Excited to Stream ‘The Substance’? Check out the Best Mubi Releases Available to Stream Now
The independent movie service has become the streaming home to some of the best cinema in the world.
After just over a month in theaters, Coralie Fargeat’s acclaimed and outrageous body horror film “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, will make its exclusive streaming debut this Halloween on the global film streamer Mubi, and to prepare from the switch, it’s time to countdown some of the platform’s best films!
Whether you’re activating or stabilizing your Mubi subscription to watch the must-see new release, the arthouse movie streamer is not only housed with classics like “In the Mood for Love,” “All About My Mother,” and more, it’s also packed with its own collection of Mubi-exclusive releases. From black comedies to neo-noir love stories, here are some of the best movies available to stream right now exclusively on Mubi!
MUBI
The global curated film streaming platform features a substantial collection of 800+ films, documentaries, and shorts with a new movie added every day to the lineup. As a production company and film distributor, MUBI produces and distributes exclusive films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are only available on its platform. The streaming service is available in more than 190 countries.
Viewers can add MUBI as an Amazon Prime Video channel, so the content can be available there as well as in the MUBI app.
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Top 7 Mubi Releases Streaming on Mubi Right Now:
No. 7: How To Have Sex (2023) | Drama, Coming-of-Age
“Three Brit girls head to Crete for a pre-college rites-of-passage summer vacation” feels like it should fit in perfectly with coming-of-age comedies like “Booksmart” and “American Pie.” But the recent drama, the directorial debut of Molly Manning Walker and like 2014’s “It Felt Like Love” before it, doesn’t skip on the sobering realities of adolescence as the girls desperate to grow up faster meet the boys who take advantage of it. It’s not as bleak as it sounds— after all, girls band together.
TBD
No. 6: Fallen Leaves (2023) | Romance Comedy-Drama
Film number 20 for Aki Kaurismäki comes in classic Kaurismäkian style: dryly funny, affirming, and a little lonely. A star-crossed lovers tragicomedy for the working class, “Fallen Leaves” stars Alma Pöysti and Jussi Vatanen as two lonely people in Helsinki who meet by chance in a karaoke bar and combine their lifetimes of baggage for love. It’s not quite a rom-com… or maybe it is, just one for the new age where empathy and love aren’t necessarily the antidote, but they are the point.
Fallen Leaves
In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles – from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.
No. 5: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) | Black Comedy
The never-more-relevant title is a mouthful, but there’s a lot to jam into the complex Romanian black comedy, which mines the present day for late-stage capitalistic horrors, from on-set disasters to social media. Overworked and underpaid, Angela (Ilinca Manolache), a production assistant is tasked by a multinational company to drive around Bucharest and interview citizens who have been injured due to workplace accidents to cast them in a workplace safety video. Clock in for the nearly-three-hour runtime, but do not expect any overtime pay.
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
On behalf of a multinational company, a production assistant drives around the Romanian city of Bucharest, interviewing various citizens who have been injured due to work accidents to cast one of them in a “safety at work” video.
No. 4: Crossing (2024) | Drama
Within five years, “And Then We Danced” director Levan Akin has become a need-to-know filmmaker, bringing to life complex LGBTQ+ stories through the lens of Georgian culture. This year’s “Crossing” stars Mzia Arabuli as Lia, a retired history teacher on a mission to find her long-lost niece, Tekla, a trans woman who has crossed the border into Turkey. With one of her former pupils, the unpredictable Achi (Lucas Kankava), Lia sets out for Istanbul, and the pair explore the city. Addressing family and identity across opposing generations, the Odd Couple character-driven drama is one of the year’s best.
Crossing
Lia, a retired teacher from Georgia, learns from her young neighbor, Achi, that her long-lost transgender niece, Tekla, has crossed the border into Turkey. In search of Tekla, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi, where they explore the hidden depths of the city.
No. 3: Decision to Leave (2022) | Romance, Mystery
Nobody does thriller quite like “Old Boy” filmmaker Park Chan-wook, and no one is as adept at multi-genre as Park Chan-wook. A combo of neo-noir police procedural, romance, and dark comedy, 2022’s “Decision to Leave” follows Park Hae-il’s Jang Hae-jun, a married detective investigating a man’s death when he begins to develop feelings for the victim’s widow, Song Seo-rae (Tang Wei).
Full of Hitchcockian influence, mountain-and-sea imagery, and a love story that will knock the wind out of you by the end, the movie earned its spot in the top 10 of many Best of 2022 lists (and became Mubi’s most streamed film in the U.S. when it was released).
Decision to Leave
From a mountain peak in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire.
No. 2: Great Freedom (2022) | Drama, Romance
It took until 1994 before Germany officially repealed its Paragraph 175 provision, which criminalized sex between two men (once a misdemeanor before the Nazis made it a felony—and later, a death sentence—in the mid-1930s). “Great Freedom” reminds us how close the past is.
Franz Rogowski plays Hans Hoffmann, a gay man repeatedly imprisoned under the law for decades, who falls for his cellmate Viktor (Georg Friedrich), a convicted murderer. The poignant, vulnerable drama is a love letter to the human spirit against violence. “Freedom” is, after all, often defined by those with the power in the first place; real freedom comes from taking that power back and creating your own.
Great Freedom
In post-war Germany, liberation by the Allies does not mean freedom for everyone. Hans Hoffmann is repeatedly imprisoned under Paragraph 175, which criminalizes homosexuality. Nevertheless, over the decades, he continues his quest for freedom and love, even if he finds it in the most unusual places.
No. 1: The Fall (2024 4K Restoration) | Adventure Fantasy
Previously impossible to stream, Tarsem’s visually spectacular cult classic “The Fall” recently got a much-deserved second life with a Mubi 4K restoration. A series of stories within a story, the film stars Lee Pace as Roy, an injured stuntman in a hospital bed in Los Angeles where he entertains a young girl with a collection of fantastical tales that fill the depths of her imagination (despite Roy’s macabre ulterior motive). Think “The Princess Bride” by way of “The Fountain” with better costume design (the inimitable Eiko Ishioka).
A well-known disgraced producer infamously walked out film’s 2006 TIFF premiere 15 minutes in, tanking buyer interest and public opinion before it even got a theatrical release (two years later). Poetically, as he continues his descent, “The Fall” finally rises. As Roger Ebert once wrote, “There will never be another like it.”
The Fall
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.