Amazon Prime Video, as previously mentioned, really is a fantastic streaming service and most of us have access to it without ever really using it.
As you scroll through using the one-click ‘Buy Now’ function on a new microwave egg poacher that you won’t use when life goes back to normal, take a look at the extensive amount of great film and TV content available with your Amazon Prime account.
With over a 100 new films being added a week, it is really worth keeping track of. Despite it boasting some big blockbusters, I’ve gone through the Amazon Prime Video catalogue and found you some hidden gems for you to try. From singing fisherman to one of the most beautifully shot films I’ve ever seen, there’s hopefully something in here for everyone.
Tip: If there’s a student living in your household, you can get Amazon Prime for just £39 a year.
The Farewell (2019)
Director: Lulu Wang – 100mins – Age Certificate: PG
Despite being a hit in the States, The Farewell was not given a huge cinematic release in the UK and thus deserves its place as a ‘Hidden Gem’.
Based on director Lulu Wang’s own personal experiences, The Farewell follows Billi (Awkwafina), an aspiring Chinese-American writer living in America, who has a close relationship with her Chinese Grandmother Nai Nai.
Billi discovers that Nai Nai has been diagnosed with cancer and doesn’t have long to live, but Nai Nai is unaware of this. Billi heads back to China for her cousin’s wedding that been conveniently brought forward, but is warned by her family to not tell Nai Nai about her condition.
This is a heart-warming family film that has a great balance of humour and emotion. The Academy Awards were highly criticised for their lack of diversity in their nominations, with many calling for Awkwafina (Oceans 8, Jumanji: The Next Level) to be nominated for Best Actress for her performance in this, but was awarded a Golden Globe nomination.
Guy Movies Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Vast of Night (2020)
Director: Andrew Patterson – 89mins – Age Certificate: 12
The Vast of Night is a gripping sci-fi mystery set in 1950s New Mexico and follows teenagers Faye (Sierra McCormick), a switchboard operator, and fast-talking local late-night DJ; Everett (Jake Horowitz).
With the majority of the town watching a local college basketball match, a strange sound comes through the switchboard and radio broadcast. Determined to find out what’s happening, Faye and Everett down their tools and head out to discover what’s going on.
In Andrew Patterson’s directorial debut, The Vast of Night boasts incredible cinematography, a 1950s sheen and it's a film armed with many stunning long continuous shots. The beginning may feel slow and erratic, but Patterson soon flips the film into an eerie mysterious-thriller.
The film was released to drive by cinemas in the US- maybe something the UK could look at for the ‘new normal'? - before being released on Amazon Prime on May 29. If you love cinematography, sci-fi or mysteries then The Vast of Night is a must watch for you.
Guy Movies Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Tomboy (2011)
Director: Celine Sciamma – 82mins – Age Certificate: U
With a 2011 release, this outstanding film that explores the struggles people in the transgender community face; almost feels way ahead of its time. Tomboy tells the story of a 10-year-old French girl called Laure, who wants to be a boy.
After moving to a new area with her family in Paris, Laure introduces herself to her new friends as a sport-loving, play-fighting boy called Mickael. Mickael plays football with a group of boys and becomes very close to a girl called Lisa, while trying to hide her new identity to her family.
Tomboy is a beautiful film, but heart-breaking at the same time. It may not be flowing with dialogue, but Celine Sciamma uses silence in the most poignant and emotional ways.
Having never really learnt and experienced much about the transgender community myself, Tomboy is a great film that can act as perfect education for such an important subject.
Guy Movies Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Fisherman’s Friends (2018)
Director: Chris Foggin - 112mins - Age Certificate: 12
Fisherman’s Friends was in the news for the wrong reasons of late, when Noel Clarke (Kidulthood, Adulthood) called out the film’s marketing department for not putting him on the film’s movie poster, electing to only choose six white actors and actresses.
However, the film is great and there’s something wonderfully British about a story of a group of singing fisherman who are discovered by music executive Danny (Daniel Mays – Marcus from Netflix’s White Lines) after he’s ditched by his London friends while on a stag do in Cornwell.
At first the fisherman aren’t impressed with Danny’s advances to try and sign them onto a record label, while Danny soon becomes interested in one of the fisherman’s daughters; Alwyn (Tuppence Middleton).
It’s another brilliant British rom-com, with a surprisingly catchy sailor shanty soundtrack. If you enjoy this film, you’ll be pleased to know that a sequel is currently in pre-production for when the Fisherman’s Friends performed at Glastonbury in 2011.
Guy Movies Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Blow the Man Down (2020)
Director: Bridget Savage Cole & Danielle Crudy – 91mins – Age Certificate: 15
After attending her mother’s funeral, Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor) heads to a bar where she meets a man call Gorski (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Intoxicated, she agrees to go home with Gorski, but he tries to attack her after she discovers blood and hair in the boot of his car.
Mary Beth flees, finds a harpoon and kills Gorski. Panicked by her actions, she calls up her sister Priscilla (Sophie Lowe) to help her dispose the body and throw it in the sea, but the two are careless and leave a knife behind that is engraved with the name of the fish store they have inherited.
The plot synopsis may sound gruesome, but Blow the Man Down is a black comedy/mystery that explores what life is like in a corrupt small town where everyone knows everyone.
There are a number of subplots involving the local people, the bent police force and friends of the sisters’ mother, that’s tense and keeps you guessing throughout. Blow the Man Down is well worth an hour and a half of your time, so give it a watch.
Guy Movies Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Detainment (2018)
Director: Vincente Lamb – 30mins – Age Certificate: 15
Detainment re-tells the story that shocked the world when in 1993 two ten-year-old boys from Liverpool tragically murdered two-year-old James Bulger, after kidnapping him from a Merseyside shopping centre.
This harrowing short film is based on the transcription of Jon Venables (the outstanding Ely Solan) and Robert Thompson’s (Leon Hughes) police interviews that followed after the arrest.
It’s a tough watch, however director Vincent Lamb does a fantastic job of approaching the subject matter, and the short film even received an Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short Film in 2019.
Guy Movies Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
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