Careless Netflix

A while back the predicted ratings in my Netflix queue suddenly shot up to just about five stars for all movies. Calls to customer service left the clear impression Netflix does not know why this happened and could care less. They as much as admitted nobody pays attention to those stars anyway, which I sort of confirmed by doing some Google searching to see who else was having this problem. So I’ll rate Netflix streamers when I watch them, just to be able to quickly tell at their site that I have watched it, but I will ignore their predictions for me. The average user rating for a Netflix movie may be of some use, but I will also compare that to the IMDB user rating.

 

Netflix stock is riding high now but analysts are wary of its prospects, saying the overseas ventures will not pay off and it is only a matter of time before streaming from competitors eats away at Netflix revenue. From my experience there is not much reason to stay with Netflix out of loyalty once the competition offers something better.

 

Parenthood (SeasonThree) – 2011 (3.3). Except for one clinker episode about a family caravan to visit the elderly family matriarch, the series maintains the same qualities that appealed in the second season. As in our own lives, some people come and go, while others stay and grow. We recognize issues family members are facing as we have either faced them ourselves or watched our own family members or friends face them. As in real life, when we watch others we tend to empathize, criticize or both.  This series provides real families a vehicle for talking about handling very personal family matters in a less threatening way, because the characters are fictional.

 

Parenthood (SeasonFour) – 2012 (3.2). Aging of the young is so more evident than aging of the old. Each passing year brings rapid biological growth for youngsters while grownups tend to look pretty much the same from one year to the next. But young and old alike face ongoing changes in relationships and problems encountered. All of this continues to be well presented in this series, though this season seemed more hurried than last, even more than the drop in the number of episodes by three.

 

The Paradise (SeasonTwo) – 2013 (3.1). This is one of those series that gets better in the second year as the characters and plot lines develop. The early episodes are definitely worthwhile, but unfortunately the writing falls flat in the final episode where instead of a batch of realistic cliffhangers, we are given a disappointing assemblage of quick plot developments intended to bring everything to an acceptable conclusion. This abrupt ending was probably caused by the expected or realized failure to secure commitment for a third season.

 

Aftershock – 2010 (3.1). The Tangshan earthquake in China in 1976 killed hundreds of thousands of people. This Chinese drama uses special effects to portray the quick devastation followed by the rescue and recovery efforts, but that part of the story is only the lead into the main thrust of the script. The aftershock of the title is not the second quake but rather the mental trauma the survivors suffer the rest of their lives. A couple with six year old twins, a boy and a girl, are the central characters and we follow them in the immediate aftermath and then in stages over the next three decades as they cope with the terrible memories while trying to live normal livers. This film effectively delivers the pain to produce empathy.

 

Altman – 2014 (3.0). This made for TV documentary tells the story of Robert Altman’s life and career as a movie director in a straightforward way with narration by his widow and children, archival interviews with Altman himself and lots of footage from his movies and the awards shows involved. After WWII service as a B-24 pilot, Altman bluffed himself into a job making industrial films as on the job training in film making. That led to TV directing and eventually movies, where his adventurous and innovative spirit ran afoul of studio execs and turned him into essentially an independent artist. Never repeating himself, he had hits and misses, and leaves a body of work definitely worth revisiting, encouraged by this movie.

 

Cold War Roadshow – 2014 (2.9). In 1959 Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet leader to visit the US. Using wonderful footage of his 10 day tour of the country together with memoir style interviews from people such as his son and the granddaughter of President Eisenhower, this documentary shows Nikita as a genuine people person who was fascinated by his visit, while also being a very astute politician sensitive about his lack of formal education and lowly roots. One has to wonder what would have become of the cold war if the U-2 spy plane had not been shot down over Russia causing Nikita to cancel the planned summit with Ike. Shown on PBS American Experience.

 

Solitary Nation – 2014 (2.9). Experts now seem to agree that long term solitary confinement causes makes inmates so mentally deranged that they become even more dangerous, but as this documentary set in a Maine prison chillingly shows, even a well-meaning warden trying to integrate solitaries back into the general prison population faces an overwhelming challenge. Shown on PBS Frontline.

 

History of the Eagles – 2013 (2.9). Everybody loves their music and this two part documentary includes lots of it as we see the band’s performances through the decades and learn the inside story of how they came together and evolved over time, with hard work, creativity, hard living, congeniality and conflict. Everyone involved in all phases is interviewed and lots of archival footage is mixed with some clever reconstructions to keep this longish movie moving. The first part ends with the split up in 19890. The second part picks up with the reunion in 1994. You can’t help but sing along.

 

Muscle Shoals – 2013 (2.9). For many decades this small town in the northwest corner of Alabama has been a mecca for blues, rock and related recording artists seeking a special studio in which to record. Studio founder Rick Hall narrates the documentary story of his life and his studio and its spinoff rival, abetted by some dramatic reconstructions, many interviews with artists looking back and lots of archival footage featuring great music. So many famous artists have recorded in this small town that a shorter list might include those who haven’t.

 

Happiness – 2013 (2.8).  The King decrees it is time for electricity and television to come to the mountains of Bhutan and this documentary intimately follows one family of villagers struggling with their daily lives and going through the process of raising money, traveling to the city to buy a set and then bringing it back to the village. Central to this quiet story are the beauty of the mountain scenery and the life of a young boy whose father has died and who is now experiencing strange new prospects, such as a time in a monastery, first car trip to the city and finally the awe of being able to sit in the glow of a broadcast of American wrestling.

 

Powerless – 2013 (2.7). Woefully inadequate and derelict power infrastructure in an extremely poor city in India causes massive outages, while daring power thieves dangerously tap lines to provide power to the poor. Meanwhile the power company puts the first woman executive in charge and she pushes to criminally prosecute everyone who uses power without paying. The lines for conflict are drawn, but this documentary does not quite capture the full impact, partly because it spends more time on the personalities than on the underlying issues.

 

Who Is Dayani Cristal? – 2013 (2.6). A documentary with much interlaced reenactment, this movie tells about a body of a man found in the Arizona desert. He appears to be someone who entered the US illegally and he has a tattoo on his chest “Dayani Cristal”. The documentary shows the medical examiner and embassy people in Arizona who work on trying to identify the dead man. We learn from them that their work has increased tenfold as increased border enforcement in California and Texas has forced immigrants to use more dangerous desert routes. We also begin to meet the family of the dead man and some living people who have made the same journey. The reenactments portray what the man likely encountered on his travel. The interlacing technique is more distracting than effective.

 

Burn – 2012 (2.6). Documentary film makers followed some Detroit firefighters for a year to make this movie but he result is not particularly organized and does not seem to have any editorial intent. The helmet cam shots are exciting and the stories of the personal lives of a 30 year veteran about to retire and a younger man permanently disabled in a fire fight are engaging, but the film includes no introspective dialogues among the fire fighters themselves or with community members whom they protect. We see a new fire commissioner come in but get little feel for the context of the fire department in the politics surrounding this terribly damaged city.

 

Barbara – 2012 (2.3). East Germany in 1980 was very bleak and this German drama about a medical doctor who was banished to a hinterland clinic because she had asked to be allowed to leave the country certainly captures that bleakness. The problem is the script is also bleak and the characters fit in perfectly.

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

 

Parenthood (Season Three)

Parenthood (Season Four)

Aftershock

Altman

History of the Eagles

Muscle Shoals

Who Is Dayani Cristal?

Burn

Barbara

Three Good and Three Not

 

 

 

The first three on this list are worth watching, but the last three are not recommended. The list is fairly short because it includes a miniseries and a full season each for two other series. 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. Clicking on a movie title will open a new browser tab with the IMDb page for the movie.

 

Omar – 2013 (3.4). Suspension of viewer disbelief is a desired accomplishment for a dramatic movie. Too many film scripts are full of credibility holes. This Oscar nominee from Palestine manages not only to make us suspend our disbelief as we become involved with three young Arab male friends and the sister of one of them but also creates a realistic insecurity regarding trust in what we believe. As Israeli agents arrest, torture and try to turn one of the Palestinians into an informant, the relationships of the four young Arabs are seriously disrupted and trust itself becomes a major casualty.

 

The Roosevelts: AnIntimate History – 2014 (3.3). The lives of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor are examined against the backdrop of the great historical events in which they were major players in this PBS series from Ken Burns. Familiar Burns techniques such as archival footage, talking head historians and voice over correspondence readings by actors voicing central characters are employed. The readings of very personal correspondence played against the archival footage of the individual are particularly effective as the movie exposes the inner feelings often hidden by the outside demeanor. Frictions between the TR and FDR branches of the family are interestingly explored. A personal quibble is the readings by Meryl Streep as Eleanor, whose admittedly unappealing voice and style of speaking would have been better played down rather than overemphasized [yet another example of Meryl supposedly becoming the person she plays even as we marvel as she does it what a great acting job she is doing].

 

Parenthood (SeasonTwo) – 2010 (3.3). After the two senior members of the cast tone down their own problems, the series concentrates more on their children and grandchildren, realistically presenting situations which echo some of our own past experiences. Many of the issues that arise in this extended family seem contemporary and then we realize they are actually matters that families have always faced but that have not often been portrayed so well on TV. Good writing and effective performances by the ensemble, combined with coming to know them better as characters raise the series a notch and bode well for the future.

 

Sense and Sensibility – 1995 (3.0). Directed by Ang Lee from a script by Emma Thompson, this version of the Austen story is solid and appropriately refined. The novel is copiously cited in the 2014 best seller economics book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, because the characters continuously use the wealth and income of people as a measure of their worthiness, particularly as prospective spouses.

 

Still Mine -2012 (2.8). Married for over 60 years, a rural New Brunswick couple, effectively played by Genevieve Bujold and James Cromwell, struggles with the coming of Alzheimer’s to the wife in this Canadian drama based on a true story.  The husband draws on his sturdy heritage to build a small house for them to live in together as long as possible, contending with unyielding building regulations and bureaucracy along with the declining condition of his wife. There is strength in the love and resoluteness of the couple, but the overall effect of the movie is not encouraging.

 

Titanic: Blood andSteel – 2012 (2.8). Ireland and Italy combined talents for this miniseries about the building of the great ship in Belfast, set against the background of political, labor and religious turmoil. We see from the inside both the shipyard management and the worker families, though the script takes some dramatic license with the facts. The subplot about trying to track down an adopted child is a bit distracting but pays off in the end. There are also some production design flaws such as the kitchen wall with missing plaster and broken lath in the apartment of immigrant Italian who happens to be a master plasterer and the fact that his daughter who works as a copyist in the shipyard somehow is able to afford such a lavish wardrobe of fashionable clothes that she never wears the same thing twice. The final episode as the people board the ship for its maiden voyage is appropriately affecting in the realization that all those who would become lost were real people who had been through much in their lives and had great hopes for better futures.

 

Dancing in Jaffa – 2012 (2.7). An international ballroom dance champion who was born in Jaffa returns to that city to start a program teaching Palestinian and Jewish children to dance together, in this earnest documentary. As usual, the children are quite appealing, particularly the ones on whom the movie concentrates. The teacher has many cultural barriers to overcome as he works with the children, their parents and other teachers. The film could have been better organized and the version being streamed on Netflix lacks subtitles for the portions that are not in English.

 

About Time – 2013 (2.6). As a fantasy concept for a movie, being able to travel back in your life to a time and place where you once were and then to change how you acted back there sounds fairly simple and potentially fun. But this film shows that the process is supposed to have some rules as to how it works in practice, and this script leaves the rules too fuzzy. It doesn’t matter that much though, because none of the characters are interesting or appealing enough to generate concern for what happens to them. Opportunities for probing the obvious deep questions about how changing one life affects the lives of others are lost in the fuzz and we are given a few trivial platitude morals at the end.

 

Homeland (SeasonThree) – 2013 (2.4). The writing has definitely become seat of the pants. The central characters wear out their welcome with repetitive acting and no nuance or character development. Some previously important characters are dropped, while new ones are invented and waste our time as does a subplot about a teenage tryst. The holes in the story and implausible security lapses become too great to ignore and the season finale rather than enticing us back for next season instead provides a convenient reason to stop watching.

 

The Secret Life ofWalter Mitty – 2013 (2.4). Ben Stiller directed and played the title character in this version of the fantasy. The look and special effects were fine, but plot of the story was jumbled and weakly connected while the script was poorly paced and uninteresting without any drama, humor or romance. Walter had more chemistry with his E-Harmony customer service guy than he did with the female lead.

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

 

Omar

Parenthood (Season Two)

Titanic: Blood and Steel

Dancing in Jaffa



Twice Tango Tops

 

Once again the BBC series Last Tango in Halifax comes out on top. Also, the Oscar winner for best picture is beaten by an old TV telling of the same story. Half this list were Netflix streamed.

 

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. Clicking on a movie title will open a new browser tab with the IMDb page for the movie.

 

 

Last Tango in Halifax (Season Two) – 2013 (3.2). The uniqueness of this series understandably dissipates some in the second season, with the continual plot developments not having quite the impact they did in the first year. The central cast is still top-notch and the writing is very good, but somehow there is a slight tinge of letdown. The six episodes went really fast and left the impression that not much story progress had been made, in spite of a lot of characters always on the go, but then a look back on the episode summaries proved that quite a bit of story development had transpired. There is an urge to know more about the past of these characters, which we are slowly being told. Perhaps reflection on the past getting lost in the bustle of the present and the uncertainty of the future is what the writers intend.

 

Half the Sky – 2012 (3.0). NY Times reporter Nicholas Kristof leads a documentary film crew to points in Africa and Asia to cover stories that are part of his book on the oppression of women and young girls. The movie shows the conditions the women face and what some activist women are doing to liberate and empower the oppressed. Female celebs accompany Kristof to lend their fame to publicizing the plights. The stories about sex traffic, prostitution, female genital mutilation and lack of worthy employment and educational access are by nature depressing. Deep seated cultural failings countenance such gender oppression, but the activist women are inspiring and many of the young girls they help are equally impressive.

 

One Big Hapa Family – 2010 (3.0).  Made by a young Canadian film maker who is the son of a Japanese mother and white father, this documentary is about the Japanese immigrants to British Columbia and how attitudes have changed toward racial intermarriage. When his grandparents came over, intermarriage was unheard of, but among the generation of the grandchildren over 90% marry interracially. His movie is well made mixing live action and animation as he interviews his extended family. The largely unknown story is told about how Japanese were treated north of the border, especially during WWII. This version is the 49 minute TV version, but there is also an 85 minute theatrical version.

 

Solomon Northup’s Odyssey – 1984 (3.0). Shown on American Playhouse and directed by Gordon Parks, this version of the “12 Years a Slave” story benefits from a much better script than the 2013 movie in which the story line and characters often were confusing. The Parks version draws characters more clearly, has much more meaningful conversations between Solomon and the other slaves and includes scenes of the ongoing efforts of Solomon’s wife and Henry Northup to find and free him. The presence of violence and sex is not emphasized at the expense of having time and attention diverted from Solomon struggling to keep his own focus on obtaining his freedom while also mutually sharing feelings with slaves who have never been free. Much more clearly in this earlier version, we feel how on obtaining his release Solomon is torn between wanting to forget the 12 year nightmare as he reunites with his family and feeling obliged to do something to help the enslaved people he has left behind.

 

The Trials ofMuhammad Ali – 2013 (2.9). Emphasizing his legal fight for conscientious objection exemption from the military draft, this documentary about Ali covers familiar ground but also manages to find fresh input in the form of interviews with the last surviving member of the group of eleven Louisville businessmen who guided his early professional boxing career, his first wife, his brother and a former Clerk for a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States giving insight into how the ultimate unanimous Court decision in favor of Ali was fashioned.

 

Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning – 2014 (2.8). Shown on American Masters on PBS, this documentary about the celebrated photographer was made by her granddaughter and covers her personal life as well as her career. Sterling examples of her photos are included as expected, along with archival footage and interviews with some of her descendants. There is much footage of Dorothea working in her dying months trying to pick photos for a show of her life’s work to be displayed in NYC at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. Missing from the movie is commentary from other photographers and critics explaining the technical aspects of her work and what they contributed to her art.

 

Big Men – 2013 (2.8). The young American woman who spent six years making this cinema verite style documentary shown on PBS P.O.V. scored some good inside access in following a Dallas oilman and a Ghanaian entrepreneur who hook up and convince an American capital firm to contract with the oil ministry of Ghana to develop an offshore oil field for the benefit of the people of Ghana. Many of the Ghanaians were educated in America and speak excellent English, but we also see aspects of the tribal cultural structure of the country. The contract gets embroiled in election politics in Ghana and the film follows this process to conclusion. As a contrast, though sometimes distracting, the film also covers turmoil over oil in Nigeria, where corruption has kept the revenues from getting to the Nigerian people and young protestors engage in sabotage of pipelines.

 

Mortified Nation – 2013 (2.8). A few years back someone got the idea that reading excerpts from personal journals and diaries written in earlier years could help self-discovery, and it could be especially cathartic if done in front of an empathetic audience. The idea was put into practice and captured in this documentary showing live performances and interviews with participants and the people behind the idea.

 

Ai Weiwei: NeverSorry – 2012 (2.8). The film maker followed the Chinese activist artist and his entourage quite closely in making this documentary, but we never got very far into understanding his artistic vision or his vision for a more open Chinese society. Instead we saw a continual Twitter user who uses his iconic status to take shots (literally and figuratively) at the Chinese government and a man who on the personal side does not seem to be very caring toward people as individuals.

 

Radio Unnameable – 2012 (2.8). This straightforward documentary tells the story of a man who has worked for fifty years broadcasting a late night show on FM radio in NYC. Interviews, archival footage and audio clips are the vehicles, set against the changing times.

 

The Scapegoat – 2012 (2.7). This slow starting drama about a rich scoundrel in early 1950s England who runs into his perfect lookalike is based on a Du Maurier story. The scoundrel takes advantage of the lookalike by tricking him into taking his place while the scoundrel disappears. As we finally get the drift of all that the man has walked into, we become interested enough to stay around and see how he handles it and how it ends.

 

12 Years a Slave – 2013 (2.6). The story of Solomon Northup being kidnapped in 1841 and held as a slave in the South is a very dramatic one. Surely his book written in 1853 was intended to aid the abolitionist movement. Judging by the script, the purpose in turning it into a movie 160 years later seems to have been limited to reaffirming the abolitionist message. Maybe there is an ongoing need to remind Americans, especially in the South, of the horrors of slavery, but the drama of the Northup story has so much more to offer than was delivered by this script. Whether in the book or not, this story cries out for so many things that were not included in the movie, like more background on Northrup and his family before the abduction, efforts made by his family and friends to find him, his more intimate communications with other slaves, and his attempts to employ his intelligence in maneuverings with slaveholders and overseers. The emphasis in the movie seems to have been more in getting the look of things right, rather than providing characters and relationships of much dimension.

 

15 to Life: Kenneth’sStory -2013 (2.6). The issue of life sentences for minors convicted of crimes other than murder is a worthwhile subject for a documentary. Unfortunately this movie about a 15 year old boy in Florida who is eleven years into serving four consecutive life sentences for accompanying an armed adult robber does not do the best job presenting the issues. The concentration is on a resentencing hearing mandated by US Supreme Court decision and we do see some of the proceeding as it took place. But we do not know what we did not see of the hearing and do not get much strategy discussion from volunteer counsel for the prisoner. There are some good interviews with the boy himself and some revealing exposure to his born again drug addict mother and a smattering of other input, but some key elements seem omitted, like any word from the public defender on the boy’s trial. Kenneth has been dealt several bad cards, including his no-show father, addicted mother, exploitation by career adult criminal; living in Florida, questionable public defender representation, marginal resentencing counsel, and unusually unsympathetic judge. This film does not do much to help his poor hand.

 

The Revisionaries – 2012 (2.6).  A partisan elected board of Texans periodically reviews and revises standards for textbooks used in that State and since it is so large, the books sold there are very likely to be the ones that the publishers sell throughout the United States. In this documentary we see the dismaying process at play as fundamentalist Christian board members narrow mindedly alter science and social studies books to reflect their personal beliefs rather than to provide the most accurate learning materials. Valiant efforts to prevent the desecration of textbooks is also shown, but the film is sometimes hard to follow and spends too much time on following two particular board members rather than exploring the issues in more depth, such as more extensive interviews with publishers and inclusion of examples of better processes used in other States.

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

Half the Sky

The Trials of Muhammad Ali

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Radio Unnameable

Mortified Nation

The Scapegoat

The Revisionaries

A Decent Series and 3 OK Docs

The title describes the top three on this list.

 

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. Clicking on a movie title will open a new browser tab with the IMDb page for the movie.

 

Parenthood (SeasonOne) – 2010 (3.2). There may be some laughs in this series, but it is actually a pretty good and realistic drama about a couple wed 46 years, and their four children and their families. Such extended families offer multiple relationships to explore and various stages of life’s journey through the years to encounter and the scripts intelligently address some of them. After a few episodes to get to know the characters, viewer appreciation increases as we see the people become more familiar and believable. There is plenty of drama as in all families without the farfetched fabrications too many series are quick to foist on the audience.

 

Chasing Ice – 2012 (3.1). Environmental photographer James Balog leads a team tracking the recession of glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska and Montana in this eerily beautiful documentary. Time lapse photography was employed over several years to show the amazingly rapid ongoing demise of these enormous warehouses of ice. The movie shows how the team developed and deployed the cameras and how James is challenged by repeated injuries to his knees. Also included are spectacular movies of huge ice “calves breaking off and falling into the sea. There is not a lot of science or politics here, just wonderful images of glacial reality.

 

Crime after Crime – 2011 (3.1). The number of women in prison has skyrocketed in recent decades and many female inmates have been abuse victims. Sometimes an action they have taken against the abuser is what has sent them to prison. In this effective documentary, two volunteer attorneys embark on an effort to use a unique new California law to present previously inadmissible evidence of the abuse a woman suffered at the hands of the man whose killing she pleaded guilty to being involved with, in hopes of gaining her release after serving 20 years of a 25 year to life sentence. The lawyers did not know how many years they would have to work and with what frustration. The movie covers some of the legal aspects and maneuverings, but is most effective in presenting the life and personal journey of Debbie Peagler and how her attorneys and she became so personally bonded.

 

Greenwich Village:Music that Defined a Generation – 2012 (2.8). There is not much apparent organization or any particular messages in this pleasant documentary, but it contains lots of archival footage of 1960s folk singers interspersed with present day interviews of the performers. It is always fun to juxtapose now and then images and the music is still appealing.

 

Treme (Season Four) – 2013 (2.7). With only five episodes, the final season seems like maybe the plug got pulled. Feeling like an extension of the previous season, the show continues to jump around through the characters although knowing it was ending, there is a bit of story arc resolution. There is still plenty of eclectic music and lots of food and other New Orleans flavor.

 

Getting Back toAbnormal – 2012 (2.7).  In the post-Katrina years, New Orleans gets some white gentrification in this documentary which focuses on a young white city council member who is challenged by a young black minister in her re-election campaign. The central issue is whether she is a racist or a sincere friend of the racially mixed community. The only actual issue that gets attention is the tearing down of a long time black housing project and its replacement with an upscale mixed use development, but we are never given either side of the debate in any depth. The personality and character of the council woman get more attention than the City itself.

 

From Time to Time – 2009 (2.7). The actors and production values are in place in this Brit tale in which a boy visiting an ancestral property during WWII encounters ghosts of residents from the past, but the script starts too talkative, the characters whether dead or alive never seem real or hold appeal, and the story is too farfetched and predictable.

 

Mansfield Park – 1983 (2.7). Dated and theatrical in presentation, this six part miniseries from the BBC probably does justice to the Austen classic, but seems a bit too talky and drawn out.

 

Rid of Me -2011 (2.6). A mousey California girl returns to Oregon with her new husband who is re-uniting with the guys and gals he hung out with in his college days. Problem is that the mouse does not fit in and is replaced by the former college sweetheart. On the rebound, the mousse tries to reinvent herself first as a repulsive goth and then as a toned down free spirit. Sincere and somewhat fresh, this slightly amateurish indie black comedy has a few good moments and avoids what could have been some really bad ones.

 

The Book Thief – 2013 (2.4). The book on which this movie is based may be very good, with many storylines and characters interweaving around WWII Germany, but it does not come across in this movie dramatization. The script seems to pick excerpts of the stories and show snippets of them without making connections or interweaving. Whenever anything approaching real drama comes along, it quickly disappears. Characters at one time seem like they are important and then simply vanish from the movie. Relationships experience no challenges or changes that come across as real to the viewer. In spite of some obligatory scenes of mean Nazis, there is no feeling of immersive reality about anything in this film.

 

Her – 2013 (2.3). A boring nerd’s wife is dumping him and he falls in love with his new personalized computer operating system but eventually realizes the female sounding system is not actually real. It does not sound a likely subject for a movie, yet this film won the Oscar for best original screenplay. Supposedly a romantic sci-fi drama, it is best classified as a long bore. Ironic criticism and social commentary about how people are personally involved with electronic media while ignoring the real people surrounding them are proper goals for a movie, but to be effective a film has to hold attention and create empathy for the characters. As for futuristic visions, what I saw in this movie is actually what I often see around me today. Figuring it was going to be a little weird, I watched the first 15 minutes with all the sound except dialogue [an HDMI glitch] and thought this is weird and stupid and that people who paid to see this in a theater were probably stomping and hissing. After correcting the glitch and watching with dialogue, I think it was better the first way – or at least not as bad. But I did get a huge laugh at being stupid enough to think this movie was as stupid as I thought it was.

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

Parenthood

Chasing Ice

Crime after Crime

Greenwich Village: Music that Defined a Generation

From Time to Time

Mansfield Park

Rid of Me

Two Winners

A very good documentary streamed on Netflix shares top honors with a library DVD by way of Iran on this list. After getting some newer Hollywood films from the library, this time around Netflix streams make up more than half the listings.

 

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. Clicking on a movie title will open a new browser tab with the IMDb page for the movie.

 

Inequality for All – 2013 (3.5). Robert Reich is the star of this documentary about the widening gap between the richest Americans and the rest of us. A Rhodes Scholar who has served in Government since the Ford Administration, Reich is most famous for his work as Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton. He left that job after the first Clinton term because he felt his insistence on consideration of the impact of administration economic policies on working class Americans was being ignored in favor of the policies advocated by Secretary of the Treasury Geithner. Reich is a charmingly fascinating man who is able to express ideas very clearly. Born with a genetic defect, he is extremely short, a matter which he is adept at using as a conversational ice breaker. In this stylish movie he manages to bring dry and depressing data to life as demonstrated by the standing room only lectures he gives as a Berkeley professor, the enormous auditorium audience listening in rapt attention to his dynamic presentation, mixed with just the right amount of personal history. Reich clearly gives the answers to how we got into this inequality mess but freely admits that there is no magic prescription to get us out. Political will needs to be changed and he challenges his students to make that a goal of their career. We should have followed Reich instead of Geithner.

 

The Past – 2013 (3.5). Asghar Farhadi is an Iranian film maker of perceptive intelligence. He writes his own scripts, directs and oversees the editing. This French language drama is set in a Paris suburb, but in spite of being so near the beautiful city, we never see any tourist sites. Instead we see very real feeling locations such as the modest home of the French woman who is finalizing her divorce from her estranged Iranian husband who has just flown in for the process. He is expecting that she has booked him a hotel as he requested, only to be told that he is going to be staying with her so as to more easily pay his farewells to her two daughters from a prior marriage. But the teenage daughter is having problems with Mom and maybe he can have a talk with her. And so the story starts to develop, all in the present, for in spite of the title, the movie contains no flashbacks. There is lots of talking but all the conversations are so real and engrossing that nothing feels theatrical or gratuitous. There is plot and drama with other characters becoming involved, but the story develops like most of our real lives have and are and will, in spite of our efforts to be in control. This film makes us ask questions about our motivations and those of others and whether we even understand our own, much less those of the others. The ending may be a little subtle, just as in real life, and dependent on perspective. And that very realistic house in the suburbs was actually designed and built under the supervision of Farhadi. This is a film maker who knows exactly what he is doing in all regards.

 

Steve Jobs: The LostInterview – 2012 (2.9). Not big on being interviewed, Jobs did allow one in 1995. Long thought to have been lost, a VHS copy was found years later and released as a documentary movie, with only minor bridging narration by the interviewer. Ten years before the interview, Jobs had been forced out of Apple, the company he cofounded. He had started his own company but was still feeling the hurt of what had happened. He talks about his early interest in computers as a twelve year old and how he came to be involved in the formation of Apple. His answers are very reflective and seem quite honest as he shares his ideas on the technical creative process and the teamwork involved in working ideas through transformative stages to fruition. Jobs was as interesting as the products he was part of bringing into being, just as Bill Gates is as boring as most Microsoft products. A year after the interview, Jobs sold his company to Apple and was soon hired to bring Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy, a task he accomplished with unprecedented success.

 

Gravity – 2013 (2.8). Viewing this movie as I did on from a library DVD meant no 3-D and no special features explaining the special effects employed. This is the kind of film for which 3-D makes sense and watching it that way might well result in a higher rating. Winning many technical Oscars as well as best cinematography and director awards reveals the strength of the film as an extraordinary technical accomplishment, beautifully photographed and cohesively directed. But the script and acting were no match for the technical achievements.

 

The Moo Man – 2013 (2.8). The British organic dairy farmer followed in this documentary works valiantly with every aspect of his business for long hours, losing money but managing to hang on by distributing his raw milk directly to customers, and being salvaged by taxpayer funded subsidies. The upbeat farmer talks to the camera throughout the film as he goes about his business, always centered on his personal relationship with each member of his herd. We see the sloppy nitty gritty of dairy farming in great detail and in the process we become surprisingly emotionally involved with cows and their different personalities. At the end, we understand his wistful sadness about some aspects of what he does for a living.

 

The Way Way Back – 2013 (2.8). A 14 year old boy comes of age on a vacation at the beach house of his divorced mother’s jerky boyfriend after being mentored by a charismatic man working at the local water park in this pleasant comedy with overtones of the pain of broken homes.

 

Ping Pong – 2012 (2.8). Several individuals over eighty years of age from various countries are shown discussing how they became involved in international ping pong competition in this quick moving documentary. Then they are shown competing at a tournament in China. This movie is more about how some people handle the health related issues of advanced age rather than about how they play ping pong. But the fact is, especially considering their age, these people are quite good players, both of ping pong and life.

 

Unfinished Song – 2012 (2.8). An upbeat terminally ill woman loves singing in the senior choir. Her grumpy husband is perennially depressed and now doting on his wife in fear of losing her. Their son is pained by the cold relationship he has with his father. The eight year old granddaughter is appropriately cute as is the young woman volunteer who joyously leads the choir, even as her personal love life is a mess. Formulaic as it is, this Brit movie accomplishes its task without being too smarmy.

 

Miss Representation – 2011 (2.8). Without telling us anything particularly new, this documentary does bring the stats together and provide lots of interview commentary and archival footage to show how the American media and cultural norms treat women unfairly. The movie is a good reminder but is short on actual suggestions for meaningful change.

 

About Elly – 2009 (2.8).  A happy getaway to the beach by several couples and their small children turns sour when a last minute invitee, the teacher of the child of one of the couples, is uncomfortable and wants to go home early. A newly divorced man was apparently intended as a possible match for her, but before that has a chance to develop, the young teacher vanishes. Mysterious disappearance is a theme that runs through the movies of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, as is the undependability of taking what people say at face value. Trying to understand the present in the context of an as yet unrevealed past with an eye on the future is a tricky task. Yet that is a common task in our everyday life and relationships and the truth of that struggle is what makes , as is the undependability of taking what people say at face value. Trying to understand the present in the context of an as yet unrevealed past with an eye on the future is a tricky task. Yet that is a common task in our everyday life and relationships and the truth of that struggle is what makes Farhadi’s films so relevantly watchable.

 

Fireworks Wednesday – 2006 (2.8). From Iran Asghar Farhadi directs this story of a middle class Tehran couple whose marriage is in trouble. The wife suspects the husband is having an affair and he vehemently denies it. A young house cleaner is hired and soon gets caught in the middle. Honest dialogue about lies and lying in personal relationships is quite watchable. We are in the present like the newly hired house cleaner and we can only guess about the past of these people and what the future may hold for them.

 

House of Cards (Season Two) – 2014 (2.6). The original British miniseries was just three episodes, but this American takeoff has now logged 26 episodes. Season one offered an interesting mix of devious politics, questionable journalism and outrageous violent crime. But with the second season the cuteness of Kevin Spacey’s character is wearing thin, the political issues are spread around too much and the journalists are relegated to second string. The machinations become ludicrous, the personal sex scenes gratuitous, and the gullibility of many of the characters hard to swallow. This Netflix series is too stuck on itself and should have been one season max.

 

Child’s Pose – 2013 (2.6). A sixtyish architect has only one child, a man in his thirties who is finishing up getting his chemistry degree, in this Romanian drama. The son lives with his single mother girlfriend, whom the mother dislikes, because mom wants to control her son’s life and keep him close to her. He resents this very much and is nasty to his mother. There is a father who seems to have pretty much given up on both his wife and son. When the son is a driver in a fatal accident, the mother makes it her job to save him from the consequences. The script is not as clear as this summary. None of the characters has any appeal. But the older actress plays her role to the hilt.

 

Sarah Palin: YouBetcha! – 2011 (2.4). Nobody realistically expected Palin to run for President in 2012. In 2008 she proved herself to be a political joke, totally unfit for any public office. So this Brit documentary going to Wasilla to interview family, friends, enemies and maybe Sarah herself had to be a little tongue in cheek. Amateurishly made, it covered some old ground and left many interesting angles uncovered. The depth of her childish us versus them back stabbing vendetta mentality was fairly interesting as documented in interviews with some of her previous acolytes who she threw under the bus.

 

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

Inequality for All

Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview

The Moo Man

Ping Pong

Unfinished Song

Miss Representation

House of Cards

Sarah Palin: You Betcha!

A Dozen Newer; Half Disappointments

Additional newer movies have been coming through, but four of them plus two documentaries from Netflix all scored below 2.8. A Brit TV series was the best watch on this list.

 

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. Clicking on a movie title will open a new browser tab with the IMDb page for the movie.

 

 

Mr. Selfridge (Season Two) – 2014 (3.3). This fine Brit series jumps ahead five years to the start of WWI, as Harry Selfridge ties to salvage his relationship with his wife whom he has estranged by his philandering. The department store must make adjustments throughout the War and Harry is tricked by an evil Lord into looking like he is undermining the War effort. The love lives of several store staff are followed as they blend their current lives at the store with future aspirations. The season finale executes quite well a theme of unselfish love.

 

Doc Martin (Season Six) -2013 (2.8). Family matters get more involved in the eight episodes of this season, with a few new characters and many of the old. Quirky and ornery as the Doc is, the audience still wants to see him make progress toward the happiness which always seems to elude him.

 

Saving Mr. Banks – 2013 (2.8).  The story of Walt Disney prevailing on Mrs. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, to let him turn her stories into a movie musical is actually a story of a woman coming to terms with the loss as a young girl of her beloved but seriously flawed alcoholic father. Tom Hanks channels a great Disney and Emma Thompson, added by continual flashbacks adeptly conveys the inner turmoil of the author. Sadly, though not covered by this movie, it seems the real Mrs. Travers, who lived to age 96, was never able to find the inner peace she sought. Here is yet another idea for a meaningful sequel.

 

Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story - 2012 (2.8). A talented Alsatian artist comes to America after WWII and creates wonderful children’s books covering some of the dark and edgy side of life. He wins awards and is celebrated, but then disappears from the scene for about 25 years, when his work in other genres is considered too far out. Still working in his eighties, this documentary includes an extensive interview with him telling of his life journey and his work. Other artists and critics join in praise of Tomi. Delightful animation is employed throughout the movie to help capture the joyous spirit of this edgy illustrator.

 

King of Devil’s Island – 2010 (2.8).  While stylishly capturing the bleakness of an island reformatory for boys in 1915, this well-acted Norwegian drama based on true events never lets us learn anything about the back story of the inmates or the authorities in charge. A new inmate is obviously going to be a major disciplinary challenge and the trusted boy put in charge of helping shape him up soon bonds with him instead. After a scandal is swept under the rug, a revolt is inevitable, as is its outcome.

 

Crossing the Line – 2006 (2.8). Four young American soldiers defected to North Korea in the 1960s and this Brit documentary tells their unfamiliar story of decades living in that oppressive country. Through times of suspicion, indoctrination, exploitation, isolation and integration, the men age, marry, start families and are put to work in anti-American propaganda efforts. Two died of natural cause along the way. One eventually went to Japan with his Japanese wife and negotiated a deal with the US to resolve his status. The main participant in the movie is a man who as a child went from a broken home to foster homes to the Army, through a young jilted marriage and back to the Army where he could not handle the discipline so ran away to the communists. Interviewing him extensively and following his activities along with dramatic reconstructions of some of the back story, we learn of his two marriages and three children. As he tries to explain his motivations and feelings at various times of his story we realize how little this man had going for him in life, how shallow his contemplative side is and why ultimately his story, unusual as it is, has never been consequential in America.

 

August: Osage County – 2013 (2.7). Meryl Streep plays Violet, a bitter woman addicted to liberally prescribed drugs. She lives in a small Oklahoma town with her alcoholic husband and a quiet fortyish daughter she nags for not being married. Two other daughters who live elsewhere come to town for an unexpected reunion of sorts, one with her estranged husband and their teenage daughter, the other with her too oft married fiancé. Violet’s sister and brother-in-law and their bumbling son also come. An Indian woman hired to help take care of Violet completes the ensemble. Based on a play, the movie is quite talkative with some theatrical dialogue, as the family members yak to each other and reveal some of the family back story. Unfortunately, the movie is three quarters over before it actually gets interesting and some actual drama is introduced. Once again Streep does a fantastic acting job, and I have trouble seeing it as anything but that – an act.

 

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – 2013 (2.7). There is so much to tell in the life story of Nelson Mandela that selecting what parts to cover is a challenge for a movie. Unfortunately, the script for this film decided to skip the story of his youth and what he learned in his village and from his father and other elders. We were not shown his family relationships and village friendships, nor any of his schooling from elementary level through law school. Instead, we were quickly shown Mandela as a rising attorney becoming politically involved as well as having some romantic flings during his first marriage. Then Winnie comes in and we see their early romance and eventually we see how the years of separation made them different people and no longer compatible. These are a bit of new turf. But too much time is spent in all too familiar territory, his long imprisonment and eventual release and election, without giving us any new perspective. Except for his famous speeches, we never see discussions and arguments through the years as his ultimate embrace of peace and reconciliation as the solution develops. Too much valuable screen time is wasted on lingering contemplative pans, meaningless movements at the beginning of scenes and an overuse of action scenes with extras. Idris Elba does a good job of channeling Mandela but should have been given more opportunity for introspection.

 

Trash Dance – 2012 (2.7). A young woman choreographer imbeds with the trash collectors in Austin Texas to gather ideas and recruits for a performance of trash collecting as dance in this earnest documentary. The relatively short film follows the woman as she rides along with workers doing various tasks and she learns about the work they do and some about their lives. But we do not learn much about the woman herself, her background and how she came to be involved in the work she does. We do get to see a capsulated version of the performance, but it feels a bit distant. It would have been nice to have more interviews with family members of the workers, before and after the performance.

 

American Hustle – 2013 (2.4). David O. Russell supposedly makes genre bending movies with nuanced characters of many layers. What was actually created in this film was a pretty boring movie set in 1978 about con artists being trapped by an overly ambitious FBI agent who promised to not charge them if they cooperated in stinging bigger fish. The layers apparently come in the form of the characters playing each other. The start of the script made all the characters seem unappealing and there did not seem to be much of a story. Then as the outline of a story started to take shape the characters all started morphing in somewhat confusing ways and after over two hours it wound up quickly like a typical sting movie. The most enjoyable thing about the movie was actually distracting – the music track with hit songs of the period prompting viewers to sing along and try to remember who the singer was.

 

Inside Llewyn Davis – 2013 (2.4). The Coen brothers made this movie with T Bone Burnett because they were interested in the transition that was taking place in American folk music around 1961. They cast Oscar Isaac in the title role, because he could act and play guitar and sing folk songs as he slept on the couches of friends in Greenwich Village while he kept trying to get his musical breakout chance. Not much as a comedy and certainly with no drama, the chances for a real story were obvious but ignored. The camera is always on Isaac or showing his point of view, and he is not that likeable a character. In the course of the film, he plays numerous songs all the way through, so in a way it is an offbeat musical.

 

Milius – 2013 (2.4). John Milius, the writer and sometimes director who is the subject of this documentary, is not a household name. He went to film school and buddied and worked some with Spielberg, Coppola, Lucas and others who contribute interviews to the movie. Milius also is shown in older footage interviews and there are scenes of him interacting with others. Born fairly well-off and with a body of large size, with natural writing ability, he had no problem exuding brash confidence and he enjoyed being contrary. Unable to enter the service for Vietnam duty because of health problems, he lived life, including his film making, as a militaristic wannabe. Despite all the talking in this film about his writing and the scenes that are shown from some of the movies he scripted, this documentary does not seem to impart much knowledge about the details of his actual writing style.

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story

King of Devil’s Island

Crossing the Line

Trash Dance

Milius

Europe on Top

 

The DVD holds from the library are starting to come through on some of the movies from the most recent awards time. Six American ones are included in this list. But the top three movies rated here are from Europe. Thankfully many good foreign films and documentaries are available on Netflix streaming and DVDs from the library, because the newer Hollywood movies coming to DVD have not been very impressive.

 

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. Clicking on a movie title will open a new browser tab with the IMDb page for the movie.

 

The Broken Circle Breakdown – 2012 (3.1). The male lead in this Belgian drama wrote and acted in the play on which this Oscar nominated movie is based; he plays a man who idolizes the hope that is America and he leads a Bluegrass band which sings in English. The female lead is a Belgian actress and singer who plays a tattoo artist who hooks up with the male romantically and joins the band as a singer. The young director is a friend of the male lead and he has made a seamless film flowing smoothly between the present and the past, drama and music; and happiness and tragedy. This is ultimately a very sad film about the difficulty of struggling with grief, whether as a spiritual person or not. It is also another of those films in which we care enough about the characters that we want them to get counseling to help them through their problems even if that could result in a film of less impact.

 

 Philomena – 2013 (2.9). In 1950s Ireland a single father entrusts his daughters to the nuns to educate and when she comes up pregnant he relinquishes her to their care. After a traumatic delivery the boy child is put up for adoption and the mother forced to work to pay for her care. Fifty years later, the retired mother decides to renew her search to find out what happened to her son, aided by an established journalist on a career downturn. Inspired by this true story, the movie takes some liberties to make the journalist a former Catholic who is now an atheist, thereby creating dramatic tension with the mother, wonderfully played by Judi Dench. The search becomes a bit of a road trip story mixed with mystery as all moves along at good pace, even though, or perhaps because, the characters of the woman’s daughter, who never knew about the existence of her brother, and the wife of the journalist, who seemed to also have some dramatic tension with her husband, get left behind quite early.

 

Romantics Anonymous – 2010 (2.9). Short and sweet, like the chocolates made by the characters portrayed, this French romantic comedy pairs a couple who are each painfully shy emotional types getting counseling for their problems. Their paths cross when she goes to work for his failing chocolate factory. The actress Isabelle Carre has that plain every girl quality of some of the better old Hollywood films. The man is less appealing but still sympathetic and their chemistry seems to work enough to make the audience root for their togetherness.

 

Enough Said – 2013 (2.8). In this romantic comedy about a middle aged divorced couple who hook up, but then the woman gets some inside negative information on the man from his ex-wife, the female writer-director does a good job of capturing both the fun and the awkwardness of making new connections after being divorced. It helps that the couple are played by James Gandolfini in his last full role before his death and Julia Louis-Dreyfus who finally gets a chance to add some dramatic work to her always great comedic talent.

 

 Lee Daniels’ The Butler – 2013 (2.8). One comment at IMDb rhetorically asks the same question I have: Why is Lee Daniels' name above the title … after only one other film we've heard of? He did not even write the script for this fictional story (“inspired” by a true one) about a White House butler who served eight Presidents. The good: the acting of Forest and Oprah; the poignancy of the archival and reenactment footage of pivotal events in American history during those times; the quirky accuracy of Cusack as Nixon. The bad: distracting appearances by famous actors playing Presidents, particularly Robin Williams as Ike; not being able to go deeper into historical events despite the length of the movie; never quite bringing the inner conflicts of the butler more to the surface. Expecting this to be more of a sermon about the son of the butler failing to appreciate and respect him, it was a pleasant surprise to find the father son failures cut both ways.

 

Nebraska – 2013 (2.8). Capturing boring small town mentality, what a life of alcoholism can wreak and the disconnected dynamics of marginally functional families are things this drama does well. The premise of an old duffer actually believing he has won the prize mentioned in the magazine marketing letter he received is a bit preposterous but with this man in this stage of life in this part of the world, it actually works. Anecdotes about the old man are periodically delivered, but somehow they disappointingly fail to produce a sympathetic understanding of who he really is.

 

The Great Beauty – 2013 (2.8). In some ways this Oscar winner for best foreign film harkens back 50 years to La Dolce Vita, examining the decadent life of Rome through the eyes of a writer. In the older film the writer was early middle age, while the new film features a man entering retirement years. Based on the DVD interview with the serious minded director and co-writer, the movie is not really as deep as some might think, but rather an intimate character study of the old writer who is beginning to see that he wasted lots of his life with partying and is overdue to write that great second novel after forty years. The lush cinematography and active lighting techniques are very effective, as is the acting, but don’t expect much of a story.

 

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage – 2010 (2.8). Starting right out of high school, the Canadian rockers documented in this movie have been challenging their own talents for decades. Archival footage, interviews with fans, critics and admiring musicians are the components of the film. But the enduring friendship of the three men and their mutual desire to challenge themselves to always improve and explore is what sets them apart.

 

The Bletchley Circle (Season Two) – 2013 (2.7). The former code breaker women continue their self-appointed detective work in two more two part episodes, with one character out and a new one in, but now the novelty factor of their war time work is worn off and it has become just another detective show.

 

Prisoners – 2013 (2.7). This overlong thriller about the disappearance of two young girls starts off fairly believable and intriguing enough to hold attention, but then the characters start to deteriorate in authenticity and an increasing number of holes begin to appear in the script as the story continues. The chief investigator increasingly proves to be the typical American cinematic loner cop who does not follow the rules but gets results. Central characters quickly become wacky under the pressure and before we know it we have several nut cases to suspect. Eventually we realize the extent of interconnection and then wait for the movie to catch up and conclude. These thrillers always seem to prove that playing by the rules may actually be the best course, and one personal rule for me is probably that thrillers are usually a waste of time.

 

Rush – 2013 (2.7). Ron Howard always makes a well-crafted film. This story of an intense battle in the 1970s between the two top Formula One racers captures a couple years of that battle and strikes a good balance between race track action and the personal lives of the men. Unfortunately neither side of that balance is well enough developed. We do not really learn much about the racing beyond the two men, nor about the two men beyond the racing. The Austrian racer in particular seemed a deeper man deserving deeper treatment.

 

Mildred Pierce – 2011 (2.2). Starting with unsympathetic people plodding through a muddled script, this HBO miniseries remake of the 1945 classic wastes a lot of time at the beginning and then rushes to its end. Production values are high in capturing the look of 1930s Los Angeles, but there are too many shots of the vintage automobiles just going from one scene to the next. Thankfully the profanity has been kept true to the time rather than the usual HBO anachronistic transporting of current foul mouth jargon; but the typical HBO full nudity is included early. Full spoiler written intros to each of the five parts are quite helpful, particularly when combined with the fast forwarding DVD feature.

 

The Wolf of Wall Street – 2013 (1.2). One and a half hours of self-indulgent libidinous debauchery about a stockbroker making money by cheating clients is followed by another one and a half hours of the same as the FBI close in on him in this useless drivel of a movie. Based on a book by the crook, one wonders why did anyone buy the book and why in the world was a film made of it. Once again, be thankful for DVD fast forwarding. Incredibly, this was nominated for awards and was supposedly a comedy.

 

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

Romantics Anonymous

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage