Well, it’s that time of the month where I remind myself that I can only put off that new monthly blog feature where I recommend 5 things on Tubi for so long before I just run out of days in the month. I’m not going to cut things as close as I did with last month’s ‘last day of the month’ posting, but I am going to lean entirely into the documentary recommendations again.

I like non-fiction, sue me.

Some picks I’ve seen before many years ago (and perhaps you have too) + a few were films I watched for the first time on Tubi this month (and perhaps you will too). Which is kinda what the Tubi experience is like — you’ll uncover a few titles you’ve never got around to before + you’ll find a few titles that you’ve already seen but remember fairly fondly and don’t mind watching again because, dammit, sometimes it’s nice to not always be chasing after one new thing after the other. Also, Tubi is free, so there’s that too.

So, on that note:

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here’s my FIVE picks FOR November 2020:

Somehow, I had made it all the way until November 2020 without ever watching The Last Waltz — even though I love The Band and Martin Scorsese films; even though I had heard that this is probably the best concert film ever. To be fair, the film came out way before my time and I only ever remember seeing it every now and again as a ‘2 for $20’ DVD option back when people used to buy DVDs at HMVs, so it’s not completely egregious that watching it has slipped through my cracks until recently. But when I stumbled upon The Last Waltz on Tubi the other day, I made sure to immediately add to my Watchlist and pressed play on it later that night.

And, yes, it is true — it is probably the best concert film ever, and a real joy to watch all that talent being joyful on one stage. Great stuff.

I had heard that Man On Wire was a great documentary, but for some reason I never quite got around to choosing to watch it over all the other choices one is presented with on streaming sites over the years. It just kept getting bumped out by something else. Well, don’t I feel stupid now — because this documentary about a fantastical French man’s mission to infiltrate the World Trade Centre and illegally string a wire between the two buildings and artfully walk back and forth with no safety precautions in place is a fantastic low reward / high risk heist operation that really makes you feel inspired about what the creative human spirit can get up to.

Who knows, maybe I’ll even try tracking down the Joseph Gordon-Levitt film about this story (although it’s hard to beat the real people telling the tale).

All Things Must Pass is another one of those documentaries that I had a feeling I would enjoy but, for one reason or another, never got around to actually checking out. Until last night. And… it’s a fun look back at the life of Tower Records, specifically, but also a look at the life & death of record stores in general. There’s probably a bit of a cautionary tale in here about how just because things are going really good at the moment, it doesn’t mean those good times will last forever, so maybe plan a bit accordingly for what might be coming in the future — but maybe there’s also a lesson in there about enjoy things while you can because nothing lasts forever.

There are parts of More Than A Game that feel a little bit paint-by-numbers documentary (sometimes the background music can be a little extra cliche), but, overall, I found it quite interesting to be able to watch footage of Lebron James and his friends go from barely being teenagers right through to the end of their high school glory days. Especially looking back on it from today, where we all know that Lebron is indisputably one of the best players to ever play the game (and somehow still one of the best players currently playing, even at 35).

I was aware that Lebron was considered a BIG DEAL in high school, but I was already out of high school myself and not really paying attention to sports at the time, so I didn’t actually live through any of the hype back in the day — so this was a fun watch for me, a dude that used to play high school basketball and has also got back into paying attention to the sport over the last few years.

I first watched this definitive Tom Petty documentary not too long after the shitty news came that Tom had passed away. So, even though it has an extreme 4 hour run time, back in October 2017, that 4 hours felt a lot less long and a lot more comforting to sit through in one sitting. I haven’t rewatched the whole thing again since, but if you like Tom Petty’s music—and assuming you’ve ever heard Tom Petty’s music, I gotta assume you like Tom Petty’s music— this is a really well done doc from Peter Bogdanovich on the almost full story of Tom Petty’s life (the doc came out 10 years before Tom’s passing).

If you want, treat it like one of those popular docudramas everybody loves these days and break it up into 4 one-hour episodes that you can watch over the course of a few nights. But do give it a watch — and then go dive through Tom’s amazing back catalogue of perfect rock n’ roll songs.

OK, that’ll do it for the 5 things I recommend you add to your Watchlist this month if you’re also trying to get the most out of Tubi’s pretty stellar—especially given the $0 price tag—alternative streaming service (just keep in mind that I’m working with the Canadian catalogue + Tubi is currently only available in Canada, US, UK, Australia and New Zealand).

And if you’d like a look at my full Tubi Watchlist (containing stuff I’ve seen before and stuff I’m planning on maybe getting around to), I’ve recreated my current Tubi Watchlist over on Letterboxd, and I’ll try and see you around here at some point next month with another list of 5 recommendations!

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Jeremy / @HI54LOFI