You F30 leather has a thick PVC top coat that has some level of UV protection. If you have the climate comfort glass, this also blocks UV with one of the laminate layers. You can use a ceramic coating on your leather as well. Most of the quality films eg: Llumar have UV protection built into them. The film can be totally clear but can offer additional UV protection. Unfortunately unless you go to an actual fitment centre, you have no idea what you're really getting and there are guys who install counterfeit Llumar as well. If a random dude in a van is claiming he is using Llumar but there are no logos in sight or speaks vaguely of microns, he is probably lying. If he claims his unknown, unbranded chinese thing that 'he has tested himself' is actually better than Llumar (or 3M or Auto Armor) or is 'made in the same factory' then he is DEFINITELY lying
The rubbish films that you can pick up at Midas/Autozone are what you mention above... they will make the windows darker and not much else. The heat is really IR radiation heating up the surfaces of the car. You could make the windows totally black but if they don't block UV/IR then you are wasting your time. It is an easy grift for scammers since nobody usually watches them, nobody can see UV, nobody can see IR and if you can tell the microns on an applied film by looking at it, they have a job waiting for you at 3M. A car tinted to a certain darkness looks basically the same regardless of whether it offers real protection or not.
It is tempting to get someone out to you from a convenience perspective but best is to take it somewhere to have it done professionally at an actual shop with tools, heaters, a manager or foreman of sorts to cross-check the work and spare film... because I've experienced this first hand on two occasions now where they mess the film up during prep and it was 'pre cut' at the workshop. They have no spare film or rolls on site so everyone looks at one another hoping for divine intervention or a time machine. I would avoid that scenario either way as in one case I was also convinced it was not real Llumar they were using... and the guys who did it have long since disappeared 4 years later when I had issues: other cars I've had over time have never had issues with bubbles or peeling... just some fading over long periods of 7+ years)
From an actual 'smash and grab' protection perspective, after having had the recent hail, I wonder how effective these things would actually be regardless of thickness. You can get into lots of analysis paralysis about microns and material etc... however IMHO, their value is to stop someone from seeing what is in your car and acts more as a deterrent. Maybe you will have an extra second or two to react if someone smashes your window and then has a go again to get through the film holding the shattered glass with his hand/whatever tool is being used (as opposed to getting in on the first smash).
