Describe the film you want, don't filter for it
Genre filters can express "comedy, 2010s, rated above 7.0". They cannot express "something funny that won't make me think about work". MovieSwipe's search takes the second kind of request — you describe what you feel like watching and the feed rebuilds around it.
Why filters run out
Most of what you actually want from a film isn't a metadata field. Tone. Pace. How heavy the ending is. Whether it demands your full attention. Whether it's safe to watch with your parents in the room. None of that is a genre, so you approximate: you pick "comedy", get four hundred results, and start scrolling again — which is the problem you were trying to avoid.
Describing it skips the approximation. Say it the way you'd say it to a friend.
Twenty prompt patterns that work
By comparison to a film you already like
The single most reliable pattern is name a film, then say what to change:
- "Something like Whiplash but less stressful"
- "Like Arrival but without the sad ending"
- "A comedy like Palm Springs but shorter"
- "Knives Out but not a whodunit"
- "Something with the feel of Before Sunrise"
- "Mad Max energy, but I can follow the plot while cooking"
By mood and situation
- "Something funny for date night"
- "A dark thriller"
- "A hidden sci-fi gem"
- "Something funny that isn't stupid"
- "Tense but not violent"
- "Feel-good but not sentimental"
- "Beautiful to look at, don't care about the plot"
- "Something that will make me cry, on purpose"
By constraint
- "Under 100 minutes, nothing depressing"
- "Something my mum and I can both watch"
- "No subtitles, I'm doing the dishes"
- "Set somewhere cold"
- "From before I was born but still holds up"
- "No romance, no wedding, no airport scene"
How to write a prompt that works
- Anchor on a film you liked. "Like X but ___" gives the search a starting point and a direction at once.
- Say what you don't want. Negatives narrow faster than positives — "no jump scares", "nothing about illness", "not three hours".
- Describe the evening, not the genre. "It's late and we're both tired" carries more useful information than "drama".
- One or two constraints at a time. Five at once tends to return the intersection of nothing.
Then swipe on what comes back
The search shapes the feed; swiping picks the film. Because MovieSwipe filters to the streaming services you subscribe to and keeps out anything you've already seen or skipped, what you're swiping through is films you can actually start tonight and haven't already dismissed.
MovieSwipe is free to download on iPhone, with in-app purchases. iOS 18.2 or later.