I did the unthinkable final week: I paused my Netflix subscription and determined to solely watch content material from a smaller, lesser-known streaming service known as Mubi as a substitute.
The outcomes? I watched a variety of motion pictures that I usually wouldn’t be capable of discover on top-of-the-line streaming companies. From arthouse and indie movies like Pablo Larraín’s Ema, to world cinema and restored classics like Tarsem Singh’s The Fall, a variety of the titles I watched aren’t broadly accessible to stream elsewhere.
Whereas mainstream streaming companies have performed a worthwhile function in serving to to distribute extra indie movies, in newer years many have needed to tighten their purse strings as they appear to funnel more cash to their studio’s big-ticket productions. This implies indie motion pictures do not are likely to make up an enormous a part of their libraries, giving Mubi the chance to cater to a distinct segment that the favored streamers are neglecting.
It’s possible you’ll like
Mubi’s catalog might need lots much less alternative than the likes of Netflix, however this provides its unique content material (each self-made and bought) much more exclusivity, because it’s the one place to search out sure movies. What Mubi is actually providing is a gateway to a few of the greatest movie festivals’ highlights, so should you didn’t get to go to this 12 months’s Cannes, Sundance, Berlinale or Venice festivals, Mubi is your streaming portal.
In fact, not each movie from these festivals is streaming on Mubi. The price of buying motion pictures relies on the size of a manufacturing and the status of the studio behind it. However with Mubi making its greatest acquisition ever at this 12 months’s Cannes – it spent $24 million on Lynne Ramsay’s competition darling Die My Love (pictured above) – it is beginning to develop into a viable rival to streamers with deeper pockets.
What I streamed throughout my Mubi subscription
Pablo Larraín’s Ema was one of many arthouse movies I watched on Mubi. (Picture credit score: Mubi)
If you happen to’re new to Mubi, there’s by no means been a greater time to be entering into impartial cinema. Indie studios corresponding to A24 and Neon are producing a few of the film world’s most talked-about releases – who may overlook final 12 months’s Oscar-winning hit Anora? Or what about a few of the greatest horror motion pictures of 2024 like I Noticed the TV Glow and Lengthy Legs?
Mubi’s personal distribution studio is making waves within the area, too. It most notably secured the worldwide streaming rights to Coralie Fargeat’s physique horrorThe Substance final 12 months, alongside Magnus von Horn’s true-crime drama The Lady with the Needle and Andrea Arnold’s dreamscape coming-of-age drama Fowl, which if you have not seen is an absolute must-watch.
Arnold is understood for casting unknown actors alongside established stars, and this formulation works brilliantly for Fowl, which sees Barry Keoghan (Salt Burn) starring alongside newcomer Nykiya Adams.
Different highlights from its 2024 releases (that I’ve seen to date) embrace the Latvian indie film Circulation, which beat Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 to win Greatest Animated Characteristic on the Academy Awards, in addition to Gia Coppola’s The Final Showgirl and Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour.
I additionally managed to search out some older movies that I hadn’t seen in years like John Carpenter’s Escape From New York (if you have not met Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken earlier than, you then’re welcome), Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Pores and skin and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. I additionally made certain to stream these 9 motion pictures on Mubi with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes beneficial by TechRadar’s Rowan Davies.
What I am most excited for, although, is the brand new motion pictures and sequence that Mubi acquired at this 12 months’s festivals, and that are but to be launched on the streaming service. From what I am seeing on-line from those that attended the screenings, Cooper Raiff’s Hal & Harper, Alex Russell’s Lurker and Oliver Laxe’s Sirât are among the many most-anticipated, with all three having over 90% rankings on Rotten Tomatoes based mostly on early critic opinions.
What I beloved about streaming motion pictures on Mubi
Andrea Arnold’s Fowl was one in every of my favourite watches on Mubi. (Picture credit score: Mubi)
We as soon as hailed Mubi because the “antidote to streaming fatigue”, and I wholeheartedly agree with this for the way in which it takes a totally totally different strategy to curating its library. In contrast to the extra standard streamers, Mubi hand-picks the movies it reveals, making it lots simpler to search out one thing new to observe.
I am certain many have discovered themselves making one in every of these 5 errors when selecting what to observe on Netflix (or any streaming service for that matter); whether or not or not it’s ignoring non-English titles or judging a film by its cowl artwork. Nevertheless it’s lots more durable to do that on a service like Mubi, primarily as a result of it focuses on overseas movies (it at all times consists of the nation of the place a movie is made), and due to the unimaginable cowl artwork it options for every title.
It even has a Curator’s Highlight part of featured movies to make deciding what to observe simpler, but it surely’s value noting that this varies by area due to distribution rights. As an illustration, within the US, Mubi’s editors have picked Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, Alonso Ruizpalacios’ La Cocina, Daisy Von Scherler Mayer’s Get together Lady and Michael Almeryda’s Marjorie Prime, whereas within the UK solely La Cocina is beneficial out of these 4.
Mubi additionally has a treasure trove of little-known content material that makes discovering one thing new to observe satisfying and recent. Half the time, I’ve by no means heard of the movies I see in its catalog, which implies I am consistently discovering new underground hits I want I might identified about sooner. I could not ask for something extra from a streaming service.
