This week I’m choosing some great films from Amazon Prime, two very different selections, both well worth a watch.

We start with The Vast of Night, a very assured debut film based in 1950s small town Americana with a sci-fi tinge.

Town switchboard operator Fay is listening to her local radio station while working the late shift the night of an important high school basketball game.

When a neighbour calls to report strange hovering lights in the sky just as eerie bursts of static interrupt the radio, Fay teams up with graveyard shift disc jockey Everett to investigate.

This low budget delight looks beautiful and is filmed with real verve and brio with some of the camera moves and staging looking like the work of a real master.

Feeling like those classic 1980s films like ET and The Goonies with a dash of cold war paranoia and a slightly more adult tone, The Vast of Night is free for Prime members and will hopefully be available for everyone else before too long.

Ride Like a Girl is the latest Premium VOD (Video on Demand) film to come onto my radar, mainly due to the presence of the ever reliable actor, Sam Neill.

Rachel Griffiths (Muriel’s Wedding) makes her directorial debut with this inspiring true life tale of Australian jockey Michelle Payne, the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup (Australia’s equivalent of our Grand National, as far as I can make out).

Payne fought her way back from serious injury and her victory was as significant in a male dominated sport as it was unexpected.

Films based on true life stories are inevitably about the journey, not the destination, and rely on solid acting.

Ride Like a Girl’s outcome may never be in doubt, but it’s definitely worth putting your money on this one.