MUBI

I've been meaning to wibble on about MUBI for a while. According to MUBI it is "a curated online cinema bringing you cult, classic, independent, and award-winning movies".

So essentially what this means is that they always have a play list of thirty films online in a FIFO and every day one is added and one falls off. Here's the current UK list¹.

The best way I can describe it is that it's like having a permanent film festival happening on your sofa and, on the plus side, over the past couple of weeks it's made me watch things I'd never have watched otherwise like these:

• The September Issue - documentary about the creation of the 2007 Fall edition of Vogue. This was the first thing I watched on MUBI and I would have never considered it cold - why would I be interested in Vogue - but it turned out to be fascinating.
• Paprika - beautifully crafted anime. I have to say the plot didn't do anything for me, but it was a joy to just watch.
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off - which apparently everyone has seen ... except me. Teen comedy done very, very well.
• Adaption. - smart Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman movie (even better than Being John Malkovich I thought, which I have on DVD and it did lead me to re-watch - which again is part of the point of MUBI it seems to me - it makes you think and explore the world of film).
• Last Orders - a group of working-class friends reunite after the death of one of their old crew, reminiscing back to earlier days. Real star cast of British actors this one (Mirren, Caine, Hoskins, Courteney, Winstone) and very well put together. I loved it.

So, as I say, it is exactly like a film festival.

On the negative side they're flaky. They had a period of three or four days when movies kept stalling (but, to be fair, they gave me a 30 day extension after I moaned about that) and the Android app is a bit unstable - to the point where I've had to re-boot the tablet several times - but most of the time I watch the films on the big screen and HiFi via my trusty Chromecast and that works just fine.

But on the whole I like it and it's also reasonably priced compared to Netflix (which I've now dropped - we've got Amazon Prime too so I'm in danger of having far too much stuff to watch).

Anyway if you like the sound of it then, like everyone these days, they're doing a "refer a friend" deal. So go here, sign up, and you get a 30 day free trial. If you continue with it after that, and I think you will, then I get another 30 days free as well.

1. It varies by country, so there's separate lists in every country they operate, currently here, USA, Canada, France, Germany and Turkey.