Watchlist for Lockdown 2.0

OTT platforms have arrived with a truckload of content for you to whale away time during the newest round of lockdown. Whether you’re working from home or chilling, make sure you watch this mix of old and new content… available across platforms. Here are some of our handpicked choices...

The X-Files (Amazon Prime Video)

Yes, every episode of this iconic series about FBI agents investigating paranormal goings-on has been available on Amazon Prime Video for some time. TV has come a long way since the 1990s, and the way Mulder and Scully’s supernatural cases and conspiracy tales are presented does feel quite antiquated when compared to more sophisticated modern drama series – but if you’re watching, you’re probably driven by nostalgia, and there’s some really good stuff in here once you give yourself over to its internal logic.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Disney Hotstar+)

Even if you’re not someone who adores every Wes Anderson film, it’s difficult not to be taken in by the utterly delightful Grand Budapest Hotel. It’s typically whimsical and gorgeously presented, with eye-popping colours and patterns, but this tale of a dapper, deliberate, disarmingly foul-mouthed and extremely accommodating hotel concierge who's framed for murder is also easily the most gripping and downright hilarious film Anderson has made, thanks in no small part to the superb Ralph Fiennes in the lead role.

Dunkirk (Amazon Prime Video)

Debuting on Amazon Prime, Christopher Nolan’s recreation of the British and French armies’ evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 is an audio-visual masterpiece, richly served with moments of both quiet grandeur and epic spectacle. With little dialogue, few CGI effects and an enemy that’s never directly seen, Nolan conjures up the hopelessness of the surrounded British Expeditionary Force, trapped between the sea and the German army and prey to horrifying attacks from the air, and the heroism of soldiers, sailors, pilots and civilians caught up in a desperate situation. Hans Zimmer’s score, meanwhile, remains a masterclass in understated power.

Call Me by your name (Netflix)

The film takes place in one long 1980s northern Italian summer, Call Me By Your Name is a coming-of-age story about an outwardly precocious teenager (Timothée Chalamet) who falls for an older American (Armie Hammer) that comes to stay at his family’s holiday home. Revealing any more would spoil the joy of this wonderful movie, which drifts warmly, hazily and lazily along like the perfect summertime. One of the few popular movies about a gay relationship that doesn’t use the sexuality of its participants as a plot point, it conveys a universality that puts it among the finest films of the past few years.

I Care A Lot (Netflix)

Here’s proof that it’s possible to make an engaging film even when none of the characters are “good” or particularly likeable, I Care A Lot stars Rosamunde Pike as legal guardian Marla Grayson, a ruthless, driven predator who makes a killing by exploiting the elderly people she’s supposed to be looking out for. Her latest ward (Dianne Wiest) looks like a goldmine, but turns out to be a doorway to trouble – thanks to some unlikely connections with the criminal underworld. Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage and Mexican actress Eiza González also star in this viciously dark but deliciously enjoyable comedy.