The Last Watch

Goodbye and thank you 🖤

Dear friends,

When Bilal started this newsletter in 2018, he was one of Substack’s very first users (if you ever wondered how we secured the domain name “movies,” now you know why). It may not seem like it, but back then, The Watch was one of the first of its kind. Plenty of sites reviewed upcoming movies, but only few were keeping an eye out for streaming’s hidden gems.

People used to scoff at streaming! Remember when the most scandalous thing the Oscars could do was nominate a Netflix film? But now, every major publication has a dedicated section for it. NYT, Rolling Stone, Vulture—name it, it likely has tabs on Netflix and co.

So, the novelty of what we did—providing you with a curated list of the best streaming films that week—eventually wore off. But amazingly, plenty of you still stayed. A handful even paid. Maybe you stuck by for Bilal’s personal anecdotes, the occasional artwork, or my overlong rants (it wasn’t that). I’d like to think you stayed because of the range and quality of our picks. We saw everything, indie, foreign, and little-seen, and gave our honest opinions about them. Sans algorithm, sans studio backers. Whatever your reason for staying, it was encouraging and rewarding, and it empowered us to go on for this long.

At this point, I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you. Whether your’re an OG reader or a new one, a paid subscriber or free, we truly, truly appreciate your support. Because of your patronage, we were able to grow. We’ve gotten more writers and added more films than ever before. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

But as agoodmovietowatch gets bigger, it will also be needing more hands on deck. Which means I’ll have to press pause on the newsletter for now and allot my energy to the site. I’ll still be watching out for the newest releases and letting you know which are actually worth your time—but I’ll be doing that mostly over there. So drop by, why don’t you, and leave us a comment!

But for now, this is fin for the newsletter. Thank you for everything, but now we must roll the credits!

Some things to know:

• Paid subscribers, you will receive a pro rata refund of your subscription fees. Refunds will take 5-7 business days to appear.

• Everyone, you can still catch our recommendations of the best and newest streaming films and TV shows on the site, agoodmovietowatch.com.

• There is a possibility that I might continue to write on Substack - if you’re interested, you can follow me on my personal account here. Drop by and say hi!

• You can also follow Bilal on his personal account here, our editor Emil here (he’s also always posting about movies!), and our curator/resident Gen Z-er Bella here.

Here’s us deciding the fate of the newsletter at a Chilis on a Tuesday.

Because you are (and always will be, I hope) our best film friends, I shall end not with a goodbye but with a wish—see ya’ll at the movies. 🎞️

Sincerely,

Renee