BABYLON (1980) Stream on Criterion Channel; Rent on YouTube, Google Play, Amazon and iTunes. Despite having its debut at Cannes nearly four decades ago, this film, which offers an unflinching look at daily life for black people in South London in the ’80s, was just released in America last March. The film follows Blue (Brinsley Forde), a young mechanic who’s steeped in the local reggae scene, and the racism and poverty that he encounters in Brixton at that time. In his review for the Times, Wesley Morris wrote, “The movie arrived with an X rating, which, in Britain, was basically like an R. But it ensured that the young black people whom ‘Babylon’ was primarily made for wouldn’t have been let into a theater to see it.”

BLOWN AWAY Stream on Netflix. If you get nervous watching people construct delicate baked goods in the summer heat on “The Great British Baking Show,” then this new Netflix competition show will send your stress levels soaring. This series brings together 10 masters of the niche art of glassblowing, where they compete for a chance to win $60,000 in prizes. To stay in the race, they have to work under pressure to create intricate glass robots, realistic-looking glass body parts and colorful botanical-themed sculptures that will impress the judges. It’s like “Top Chef” meets “Forged in Fire,” History’s bladesmithing reality show, and the art is mesmerizing to watch.