Whether you’re in the mood for award-winning international cinema, gripping historical dramas, avant-garde documentaries, slapstick comedy, or nightmarish horror, there are dozens of exciting new films that you can stream on Kanopy using your Livingston Library card. Check out the recommended titles below, or browse Kanopy’s full collection of new releases here. (Descriptions provided by Kanopy)
Perfect Days (2023, directed by Wim Wenders)
Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) is content with his simple life cleaning toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Unexpected encounters reveal more of his story in a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the world around us.
Ferrari (2023, directed by Michael Mann)
Set during the summer of 1957. Behind the spectacle and danger of 1950’s Formula 1, ex-racer, Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver), is in crisis. Bankruptcy stalks the company he and his wife, Laura (Penelope Cruz), built from nothing ten years earlier. Their tempestuous marriage struggles with the mourning for their one son. Ferrari struggles with the acknowledgement of another. His drivers’ lust to win pushes them out to the edge. He wagers all in a roll of the dice on one race, the treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy, the iconic Mille Miglia.
Origin (2023, directed by Ava DuVernay)
Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay, Origin chronicles the tragedy and triumph of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson as she investigates a global phenomenon of epic proportions. Portrayed by Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (King Richard), Isabel experiences unfathomable personal loss and love as she crosses continents and cultures to craft one of the defining American books of our time. Inspired by the New York Times best-seller Caste, Origin explores the mystery of history, the wonders of romance and a fight for the future of us all.
One Life (2023, directed by James Hawes)
Anthony Hopkins stars as Nicholas Winton in this remarkable true story of a young London stockbroker who, in the months leading up to World War II, rescued over 600 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The film alternates between Winton’s younger years, where he’s portrayed by Johnny Flynn, as he navigates personal risks and bureaucratic hurdles to save lives, and his later years, reflecting on his legacy.
In the Land of Saints and Sinners (2023, directed by Robert Lorenz)
In a remote Irish village, a damaged Finbar (Liam Neeson) is forced to fight for redemption after a lifetime of sins, but what price is he willing to pay? In the land of saints and sinners, some sins can’t be buried.
Hundreds of Beavers (2023, directed by Mike Cheslik)
In this wild and wacky black-and-white comedy, a drunken 19th-century applejack salesman (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) finds himself up against an army of beavers after losing everything in a freak snowstorm. With no weapons or supplies, he’s forced to rely on sheer cunning (and pure luck) to outsmart the beavers and survive in the wilderness. What follows is a madcap, slapstick battle of man versus nature, filled with zany antics and unexpected twists. Bursting with old-school physical comedy, this film is a rollicking ride through a frostbitten frontier.
Io Capitano (2023, directed by Matteo Garrone)
In this acclaimed film which won top directing and acting prizes at the Venice Film Festival, writer-director Garrone presents a “reverse shot” of the immigration experience while unfurling an epic, cinematographically magnificent odyssey from West Africa to Italy.
Immaculate (2024, directed by Michael Mohan)
Sydney Sweeney stars as Cecilia, an American nun of devout faith, embarking on a new journey in a remote convent in the picturesque Italian countryside. Cecilia’s warm welcome quickly devolves into a nightmare as it becomes clear her new home harbors a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors.
Orlando, My Political Biography (2023, directed by Paul B. Preciado)
Taking Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography as his starting point, academic virtuoso turned filmmaker Paul B. Preciado fashioned the documentary Orlando, My Political Biography—a personal essay, historical analysis, and social manifesto. For almost a century, Woolf’s eponymous hero(ine) has inspired readers with their gender fluidity as well as their physical and spiritual metamorphoses across a three-hundred-year span. In making his film, Preciado invited a diverse group of more than twenty trans and nonbinary people to play the role of Orlando and to participate in this shared biography. Together, they perform interpretations of the novel, weaving into Woolf’s narrative their own stories of transition and identity formation. Not content to simply update a groundbreaking work, Preciado interrogates the relevance of Orlando in the ongoing struggle to secure dignity for trans people worldwide.
Totem (2023, directed by Lila Aviles)
In a bustling Mexican household, seven-year-old Sol is swept up in the whirlwind of preparations for her terminally ill father’s birthday party, led by her mother, aunts, and other relatives. As the day builds to an event both anticipated and dreaded, Sol and her family begin to understand the gravity of this year’s celebration.
—Joe, Adult Services & Acquisitions