist who want him for their own ends.
The 45th biggest box office hit of 2019 globally, Abominable was nominated for four Annie Awards and a Visual Effects Society Award. The animated movie has an 81% critics rating and a 95% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus calls it “a beautifully animated and overall engaging adventure that the whole family can enjoy.”
LITTLE | Comedy
At a point in her life when the pressures of adulthood become too much to bear, a high-powered businesswoman is transformed into her younger self. This throws her headlong into a whole other set of challenges and leaves her underappreciated assistant having to cover for her at the office.
Marsai Martin (Diane in Black-ish) was nominated for 2019 MTV Movie and TV and Teen Choice awards for Best Comedic Performance as the little Jordan Sanders, while Regina Hall (Girls Trip) was nominated for a 2019 BET Best Actress Award as her older self. Two-time Golden Globe nominee Issa Rae (Insecure) co-stars, as does Screen Actors Guild Award winner Justin Hartley (Kevin in This Is Us).
Little was also nominated for both 2019 People’s Choice and Teen Choice Awards for Favourite Comedy Movie.
SKIN | Drama
In Skin, winner of the FIPRESCI Critics Prize at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, BAFTA winner Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, Rocketman) stars as a destitute young man, raised by racist skinheads and notorious among white supremacists, who turns his back on hatred and violence to transform his life, with the help of a black activist and the woman he loves. Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, When They See Us), Emmy nominee Bill Camp (The Night Of, Joker) and Danielle Macdonald (Dumplin’, Unbelievable) co-star.
Director Guy Nattiv won the Oscar in 2019 for his short film of the same name.
FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY | Comedy
Based on a true story, Fighting With My Family follows reformed gangster Ricky (Nick Frost, Shaun of the Dead), wife Julia (Lena Headey, Game of Thrones), daughter Paige (Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, Little Women) and son Zak (2020 BAFTA Rising Star Award nominee Jack Lowden from Dunkirk) as they make a living wrestling together in tiny venues.
Also starring People’s Choice winners Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Vince Vaughn, Fighting With My Family has has won 10 international awards, including Best Family Film from Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE
Other recent additions include Oscar-winning classics like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha and Jerry Maguire, as well as the Oscar-nominated Donnie Brasco and the BAFTA-winning Groundhog Day.
