How to find the best shows and movies

Sites, apps and communities to help you decide what to watch.

IMDB’S TOP RATED Movies and TV: Not a definitive ‘best movies of all time’ list by any means (unless you really think that The Dark Knight Rises is more important than Citizen Kane), IMDb’s Top Rated Movies list ( www.imdb.com/chart/top) is indeed a valuable record of the most crowd-pleasing films ever made. If binge-watching TV shows is more your bag, you should head over to IMDb’s Top Rated TV Shows list ( www.imdb.com/chart/toptv) to see which kinds of programs people love the most (the answer is nature documentaries and anime, in case you were wondering). Want something more specific to watch? IMDb’s Advanced Search ( www.imdb.com/search) functionality even lets you track down actor collaborations and creative team overlaps. Not every film or television series on these lists will be available to stream, but you should be able to find a large number of them across the various streaming and on-demand services available in Australia.

WHAT IS MY MOVIE?

Ever have trouble remembering the name of a movie? You know, like that one with the guy with the car and the blonde girl and there’s a part in a nightclub? Well, What Is My Movie? ( www.whatismymovie.com) is a movie search engine that uses your own vague keywords and half-remembered plot points to deliver incredibly accurate results. Oh, yeah, Running on Empty, that’s the movie I was thinking of.

QUODB

Got a movie quote stuck in your head but can’t remember where it came from? QuoDB ( www.quodb.com) will scour its enormous database to track it down for you. Not only that, the site will tell how far into the movie the line was dropped, while also providing you with the context in which it was said. Who knows? Perhaps finding out where the quote came from will inspire you to add the movie to your streaming queue...

JUSTWATCH

With so many streaming options available these days, knowing which services offer which shows and movies can be a little tricky. JustWatch ( www.justwatch.com/au), which now features an Australian section, will let you browse and search for films and TV shows across streaming services like Netflix, Stan, Presto, Quickflix and Crackle, as well as rental and purchase sites like iTunes, Google Play store, the PlayStation store and even lesser-known ones, like Dendy Direct.

ALLFLICKS

A site that lets you browse and search through all of Netflix Australia’s catalogue of films, TV shows and documentaries using very specific criteria, AllFlicks ( au.allflicks.net) is an incredibly useful tool. You can look for things to watch by year of release, IMDb score, date of availability, the country it was made in and more. Don’t know what you want to watch? Use the site’s ‘Netflix Randomiser’ to get a surprise recommendation.