What movie or TV show should you watch next? These websites have unique ways to recommend films and series that don't rely simply on the usual algorithms.
The internet is full of different movie recommendation engines that ask you to tell them a few movies or shows you like, and suggest similar titles. While that's a perfectly fine way to find new things to watch, it's not necessarily the best way.
Instead, these sites tell you what to watch based on their influences, the choices of famous directors, the chance to discuss it with others, or even by the lessons you'll learn through the film.
1. Cinetrii (Web): Find Influences for Every Film, According to Critics
Cinetrii is a whole new take on a film recommendation engine. Instead of going by "what other users liked", it links a movie to films it was influenced by, and films it influenced in the future. It's a fascinating way to find movies you've never heard of before.
At the base of all this is an algorithm that analyzes articles by film critics. When a critic reviews a movie, they often talk about related films and influences. This includes references to other works, directors, comparisons, and contrasts. Based on these, Cinetrii builds a tree of linked movies. When more critics make the same references, the link becomes stronger.
So when you search for a film on Cinetrii, you'll get a tree of old movies it was influenced by, and movies that it inspired later. Click any bubble to see the referenced article about the link, and visit its IMDb page. You can also open the bubble film's Cinetrii page, thus going down a rabbit hole of recommendations.
It's a strong and altogether new way of finding film recommendations based on a movie you like. After all, if you liked something, you're likely to enjoy watching its predecessors and successors.
2. What to Watch on TV (Web): Visualize Episode-by-Episode Ratings for TV Shows
On IMDb, users can rate every episode of a TV series, apart from an overall rating. What to Watch on TV collects all these ratings in one place, to give you an episode-by-episode chart of whether a show gets better or worse with time. It's also a "Season rating" in its own way.
Search for a show you want to watch or filter the list by rating. You can choose to see shows with 6+, 7+, 8+, or 9+ star rating, and sort them alphabetically or by overall rating. Spoiler, the top rated show is Breaking Bad. You can also get recommendations by clicking the "Random" button.
For each show, you'll see the episode-wise rating breakdown, the average overall rating, and the watch time to binge-watch the whole series. It also shows the top- and worst-rated three episodes, and a graph of how a season fared compared to the overall rating.
3. They Love Pictures (Web): Recommendations From Famous Directors
You love a few directors. Wouldn't you like to watch the films that those directors loved? They Love Pictures presents film recommendations from your favorite directors.
To get started, you'll need to upload your Letterboxd ratings. In case you aren't already on Letterboxd, it's easy to get started and worth having an account as it's one of the best alternative social networks for movie buffs. Once you add the ratings, They Love Pictures will see which directors you like the most, creating your own profile. Based on that, you'll get a list of what to watch.
You can check a sample list that already includes some of the most famous directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorcese, Kathryn Bigelow, and others. This in itself is a must-watch list of classic and modern cinema that every film buff needs to have seen.
4. Director Alerts (Web): For Busy Movie Fans
Incidentally, if you have favorite directors but aren't someone who tracks the latest releases, this is a nifty service. Add your favorite directors to Director Alerts, and the next time their movie is out, you'll get a notification in your inbox.
There's nothing else to it, and it's completely free. You can be a movie fan while still being too busy to keep tabs on every new film hitting the theaters or streaming services.
5. Every Movie Has a Lesson (Web): Find Movies by the Message They Teach
Don Shanahan is a middle school Social Studies teacher in Chicago. He believes every movie has a lesson that we can learn from. In a world of film critics picking apart every flaw, it's a remarkably positive mindset that we would all do well to adopt.
His blog is a mix of movie reviews and other film-related articles. The reviews look to find that one message that the movie tries to teach, which we should all be inspired by. Don admits that these lessons span from serious to farcical, but they're generally messages of hope, positive, and growth.
A quick way to check out the lessons is to visit the Blackboard Gallery within the site. This is where he highlights the big message, scrawled like chalk on a blackboard given the teacher he is. Each movie generally has multiple lessons that he finds, so read the full review to really be inspired.
In a world where anyone can be a film reviewer and the internet is full of commenters offering their opinions, Every Movie Has a Lesson is refreshing. It's a more positive take on watching films, and about learning something from them to become better.
6. AFI Movie Club (Web): New Film Recommendations and Discussion Every Day
The American Film Institute started a virtual movie club during the COVID-19 pandemic. This way, film lovers around the world could stay home yet get the joy of watching a movie at the same time as others and discuss it.
Every day, the AFI Movie Club puts out a new movie recommendation. Accompanying this is a clip by actors and directors introducing the movie or why it mattered to them. It also tells you where to stream the film using Reelgood's engine. Once you're done, you can join a conversation about the movie on Twitter, Facebook, or other social networks using AFI Movie Club's hashtags.
The post-movie discussion is a big part of the film club experience. AFI suggests a few family-friendly discussion topics on each film's page. It also adds fun trivia and facts to make you appreciate the movie more.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the rise of other similar movie clubs, such as Vulture's Friday Night Movie Club and Vanity Fair's Shut-In Movie Club. Search the internet to find these and several others that can be a good source of film recommendations and discussions with other movie buffs.
Which TV Show Should You Watch Next?
It seems like you'll always get movie recommendations more easily than TV shows. But given that binge-watching is now the new normal, you want to have a few series queued up for the weekend, right?
Try more offbeat apps we have talked about before to find the best TV series. There's an AI that predicts how you'll rate a show and then there's a website that randomly recommends one episode from a show.