If you walked a mile in my shoes, you'd quickly realise I don't do much walking – at least not professionally. A big part of my role here at T3 is keeping track of all of the many comings and goings of the streaming world, reporting on trailers, chart-toppers and surprise departures from the best streaming services in the world.
That means a lot of time spent in the orbit of giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, but neither of them is my favourite streaming service, to be candid. That label doesn't even apply to Apple TV+, which I think is the best option for most people right now. Rather, my favourite service is way smaller – the more tightly-curated platform that is Mubi.
This lovely streamer has a focus on arthouse and independent movies and has humble origins. I signed up for it years and years ago, when it had a unique approach that saw one movie leave the service every day, replaced by a new one, so there was only a month to watch each one, as the roster constantly slowly rotated.
Mubi abandoned that approach a few years ago in an attempt to grow, and it clearly worked. Now, you get a more permanent library of films, but they're simply of a way higher average quality than the likes of Netflix or Prime Video. That comes with basically only a single downside – it's a little harder to find an "easy" movie on Mubi, if you're not in the mood to concentrate.
Just in the last couple of weeks, though, I've watched Only God Forgives, Mysterious Skin, The Souvenir and Another Round, each of them immediately thought-provoking and interesting in their cinematographic choices. That, for me, is the whole point of sitting down to watch a movie at home – being made to think a little, and being challenged, if possible.
As that list of what I've watched recently makes obvious, the platform also features older movies, movies in languages other than English, and even a range of shorts for those with less time on their hands. The blurbs accompanying each are a little longer than on competing services, and they're great for grounding your viewing a little before you start (or explaining things after).
If you're tired of logging onto Netflix and getting overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of content before you, I'd urge you to give Mubi a try. Commit to watching a movie at least a couple of times per week, and choose from its smaller lineup – you'll almost certainly have more to say about what you see than you would on most other platforms.
