Friday’s streaming options: A Magic Lantern trio

Keeping up with its attempts to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its attendant obligation on all of us to avoid public gatherings, the Magic Lantern has announced three new streaming options that will be offered on Friday:

“Beanpole” : Two young women strive to overcome the devastation that follows the World War II siege of Leningrad. In Russian with English subtitles.

From Manohla Dargis , New York Times: “This is only the second feature from the sensationally talented Russian director Kantemir Balagov (who was born in 1991), and it’s a gut punch. It’s also a brilliantly told, deeply moving story about love — in all its manifestations, perversity and obstinacy.”

“A White White Day” : Following the recent death of his wife, a police officer begins to suspect that she had been having an affair. His investigations become progressively more obsessive. In Icelandic with English subtitles.

From Mike D’Angelo , the A.V. Club: “The film’s true power is elemental, rooted in weather conditions that all but erase the distinction between land and sky, and in the inky darkness of a tunnel traversed by one haggard, trudging figure whose weary body intermittently blocks a sliver of light barely visible at its far end.”

“Bacurau” : A young woman returns to her rural Brazilian town only to encounter a strange set of circumstances that lead to violence and death. Two words: Udo Kier . In Portuguese with English subtitles.

From Peter Bradshaw , The Guardian: “It is a really strange film, beginning in a kind of ethno-anthropology and documentary style, becoming a poisoned-herd parable or fever dream and then a Jacobean-style bloodbath. It is an utterly distinctive film-making, executed with ruthless clarity and force.”

That’s it for the moment, As always, I’ll update when necessary.