It Depends on the Genre

Netflix streaming is a great place to find documentaries. This list is heavy on documentaries.

Since I watch a lot of them on Netflix streaming and usually rate them three or four stars, Netflix always has more to recommend. What I have notice is that the Netflix prediction for documentaries, given to one decimal place, is usually quite accurate, but the IMDb rating is often much lower and a less accurate prediction. I suspect the difference is because Netflix raters like documentaries better than IMDb raters do. So for me, though IMDb ratings of all movies are generally more accurate than Netflix predictions, Netflix does a better job of predicting my likes in the documentary genre. [By way of disclosure, a mutual fund in which I have shares now owns a stake in Netflix, fortunately purchased when the price was down].

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.

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were:

Brother Outsider

I Am

A Small Act [stream availability expired 9/11/2013]

Let’s Get Frank

A Place at the Table

Little Girl

Shall We Kiss? [stream availability expired 9/15/2013]

Iraq in Fragments

The One Percent

Brother Outsider – 2003 (3.1). Telling the story about the American struggle for civil rights from the inside of the movement without going over a lot of the same material is a difficult task for a documentary, but this movie accomplished it. Bayard Rustin was a dedicated human rights advocate with a special talent for organizing, most impressively putting together the 1963 March on Washington. With archival footage and interviews with people who knew him personally, this biography shows his many accomplishments and explains how his homosexuality caused his role to become less central and more on the outside or behind the scenes.

Game of Thrones (Season Three) – 2013 (3.0). More new cast members are introduced and old ones end their run in dramatic death as the quest for dominion over the realm continues. There is no overlong dialogue as at the beginning of the second season, but some of the sex and violence scenes are longer than they need to be (aside from the apparent HBO requirement to meet quotas for those as well as for delivery of four letter words). It remains hard to keep track of the full cast of characters and various geographic locations, but the central characters are now well known and the politics, trust and deception are becoming easier to follow. Good and evil continue to be contrasted, but we see more nuances in some characters. Questions arise in our minds about whether honor and honesty are always the best policy, especially when dealing with untrustworthy people, and whether seeking good for the people of the realm justifies using questionable means.

Amour – 2012 (2.9). A retired French musician couple have had a wonderful loving life, which takes a turn for the worse when the wife suffers a stroke. We follow them about their apartment as the husband struggles with his new role of caregiver, the wife deteriorates from her debility and their daughter who lives overseas is torn apart when she visits and finds her mother in bad shape and her father stubbornly excluding their daughter from the caregiving process. A critical success, well made and acted, but not a particularly enjoyable or stimulating film.

I Am – 2011 (2.9). This documentary seems like it should be pretentious, with lots of philosophical talking heads spewing esoteric jargon, but it is actually an easy to take pondering of some very basic questions about life. The movie is made by a successful director of many Hollywood comedies, so it has a very professional look and a light hearted joy to it. There are interviews with impressive people and some very interesting science is presented to show how interconnected we actually are with each other and with everything else. The message about simplifying life and avoiding materialism is nothing new, but the science of connectivity is intriguing and gives new light to simplification.

A Small Act – 2009 (2.9). In this well-made documentary we meet a Kenyan man who was enabled to go to high school many years ago because of a donor in Sweden. We see how his education has led to an interesting career in international human rights. We see how his appreciation for the help he received caused him to start a program to help similar needy Kenyan students. Then we get to meet the woman who donated the money, but whom the Kenyan had never met until years after he started his own scholarship program, and we learn how their stories are even more intertwined than either of them suspected. We also get to follow three scholarship applicants who study for and take a three day exam and then await the results. Affecting and effective, this movie teaches that among its other benefits, education can be a road to peace.

Let’s Get Frank – 2003 (2.9). Former Congressman Barney Frank is an inherently interesting, intelligent and entertaining man, as amply shown in this documentary following him through some of the Clinton Impeachment hearings in the House and interspersing personal interviews with him and some of his colleagues. There is not really any significant new information here, but it is a good opportunity to see Barney flash his wit and political savvy.

Family Tree (Season One) – 2013 (2.8). This short comedy series is shot as a mock documentary about a young man from the UK who starts tracing his family roots like celebrities do on some TV genealogy shows. The man is fairly normal but his sister requires a monkey hand puppet to accompany her at all times and his best friend has delusions of being way cooler than he really is. The relatives he tracks down, living and dead, all are pretty quirky, as are pretty much every one else he encounters. He does meet a new love interest on a visit to the US at season end, after previous unsuccessful romantic forays. An HBO series, it may or may not be renewed and I could take it or leave it.

A Place at the Table – 2012 (2.8). In reminding us that the problem of hunger in America has been growing since the Reagan years, because US government agricultural subsidies are overwhelmingly going to mega agribusiness corporations which use the resulting cheap commodities to process mostly non-nutritious empty calorie food, this documentary performs a public service. The message is delivered by kids, parents and advocates for change. As one of the experts points out, if the problem can be expressed merely as a hunger issue, we will have a consensus to solve it. But the corporations, their lobbyists and the politicians who benefit from industry campaign contributions cloud the issue with economic, tax, regulatory and other ideological rhetoric to make it business as usual. This sympathetically shows the problem but does not present any actual solutions.

Little Girl – 2009 (2.8). With the feel of a home movie, this low budget Italian film stars a fetching two year old girl who is found alone at a playground by an older redheaded woman who lives in a trailer with other people all of whom are marginally employed in circus acts. The woman takes the girl home with her and a note is found saying the mother will be coming back for the child. The man in the woman’s life says she should turn the child over to the police, but the woman wants to wait. A teenage boy who helps watch the girl really enjoys the task. Eventually word is received the mother is coming for the child, so a farewell party is put together with mixed feelings. There is not a lot of drama or story here, but the genuineness of the performances and the appeal of the little girl keep it watchable.

Shall We Kiss? – 2007 (2.7). Not a romantic comedy, but rather a romance of a sort, this French movie uses the story within a story device as a couple in a chance encounter spend a day together and the woman tells the man about another woman and man who were best friends who one day considered kissing as more than friends. Not much of a story but pleasantly enough done to stay for the ending.

Iraq in Fragments – 2006 (2.7). Three segments following Iraqis from different factions during the American occupation of Iraq comprise this documentary. The footage is home movie style without narration or input from anyone other than the people being followed. They are shown honestly expressing their feelings of frustration and resentment as they navigate the mess that was created in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam. The movie also makes it clear from the mouths of the Iraqis themselves that unification of their country in the face of religious and ethnic conflicts will be a tremendous challenge.

The One Percent – 2006 (2.7). A young man who is part of the wealthy Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical family made this documentary as some sort of inquiry into how the super wealthy think. His father had also made a documentary as a youth, focusing on how large American corporations exploit poor African workers. That movie apparently brought a devastating reprimand from the Johnson & Johnson CEO and the father seems unable to discuss it with the son whom he wants to dissuade from making his own film. After a slow start, and with a fair amount of jumping around, the film does show us some interesting interviews with ancient (in body and mind) economist Milton Friedman, various entrepreneurs who believe they were divinely destined for super wealth, and a few scions who have disclaimed their inheritances and criticized the wealth of their ancestors. A brief expose of the American sugar monopoly was new and noteworthy.