MUBI: our pick of the best films coming in May from The Beaches of Agnès to Return to Reason

There’s no doubt that MUBI has carved out a niche spot for itself in the ever-competitive streaming marketplace. There really are few better places online to hunt down exquisite arthouse and independent films – and its collection ranges from old favourites such as Argento’s 1977 horror Suspiria, to newer releases such as Alice Diop’s Saint Omer.

In May, another selection of exciting films will be released on the site. From classic romances to eye-opening documentaries, here’s our pick of the best films coming to MUBI this month – and, even better, Evening Standard readers can get 30 days of MUBI free.

Undoubtedly one of the world’s loveliest documentaries, this film from Belgian director Agnès Varda, one of her last, is a love letter to cinema, and to the friends, colleagues and loved ones who enriched her extraordinary life. A wondrous, humorous collage of videos, photographs and cartoons, the film, which is narrated by Varda, is gentle, funny and unbelievably tender and heart-warming: “To love cinema is to love Jacques Demy [her husband who died in 1990], painting, family and puzzles, and again to love Jacques Demy, for a long time, until the end,” she says, introducing the film in its trailer.

In Olivier Assayas’s supernatural psychological thriller, which critics described as “uncategorisable” and “undeniably terrifying”, Kristen Stewart stars is Maureen, an American in Paris working as a personal shopper to a celebrity. But everything is not what it seems as she tries to communicate with her dead twin brother.

Fashion designer Tom Ford’s exquisite directorial debut, A Single Man, is based on British writer Christopher Isherwood’s (1904-1986) 1964 novel about George, an English professor living and working in Los Angeles, coming to terms with the death of his partner Jim. Surprising Ford’s critics, the film, which starred Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Goode and model Jon Kortajarena is not only gorgeous but packs an emotional punch.

For cinephiles it's an understatement to say that Return to Reason is a treat inclusion. Surrealist visual artist Man Ray’s short laid the ground work for dozens of today’s most important experimental films, from Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) to Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966). Featuring the torso of French model Alice Prin, aka Kiki de Montparnasse, it’s a delight of shapes, shadows and light.

This month MUBI is adding a collection of maverick Romanian film director Radu Jude’s rare films to the site, including early works such as Shadow of a Cloud (2013) and his playful short Plastic Semiotic (2021). The Tube with a Hat, a story of a boy and father who head into town to fix a broken telly, was his first project as director and set the stage for future works: it’s gritty, thought-provoking and full of dry humour.

This indie comedy-drama from American comedian-author-actor Miranda July is about love in all its different forms: the love between a dad and his sons, the romance between a shoe salesman and his new girlfriend, and so on. Everyone in the film’s awkward and/or kooky, and naturally the relationships don’t go smoothly, but it’s a heartening watch all the same.

The latest project from Bill and Turner Ross, the brothers known for their unscripted pseudo-documentary Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020), is a visually stunning coming-of-age film following five American teenagers as they go on a 500-mile trip to the coast. A meditation on growing up, the indie, which premiered at Venice last September, boasts staggering landscapes cut with intimate, close-up scenes between the young adults.