MUBI: Curated Cinema

Let’s be real. You’re not going to love every film you ever watch and you won’t love every film mubi puts up on the platform. I can count on one hand the amount of five star films I’ve viewed on mubi among the many I’ve seen so far. I’ve used the service off and on for about a year and I have to say my most recent subscription is likely going to stick. I’ve started getting into more hidden gems and true independently made cinema and mubi is the one mainstream streaming service that is making a concerted effort to bring you movies you would never discover otherwise. On top of all that they are distributing some of the most mesmerizing contemporary cinema themselves (The Worst Person in the World, Drive my Car, Aftersun, Decision to Leave, etc.) and I adore everything they are doing. The only other service I would personally recommend is the Criterion Channel for quality programming but mubi is 100% making a play for that crown in my book!

Mubi is unlike any other platform, with movies you can’t find in any other platforms. It opened a whole new world of cinema for me and for that I’m grateful. However, Mubi has one undeniable problem. The subtitles are bad. There’s just no other way to say it. I speak more than one language and noticed the subtitles did not translate correctly what was spoken by the characters. I could also notice this problem while watching movies in languages I didn’t even speak. Some sentences were not translated at all. The character would deliver their line and no subtitles were there to indicate whatever was being said. All of this made me very insecure while watching foreign language movies. I was always wondering if the sentences in the subtitles were actually the sentences being spoken. Or had the meaning - the subtlety of the dialogue - been lost to me? Could I trust these subtitles or were they pointing me in the wrong direction? It was almost impossible for me to know during that armenian movie last week and I also had a hard time guessing during that one in mandarin. However, I keep signing Mubi every month, a bit skeptical of the subtitles, but hopeful nonetheless. Maybe this review will reach the eyes of someone who can fix this problem. Maybe just the eyes of a casual viewer who will now be as suspicious as me. Hope it was helpful either way.

I’m truly in love with this streaming service. The movies that I find on here are carefully and respectfully curated for me to watch. If I didn’t have MUBI, I’m sure I’d have a much harder time finding these movies. That being said there’s something about MUBI that kind of rubs me the wrong way. Every month, I have a system where I watch movies that are leaving streaming services that I’m subscribed to. Not every streaming service announces what titles they’re getting rid of, but MUBI is one that does. My problem is that they don’t tell you at the beginning of a particular month what movies they’re getting rid of. Instead, they tell you which movies they’re getting rid of in the next 12 - 13 days. This impedes my program a bit. I’m sure there’s a particular reason they do this, but nevertheless if they could tell you at the beginning of the month which of their titles they’re getting rid of, I wish they’d do that instead. And I would think the service better for doing so. Ultimately I have the utmost respect for the people working at MUBI. I will always be a loyal subscriber.

So I see talk of millennials and Gen Z and I think, geez I’m a Gen X and a white girl and this looks a lot like my time at Ohio State in the 80s. True, I don’t know what it’s like to be bi racial, but still I could feel Riley’s multi dimensional self hate, being rejected not only by a white boy but by an Asian boy too (and you want to scream at her: “So what if he’s cute? He’s a skater dude, dumb, he plays video games!”). The doofus white ex boyfriend w whom she fights outside (and I too love the female passerby tells him no one asked him to talk— something I’ve wanted to tell about 4,000 white guys in the last 40 years)— this scene is great, bc she’s so angry, properly, at him, but then sees the absurdity of their situation. Her anxiety attack at home? With her parents? So real. Again, I understand the element of racism is something I’ll never understand, but this is still the female college senior’s Every[wo]man story, finding yourself humiliated over and over without understanding why. And when her sister says, “It must be boring being so sad all the time,” you realize she just doesn’t understand…. Yet.

I woke up feeling as if a big municipal machine had ran on me. I should preserve my energy more alertly I thought. I opened my eyes. Silence. Reached out to my screen. Searched for something to watch and to listen to. Sound and imagery helps me to redefine my dimensions. I have to do it every long morning I get to stay in bed. Alone and silent. After a long absence from the world while dreaming all night. This morning, however, I was craving for more dreams rather than sinking back into reality. I saw the first seconds of this film. I saw the stuffed animals on the boat, motionless. They suddenly turned their head to the camera, motionless again. I decided to continue this dream. Even though it didn’t make any sense. That’s how I wanted to feel, nonessential.

Between the website and the application there is no continuity. Two years ago I signed up for free trial. Of course, back then MUBI was having problems with Apple. I canceled subscription with Apple but, of course MUBI tells me that wasn’t enough I had to cancel through them. Fine, I took the package deal for one year. Again, no problem until year is up and they automatically renew subscription. Again, not happy about that I missed the single e-mail telling me about it because I now have a different e-mail service and the old contact e-mail is no longer applicable. I enjoy their programming and kept it even though now it was twice the original amount. My subscription ended this year because my credit card had expired and they couldn’t renew it. So, a week ago I see that they are having a sale and I provide a new account e-mail and credit card and sign up. Now what’s the problem you ask? I can’t watch their service on my tv because there isn’t a way to change the app on there. Now I’m stuck watching MUBI on my phone until customer service responds within their 3 day time frame. Very unhappy with service.

I love the movies they feature on this app. I’m a writer/director, and the movies they have featured here are phenomenal. The app needs some fine-tuning but I don’t think its out of their wheelhouse so I’m hopeful they will be able to sort some of the following things out: There is no search function on the app. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a drama. Sometimes I want a comedy. I don’t know all the titles off the top of my head, as much as I wish I did. If you are interested in making movies, producing, directing, or interested in filmmaking as an art, this app is fantastic at finding out what other people are doing, what works well. If you love going off somewhere else for 2 hours, be it sad or happy, scary or intense, the movies featured here will remind you what cinema is for many of us. But when I have time, at the end of my day and my arthritis is acting up, I still have to fold the laundry, take a shower and catch up on work before 11pm and I was just asked the 974 question... I just need someone else to choose something for me. Please don’t make me do more work. I wanna see how Cannes winners from 2017 pair to 2021, and what people did different. I wanna search by country, or budget, or by narrative method. Help me make decisions, don’t force me to. Also they feature movies they don’t have available, but you cannot see that from the thumbnail.

Never overwhelming, this app is perfect for anyone who wants to watch repertory and current programming that’s often undermined or little known, but isn’t overflowing with options. My only dislike is that I’ve missed a lot of films that expired after their 30 days on the app, but having some sort of alarm system (maybe being able to select films you want a countdown reminder for until it leaves?) would have been helpful. I may still have missed the films, but at least it would have felt like I had tried to catch them. Super user-friendly app and sleek in design too. I love this streaming platform.

MUBI is great. I’ll start there. It’s the rare service where you always find engaging, inspiring cinema. But — and this is a big ‘but’ — the app is frustrating to use. It’s strangely glitchy. Things you’re downloading to watch later will show they’re downloaded, but when you go to watch them (and you’re off wifi or cellular), I can’t get things to play, as if it needs internet to verify that I can indeed watch what I want to watch. Not ideal when I’m away from home. When I am at home, AirPlay does not work…but only in full screen. I’m sitting on my couch with my iPad wanting to watch a film, and I AirPlay the sound to my HomePods. The sound indeed plays, but the screen only shows a still of the movie. Strangely, if I put it in Picture-in-Picture, I can watch the movie no problem. It’s only in full screen that the movie won’t display on my iPad. Again, I can’t complain. This is a great service. But at this point, you expect a streaming app to have basic functionality. HBOMax recently got their act together and worked out these issues… if they can fix things, anyone can.

Update on my second subscription after giving them a year to get it together: still a terrible, user hostile app giving, or sometimes denying, subscribers access to some real cinematic gems. Downloading for offline viewing fails more often than not, and usually at over 80% to add insult to injury. Also, when I resubscribed they started spamming me in German, so it’s a good bet this is not GDPR compliant in any way. It’s still the only place to find some of these weirder art films, but if you have any need for offline viewing, or you care a lot about subtitles, or you’re picky about UX in general — it will drive you mad. Original: Curated and mostly serious videos but the user experience leaves much to be desired. For instance subtitle choices are often absurd, which for a cinephile offering is a problem.

Mubi makes an incredible variety of films available, and their curated series are particularly impressive — easy introductions to new filmmakers, movements, or topics. That said, the download option is so hit-and-miss that it’s nearly useless. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, as well as tried many different wi-fi sources, but the result is always the same: more often than not, films get stuck at about 9% for weeks, or try for a while, and then fail. Given that one of the great things about an app like Mubi is being able to watch things offline, this is a huge flaw in an otherwise excellent service.

I’m forever thankful for MUBI for providing access to increasingly hard to find cinema from feature-length narrative films from across the globe to great documentaries and experimental shorts. The curation and special series are always well thought out and have introduced me to new directors that have since become some of my favorite filmmakers. In a perfect world, I would love the option to pay a higher subscription rate and not have the films disappear after 30 days, but the transient nature of the films presentation adds something to the way I watch the films, so maybe that’s just part of MUBI’s magic :)

remember that? when films weren’t just self-indulgent drivel? over-pumped execs trying to maintain their plump bank accounts at the expense of culture? when films were made to connect to each other across boundaries without having to resort to saturated music or plots with the same formulaic push-button repetition or faces? remember when you didn’t think ‘i should really cancel this subscription’? that’s cause you’re watching something on mubi.

This app needs to revisit graphic design 101. It would be nice to see what this app is all about but it’s a mishmash of styles and colors that push esthetics over good old fashion readability. They want $13 a month for the equivalent of art haus trash design. Just NO! The app fails miserably at its primary goal which is to inform its users of great cinema. It’s extremely hard work to read. Click though to a review it quickly becomes sadistic and beyond frustrating to discover the art team made the choice to use anorexic light gray fonts more applicable to fashion models then simple block text for the body of an article. Until they embrace better design I recommend a hard pass.

Wondering in your boutique video store, I’m often amazed by the treasure I find. Great content. Respect to the curators and operations team. However, the user experience especially on the App is a bit disappointing. There are a couple of times I can’t download a film, and it’s frustrating that on the train in NYC, I have to switch to Netflix or Sundance Now or other services because of tech issue. I want the quiet moment with Varda back.

Variety, diversity and simplicity. MUBI provides what other movie streaming services don’t - curated film selections that are hard to come by. Independent, foreign, documentary, vintage and contemporary movies I would not have the opportunity to see or learn about unless I lived in a major metropolis (and possibly not even if I did.) I particularly like the monthly focus on one particular director’s body of work. Lots to choose from without the hassle of wading through loads of mass-appeal big-box movies. Very reasonable monthly fee with even better yearly subscription pricing. If you enjoy “art house” films that you can watch on your Smartphone, tablet, SmartTV or computer (internet connection required) I enthusiastically recommend you check out MUBI.

For me and many others users “favorites” folder in menu was a very important feature. It allowed you to keep films you enjoy out of any comparisons and ratings, there was a lot of them that I couldn’t just rate because each of them is very unique. I could easily switch even to this new type of order and new rules, but instead of a notice for an upcoming changes people just lost their folders with their collections. Please bring it back for us at least for a short period of time, just to allow everyone rate their films from favorites folder before you delete it, so that the films won’t be lost!

Positives: eclectic art house international mix, and good extras like film critiques and essays Negatives: Poor coordination btwn Apple and MUBI… never had trouble canceling an app renewal until MUBI. Then I searched my wallet app and found they billed me 3 times in a month, yet still have me as unsubscribed. Hellish nightmare to try to resolve. Wants me to click twice to pay again to view film of day today 30MAR even though Apple says I paid until end of April 2022. In a half dozen years of Apple apps, I’ve never written negative review. Unfortunately streak ends, though I hope MUBI thrives based on its great content, rather than dubious multiple Billings.

MUBI is like having an art house cinema in your living room. The film selection is constantly updated, so you’re not stuck waiting for new choices. I’m trying out the service right now, and have had no problems either on iPad or using airplay to view through Apple TV. Audio and video quality are excellent. If I view four films during my week trial (likely will) I’ll go ahead and pay for the access.

Initially I had an issue playing video from this app (as well as the web site) through an HDMI cable connected to the lightning port. After posting a review about it, the developer promptly suggested that a non-HDCP compliant HDMI cable was the cause of the problem, not the service, and after selecting the correct cable, the problem was solved. Very happy with both the app and the responsiveness of the developers.

I’m experiencing buffering issues when using Mubi with chromecast in 100% of the times. Every movie I watch, no matter the internet speed (I tested with 20, 50 and even 100M) takes 20-30% longer due to buffering. It can happen every 3-4 min along the whole movie and take up to 2-3 min to resume (the average being 24 seconds - I timed it). In other words, the experience makes it unusable for someone like me that don’t enjoy watching movies in a small screen but rather in a TV set. I really expect a fix for this most annoying problem. Thanks!

Have to be selective about when to subscribe due to high price but it’s worth it for the fantastic curation. What’s not worth $15 per month is a streaming app that can’t play for 30 seconds before quitting out of the film and bringing you back to the movie’s page. It’s not even buffering-I have to wait for it to quit out and then rebuffed before it will play again. I have good Internet and no other streaming app I use has this issue. I can skate by on downloads this month but a service this pricey has to actually function to be worth it. EDIT: this happens for downloads to so I guess it’s just wasted money.

4/22 update: I tried to stream just now through your app and can't even go a minute without it immediately stopping and being told the network connection was lost. So congratulations mubi, for making your platform and movies inaccessible to developing countries without similar internet speeds and money. Thanks for being elitist mubi!!!!! Does that sentence make you happy? paraphrased. This is very... this is very inconvenient especially for countries without the fastest internet connections. I am trying not to fume right now, MUBI. I have never regretted updating an app this much. PLEASE return that functionality to older iOS it was never a problem before.

I really like this app. I don’t always see the films presented but when I breeze through them, I find some wonderful ones. I especially like the choice of foreign films. And certain directors. This is like my hidden treasure. And it works fine. I had this before and stopped it because some months I didn’t like the choice of films. But I started it up again this past year and I’m glad I did.

Memorable movies curated from countries one would never get to know about, from directors devoted to their innate skill, from auteurs who create entire films and known actors to unknown amateurs, whet my appetite every month. The comments from reviewers have value in reading their point of view, whether I agree or not, they are helpful in choosing what to watch. If you love movies, Mubi selections will surprise you. Watch out, addiction is catching.

I really love the curated selection MUBI offers, however I have essentially broken the app by subscribing to a free trial in-app without first creating an account. Now that I have an active iTunes subscription, the app defaults to a screen telling me to “Just enter your email to start watching.” without any kind of field to finish registering an email address. My only option is to tap login, but when I enter my email—unsurprisingly—it can’t find an associated account. So yeah, now I’m just stuck on that one screen with no way to use my active trial. Please fix.

I have found the one app that scratches my cinema itch. This app has gems I’ve seen before and long forgotten and a plethora of new films that catch you and encapsulate you in their world. My only downside is that when watching on my phone, the movies do not go landscape so I am forced to watch the films in portrait mode. Other than that this app is amazing and can cast to your tv for extra large viewing!!

Amazing selection of films. Users can download films for offline viewing. Under each listing, there are related articles and interviews. The cast & crew biographies are easy to browse, & allow you to navigate to their other works & watch trailers for the films not on Mubi. I wish they had an easy-to-find list of movies that will soon leave the service. In fact, the selection is somewhat difficult to navigate - why can't I browse by country, genre, or year? But I expect to have no other complaints. I subscribed to Mubi as part of the Scribd perks package - a best-kept secret & total steal. The $10/month Scribd subscription includes Mubi, CuriosityStream, Pandora, ConTV & more. Best bang-for-your-buck on the internet! 10/10 no regerts [sic].

Endlessly scrolling myriad, seeming limitless options? Yeah, me too. I just want something good and I’ll know it when I see it and it probably won’t be among the most popular options. I have outsourced this activity to Mubi and I couldn’t be happier. If I watch one thing on TV a week, that is a lot of TV for me. Now with all the time saved questing for that perfect choice, I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my more time searching than enjoying.

It seems like the dev team never tests offline viewing in adverse conditions, but that’s precisely when you’d use this app: on the subway, the train, on a plane… downloading films offline is extremely fragile: if you close the app, move to a different page, let the screen lock or disrupt the download in any way, you must delete the whole download and restart. Every update fixes one issue and introduces two more. Who uses this app on a phone when they have reliable internet?

New complaint that’s not been fixed with many updates. The downloading. Not understanding why the tally hits 100% but doesn’t turn over and fully complete. Shouldn’t have to delete the app and already downloaded films in order to test / resolve this. Please look into it. Otherwise the new design is great.

MUBI is the only modern streaming service worth my time and money. The quality of films they curate are world-class, and as a cinephile and filmmaker, they continue to find movies that even I have never heard of but can count on to be great. I love their day in day out model, site and app design, the many platforms I can stream on, and the service they’re doing for the world - keeping indie, festival, and foreign cinema alive and easily available.

I just signed up with mubi a few days ago, but I made accidentally made a mistake with my account settings. It was a total human error, my fault, but I reached out to customer support and they got the issue straightened out within 24 hours! The customer service is really great- especially for students! Can’t wait to start watching this really cool selection of movies!

If there is a search function, it’s hidden so well that I can’t check for a title (or actor or director). I can only scroll through the films they’re featuring and pick one. This is the film app equivalent of being stuck in an Automat with a dwindling inventory for the remaining meals of my life - what I can see is the absolute most I can get, and it’s not a lot. GET A SEARCH FUNCTION. If you have one, put it on the home screen. 0 stars really, but I had to pick 1 star to be allowed to post.

Downloads that fail to play. Subtitles that often say they’re in English, but actually aren’t. Audio out of synch. Endless streaming and buffering delays. Unable to report technical issues because of, yes, another glitch... While it’s a great idea and the selection of films is intriguing and well curated, it seems that every single time I try to watch a film on Mubi, I encounter yet another technical issue that prevents me from doing so. in short, until they manage to iron out all the technical issues, buying a subscription is a waste of time and money. I will be canceling mine soon.

I originally joined this great hope and enthusiasm, enjoying the foreign films on offer. But in the months that followed, my perception was that the joyful spark had gone out of the curation, subjecting me instead to enforced depression. When I first chose to leave, I was given a year’s discount if I stayed. I gave the service a second chance, but the selections only got more depressing. Living in our already depressing times and watching media that enforces that depression does not help anything or anyone. The rebellion of creative joy is what’s required. I canceled. If they do toss the morose for the motivating, I’d join again.

A great way to watch movies if you’re tired of Hollywood and Netflix. However the app could use some work and I wish it was available on PS4 so I could watch it easier. My biggest issue is the app should have better account settings, the watch list should be its own page, and the twitter tab should not be its own page. Other than this I love the service

I subscribed through Mubi through the Apple TV app, so I have access to Mubi movies through that app, but not through the Mubi app directly. This also means I can’t access Mubi through other devices. Additionally, the Mubi movies that launch via the Apple TV app do not play in surround, even if the trailers (and any other app on my Apple TV) do. This seems like a cool service, but the subscription is confusing. I am being billed by Mubi, but I appear to be paying only to access the service through the Apple TV app, and without surround support.

MUBI is a terrific and valuable niche player for true movie aficionados. The independent and classic offerings are interesting, offbeat, and well-chosen — with engaging, pithy reviews (including a fun optional daily digest). The TV and iOS app are simple and well designed. Films are only available for a month, which is a downside — but it keeps things fresh. MUBI deserves to succeed as a companion to the mainstream offerings of the big players.

Great to be able to access hidden gems and offbeat classics. The UI could certainly be improved but otherwise this is definitely worth the subscription if you want to have a choice of interesting films from a wide variety of sources.

If you want to see the world of global cinema in its surprising diversity, enter your own world-class film festival, you will travel more than anywhere else. Gems await you! FYI I am not paid to write this, I am just awed by the richness available. Some recent highlights include Herzog, Mangolte & many others I will add at a later point.

They have an intriguing movie selection. However, I canceled before my free trial ended. So many technical glitches, movies stopped playing repeatedly (over multiple nights) and returned to the menu, I wasn’t able to download movies, it said “please try again later” all evening. If I’d have paid I would have felt cheated.

The great distinguishing feature of MUBI was its curation of a new film daily. This kept so many of us checking the app every day. They’ve done away with it and claim somehow it’s an improvement. But, truly, this has killed the experience of MUBI. Now, it’s just another streaming service. The daily curation made up for what the app lacks in usability, searchability, and organization. It’s difficult to find anything, and the new layout just looks disorganized. They’ve traded their greatest feature with chaos. This is a massive disappointment.

I enjoy the service a great deal... and the only reason I don’t give it 5 stars is because of the buffering issues , that when present, are borderline unbearable. Hope they improve it... the quality of movies available are worth the subscription regardless.

I understand that what this is trying to do is explain the level of distress the main character has with all the interactions happening at the same time but adding the music and the baby crying that was too much. If I was seeing this in the movie theater I should have probably left, is not credible someone not caring about a baby crying during the shiva even if she’s a shiksa she would have been asked to get out with the baby.

Mubi introduced me to countless movies of otherwise never even heard of and ended up loving. Even if I'd have found them elsewhere I'd likely pushed off watching them for years. Because movies disappear from Mubi after 30 days I actually watch this stuff and it's great! Mubi is the best deal in streaming for cinephiles!

Elegant and uncomplicated, the MUBI app gives you a beautifully curated selection of films to watch, with a new surprise every day. They may not always be titles you're familiar with, but they have been selected with such care and intelligence that if you are a film lover you can't go wrong. And the concept of the app itself is pure genius.

Featuring an eclectic range of curated films, MUBI offers one an opportunity to see the world, to learn about other cultures, situations, and ways of being, and to be exposed to little-known, and at times, esoteric films and filmmakers. This website has really broadened my cinematic horizons as well as helped me to improve my French. Goodbye, Netflix - hello, MUBI :)

Yes, passion and peculiar curiosity still lives. Here! Mubi hosts some of the worlds most intriguing and classically undisputed entertaining cinema of the past 100 years. A force to the online movie world. When my movie store closed down in Greenwich village, i cried sad tears. When i was introduced to Mubi i cried tears of joy! Alas! More than 3 years later i still stand by my never-bored proclamation.

Who wrote the synopsis for Silvia Prieto? Did s/he even watch the movie? First, Silvia doesn’t sell soap. She gives away promotional samples. Second, she only checks the phone book once or twice. Third, there is no obsession with the other Silvia Prieto or other Silvias Prieto. MUBI: next time make sure that the person who writes a synopsis watched the movie.