A confession: as much as I try to do my own research for this streaming column, every now and then my best tips come from other writers covering the same beat. And so it is this week that I doff my hat to Glenn Kenny, without whose excellent New York Times column I would never have come across NoBudge – one of the most singular streaming outlets on the block, and all the more worth investigating for being totally free.
As the demand for curated sites grows, none can claim to be more subjective than NoBudge, effectively the one-man passion project of the splendidly named US actor and film-maker Kentucker Audley. A fixture at the scruffier end of American indie cinema, Audley is best known for roles in such low-key gems as Christmas, Again and Queen of Earth – though those are practically blockbusters compared to what you’ll find on his site – a space dedicated to micro-budget films (made for under $100,000) that may not find distribution anywhere else.
Audley operates an open submissions policy: for a small fee, any film-maker may enter their work for consideration, whereupon it’ll be viewed and selected or rejected by Audley himself within a week. Those films he chooses are then made available to view on the platform, given a written introduction by Audley, with no fees or licensing rights taken – a pretty democratic business, give or take the whims and vagaries of the curator’s personal taste. That is ultimately what makes NoBudge most interesting: viewers and film-makers alike are subject to one man’s critical sensibility – though it’s one informed first-hand by shifting styles and movements in the independent sphere.
And his taste is pretty damn good. Given that most of the films on NoBudge haven’t been extensively seen or reviewed – some have made rounds at smaller festivals – there are few guiding principles to influence your viewing beyond clicking around the site and letting yourself be drawn by the stills and synopses that look most alluring. For me, it’s been more trial than error. I lucked out first time with Bark, a poised, perceptive, drily funny debut feature by Anna Nilles and Marco Jake, which delicately picks apart the grieving processes of three near-adult suburban children in the wake of their mother’s suicide. The perspective of their depressive dog Leadbelly plays a significant role in proceedings, but Bark isn’t as effortfully quirky as that makes it sound. Nilles and Jake’s narrative voice is comfortably, confidently odd, while still rooted in what’s real and recognisable.
Short films, meanwhile, predominate on the site: all the better, then, for quick, random sampling. On Kenny’s justified recommendation, I tried out Taxfree, a slinky, 10-minute Norwegian puzzler (one of a few international entries in the open-minded but mostly American pile), in which a young woman’s seemingly nonchalant arrival at an airport is gradually revealed as something more searching and ambiguous. That in turn reeled me into other, equally impressive shorts by its director, Henry K Norvalls – including Shower, a simple locker-room setup that manages to work up a lather of suspense and sexual curiosity in just seven minutes.
Not everything on NoBudge’s interface – minimalist, though considerably evolved from its origins as a Tumblr page – leads you quite as smoothly to further viewing. If any site could use a Netflix-style “if you liked that, try this” function, it’s this one. Then again, perhaps Audley is loath to prompt us much further in his own online screening room. He’s chosen the films, the rest is up to us.
New to streaming & DVD this week
120 Beats Per Minute
(Curzon Artificial Eye, 15)
Robin Campillo’s vibrant, life-filled, unabashedly queer study of Aids activists in the early 90s Act Up-Paris movement throbs with social, sexual and political curiosity.
Darkest Hour
(Universal, PG)
Gary Oldman inevitably won an Oscar for his flamboyant, latex-swaddled Winston Churchill impersonation, but Joe Wright’s somewhat airless biopic is the kind of film that has no obvious life beyond awards season.
Journey’s End
(Lionsgate, 12)
Meanwhile, Saul Dibb’s first world war drama, adapted from the old West End warhorse, can be filed under “better than expected”: robustly handsome, sincerely moving, and acted with stoic skill.
The Dam Busters
(Studiocanal, PG)
Can you tell Father’s Day is around the corner? The gung-ho 1955 Brits v Nazis adventure gets a very spiffy Blu-ray restoration, kitted out across a whopping five discs with all the bells and whistles a war film nerd could desire.
