Here at The List we tend to look forward to what's on the horizon but, with entertainment options limited, knowing what to watch right now in the comfort of your home is still much needed. To help ride out these challenging times, we'll keep casting our expert eye over what's new to TV and streaming services each week, bringing you the cream of the current movie crop. Let us do the decision-making for you, and then just sit back and enjoy.

The Forty-Year-Old Version ★★★★★

Launching herself onto the movie-making scene with aplomb, the directorial debut of writer-director-star Radha Blank is a sensational indie dramedy which sees a frustrated Black playwright tangle with a patronising white producer (played by Reed Birney) and turn to rap to let off steam. The Forty-Year-Old Version is hilarious and heartfelt in its observations about who gets to decide what's authentic, and it's shrewd, too, regarding ageist assumptions, which consign women to the scrapheap around the titular age.
Watch now on Netflix.

Halloween ★★★☆☆

Those looking to get their end-of-October chills a little early could do a whole lot worse than David Gordon Green's direct follow-up to the 1978 slasher staple, which conveniently ignores the seven sequels (and two remakes) that followed. He returns original star Jamie Lee Curtis to the fold as Laurie Strode, now a mother and grandmother (to Judy Greer's Karen and Andi Matichak's Allyson respectively) but living a solitary, survivalist lifestyle. She's already doing battle with her demons before they manifest themselves physically in the form of the dreaded Michael Myers. Two more films, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, are set to follow.
Watch now on Netflix.

The Other Side of Hope ★★★★★

You might not be familiar with Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki and, if not, you certainly won't regret getting acquainted. Applying his light touch to often pretty dark subject matter, he takes an absurd approach to life's hardships. His most recent film, 2017's The Other Side of Hope, now playing on MUBI, follows a Syrian refugee (Sherwan Haji) caught up in the bureaucratic, compassionless nightmare of the Finnish asylum system, who befriends a travelling salesman turned terrible restaurateur (Sakari Kuosmanen) in a funny and warm-hearted exploration of the kindness of strangers.
Watch now on MUBI.

Harriet ★★★☆☆

Kasi Lemmons helms this respectable look at the extraordinary life of US abolitionist and activist Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery and helped hundreds of others to do so. It's a film boosted enormously by the work of British star Cynthia Erivo in the lead role, who has shot into the spotlight lately in films like Widows and Bad Times at the El Royale. Nominated for both Best Actress and Best Original Song at the 2020 Academy Awards, Erivo is absolutely sublime and the story is one that everyone needs to know.
Watch now on Sky Cinema.

London Film Festival Winners

To mark this year's BFI London Film Festival, which has once again delivered an astonishing line-up against all odds, Curzon Home Cinema have gathered together an impressive selection of award-winners from festivals past. British gems, including Andrea Arnold's Red Road, Clio Barnard's The Arbor and Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, rub up against the work of Russian master Andrey Zvyagintsev, whose films Leviathan and Loveless also feature. But it's the Oscar-winning Polish drama Ida and the blistering South American civil war flick Monos that are our picks.
Watch now on Curzon Home Cinema.