October hasn’t been a very good month for Tubi watching in this household. Not only did we lose a few potential movie nights to Canadian Thanksgiving, but I recently discovered that I can add Playstation games to my hacked Sega Mini and have been spending a pinch of time down that rabbit hole + we also came across some decent DVD scores at the local thrift stores (first couple seasons of Friday Night Lights & True Blood + season 3 of Seinfeld). And on top of all of that, it was a pretty weak month for new arrivals in the Tubi catalogue. So when it came to making time to theoretically press play on something in my Tubi Watchlist, I was literally pressing play on something else somewhere else instead.

But one can only put off continuing a new monthly blog feature for so long until they run out of month to put off, so I figured I better pull my finger out and get something up before October becomes November. And, yes, given how the last day of this month is Halloween and considering how Tubi has a pretty big horror section, and since I made the latest Mix Tape Radio episode halloween-flavoured and therefore cannot claim to be above following an obvious theme, I should probably make this month’s Tubi movie recommendations a list of scary films — but, the thing is, I don’t really care much for “scary” movies, so I’d be rubbish at recommending them. For the most part, despite feeling creeped out in parts, by the end I always feel a bit let down by most films in that genre (“really… that’s how it’s going to end?”).

So I will instead make the theme for this Halloween day post based on the next most scary thing: real life.

That’s right, we’re going to go with 5 documentary recommendations. A couple of my 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. 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 one new thing after the other. And on that note:

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here’s my FIVE picks FOR October 2020:

Searching For Sugar Man is that classic tale of an artist being under appreciated in their time only to have a documentary come around decades later to point out the injustice. But where a lot of these documentaries wait until that artist is dead before singing their praises, and this one kinda starts off like that’s the case but—SPOILER ALERT… although also don’t watch the trailer if you want to avoid this plot twist—it turns out that the myth about Rodriguez killing himself on stage at a concert was about as truthful as that time before the internet was a thing and I totally believed when someone told me “the ironic thing about that song ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ is the singer committed suicide” only to stumble upon Bobby McFerrin alive & well giving a TED talk many years later. This doc will harm your heart + Sixto’s tunes are great to get into if you’re headphones still haven’t met Sugar Man yet.

All This Mayhem tells the rise and fall of Australia’s great skateboarding siblings Tas and Ben Pappas, who go from boarding bogans down under to flipping the American skateboard scene on it’s head and taking a run at dethroning the biggest name in the sport (y’know, the guy with all the video games), only to come crashing down in that all-too-familiar storyline of letting the drugs/lifestyle become the most important thing. While watching, you slowly realize they only seem to be present day interviewing one of the brothers and eventually you find out the dark reasons why. But, despite not really having the happiest of endings, it’s an enjoyable watch with a lot of great 90s skateboarding footage and honest story telling.

Wild Combination was one of the first things I watched on Tubi when first checking out whether the site was worth spending any time on, as Arthur Russell was one of those under-appreciated-in-their-time artists that I had always heard a lot about but didn’t really know anything about and what better way to do some quick catching-up than by watching a documentary? I had kinda forgot that this lovely film was on Tubi until a recent HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Q&A recommendation reminded me. It’s a great look at a great artist who was ahead of their time and left us too soon.

I first watched Exit Through The Gift Shop—the Banksy documentary that’s kinda about Banksy but also about underground art, manufactured celebrity and hype—back when Banksy seemed like a much bigger thing. 10 years later, it doesn’t feel like people still talk about Banksy all that much (or at least that seems to be the case now that I’m living in Canada instead of the UK) and the knock-offs of Banksy’s street art style have been done to death, but this doc is still a really fun & entertaining watch.

Rather than be another documentary about looking back at an under appreciated artist and wondering why they just could never break thru, The Bitter Buddha is a charming real-time look at a current under appreciated artist and what it’s like going about a career where you are heavily respected by your peers but can’t seem to achieve any of the success. I also relate to Eddie’s failings at trying to be an infallible chill Buddhist socialist on a day-to-day basis. Some nice ‘real life expectations’ energy in this one.

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).

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 here next month with another list of 5 recommendations!

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Jeremy / @HI54LOFI