First Batch for 2012

Continuing to pluck away at my Netflix instant play queue, here is another batch, none of which was particularly impressive. The top five are probably worth considering, the bottom two are not and the rest are marginal. Looks like I need to either freshen my queue or start watching movies from other sources.

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].

Troubled Water – 2008 (3.1). On release from prison a young man gets a job as a church organist (his unique playing style is nicely captured) and attracts the romantic attention of the single mother female priest in this Norwegian drama from Film Movement. We early learn his crime involved the death of a young boy, but as the story unfolds flashbacks are interlaced and overlap the direct narrative line as we follow the man, the priest, her son and the parents of the victim. The intelligent script touches on guilt, grief, atonement, forgiveness, vengeance and God, without delving deeply enough to become heavy.

Plastic Planet – 2009 (3.0). Mostly in English, this documentary by an Austrian film maker, the grandson of one of the pioneers of the plastic industry, is highly informative in telling how this 100 year old man-made product has become so invasive in our lives and how little we actually know about the environmental and health hazards it presents. The approach to the subject is fairly low key, with many interviews of scientists and environmentalists, a few industry insiders and some diverse people from around the globe. An attempt to confront an industrialist a la Michael Moore is awkward and mercifully brief. When an industrial mouthpiece says the top science panel has debunked all claims that plastic is a hazard and tells about the exciting future of smart plastics that will be able to watch over our safety, it is downright creepy. Watching this will likely prompt you to inventory your household and make you want to start reducing the amount of plastic in your life. Safer plastics are possible, as are consumer protection regulations, but they may be a long time coming, and meanwhile the already overloaded planet will continue to be inundated with plastic waste.

Cherry – 2011 (2.9). Artistic Ivy league freshman engineering student with uptight parents gets a sex crazed roommate and ends up bonding with an older female student whose 14 year old daughter is attracted to him. Good balance of laughs and sorrows in a dramatic context, well enough done to evoke memories of early college experiences.

My Future Boyfriend – 2011 (2.9). This is an ABC Family romantic comedy about a man from the distant future who discovers a paperback romance novel, during a time when books and emotions no longer exist. He travels back to our time to ask the female author to explain what love is. A simple production, but well done, though the Valerie Harper character seemed a little hackneyed.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days – 2007 (2.9). This Romanian drama follows a college student on the day of her roommate’s illegal abortion, as she struggles with the normal frustrations of dealing with scarcities in the waning days of Communism and with friction in her relationship with her boyfriend. But on this day she has the added burden of facilitating the whole criminal process for her minimally appreciative friend. Intentionally slow moving at times, the movie is well acted and gives a feel for the bleak side of life in Communist Romania.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams – 2010 (2.8). Discovered in 1994, the Chauvet Cave in France contains the oldest (perhaps 40,000 years) known paintings by humans, made at a time when that part of Europe was home to animals either extinct or now found only in Africa. This documentary by Werner Herzog reverently introduces us to the cave, but with the sometimes strained attempts typical of Herzog to take it to a more poetic level. I would prefer a more straightforward approach, a la Nova on PBS. 

Friday Night Lights (Season Five) – 2010 (2.8). The concluding season of the series started some new story lines while trying to dip back into some old ones, all while trying to carry the main arc forward and then bring some of the stories to conclusion or at least to the verge of the next chapter. The result was a bit of a mish mash and left a sense of disconnection.

Entre Nos – 2009 (2.8). This sincere indie memoir was made by a woman whose Columbian father abandoned her and her brother and mother in Queens, New York, leaving them impoverished and homeless on the streets, struggling to earn enough money recycling bottles and cans to pay for an occasional flop house. After a short lead in with the father around, the movie bleakly follows the ordeal until a final quick glimmer of hope to come. Overwhelmingly intimate between the mother and children, this Spanish language film would have benefitted by having more interfacing with other characters, particularly the law and government figures who are astoundingly absent from the streets as portrayed.

The Sicilian Girl – 2009 (2.8). Inspired by the true story of the young woman who broke the Mafia code after her “good” Mafia involved father and brother were killed by rival “bad” Mafia members, this Italian movie did a fair job of showing the pressure and danger the girl encountered as she had to be put in a witness protection program and as her mother disowned her and her boyfriend tried to discourage her. The dedicated prosecutor was in as much danger as the witness. This case turned the Italian public against the Mafia, but the script for this film never seemed to ably capture the potential of the story.

Ugly Betty (Season One) - 2006 (2.8). I like the premise of this series, with the ugly duckling in need of a makeover going to work for a playboy boss who wants her to quit, but I was unpleasantly surprised to find she wins him over in the first couple episodes, which is all I have watched. The workplace politics and sniping are worthwhile to show, but the Cruella inspired villain is too cartoonish for me. The underlying intrigue about a battle for ownership of the company smacks of the type of nonsense that turned me off of Desperate Housewives. America Ferraro does a good acting job and it would be appealing to see her make the transformation that apparently comes later, but I don’t think I could stay around long enough to see that happen.

Omagh – 2004 (2.8). A dramatization of the efforts by the families of the victims of a 1998 IRA bombing in Northern Ireland to see that those responsible for the deaths of 29 people would be prosecuted, this modestly produced movie, filmed with some pseudo-documentary moments, captures some of the grief and much of the anger as the families determine the authorities are not being honest about their efforts to find and punish the perpetrators.

Colour Blind – 1998 (2.8). A three part filming of the melodrama by Catherine Cookson about a young woman from Newcastle, England who marries an African merchant seaman during WWI, this movie shows the prejudice the couple faced at the time, especially with the woman’s creepy incestuous minded brother. The couple had a daughter and after a quick look at her early school years, the story picks up with her at age 20 and pushes the parental story back a notch. This film was fairly well done with some interesting characters about whom we never seem to learn as much as we might like. I watched this two years ago and gave it a 3 at that time.

Ponette – 1996 (2.8). This French movie is a unique drama in that it concentrates on a four year old actress, playing the role of a child whose mother has died in an auto accident and who struggles with her loss and grief while trying to understand death and the religious mythology surrounding it. There is some interfacing with adults but more with her young peers, some of whom consider themselves quite knowledgeable on the subjects. This film makes one appreciate how hard these concepts are for young children to grasp and how unhelpful it is for adults to try to explain things with religious ideas that adults themselves don’t really understand. When other children offer their naïve ideas, they don’t sound any more far-fetched than what the adults say. Though the young actress is amazing, I just wonder whether it was right to draw such an emotional performance from her.

The Scent of Green Papaya – 1993 (2.8). In this Vietnamese language movie, a young illiterate country girl goes to the city to work as a domestic servant for a wealthy family and then ten years later has to go to work for a young pianist with whom she is infatuated. There is not much plot, drama or character development in this film but the lighting and cinematography are so beautifully done, with wonderful close-ups of nature intersecting the households and lovely tracking shots respectfully showcasing the interiors, that you can’t help but keep watching anyway.

Death of a Salesman – 1985 (2.8). Produced for TV and directed by Volker Schlondorff, with Dustin Hoffman in the lead and a young John Malkovich playing his antagonist son, this classic tale of a washed up man and his family conflicts has to be very verbal due to its stage roots, but this version has some imaginative sets and cinematic touches. Though it is supposed to be somewhat claustrophobic, I was disappointed it was not filmed in wide screen.

And Justice for All – 1979 (2.8). The Al Pacino character in this movie would have become a lawyer about the same time I did, so this look back at the screwed up legal system rang a lot of bells of familiarity for me. Capriciousness, prejudice, hypocrisy and corruption were part of the frustration of practicing law. The music is dated but enjoyable and the picture does not seem too aged, because it captured a contemporary scene which now looks like a throwback. There are relatively few legal technical flaws here, but an ending that feels truncated and maybe a little too much comic relief, but still passable.

Lorenzo’s Oil – 1992 (2.4). A dramatization of the then recent true life efforts of the parents of a young boy victim of the rare ALD disease to understand it and research ways to possibly prevent it or at least stop its progress, this movie deals with the conflicting approaches of passionate parents willing to try anything, meticulous scientists applying accepted research techniques over time and support groups for parents to cope. Lorenzo’s parents were passionate (his father was from Italy and his mother a redhead of Irish extraction) and in seeking a treatment for the disorder that allows certain fats to eat away at the insulation of bodily nerves, they came up with a combination of olive and rapeseed oils which apparently has had some success in slowing the progress of the disease. Lorenzo lived until his 30^th birthday, dying in 2008. The drama does not hold up well, suffering from a bad Nick Nolte accent as the father, an overlong and uneven script and mediocre direction. Watching the parents do research in medical library books and on microfilm makes one appreciate how much the Internet of today facilitates such work.

Continental Divide – 1981 (2.0). Tell it like it is Chicago columnist John Belushi has to leave town to avoid retaliation by a corrupt alderman. He takes a vacation in the remote Rockies meeting dedicated Bald Eagle protecting Federal environmentalist Blair Brown in this unromantic, unfunny romantic comedy with no chemistry, poor scripting and all around dud. Pretty scenery though.