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res0nat0r

Even easier: Criterion Channel. $10/month with the best movies from all over the world all the time.

The current Neo-Noir and Wong Kar-Wai collections are worth at least quadruple that price out of the gate.

https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/neonoir-intro

https://www.criterionchannel.com/world-of-wong-kar-wai

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Unfortunately still not legally accessible outside the US. [Although I managed to get trial access with a VPN, but then I did not work anyway with a laptop running linux connected to TV with HDMI due to a certain DRM protection]

I have been enjoying MUBI a lot, the European alternative to Criterion Channel. Especially since they added a fixed catalogue aside from their new movie a day model. They also usually highlight three great reviews as a companion reading to the movie plus the user base is delightfully snobby, with no low effort jokes like you will see on Letterboxd.

They also do great retrospectives, currently Kelly Reichardt and Christian Petzold.

I found Criterion to be quite easy to VPN actually compared to some other services. You have to use a VPN to signup, but watching the movies doesn’t require it which is nice. And they don’t have any issues accepting international payments either.

(For reference, this was about 6 months ago, and I live in Australia)

I think the Criterion Channel catalogue does differ somewhat by country; I needed to use my VPN to watch Y tu mamá también from Canada.

Criterion is available in Canada...

I don't understand why sites like Netflix or MUBI do not allow an easy search or easy browsing of their ENTIRE catalog by certain criteria (country, length, rating, budget, etc.) Pirates do an incredibly better job at it and it amazes me every time.

Netflix makes their user interface terrible to search. This is by design: when things get pulled due to licensing or whatever other arrangements are made with studios or their parent companies, users are all none the wiser.

The reason why P2P will reign supreme is because it cuts through the bullshit of backwards business restrictions and empowers people to watch content on whatever device they want, when they want, and how they want. Netflix has, what, 30,000 titles available? Compared to the 400,000 titles at your nearest P2P based source.

Netflix doesn’t want you to see how bare-bones their catalog actually is

There is a way to browse by genre which map to a generic URL but are much more direct than the default aimless auto-playing nightmare of their default interface.

https://www.finder.com/netflix/genre-list

http://ogres-crypt.com/public/NetFlix-Streaming-Genres2.html

Some don't resolve to any results, which I think is a result of their poor catalog.

http://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/68778 = Action & Adventure starring Tom Cruise

Kanopy. Free with many library cards. Views are rate-limited per month, which limit I think may vary by library system, but still, you can watch at least a movie or two a week for free if you're part of a participating system. Some major, recent films, lots of mid-tier non-blockbusters and the kind of thing that plays the film festival circuit. Tons of (often political) documentaries, if you're into that. Damn good, for free, and you can ignore the documentaries and just focus on the movies and still have loads of content. Only weakness is that, oddly, it's awful for kids' content.

Really? We were amazed by the amount and quality of kids content. It's a completely separate section, so it's not part of the main Kanopy app, but it has tons of movies and dramatized readings of children's books. But yeah, the first thing I thought when I read this was "Kanopy".

I can really recommend Wong Kar-Wai. I may have rewatched some of his movies four or five times.

Chungking Express is such a beautiful movie. You can also take a look there at a bit less developed and less modern Hong Kong.

I drunkenly and blindly bought the Criterion Blu-ray for just a little south of a Benjamin and it was totally worth it, and the price for the originals began climbing after the release of the revised version included in the box set. It's my favorite from WKW's oeuvre; it has the same feeling as Lost in Translation which is another one of my favorite films.

As I grow older, I realize that my interests have shifted from big explosion-a-minute blockbusters towards simple movies of people doing, essentially, nothing.

Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love is one of the most beautiful movies ever made and, rightly, considered one of the greatest movies made in the modern era.

Back in '90 I acquired a laser disc player. The conventional wisdom of the moment was laser discs were on their way out, and people were selling and giving away laser disc collections for cheap. I bought the entire Criterion Collection, what it was at the time. Something like 5 crates of discs, all classic black and white films. I watched most of them, but many do not hold up and feel like experiments today. I don't know where they are now - in a box somewhere in long term storage.

Wow, I bet you could get some seriously good money for those if they are in decent shape. There is a massive retro video resurgence going on now, so folks paying big money for rare VHS tapes, I'm sure the Laserdisc market is just the same too.

I have a big pile of Laserdiscs too. I couldn't imagine going to the trouble of selling them individually though.

For your consideration, the LaserDisk DataBase:

https://www.lddb.com/

Mubi is also excellent

+1 Almost every memorable movie I've watched in the last 2-3 years was on Mubi

Kanopy gives you five movies a month for free with a library card and has a similar catalog.

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