‘Mubi in a Netflix world’ by a Netflix user

By vinodnarayan on January 4, 2015 • ( 0 )

I have been a Netflix user for a long time now, watching great deal of movies on it. At anytime I have around 400 movies in my list to watch. Many have been there for so long that I forgot.

The reason Netflix has been so attractive to me is because at a time I watch more than one movie. Meaning I need not necessarily complete a movie in one sitting and so I might watch a movie, stop and come back and watch it later, in the meantime I might have started another movie. At a time I usually have 4 movies that will be in a viewing journey

People ask me why I do that as they feel it loses the fun of the movie. I do the same with books. I love when I kind of feel characters walk out of one movie or book and walk into another one in my mind. It also helps me understand movies and books the way I want.

I came across Mubi two weeks back. It is interesting how I found it. I went to google and searched “movies about poets” and it gave me the result for “films based on poems”. Mubi was on the 3rd position and there I was.

Mubi has a very interesting model. You pay a flat $4.99 and get access to a number of films. 30 to be precise. They add a new movie every day and it will remain to be watched for 30 days. And I saw the list and I was impressed by them. A mix of foreign language and english movies across cult, classic, award winning and independent films.

Mubi also have a community that can suggest movies you would like to have on Mubi which I found interesting. There are reviewers who communicate through the site. It is like a paradise for movie lovers. I am still exploring the site so I can participate more

Now I have taken a Mubi membership and the question I have is will it replace my Netflix membership. I do not think it will but I think I will be more involved with Mubi as you feel that community better. At Netflix I spend a lot of time searching what is new and adding them to the list.

I am not yet ready to comment on the Mubi film selection but I see a lot of promise. I can understand that listing 30 movies that can appeal to a big audience is not that easy. But I think it is not impossible. At least for me when I read through the list I feel like watching all of them. Out of the 30 there were around 4 that I have watched, but that still leave a good amount

Here is a short list for you to get a feel
The Exploding Girl (English-2009)
NUIT #1 (French-2011)
Terribly Happy (Danish-2008)
Three Monkeys (Turkish-2008)
Salut Les Cubains (French-1963)

Mubi for me could be my choice of destination for serious movies, I saw that there were more French movies there and that was interesting because my first expectation would be one movie from a language. But then I thought and it made sense because the focus is on movie and not on the language. I understand they have a team making these selections and they are doing a good job on it.

Will do a second blog later once I get used to it. Mubi might change my movie viewing habits a bit as sometime I pick up a movie to watch from where I left a few months ago. Here I need to wrap up my viewing of a movie in 30 days. But I think I can happily live with that.

I don’t think Netflix will go, but Mubi will stay on. Mubi will become my preferred choice and Netflix for the kids.