Just earlier than we rang in 2025, one among our writers named Mubi as their favourite streaming service of the yr and although it has but to instate itself as one among our greatest streaming companies, I downloaded it for the primary time to see what all of the fuss is about. Just a couple of days after putting in it, I’ve already added 9 motion pictures with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Out of Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu, Mubi is the epicentre for drama and artwork motion pictures – which if you realize me is correct up my road. And particularly since it is a new yr, I’m seeking to broaden my horizons with regards to discovering new motion pictures to observe and if they’ve sky-high Rotten Tomatoes scores, I’m all eyes and ears.
My freshly curated Mubi watchlist is made up of 9 genre-ranging motion pictures that span 30 years of cinema – lots of which occur to be the directorial debuts of probably the most excellent moviemakers, with Steve McQueen, Emma Seligman, and Coralie Fargeat making the minimize.
On seeing what’s at the moment out there in Mubi’s catalog, I might really feel myself getting slightly carried away with pleasure, and conserving my listing right down to a minimal was fairly a problem. Here’s the primary 9 motion pictures I’ll be watching to check the Mubi waters.
Hunger (2008)
RT Score: 90%
Director: Steve McQueen
Age ranking: N/A
Runtime: 92 minutes
I added Hunger to my watchlist for 2 causes; the primary being that Hunger is Steve McQueen’s directorial debut, and the second being… Michael Fassbender. Set within the backdrop of the 1981 starvation strikes in Northern Ireland, McQueen’s historic drama stars Fassbender as IRA member Bobby Sands. Leading a bunch of prisoners within the second starvation strike and participating within the ‘no wash protest’, McQueen’s drama tells the story of Sands’ participation throughout the Troubles which sought to place an finish to British affect on Northern Ireland and restore independence.
Watch the trailer for Hunger on YouTube
La Chimera (2023)
RT Score: 94%
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Age ranking: N/A
Runtime: 130 minutes
Similarly to Hunger, I added La Chimera to my listing for one cause; Josh O’Connor. Being a fan of his efficiency in The Crown (probably the greatest Netflix exhibits) and naturally one among finest motion pictures of 2024 Challengers (2024), my obsession has prevailed – so this is to much more Josh O’Connor in 2025.
Meaning ‘The Impossible Dream’ when translated, La Chimera is an journey story set within the Nineteen Eighties following archaeologist Arthur (O’Connor) who’s reunited along with his gang of looters and grave robbers after serving time. Their shared ‘Chimera’ is to realize a straightforward wealth, however for Arthur, his dream is to be reunited with the girl he misplaced. Embarking on an journey that transcends each the true world and the underworld, Arthur and his band of tombaroli plough by means of every kind of environments to be able to get one other step nearer to their wishes.
Watch the trailer for La Chimera on YouTube
Shiva Baby (2020)
RT Score: 96%
Director: Emma Seligman
Age ranking: N/A
Runtime: 77 minutes
Emma Seligman’s black comedy highschool drama Bottoms (2023) was a triumph, and was the primary perception I needed to her skills as a filmmaker – in addition to Rachel Sennott’s aptitude for comedy, performing, and writing. Shiva Baby was Seligman’s characteristic directorial debut and has been on my radar for fairly a while, so naturally, it needed to be one of many first motion pictures to make on my Mubi watchlist.
Based on Seligman’s 2018 brief film of the identical identify, Shiva Baby is ready in actual time in the identical setting the place bisexual Jewish faculty scholar Danielle (Sennott) attends a funeral service along with her dad and mom. During the funeral’s occasions, Danielle runs into all method of visitors – together with her ex-girlfriend and sugar daddy.
Watch the complete trailer for Shiva Baby on YouTube
Aftersun (2022)
RT Score: 95%
Director: Charlotte Wells
Age ranking: R
Runtime: 101 minutes
From what I’ve heard about Charlotte Wells’ coming-of-age drama, it is a story that explores deep themes of grief and despair and is a film that exams your emotional limits. Movies like this all the time curiosity me, but when it is as hard-hitting as All of Us Strangers (2023) then I’m in for a wild experience – that film ruined me.
In the late ’90s, 11 year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) and her father Calum (Paul Mescal) make a journey to a Turkish resort. Twenty years after their trip, Sophie displays on the time she spent along with her father, piecing collectively a picture of her father with recollections each actual and imagined – coming to phrases with the person she knew, and the one she did not.
Watch the complete trailer for Aftersun on YouTube
Paris Is Burning (1990)
RT Score: 98%
Director: Jennie Livingston
Age ranking: R
Runtime: 78 minutes
If Livingston’s gritty documentary teaches you one factor it is that studying is, actually, elementary. Before I watched the Hulu present Pose (which I topped the most effective Ryan Murphy present), Paris Is Burning was my first perception to the wealthy historical past of ballroom and its affect in queer tradition. It’s been a couple of years since I final watched the legendary documentary, so I’m undoubtedly due a refresh.
In it is brief 78-minute run time, Livingston chronicles the lives of drag artists and performers throughout the mid-late ’80s in New York City and their ‘homes’ – fashioned to create a house and group for queer individuals who have been rejected by the remainder of society. In an expression of their appreciation for all issues vogue, voguing, and performing, they compete in balls with their respective homes to make a reputation for themselves and create their very own world separate to the one from which they have been shunned.
Watch the complete trailer for Paris Is Burning on YouTube
How to Have Sex (2023)
RT Score: 97%
Director: Molly Manning Walker
Age ranking: N/A
Runtime: 98 minutes
If you’ve got ever been on a trip filled with clubbing and ingesting, be {that a} UK summer season vacation or for spring break within the US, then you definately might be able to relate to Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex. Since its launch, the film has been topic of unbelievable important acclaim, with audiences praising lead actress Mia McKenna-Bruce for her debut characteristic efficiency that earned her the BAFTA Rising Star Award.
Three finest associates Tara (McKenna-Bruce), Em (Enva Lewis), and Skye (Lara Peake) fly out to Malia, Greece for a boozy women’ vacation. Looking ahead to a visit full of nightlife and hooking up, they’re hoping that their rites-of-passage vacation will mark the most effective summer season of their lives. But being the one virgin amongst her associates, Tara feels the effervescent stress of dwelling as much as the sexual experiences of the others.
Watch the complete trailer for How to Have Sex on YouTube
Tangerine (2015)
RT Score: 96%
Director: Sean Baker
Age ranking: R
Runtime: 87 minutes
Sean Baker’s Tangerine has been flip-flopping between streaming companies for so long as I can keep in mind, cropping up many instances in my month-to-month streaming lists. It’s been a troublesome one to maintain pinned to my watchlists, however Mubi has lastly saved the day.
Shot utilizing simply three iPhone 5S units, Kitana Kiki-Rodriguez stars as Sin-Dee, a trans intercourse employee traversing by means of Hollywood after studying her pimp boyfriend has been dishonest on her whereas she was serving time. Fuelled with rage, Sin-Dee decides it is time she teaches him a lesson in addition to his new lover, setting out on a quest for candy revenge.
Watch the complete trailer for Tangerine on YouTube
The Florida Project (2017)
RT Score: 96%
Director: Sean Baker
Age ranking: R
Runtime: 115 minutes
The Florida Project marks the second Sean Baker film in my listing, and like Tangerine, it floats between streaming companies making it one other powerful one for me to catch. And particularly with the roaring success Baker’s latest characteristic Anora making its rounds throughout this yr’s award season, I really feel the necessity to go to his earlier works.
Baker’s slice of life drama follows six year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) dwelling along with her unemployed single mom at a motel in Florida. In between her summertime adventures, Moonee’s mom struggles to make ends meet and is near caving into a lifetime of homelessness. Juxtaposed with the fantastical aura of the close by Walt Disney World resort, the film explores the easy pleasures in life and the artwork of making your individual pleasure whereas profiting from what you have got round you.
Watch the complete trailer for The Florida Project on YouTube
Revenge (2017)
RT Score: 92%
Director: Coralie Fargeat
Age ranking: R
Runtime: 108 minutes
After watching The Substance (2024) and being totally captivated by its cinematography, story, and insane physique horror results, I discovered filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s directorial debut on Mubi and needed to see the place it began for her.
From its plot, Revenge has the flexibility to be the darkest and most intense film on this listing, following younger lady Jen (Matilda Anne Ingrid Lutz) who joins her boyfriend on a romantic journey. When two of his associates rock up unannounced, the journey spirals into an evil act inflicted on Jen in the end leaving her for lifeless. After surviving their sinister assault, Jen embarks on a brutal revenge quest for the three males that harmed her, intending to indicate completely no mercy for the torment they put her by means of.
Watch the complete trailer for Revenge on YouTube
