The Best Movies New to Every Major Streaming Platform in April 2025

“A Traveler’s Needs” (dir. Hong Sang-soo, 2024)

MUBI’s April slate is anchored by the streaming premiere of Miguel Gomes’ dreamy travelogue “Grand Tour,” and salted with a number of strong one-offs (including Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta,” Gia Coppola’s misunderstood “Mainstream,” and Richard Linklater’s “Bernie”). But the real highlight of the month would have to be the trio of Isabelle Huppert/Hong Sang-soo collaborations that MUBI has been kind enough to collect together all in one place. The best, or at least the most substantial of the three is also the most recent: “A Traveler’s Needs,” which won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale last year. Here’s a taste of David Opie’s review, which argues that this is Hong’s funniest film in ages:

“Hong and Huppert embark on an adventure without purpose, or so it would seem as we follow a French woman named Iris as she wanders adrift through Seoul in search of who knows what. For long stretches of time, Iris practices the recorder (badly) in community parks or sits alone, savoring her beloved Korean rice wine, aka Makgeolli, in between bites of bibimbap. Of the titular needs this traveler requires, money ends up being one of them, so she turns to teaching French, which is where we first meet her, mid-lesson, with a local Korean student.  

As is so often the case for Hong, his latest is a gentle, hypnotically watchable film that breezes by as Iris does herself, dallying around Seoul in a loose summer dress and her striking bright-green cardigan. But ‘A Traveler’s Needs’ is deceptively simple in that regard. Through its cyclical structure and detached protagonist, the film plays in a liminal space of Hong’s making that challenges what it can mean to assimilate in a land that’s not your own. With no backstory and no apparent future either, Iris exists only in the here and now, an alluring apparition who we can project our own thoughts and ideas onto, like an expat who’s free to start anew and redefine themselves in a whole new world. It’s this central mystery around Huppert’s lead that keeps the film in your mind long after it’s ended, anchored by one of the most unique and exciting actor-director collaborations in contemporary cinema.”

Available to stream April 11

Other highlights:

– “Mainstream” (4/1)
– “Grand Tour” (4/18)
– “Tendaberry” (4/25)