MUBI

padjocollins

https://mubi.com/films/prayers-for-the-stolen, great film https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10366574/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

padjocollins

https://mubi.com/films/farewell-amor , https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11380884/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 , well made film , there is an interview with the director after the film.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Watched Joe Dante's Matinee tonight, after seeing it added today.

Set during the Cuban Missile Crisis in Key West, Florida. John Goodman is a director of B movies who is previewing his new film in town, but finds it harder and harder to scare an audience who are living with the threat of nuclear war.

The film itself is an enjoyable enough tribute to cinema, but the film within the film, "Mant!" is amazing.

Fysh

I've been watching Riget/The Kingdom, von Trier's absurd supernatural hospital drama. I'd forgotten how daft it is; very much ER by way of Twin Peaks, in a good way. I'm kind of curious as to how the follow-up will go, I have a vague recollection of reading about a planned sequel series years ago where von Trier thought that too many of the original cast had died for it to work.

I also watched Knife + Heart, a very gay French giallo/slasher homage which was really good - made by someone who understood how to use the form and tropes of its inspirations but without just trotting them out for the sake of it. And when I say "very gay" I'm not kidding - the storyline is centred on a small gay porn production company in 70s Paris, and it's not shy about what the day-to-day work of such a company would look like...

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Aftersun was added today. Interested to see if it lives up to the hype.

Fysh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120072583#Comment_120072583

I caught it at the cinema last week and thought it was excellent, thought it's definitely an understated film.

I finished up The Kingdom: Exodus yesterday, and I think it stuck the landing pretty well (particularly considering the constraints of how many years later it was made and how many of the original cast had passed away since). Bonkers stuff altogether but then so was the original series, very much like an overly absurdist-comedy complement to Twin Peaks.

eddhorse

Might give this a go, try MUBI. 3 months for only €1. Limited time only. 

cheese sandwich

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120072583#Comment_120072583

Going to watch it tonight. I feel like it can’t possibly be as good as the luvvies have made it out to be but here’s hoping!

steve_r

Just signed up to Mubi.

Can I ask where people get their recommendations of what to check out - are there good magazines/ newspaper/blog sources? I’d have an awareness of some of the films on there but a lot of them I would know nothing about them

My other question is more practical - is there a simple way of filtering by language or genre - I.e show me French films only or documentaries only?

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120093678#Comment_120093678

I don't think there's any big one size fits all place for Mubi recommendations, but Sight & Sound is always a good place to start. Their 'best of' lists from the last couple of years should give a few pointers toward some initial films of interest, and they do great monthly reviews and features. Places like Little White Lies, Slant, Vulture and even the likes of The Guardian tend to have pretty robust and diverse film coverage too.

Mubi's own curation tends to be pretty strong, so I would recommend often just taking a gamble on something that sounds interesting - even their best of 2022 list is full of interesting stuff: https://mubi.com/specials/best-of-2022 The user ratings in general on Mubi tend to be a tad more trustworthy than your average site as well, given it's a more enthusiast audience.

I'd also recommend having a look at their seasons / programming strands, like their World Cinema Project selection which is full of fascinating, often neglected classics: https://mubi.com/specials/film-foundation

I don't think there is any specific filter, but they do usually have a bunch of categories focused on specific titles, genres, directors or regions - like this documentary one: https://mubi.com/specials/documentaries

steve_r

Thanks, that’s very helpful. I’d never heard of Slant or Little White lies so I’ll be checking them out.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120093946#Comment_120093946

Letterboxd can be quite useful too, if you use it. Even just browsing through the lists people make can throw up a few gems. If you have an account you can filter more broad lists by what streaming service it's available on. For example, there's a list I have liked called "Feature Length French Films Directed By Women", and when I filter it by streaming services, there's 24 of them showing as available on Mubi.

cheese sandwich

The films available from the MUBI Top 1000, as I understand it based on users’ ratings, is a pretty good guide

padjocollins

french film the world after us , a bit cliched , sometimes a little slow , I liked it https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14043828/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0, https://mubi.com/films/the-world-after-us/player

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Good Favour

Cowritten and directed by Rebecca Daley, who made Mammel a while back with Barry Keoghan.

It's about a religious commune at the edge of some woods. One day Tom comes walking out of the woods, with apparently no memory of who he is or where he came from. The commune had already been skaken by the loss of a child, who went missing in the woods. God's punishment on his mother, apparently. Tom's arrival shakes things up a bit more when people start thinking he's been sent by God to them.

Anyway, its a pretty slow burn and won't be for everyone, but it's definitely one of the more interesting films on this topic. I've seen quite a few that only seem interested in being very obviously critical of the whole religious life, which is fine, but also we already know these places are weird. Good Favour seems more interested in examining the idea of blind faith, and how much people are willing to overlook or ignore because of it, rather then just judging them for it.

strawdog

On a 4 month for 4 euro deal at the mo, appreciate it's all subjective but if anyone had any good recommendations from the current catalogue would love to hear them

Mickeroo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120639606#Comment_120639606

Watched The Five Devils at the weekend and thought it was really good.

Really like Hit the Road and Saint Omer recently too.

For a classic if you haven't seen it, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is well worth a watch.

For something with an Irish interest Rocky Road to Dublin is great if it's still there.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120639606#Comment_120639606

A few that I enjoyed, might not be to everyone's tastes.....

- Aftersun

- Decision To Leave

- Shiva Baby

- Cinema Paradiso

- My Life As a Courgette

- Oslo, August 31st

- Boy

- Summer 1993

- The Illusionist

- Dead Pigs

- Shotgun Stories

- Matinee

- Good Favour (co-written and directed by Irish writer/director Rebecca Daly. It's about a small religious community that has its routine upended when a boy walks out of the woods and into their village with no memory of who he is or where he came from. It's slow moving and very atmospheric, definitely not for everyone, but I loved it.)

johnny_ultimate

The exceptional documentary Mr Bachmann and His Class is well worth four hours of your time. A really grounded, thoughtful portrait of a modern classroom, and a welcome antidote to your usual inspirational teacher fare (although Herr Bachmann does seem like a bit of a legend :))

One of my favourite films of the last decade, the late Hu Bo's extraordinary An Elephant Sitting Still, is also streaming at the moment. Just a remarkable look at urban despair and uncertainty in modern China. If four hours isn't long enough for you, the peerless eight hour masterpiece Satantango is also currently streaming ;)

The great South Korean Murakami-adaptation Burning has been readded recently. That and Drive My Car are both exceptional films.

The great Japanese oddball horror Onibaba is up there for the next few days and very much worth a look.

Of recent Mubi releases, Petite Maman, Aftersun and Decision to Leave are all superb in their own distinct ways.

strawdog

Thanks a mill for the recommendations.

With all the coverage it got Aftersun was about the only one of the recent releases on my radar, Petit Maman I did get round to last time and loved it, great to hear Cinema Paradiso up there as well, seen it few times but due a rewatch, Had Drive My Car and My Life as a Courgette on my list before but never got to them last time I subscribed and had forgotten about them so will rectify that. Loved Être et Avoir so Mr Bachmann movie sounds right down my alley too.

 Will hopefully get through the other shouts as well, need to get back in the habit of regular watching so I can justify the sub outside of the deals!

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120642817#Comment_120642817

I watched Aftersun some time ago. At first, it seemed so slow. I wasn't sure what the point of it was. There is no real story to it - it is pure character building and relationship development. It gets interesting as you get immersed in the onscreen interactions. And builds to a height in a dance scene at the end. I don't think it gives anything away in the movie by saying that. That particular scene has stayed with me since. And I have watched it several times since.

Spoiler Warning

I think it helps to know that a significant theme in the movie is about mental illness. I didn't get that until well into the film. I think I would have enjoyed it better if I was aware of what the writer/producer/director were trying to portray from the beginning. It would have explained some of what seemed like pointless scenes, but are actually very poignant moments.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120643193#Comment_120643193

I found with Aftersun that people had talked around it so much that it felt kind of obvious to me what it was they were talking around. I did worry that knowing that going in would spoil some of the experience for me, as most people who raved about it seemed to have gone in blind. But honestly it didn't. It is so slow and very much a "nothing happens" kind of thing for so long that I could see going in blind actually being a hindrance, especially if you're not able to pick up on the tiny breadcrumbs along the way.

I knew exactly what it was about before watching and it still absolutely floored me by the end. I've genuinely never had such a visceral reaction to a film before.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120643368#Comment_120643368

Ya, I knew nothing about it - except that it was a story of people being on holidays. I didn't really get it for a while into the film. I may be a bit slower than the average viewer. But as it picked up pace a little bit on the emotions side of things, I really started to get into it. And then the last 10 mins or so just blew me away completely. And made it all so much worthwhile.

padjocollins

https://mubi.com/films/digger-2020 , greek film , slow at times but worth watching

Fysh

I see from today's email that Mubi are completing the transition away from their original pre-pandemic model and are no longer adding a film every day. Tbh it's understandable, since they aren't removing a film every day in the same way as before - but I must admit I liked the idea of having a daily "this is the new film and why we think it's interesting" email. It was like the exact antithesis of the Netflix-style "content dump".

I look forward to seeing what their weekly newsletters are like.

brevity

Good to see the 4k being available.

I was very close to cancelling the subscription because I'm not getting the time to watch any of the movies. Will hold tough for a while.

I did get to watch Medusa Deluxe which I thought was good.

Fysh

Agreed, Medusa Deluxe was a great watch.

brevity

I watched The Five Devils last night.

Strange movie. Weirdly captivating.

A young girl has a enhanced sense of smell and captures different smells in jars. Her estranged Aunt comes to visit and has a vial of liquid that when mixed with different jars causes the young girl to kind time travel to before she was born. Her Mum, Father and Aunt are teenagers and she learns their history.

I liked it? Everyone is really good in it and it has an eerieness to it that kept me engaged.

padjocollins

https://mubi.com/en/sa/films/tengo-suenos-electricos , 'i have electric dreams', I loved this film, very raw

padjocollins

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3474994, casa grande 2014 . brazil. 7.7 mubi rating