I Dood It

Tired of spending time trying to find “mail worthy” DVDs from Netflix that are not available from the King County Library, I decided to cut my Netflix cost still further (by another one half). I dropped the mail option completely and will concentrate on just streaming for now with occasional supplementation from the Library or maybe a redbox kiosk. As a sign of how bad the pickings were getting, the last three  I received in the mail I rated 2 stars “did not like”.

The list of pros for doing this was considerably longer than the cons list. In addition to the financial saving and time saved from “mail worthy” browsing, the pros include more time for instant viewing, no bothering with mailboxes and concerns for mail security, no suffering through marginal mail movies because I paid extra for them, and no rushing to watch a movie to get it in the mail. In fairness to the Netflix mail program though, I never had any problems with mail security (but I did sometimes get a defective DVD), and there can also be pressure to stream a movie before the streaming rights expire (notice is given usually about a week ahead of the expiration date).

It is interesting to see the changes that take place when Netflix mail rights expire. My regular Netflix queue was promptly removed from the Netflix site. Using the “Watch Instantly” tab I can access genre lists to browse and sub-genre lists that can also be sorted by rating prediction, but all this is limited to movies that are available for instant viewing. A new tab or maybe one I just don’t recall is a “Just for Kids” tab with links to play now shows. The “Instant Queue” tab appears to work basically the same as before. The suggestions for viewing that were available on the “Suggestions for You” tab have now disappeared; though the tab is still there and the page acknowledges I have rated over 2,500 movies, it tells me to rate more so Netflix can help me find movies. The “Browse DVDs” tab is still available, but when I want to browse DVD choices I am presented with a page of ten marginal movies which are available only by mail and a reminder that I can have a broader selection if I sign up for DVDs by mail; there is no further overall guided browsing available now. Every movie page also has a reminder and button to sign up for mail DVDs.

Netflix is a sly business and I think the changes I have noted are designed to make it look like they want me to sign back up for mail, while at the same time actually discouraging me from doing so. That way they can say they did not kill the mail business, but that the customers chose to let it die. The changes may require some functional adjustment on my part to learn how to best use what browsing capabilities are still available, in order to find movies to get from the library or redbox. I expect the loss of this functionality is a clever ploy by Netflix to discourage getting movies elsewhere.

Since it does not make much practical difference here whether I streamed a movie rather than watched from a DVD, I am dropping any reference to streaming in the movie write ups. So again, here is what I have watched since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system which is explained at the link on the sidebar.

Friday Night Lights (Season One) – 2006 (3.3). Big time Texas high school football in a small Texas town gets top treatment in this series which is at various times soap opera, sports movie and family drama.  Following the team and characters through the first season for the new coach, plenty of intertwining plot lines are developed as the teenagers deal with growing up under athletic, scholastic and social pressures, often with a lack of admirable adult role models. I didn’t care for the home movie look created by purposely shaky camera work, but thankfully its use diminished as the season progressed.

The Pacific – 2010 (3.1). This HBO mini series is similar to Band of Brothers in following some American fighting men in action in WWII, this time concentrating on Marines invading South Pacific islands defended by Japanese forces. The battle scenes are brutal and horrific, almost like a documentary of the great losses suffered by our forces. But this series also follows some of the men on R&R and back on the home front, concentrating on three Marines in particular. The most effective scenes emotionally are interactions between Marines and their civilian loved ones, where in spite of strong reciprocal love, there is so much the civilians can never understand about what the Marines experienced.

The Betrayal – 2008 (3.0). As part of the withdrawal from Vietnam, after the US pulverized the small neutral Kingdom of Laos with saturation bombing in order to “save it from the communists”, American support was abruptly pulled from the country without regard for the fate of Laotians who co-operated with the US. One of those was a career military man whose son was a co-maker of this interesting documentary, which tells the story of what happened to the man, his wife and ten children. Though the underlying story is horrific and the experience of the family through the years filled with pathos, there is a poetry to the film that makes the experience of watching it feel more reflective and spiritual rather than critical and profane.

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan – 2005 (3.0). Martin Scorsese put this documentary together, with archival concert, touring and personal footage and also interviews with insiders. There is no narration, though an interview with Dylan looking back provides some continuity. It doesn’t quite all come together and we really don’t learn anything new about Dylan, who comes across as not especially likeable, but the impact of the songs he wrote and is shown performing in the turbulent 60s reminds us how much his music was a part of the times that were a changing.

Catfish – 2010 (2.9). A young documentary film maker and his partner decide to make a movie about his photographer brother who has been contacted via Facebook by an 8 year old girl who paints very good pictures of his photographs. The photographer talks to the mother and the seductive older sister as the film warms up, but also briefly slows down before the three men from New York start considering making a surprise visit to Michigan. Some inventive low budget techniques are well employed and the social media subject is topical in this somewhat different and promising piece of work. Apparently the trailer misrepresents this movie as a thriller, which is pretty much of a stretch.

Cedar Rapids – 2011 (2.8). There is nothing new or special in this comedy about a dorky insurance salesman who goes to the “big city” for a convention and has what for him is an unconventional time, but there are enough laughs to make it fun. The John C. Reilly character is especially a hoot, at least until he is relegated to a sidekick role.

Defiance – 2008 (2.8). Based on a true story, this WWII tale of Polish Jews who flee the Nazis and hide out in the Belarus forests makes a longish movie with continuous action and violence and is a little short on character development and personal drama, but as another of the few films that shows armed Jewish resistance, it is worth watching.

Skin – 2008 (2.8). Based on the true story of a dark skinned girl born to white parents in South Africa, this movie follows the girl’s life into adulthood, confronting Apartheid and prejudice and trying to deal with the strains her skin color puts on her relationship with her parents. Such an interesting subject should have become a better film, but though the locations were real and the spirit of the production was genuine, the script was uneven and the direction and acting were not strong enough to compensate for the minimal time allowed for the characters to express themselves on what is the true significance of skin color or race both in societal terms and on a personal level.

The Crucible – 1996 (2.8). Arthur Miller’s play gets liberated from the stage and placed in some nice Salem sets, but the screen time is dominated by dialog deliverance. Hysterical fear of evil doers and irrational punishment of innocents by governmental power unfortunately has a way of repeating itself, from witchery to communist infiltration to terrorist cells. Good acting all around, with Paul Scofield especially effective as the chief judge.

The Third Miracle – 1999 (2.2). I suspect something got lost between the book and the script for this movie, because the story in the film does not make much sense. From talk alone we learn that a young Catholic girl refugee from WWII Eastern Europe came to Chicago and eventually abandoned her 16 year old daughter to live in a Parish convent and work as a sort of domestic. In 1979 a priest who is questioning his own faith is chosen to investigate whether the woman should be a candidate for sainthood. He flirts with her daughter and becomes immersed in the case, but neither the people nor the process make much sense as portrayed in this confused production, which wasted the talent of director Agnieszka Holland and ended without seeming to know what it was trying to say.

The Object of My Affection – 1998 (2.2). Supposedly a different kind of romantic comedy, about a relationship problem that is new to the screen, this movie was not romantic or funny and if the story had not been told before, the reason apparently was that it is not worth telling. Add a poor script, uninspired direction and weak acting and this is one to avoid. SPOILER ALERT (but don’t hesitate to read anyway): Jennifer Anniston falls for a gay guy (maybe she should try this in real life).

The Adjustment Bureau – 2011 (2.0). Maybe the short story was good and maybe the creative mind behind the script and direction is talented, but the result for me was a marginal premise for a boring story about unappealing people with a foregone conclusion. I admit sci-fi is not on my favorites list but this film was an especially weak ambassador for the genre. Bending some of the rules of what we think we know about the way things work is part of the sci-fi license, but bending them back and forth and changing the bends on the fly as this movie does is just sloppy story telling.  

Getting Tougher

There are not many movies in my DVD queues that Netflix has but the King County Library doesn’t. The KCL collection is truly extensive and readily available, except for the quite new ones. I have had Netflix mail me a few of those older ones that the library doesn’t have and I can see why the library didn’t bother. These are small independent movies that aren’t very good. It is getting tougher to find a good movie for mailing and I need to get tougher with my Netflix ratings of what I have watched, so I don’t get misled by the Netflix predictions. Barely marginal movies need to slip below 2.5 so I can tell Netflix “2 stars did not like”. Also, rather than just relying on the Netflix prediction, I need to read some of the member reviews to get a better idea of what kind of movie it is, and also take with a grain of salt any prediction based on a low number of member reviews (early raters are usually predisposed in favor of a movie, so they skew the early predictions higher).

This list of 16 movies includes 8 by streaming, and now that I am down to one at a time in the mail from Netflix, the streaming will predominate, though it could diminish again if I start getting movies from the library. For now I have arranged my streaming queue with the highest Netflix predictions at the head and I plan to mostly watch those first.

So again, here is what I have watched on DVD and streaming since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system explained at the link on the sidebar. Those watched via Netflix instant view, include “Streamed” after the numeric rating.

Cautiva (Captive) – 2005 (3.6). Twenty years earlier, The Official Story very effectively told a tale of an Argentine woman who suspected that her adoptive baby had in fact been stolen from political victims during the “disappearances” of 1978. This newer movie is just as effective as ithe earlier film as it tells the story from the point of view of a teenage girl coming to realize the parents who raised her may have been participants in such a kidnapping. Well done all around, it is refreshing to have a movie with a script that moves the story along at just the right pace, direction that enhances the film without calling attention to itself and acting that is consistently authentic. This is another winner from Argentina.

Like Dandelion Dust – 2009 (3.2). Another spin on the “happy adoptive parents may lose their young child to the now supposedly reformed biological parents” story, this one is better than I expected and I was surprised to learn from watching the special features after the movie that it is based on a book by a Christian author. The film did refrain from expletives, but it was not religious in tone, in fact the one religious couple actually came across as a bit naïve. Nicely paced and well-acted, without leaving time to explore possible plot holes, the script came across as presenting a real situation that makes you think about what you would do if you were either one of the parents. The six year old boy was a good actor, and seeing Mira Sorvino in another very good performance makes one wish her filmography included better films. 

Bramwell – (Season One) 1995 (3.2) Streamed. Jemma Redgrave plays a young1895 British doctor who starts a free clinic in the East End of London, after being sacked by the male chauvinist doctor in charge of the traditional hospital. She lives with her widowed father, a respected doctor, and is helped with her clinic by a philanthropic widow, a respectful somewhat new male doctor, cranky nurse and capable porter. Though she is inexperienced, she is strong willed and independent, sometimes to a fault. The interesting general story arc is maintained and supplemented by episodic dramas. The image quality is somewhat poor, but the interesting stories make up for it.

The Diary of Anne Frank – 2009 (3.0) Streamed. This Masterpiece version of the story of Anne is quite personalized, narrated by her and presenting her as a precocious teen often so caught up in herself that she was a little hard to take. Though hiding out under the noses of the Nazis is highly dramatic, this movie does not indulge those dramatic aspects, nor does it explore much of the personal dynamics between the other people in hiding. All that is shown is basically what revolves around Anne from her point of view. Though perhaps much truer to the diary, this approach is also much narrower.

Hiding and Seeking – 2004 (3.0) Streamed. With the feel of a home movie, this documentary tells of an American Jewish man born in a WWII refugee camp who is concerned that his adult Orthodox sons in Jerusalem are too closed minded about Gentiles. He takes them to a small village in Poland where a Polish family hid their grandfather and his two brothers from the Nazis for 28 months, risking death themselves. After they find the place and even some of the people involved, one of the close minded ones opens a little, but their narrowness is almost too strong to overcome. The grandfather is too feeble to travel and is ashamed he never contacted the family after the war, and we learn that the silence was hard for the protectors to understand. There is no great profundity here, but some genuine humanity.

FDR – 1994 (3.0) Streamed. The story of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt is so inherently interesting that it would be hard to make a movie about them that was not good. This American Experience documentary did a fairly good job, but does not hold its age that well. Their strained personal relationship is followed through the years and his political career to the Presidency is quickly tracked. The Depression is touched and his relationship with Churchill is explored through WWII, but there is not a lot on the specifics of the politics at play through the Roosevelt years. There is so much material that any attempt like this to touch it all has to fall a little short of the immense possibilities.

Monsieur Hire – 1989 (3.0) Streamed. A middle aged voyeur is discovered by the woman at whom he peeps and then he is surprised when she shows interest in him. Meanwhile the voyeur is suspected in the death of another young woman. This very watchable French film will hold your attention and keep you guessing all the way to its very French ending.

Battle in Seattle – 2007 (2.9). The protests against the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999 brought unprecedented attention to this international quasi-governmental puppet of multinational corporations. This movie about those protests does a good job of capturing the developing events, concentrating on the veteran peaceful protest organizers, one swat team member and his wife, and a TV reporter caught up in the violence that erupted after anarchists targeted the windows of chain stores and Seattle police efforts to disperse or arrest deteriorated into a police riot. WTO snubs of a representative of Doctors Without Borders seeking low cost medicines and of a delegate from an African nation trying to get more equity for smaller nations were appealing subplots that could have used for screen time, but overall the film conveyed an effective message of the resilience of protestors in the face of unsympathetic corporate greed.

La Mission – 2009 (2.8) Streamed. Benjamin Bratt plays a Mexican-American single dad ex-con now living a stable life as a San Francisco bus driver whose hobby is restoring cars. He is justifiably proud as his son is about to graduate from high school and head for college, but macho dad is shocked to learn his only child is gay. Written and directed by real life brother Peter Bratt and set in their hometown, this drama feels legitimate in showing the struggle of the father to deal with his homophobia, though sometimes close ups of him just thinking uncomfortably slow the pace. There is no pat plot formula here, and that seems more real.

Raising Victor Vargas – 2002 (2.8) Streamed. This movie starts amateurish, crude and awkward as it show Latino teens in a high rise ghetto but then shifts to become a story of the tensions in a family consisting of a devoutly Catholic Dominican refugee grandmother trying to raise three disparate teenagers. The crudity thankfully diminishes, the amateurism assumes a sort of charm and the awkwardness proves honest, but maybe just a little too late.

A Tale of Springtime – 1990 (2.8) Streamed. This typical Eric Rohmer French talkie starts with several minutes without a word spoken, boring, perhaps on purpose. But soon the chats begin, primarily between two women, a high school philosophy teacher and a younger girl who meet at a party and offer each other companionship.  They talk their way through several venues and cross paths with the girl’s divorced father and his young girlfriend. Not a lot happens, as everyone seems to be mulling their situation and their next move, but there are some reasonably interesting conversations. Too bad the bottom half of the Netflix streamed subtitles are cut off – a problem I just reported.

Badlands – 1973 (2.8). Critic favorite Terrence Malick chose this story of a young senseless killer and his teenage girlfriend for his first movie. Despite the disclaimer, the Charles Starkweather case is the obvious source. Incredibly young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek star along with the open Midwest country that Malick delights in showing. Narrated by the girl, the story is naively deadly, and the film captures that well and holds its age technically, though the shock in 1973 of showing such murders, like the shock over Starkweather in the 1950s, has been greatly reduced by all the screen and real world murders that have occurred since then.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story – 2010 (2.7). This movie about a teenage boy who feels pressure from his parents to succeed in a school for very advanced students, while at the same time struggling with the self-esteem issues and bursting hormones of adolescence is pretty slow starting. When he goes to the emergency room for suicidal feelings, he gets admitted for psych evaluation and finds that all teenagers are being sent to the adult psych ward while the teen ward is under renovation. There are some characters and relationships of interest here, but they don’t show up soon enough and they never get very deep. Add a few mild laughs and a marginal film develops.

Room 666 – 1982 (2.7). This 45 minute documentary was filmed in 1982 in a hotel room at Cannes during the film festival. Wim Wenders set up a camera and 16 directors took turns going to the room and turning the camera on for 11 minutes while they talked about the future of the cinema. Wenders heavily edited the content and years later added a commentary track for the DVD. Only a few of the directors are well known and only a few of the comments are very interesting, but the film does provide a time capsule.

Lebanon, PA – 2010 (2.4). Lots of new people were involved in this indie drama about a 35 year old ad man who goes to a small town in Pennsylvania to pick up the pieces of the life of his estranged father who died suddenly. In the process, he begins to re-evaluate his own life. Uneven, poorly paced and not well fit together, portions of the story had potential, but it never quite developed as the characters seemed like they should be interesting but never quite became fully real. The script left too much of the back stories of the characters for too late in the movie, causing unnecessary guessing about motivations. The most appealing acting and story line was about a problem facing the man’s 17 year old cousin, well played by newcomer Rachel Kitson.

Fly Away – 2011 (2.1). I made the mistake of relying on a Netflix prediction based on a low number of member ratings when I chose this movie about a teenage girl with severe autism and her mother struggling to cope with her. An independent film put together by an all women venture, the film obviously meant well in trying to show how hard the task was for the mother, but the point was belabored with scene after scene of a girl who was really hard to take and a mother who was stubborn and inflexible in not seeing that her daughter needed to be placed where she could get better care. Add to that a cloying man who all but stalks the mother in his total acceptance of the daughter and a final delivery to an idyllic institution and you have a film that really missed its mark.