A SmoothGrain app · iPhone · Soon

Rate movies in
half stars. One to four.

HalfStar is a movie & TV app with opinions: recommendations that show you why, and one place to settle what to watch tonight.

Try the rating  → drag it 3.5
One I’ll recommend.

One email when it lands on the App Store.

HalfStar
Heat
1995 · Crime · Michael Mann
You rated 4.0
Because you rated Heat highly
Sicario
Wind River
The Town
New to discover · add to queue
Thief
Collateral
Nightcrawler
The Scale

Every rating on the scale.

Ten-point scales and five-star sliders leave room to waffle. Seven steps force a verdict, and half a star is enough to say exactly how good something was. It’s Ebert’s scale, tightened.

1.0 Why did I finish this?
1.5 Rough, but it tried.
2.0 Fine. I won't remember it.
2.5 Better than fine.
3.0 Solidly good.
3.5 One I’ll recommend.
4.0 A keeper. Perfect of its kind.
Recommendations

Suggestions that
show their work.

Most apps hand you a match percentage and ask you to trust it. HalfStar shows the receipt: the titles you loved and the exact threads they share with what it’s recommending. The math runs on your ratings alone, and you can check every step of it.

“I don’t want a 92% match. I want to know why.”

NO. 004½
Because you rated
Heat★ 4.0
Sicario★ 3.5
→ Wind River predicted
3.5 ★
Shared threads
# neo-western # Taylor Sheridan # slow-burn tension # procedural # snowbound
Admit one · same inputs, same answer
Discover

Watch it now, or add it to the queue.

HalfStar mixes what you can play tonight with what’s worth hunting down. Both live in the same rows: play one now, queue the other with a tap.

Rate while it’s fresh

Mark something watched and HalfStar asks for the verdict on the spot, before it goes fuzzy.

A diary that maps your taste

Every rating goes into your diary, and the more you rate, the sharper the picture of what you love: genres, cast and crew, studios, keywords.

A request queue

Can’t watch it tonight? Queue it and it stays in your rows instead of vanishing into a notes app.

Private by default

The recommender uses your ratings and nothing else; it never sees your location or an ad profile. Every suggestion can be reproduced by hand.

The first showing

Be there when the
lights go down.

HalfStar is coming to iPhone. Leave your email and we’ll save you a spot at the drive-in.

One email when it lands on the App Store.