Steven Soderbergh's suspenseful spy drama Black Bag, Ryan Coogler's rollicking deep-south horror Sinners and Walter Salles' shattering political drama I'm Still Here all deservedly feature in Rotten Tomatoes' 'Best New Movies of 2025' list.
But topping the Tomatometer-ranked round-up is Rungano Nyoni's follow-up to her BAFTA-winning feature directorial debut, I Am Not a Witch (2017).
On Becoming A Guinea Fowl is another critically acclaimed hit, carrying a 100 per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating. Film critic Roger Ebert called Nyoni's latest "an entrancing watch," while The New York Times wrote that the main protagonist "keeps you tethered throughout".
More than a year after its premiere at Cannes Film Festival, On Becoming A Guinea Fowl is currently available to rent on the Sky Store (UK) and Amazon (UK/US) for only £3.49 and $5.99 respectively, but from Friday it will be available to stream on Max (US).
That means it should be available to stream on Sky's Now TV service in the UK, if not also this weekend, then presumably very shortly after, following the recently renewed deal between Sky and Warner Bros Discovery.
The movie opens with Shula (Susan Chardy) finding her Uncle Fred dead on the road on her way home from a fancy dress party, and follows her experience over the ensuing days during the traditional Zambian funeral rites, when a dark family secret is revealed that causes tensions in the tight-knit family.
On Becoming A Guinea Fowl is an enlightening and somewhat damning exploration of a society whereby cultural traditions overpower morals, and silence takes precedence over justice, as through Shula and the other generations of women in her family we witness the emotional weight of hiding shame and suppressing trauma.
Indeed, the symbolism behind its surreal title unfolds as we learn the value of the vocal behaviour of the native African guinea fowl.
What Nyoni does so compellingly, as she did in I Am Not a Witch, is weave in flourishes of magical surrealism, here to illustrate Shula's actual frame of mind in contrast to her outwardly impassive and dutiful demeanour. Its poetic, dream-like quality keeps you hung in an absorbed state.
There are thought-provoking contrasts everywhere – the searing, heavy narrative undertow peppered with sporadic, sly moments of absurdist humour; the way the stoic Shula, her drunk, party-hard cousin Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela) and the grief-stricken female elders wear their grief; and in the utterly captivating cinematography by David Gallego as he paints vivid pictures of the stark reality alongside abstract art that speaks the unsaid words of Shula.
Nyoni has become one of the most distinctive voices in cinema, and with On Becoming A Guinea Fowl, she manages to sink her hooks into you once again.
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