Netflix News Too

Here is what I have watched on DVD since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system explained previously in this blog. Those watched via Netflix instant view, include “Streamed” after the numeric rating.

I was just looking at Netflix to see if any of my few friends there (my one social networking venture) had rated a film I just watched, and I discovered that Netflix closed down the friends feature about two months ago. The reason for the closure was low usage (confirmed in my case by the fact I had not looked at it for two months), and also the desire to shift Netflix resources from the friends feature to the growing streaming business. I also suspect Netflix found the hassle of maintaining the friends feature was something they did not need in order to keep their business growing.

Netflix reports business is indeed booming and subscriber views by streaming are expected to exceed DVD mailings by the end of the year. It has been obvious for a while that streaming is going to replace DVD rentals, especially now that the streaming video quality has improved and the streaming library is growing. A Netflix price increase starting with January (more than 17% for my 3 in the mail program) appears to be designed to wean us off mailings. For example, if I am willing to cut back to 2 mailings, I can actually have a price reduction of about 12%. [I think Red Box kiosks fill a niche for people who don’t have Netflix or a similar subscription, but they hold no attraction for me. Kiosk fees are expected to increase soon also].

I have been slow to embrace Netflix streaming, even though I can watch streams on my home theater setup and they look and sound good (though the best sound quality I can stream seems to be DTS, rather than Dolby Digital). I get 17 mailings average per month on my 3 DVD subscription, but I have only been watching about 5 streams a month, even though there is no limit. The reasons for my reluctance to stream more movies include the novelty, lingering doubts about sound quality, fewer new releases, the lack of my own methodology for deciding what to stream, and the unusually ease of bailing out of a film early at no cost. My own experience and improvements by Netflix should make these reasons fade over time.

Until 7 months ago, I used to get about 20 movies a month from the library in addition to my Netflix mailings. That was too many movies and often I felt burdened to watch them and get them back to the library on time. Without the library movies, I increased the speed of my Netflix mailings to take up some of the slack. Now, as I embrace Netflix streaming more, and as Netflix expands the streaming choices (my instant queue has already been running about twice the size of my mailing queue), I may find that I can reduce my mail subscription from 3 to 2, and gradually transition away from mail altogether, just as Netflix has planned.

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale – 2009. (3.5) Lasse Hallstrom makes movies that have a professional finish and often an appealing charm. This one, based on a true story from Japan, stars an Akita dog, whose life we follow from puppyhood to death, and who experiences and shows a full range of emotions with an Academy Award caliber performance. Of course the dog is in fact several animals being led through the motions (and emotions) by its trainer, but the script, human actor interaction, direction and editing make us want to believe. Such is the magic of movies. There is a message in this very touching G rated movie, but it is not preached. In spite of the rating, because of the theme, this is probably not something you would want your younger kids to watch. Macho men should watch this alone, lest their cover be blown. Netflix way underestimated my rating for this film, probably because of lack of comparables, for it is an unfortunate fact that there are so few movies like this being made in America these days.

The Street – 2006. (3.4) There are only six episodes (two discs) of this BBC anthology series about the families who live on a contemporary London street. Each episode concentrates on one family, but there is some intertwining with the stories of the other families. I thought this would be the ususal TV fare, mixing humor with serious content, the overworked “dramedy”, but was pleased to find that it is just good, solid drama, well written, acted and directed, with interesting plot and excellent character development. I particularly liked the episodes on the first disk and would give them a 3.7, whereas two of the episodes on the second disk, one about a young footballer who gets trapped into involvement with drug pushers, amd one about spousal abuse, seemed to have more violence and less overall story value, perhaps a 3.1. Following seasons apparently have not yet made it to DVD.

The Narrow Margin – 1952. (3.2) If you want a quick look at a well-made and interesting film noir story that will hold your attention and keep you on your toes, check out this 72 minute movie. No major actors and a capable but not spectacular director still yield a very good film when the attention stays on the efficiently told story. There are some nice filmic devices used here to keep things moving rather than just to call attention to themselves.

Fatal Love – 1992. (3.0) An early Aids awareness TV film, in which Molly Ringwald plays an unlikely victim coping with her anger and fear, the anguish of her parents and the confusion and awkwardness of her friends, this movie does a fairly good job, until it necessarily ends up in the air, because that is where life stood for the real person on whom the story was based.

Mary and Max – 2008. (2.9) Australian clay animation here, with a lonely, unpopular, young Australian girl randomly picking for a pen pal an obese, atheistic New York City Jew with Asperger’s. Quirky as expected, but with a tenderness too.

Introducing Dorothy Dandridge – 1999. (2.8) The first African-American actress to be nominated for an Oscar in a lead role had beauty, talent and courage, but they were not enough to protect her from prejudice and the tragedies that life too often brings. Halle Berry produced and starred in this HBO TV movie which, like Halle, did a competent job of telling the story, but never quite grabbed the attention of the audience. Biopics like this have lots of ground to cover and we are often left feeling we want to see more of what is left out and less of what is included.

Dance With Me – 1998. (2.8). The romance and drama here is a bit shallow, but still fairly appealing, but the best thing about the film is the Latin ballroom dancing and Afro-Cuban music. Vanessa L. Williams had the female lead and her dancing looked great to me. Though she has a fairly long filmography, this is the first time I have seen her act and I thought she was alright, but I don’t see anything else of interest in her filmography. The male lead was Chayanne, an incredibly handsome man whom I do not know, though he is a famous Latin singer. He has acting talent, which he has failed to develop because of conflict with his movie career. I selected this movie from the filmography of the director, Randa Haines, who has made only a few films over a span of thirty years, but I have liked them all.

Emily Dickinson: A Certain Slant of Light – 1977. (2.7) This very short documentary was filmed (with a crew including Ken Burns) in the outdoors of Amherst and in the two Dickinson houses, which is about the only reason for watching it. The limited biographical information and quotes from some of her poems show that it was intended as a film for use in schools.

Something to Talk About – 1995. (2.4) Streamed. A good cast and fine director cannot make a poor script of an uninteresting story worth much, which is what happened with this Lasse Hallstrom film about a contemporary southern horse farm family with marital fidelity issues.

Gates of Heaven – 1978.  (2.4)  Streamed. An Erroll Morris documentary supposedly about pet cemeteries, this polyester time capsule of interviews with Californians does not tell much about the subject but includes many ego centric interviewees, a few of whom are sadly humorous.

The Lightkeepers – 2009. (1.4) A ludicrous New England accent by Richard Dreyfuss, in a boring story that takes way too long to even get started, corny music, amateurish technical work and the squandering of Cape Cod beauty make this a loser all around. I suffered through the first 20 minutes of banal set up dialogue before the two male characters, static at one location, were finally augmented with the female players, only to confirm the women did not make this any more tolerable. Love that super fast forward button so I could zip through the rest, just going through the motions – like this movie did.

Upstairs, Downstairs

Here is what I have watched on DVD since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system explained previously in this blog. Those watched via Netflix instant view, include “Streamed” after the numeric rating.

In the weeks since my last list posting, I have spent most of my DVD viewing time finishing the Upstairs, Downstairs five season series, and the fourth season of Brothers & Sisters. About ten years ago I bailed out on the last TV series I was watching regularly, NYPD Blue, and I have not been even a casual viewer of any series since then. This was around the time I retired, and maybe the idea of watching a series on a regular basis seemed too much like a job. PBS documentaries, some sports, too much news and commentary, and my “one weakness” – Survivor – constituted my TV viewing time.

Watching a season on DVD can be a fairly efficient way to digest an older series, but watching several years in a row can eat up a lot of time. I’m glad I went back to an English series from the 1970s, to learn about England in the first 30 years of the 20^th Century, but a good editor could cull out maybe a third of the episodes as being a bit of a tangent or lark, unnecessary to the story arc and not particularly informative. An attempt for a sequel to this venerable series is being filmed now, as a couple of specials with hopes that it will lead to a new run.

A series that appeals to a particular audience, which in turn appeals to commercial sponsors, could arguably go on forever – look at the old soaps that are just now ending their runs - but the creative people involved eventually burn out or retire before they go down in flames. It is sad to see good shows fail to find an audience fast enough to keep sponsors happy, ending in premature cancellation. But it is pathetic to see shows stay on too long, not seeming to recognize they have become an embarrassment.

How a series or movie portrays a time period is always interesting to examine. Contemporary time is the easiest to portray – just show things the way they are. Showing the past requires research, and portraying the future adds intelligent speculation to the mix. If we view these portrayals when they are first released, we can judge whether they seem to honestly portray the now, whether we think they are accurately showing the past [confer the discussions about Mad Men], and speculate about the believability of the predictions of the future.

As DVD viewers of old movies and series, we have additional opportunities for evaluation. Old “contemporary” movies are like time capsules. Old movies about even older times can be evaluated for any historical “revisionism” that may tell us more about the time of the movie maker than about to time setting of the movie. Old science fiction movies provide a chance to see what they got right about the way we live today.

My evaluation of Upstairs, Downstairs from this perspective is that it was not revisionist but was highly accurate in portraying those early 20^th Century years, and that it is also a very good time capsule showing where Britain was in the 1970s in trying to understand and remember the changes it went through back then. Brothers & Sisters may someday be viewed as a time capsule of an upper middle class early 21^st Century California family whose members are all unable to live without continual cell phone communication, but I wonder whether it will have any lasting entertainment value. Maybe someone in the 2070s will make a five season series looking back at the changes the Walker family experienced through the 2020s. Hopefully the current B & S series, season 4 of which went downhill in my opinion, leaving me in doubt whether I will bother to watch season 5, won’t stick around long enough to become pathetic.

I’m really looking forward to getting back to watching a diversity of movies, rather than just lots of episodes of a couple series,

Upstairs, Downstairs – (Third through Fifth Season) 1974. (3.7) The story arc of the masters and servants continues to the start of WWI, as characters come and go, some permanently, and some new ones appear. A couple episodes off the main story arc feel a bit like clinkers, but the bulk are right on, as the characters develop and adapt to the War, deaths, injuries and the changing times and relationships. By the fifth season, with the 1929 crash of the American stock market, we understand that those who have moved on are not coming back and those who have stayed are settling in, so it is time to end the series.

Brothers & Sisters (Season 4) – 2009. [Supplemental comments and reduced rating] (2.9) The series made a mistake in my opinion, by very early uncomplicating the Callista complication that enabled her and Sally Field to show their acting chops. The rest of the characters and story lines are only marginal and I found myself being easily distracted by the really sloppy editing of dialogue scenes that are composed of an excessive number of cuts back and forth between the characters for no apparent reason. Someone must think that quick cutting close ups goes with the actively overly communicative style of the characters. But the technique is grossly overused and poorly executed, with many of the cuts not even matching. And it is even used in gently tender scenes, as in one short, quick kiss that was shown from three different angles in the couple of seconds it took for the lips to travel the one foot distance. As my viewing companion Susan said, “You must be bored if you are noticing those things”.

The Messenger – 2009. (2.8) Streamed. “Taking Chance” showed the dignified and respectful way our Armed Services and citizens treat the body of a service member killed in war. A different side of the story is told in this movie, how the military swiftly sends messengers to make personal contact with the next of kin of the dead warrior and give a perfunctory notice and expression of condolence. After a few disturbing scenes of death message delivery, the movie concentrates more on the messed up lives of the two messengers and their relationship. Woody Harrelson got a supporting Oscar nod for his role. Well meaning and well done, this story is probably understood better by those who have had pertinent military service. The movie did not have much drama or story depth, and the character exploration never quite developed. Though the Netflix stream was HD, the sound was poor. 

How to Make an American Quilt – 1995. (2.8) Winona Ryder is very good at playing sensitive, vulnerable young women, and here she is deciding on what direction to take her life, mentored by a quilting bee of older women who tell snippets of their past that has brought them to where they are today. The problem is the snippets are too much like a patchwork quilt that doesn’t really come together that impressively.

Falling for a Dancer – 1998.  (2.4) I suspect the writer whose novel, about an upper middle class 1930s city girl who comes up pregnant and is forced into marrying an older country widower,was made into this four part Northern Irish miniseries, had little experience adapting novels for the screen, because her screenplay was marginal at best and had so many gaps in the story she was telling that it was too hard to form any attachment to the characters. The Netflix algorithm was way off on this one, predicting a 3.3 for me.

The Buccaneers – 1995. (2.4) Streamed. Based on the Edith Wharton novel about daughters of noveau riche Americans being sent to late Victorian England to marry impoverished nobles, this four part BBC series was not up to the usual writing and acting standards for such pieces. By the time the script started zeroing in on particular characters, and chance for empathy had been lost in the confusing array of cast members and lack of story focus.