Hamlet

Hamlet (2024) is a British psychological thriller drawn from Shakespeare, and you can watch online on iFILM. The Danish prince is played by Ian McKellen — and that casting is the whole point. An actor in his eighties takes on the young avenger, letting age become part of the tragedy rather than an obstacle to it.

Director Sean Mathias drags the story out of vague medieval pageantry into something jittery and contemporary. Hamlet's father is dead, his mother has remarried his uncle Claudius far too quickly, and a ghost whispers that the crown sits on a murderer's head. What follows is a slow slide into madness, real or performed — the film never quite tells you which. The Theatre Royal Windsor stands in for Elsinore top to bottom: cellars become dungeons, the rooftop becomes a battlement, and the camera prowls the corridors as restlessly as the prince himself.

Jenny Seagrove and Steven Berkoff round out the cast. It's a chamber piece, almost claustrophobic, made for viewers ready to hear a familiar text afresh and accept a bold piece of casting. Stream Hamlet (2024) online on iFILM.