Another week, another streaming service getting into the theatrical release business. This time it is “Now Streaming” mainstay MUBI, as announced on Variety, as they have secured the UK and Ireland rights to distribute festival darling Arabian Nights. As part of the deal, shortly after the theatrical release, MUBI will do what they do best and make the film available on their streaming service. With Netflix, Amazon and now MUBI in on the theatrical game, the writing on the wall has been outlined in permanent marker—the way we consume movies will continue to change in the coming years. And now check out the titles new to the various streaming sites below.

Netflix

Zero Motivation (Talya Lavie, 2014)

One of the best films in the recent run out of Israel, Zero Motivation is a darkly comedic take on the intense situation in the Middle East. In the vein of MASH, this is a wartime film without any war, replacing bullets and bombs with a group of young women bored to death by the menial office work they are charged with as part of their required military service. Perhaps the film’s strongest attribute is its balance between sometimes silly, sometimes droll situational humor with the very serious backdrop—it always understands that there are real stakes at play here, even with a group of characters plucked from the Israeli cast of Girls. When we picked it as one the best films from 2014 that you may have missed, we called the film a “confidently pleasant experience, one that’s surprisingly funny and likable.”

Other titles new to Netflix this week:
The Guest (Adam Wingard, 2014)
Set Fire to the Stars (Andy Goddard, 2014)
Teacher of the Year (Jason Strouse, 2014)

Fandor

Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)

A much different type of film from the Middle East is Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry. The film involves a middle-aged Iranian man seeking to find someone who will help in burying him after he commits suicide. Much of the film takes place inside of Mr. Badii’s truck as he talks with them about the unique job he is hiring. This structure gives the film a slow, meandering pace, but much rewarding philosophical thought. Today, the film might be most famous for its 1-star review from Roger Ebert (who, interestingly, loved the similarly themed Goodbye Solo). Taste of Cherry is presented by Fandor as part of its Criterion Picks exploring some of the best independent films of the 1990s—a few of which are highlighted below. As with many Fandor streaming selections, it is available for a limited time. If you want to catch up with Taste of Cherry, or any of the 1990s picks, you will have to do so by August 2.

Other titles new to Fandor this week:
An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion, 1990)
Emporte-moi (Léa Pool, 1999)
Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay, 1999)
Rhymes for Young Ghouls (Jeff Barnaby, 2013)
Schizopolis (Steven Soderbergh, 1996)

MUBI

Poetry (Lee Chang-dong, 2010)

Poetry is a beautiful and poignant film from one of most emotionally resonant storytellers working in today’s world cinema. The film is a character profile of an elderly woman who begins showing the early signs of Alzheimer’s—the title coming from a poetry class the woman begins taking in order to maintain her mental strength. Of the filmmakers coming from the South Korean New Wave, Lee works less within the extreme genres and more from the country’s melodramatic traditions. Poetry does blend in some elements of crime and violence, but is much more a simple character study.

Other titles new to MUBI this week:
Barking Dogs Never Bite (Bong Joon-ho, 2000)
Casanova ’70 (Mario Monicelli, 1965)
The Ruling Class (Peter Medak, 1972)
The Stunt Man (Richard Rush, 1980)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)

iTunes and VOD

Veep (Season 4)

Hitting iTunes for rental or purchase this week is the wonderful fourth season of the HBO comedy series Veep. This season saw Selena Meyer and her ragtag team (including new cast member Hugh Laurie as her perhaps too popular running mate) hitting the campaign trail, ending in a shocking election night. Episode #9 “Testimony” is a particular highlight—the episode is completely made from the “found footage” taken from a congressional committee hearing. An homage to the landmark McCarthy hearings documentary Point of Order, “Testimony” gives a new for to Veep‘s biting satire. With the fate of Selena Meyer up in the air, the show’s brilliant creator, Armando Iannucci, is stepping away as executive producer, writer, and director.

Other titles new to VOD this week:
Before We Go (Chris Evans, 2014)
Child 44 (Daniel Espinosa, 2015)
Felix and Meira (Maxime Giroux, 2014)
House of Lies (Season 4)
Lucky Stiff (Christopher Ashley, 2014)

Tales of forbidden love are as old as film itself (older, really, when you consider stories from the likes of Shakespeare, the Bible, and Greek Mythology). Despite the number of films that have tapped the well of infidelity in the past, filmmakers are routinely compelled to revisit the subject, offering everything from new interpretations of old stories to new twists on old themes. Canadian filmmaker Maxime Giroux chooses the latter path for his latest film, the rich drama Felix and Meira.

Felix (Martin Dubreuil) is a secular, single, middle-ager living life out of pocket. His father, a man from whom he had been estranged for ten years, passes away not long after a sad deathbed reunion. This loss causes Felix to ponder his own life choices.

Meira (Hadas Yaron) is a young Hasidic woman who lives nearby. She is married to Shulem (Luzer Twersky) and together they have a small child. But their life is far from perfect. Meira is oppressed by her husband’s strict adherence to a faith that brings with it a dogma that offers little for women—especially a young, beautiful woman with a penchant for the very arts her religion denies her.

A chance meeting in a Montreal bakery brings Felix and Meira together. Still aching from his father’s death, Felix is interested in Meira’s religious perspective, while she’s interested in his drawings and his life in the secular world. What begins as a tentative acquaintance blossoms into something so much more. Despite their differences—age, faith, worldly ways, marital status—their attraction to each other is undeniable. Their outward efforts to be together only reinforce those inner feelings.

What a wonderful story this film tells, as cowritten by Giroux and Alexandre Laferrière. Felix and Meira takes the traditional trappings of a tale of forbidden love—trappings that are overt at best and flirt with being cliché at worst—and submerges them all in a world of cultural oppression. This is the genius of the story’s construct, really. Meira isn’t some young, sad housewife looking for a man who will make her happy (even if only temporarily), nor is she stuck in a rut and looking for an exciting diversion. She is trapped by her husband’s devout faith.

Giroux and Laferrière are careful about this delineation. The little things Shulem catches Meira doing before her encounter with Felix are violations of Hasidic dogma, not affronts to him as her husband; that said, as a devout man of faith he disciplines her accordingly. Unfortunately Shulem sees himself as an extension of his own faith, while Meira sees him as the poster child for it and cannot separate him from it. This cripples their marriage.

Once Felix and Meira meet, the burn of their relationship is incredibly measured. Felix’s maturity reigns here, as he knows she is a woman who is working her way through enormous personal change for a chance at something better. Sometimes that enormous change must come in tiny steps. There is a wonderful scene early in their acquaintance where Meira struggles to make basic eye contact with Felix. It isn’t because she is shy, but because Hasidic rules do not allow for women to look into the eyes of other men. Little things like this become enormous hurdles for Meira, and Felix waits for her to clear them. The film is full of these wonderful moments.

In the role of Meira, Hadas Yaron is mesmerizing. As the story slowly unfolds, she carries with her an incredible frustration that she struggles to conquer. This happens not only while she is with Shulem, but even when she is away from him. Yaron understands that the specter of Meira’s faith will be with her no matter where Shulem might be, and it looms. Yaron also knows the slow burn of the film happens at her character’s pace, and she manages that pace remarkably.

Sadly, the same can’t be said for Felix’s character development. Unlike Yaron, he has no chance to take his character through any type of emotional transformation. The back story of his estrangement from his father and his father’s passing only seems to serve as an excuse for him to see Meira in her traditional garb and pose faith-based questions as an icebreaker to their eventual relationship. Dubreuil is perfectly fine in the role, but his character ultimately serves only as a means to Yaron’s character’s end.

Either on its own or as part of a sublime Hadas Yaron double feature with 2012’s Fill the Void (another film the actress dazzles in), Felix and Meira handles the familiar tale of love and oppression with rich care and unique perspectives.