Is MUBI the New A24? How ‘The Substance’ and ‘Bird’ Have Propelled This Indie Distributor’s Brand Towards The Mainstream

By astir measures, it’s been different large twelvemonth for gold-standard indie supplier A24. Civil War became 1 of their all-time biggest grossers. They vanished disconnected their X trilogy pinch MaXXXine, nan highest-grossing title of nan bunch (and presumably a profitable driver toward their merch store). And they proceed to put retired movies for illustration I Saw nan TV Glow that consciousness some dissimilar thing other successful theaters, and perfectly successful sync pinch nan studio’s brand. This play brings different ace astatine mainstream scary pinch Heretic, a thriller starring an against-type Hugh Grant arsenic a manipulative weirdo playing cat-and-mouse games pinch a brace of young missionaries.

At nan aforesaid time, A24’s grip connected indie cool whitethorn person loosened a bit. Its biggest deed of nan autumn is We Live successful Time, an earnest but not particularly eager romanticist play that besides looks and acts an atrocious batch for illustration a Fox Searchlight movie. Meanwhile, 1 of nan buzziest awards titles of nan fall, Anora, belongs to A24’s fast-ascending rivals NEON, moreover though A24 released nan erstwhile 2 Sean Baker movies; Neon besides scored pinch Longlegs, which outgrossed moreover Civil War. Another A24 alumnus, Robert Eggers, has his Nosferatu remake coming retired done Focus Features. And opening other Heretic, albeit successful acold less theaters, is Bird, nan caller movie from Andrea Arnold (another A24 vet), getting a theatrical merchandise courtesy of MUBI.

You whitethorn person heard of MUBI if you went to spot its breakout movie The Substance this autumn – aliases particularly if you watched it astatine home, wherever you could salary a one-time rental fee, aliases you could sign up for MUBI’s streaming service (they’re presently offering a 7-day free proceedings done Prime Video). That’s mostly what MUBI has been, astatine slightest successful nan U.S., for astir of its astir 15-year existence: a streaming work specializing successful arthouse, independent, and world cinema titles. (Initially, nan thought was that it added and subtracted a title each day, truthful astatine immoderate fixed point, location were a month’s worthy of movie-a-day selections available. Now it’s much akin to nan Criterion Channel, without nan attraction connected classics.) It’s benignant of like: What if Netflix was A24?

Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection

In that sense, The Substance seems for illustration a game-changer: The 2nd MUBI movie to gross complete a cardinal dollars successful nan U.S. (after Decision to Leave) besides made astir $42 cardinal worldwide – a monolithic occurrence for specified a mini distributor, and 1 that follows nan trajectory of akin successes for A24 and Neon. (Just this year, $15 cardinal home seemed to beryllium nan magic number for MaXXXine, Immaculate, and The Substance.)

So what does this mean for early MUBI releases? Well, Bird – which, for illustration The Substance, will play successful theaters for astatine slightest a fewer weeks earlier it flies onto nan streaming work – very overmuch feels for illustration “old” A24, successful that it’s some genuinely artsy successful a measurement that would baffle a batch of mainstream audiences, and accessible capable to consciousness for illustration a poppier type of nan genuinely obscure titles that nan streaming work favors. Like Arnold’s Fish Tank, it’s astir a young female played by a newcomer (Nykiya Adams), surviving a hardscrabble, impoverished life successful England; for illustration her American Honey, it attains a benignant of philharmonic exuberance amidst a batch of imaginable misery. Bailey (Adams) has a young begetter (Barry Keoghan) who fathered her arsenic a teen and is now embarking connected an impulsive matrimony (not to her mother) arsenic Bailey seethes pinch annoyance and attempts to thief nan half-siblings who unrecorded pinch her mom – and whitethorn beryllium subjected to maltreatment astatine nan hands of her ain caller beau. Into this situation tumbles Bird (Franz Rogowski), an oddball alien who, well, nan full point takes a magical-realism move that sounds astatine likelihood pinch Arnold’s handheld aesthetic, but really syncs pinch her Malick-influenced lyricism.

Bird is not nan adjacent The Substance. It’s astir apt not moreover nan adjacent American Honey, which wasn’t a immense financial occurrence moreover successful nan A24 realm. But it does consciousness for illustration it could, potentially, link pinch immoderate different caller MUBI titles successful a measurement that A24 and Neon movies sometimes consciousness for illustration branches of nan aforesaid tree. Obviously board and writers and actors and producers are nan ones who really make movies, overmuch moreso than studios aliases distributors. But it would beryllium silly to dress that these boutique and mini-major distributors don’t sometimes person definite shared qualities (or personnel).

Photo: Everett Collection

To that end, Bird feels for illustration it could thief move Franz Rogowski into their Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, aliases Florence Pugh. He’s a weirder beingness than immoderate of those – moreover Pattinson successful oddball mode, which is often a much overtly comic style of oddness – and not precisely my thought of a megastar successful waiting. But Bird, his 2nd “big” MUBI movie aft nan romanticist play Passages, takes advantage of his somewhat uncanny, otherworldly value – nan emotion that he exists location extracurricular logical reality. (Passages did this too, but by casting him arsenic an irresistible, manipulative pansexual lothario pinch unspeakable clothes. He seemed utterly resistible to me.) While Arnold is astatine it, she draws successful Barry Keoghan for a much traditionally gregarious performance, making a characteristic who should beryllium a nuisance – an immature, unstable young begetter who seems improbable to thief assistance his family retired of squalor – into a weirdly lovable figure.

Bird besides has nan downtrodden English grit and female constituent of position seen successful How to Have Sex, a MUBI theatrical merchandise from earlier this year, now disposable to watercourse connected nan platform. That movie doesn’t person Bird’s flights of fancy; it’s downright harrowing astatine times. They share, however, an liking successful nan fleeting pleasures and lingering anxieties of young women who tin only temporarily wrest power of their lives from immoderate number of outer societal forces. And though Bird could not person overmuch little successful communal tonally pinch The Substance, nan 2 movies do person an overlapping rejection of subtlety arsenic inherent virtue. They’re movies by women that are arsenic brash and forceful astir their cardinal metaphors arsenic immoderate number of masculine auteurs.

These fleeting similarities whitethorn not linger successful early MUBI releases, not slightest because they attraction truthful heavy connected world cinema, alternatively than sticking to nan English-language fare that dominates A24 and Neon’s line-ups. In fact, a deficiency of unifying artistic whitethorn only fortify MUBI’s lawsuit for nan adjacent basking indie distributor. A24’s Heretic is plentifulness of fun, but there’s thing a small canned and carny-barker-ish astir nan measurement they’ve already trading overpriced blueberry-pie-scented candles successful their shop, arsenic a wink-wink to a item successful nan movie that yet doesn’t person overmuch thematic resonance. It’s conscionable a canny portion of marketing, and nan workplace deserves in installments for giving indie cinema a spot of nan aged ’90s razzle-dazzle successful that department. There aren’t immoderate Bird pop-up shops aliases memes that I’m alert of astatine nan moment; immoderate nan movie’s flaws, Arnold has been fixed nan room to definitive disorder and yearning that wouldn’t needfully make consciousness connected a designer t-shirt. Maybe that tin beryllium MUBI’s next-big-indie trading hook: Save nan vibes for nan movie.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is simply a writer surviving successful Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts astatine www.sportsalcohol.com, too.