Thirteen Streams

 

 

This list includes thirteen that were streamed via Netflix. At the stream only monthly member charge that is a pretty good bargain and home streaming is certainly convenient. I suppose it is time for a price increase, especially since it is being reported that Netflix is now paying Comcast (and other ISPs?) a premium to make sure viewers are getting sufficient bandwidth. A few Oscar nominees and winners are starting to come through from the library also.

 

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 Way – 2010 (3.2). Emilio Estevez wrote, produced and directed this surprisingly effective drama starring his father, Martin Sheen, as an American ophthalmologist whose only son is killed at the start of a traditional pilgrimage through the Pyrenees. Having been somewhat estranged from his son, when the father goes to collect the body he decides to walk the pilgrimage himself. What follows is a well-acted and authentically scenic 500 mile road trip on foot during which the bitter man encounters his own anger, begrudges and struggles to relate to fellow pilgrims and various residents encountered along the route and gradually realizes what the pilgrimage means to him. The movie is often touching and alternately gently humorous.

The Square – 2013 (2.9). Netflix enabled the production of this Oscar nominated documentary about the Arab Spring launching in Egypt and the ensuing turmoil. Alternately intimate in closely following a diverse group of protestors and large in scale in showing the massiveness of the demonstrations, the movie captures the zeal of the protestors and the frustration that comes from their political inexperience. Ultimately we learn that revolution is not just about overthrowing undemocratic regimes, but also about changing the culture of a people to enable them to better understand democracy and politics, a lesson Americans could benefit by reassessing our own political culture.

Brooklyn Castle – 2012 (2.9). IS 318 middle school in Brooklyn is a national chess powerhouse and the reasons why are well shown in this documentary. First the school created a chess program to show kids what the game can do for sharpening their thinking and concentration skills and what chess competitions can do for their life coping skills and self-esteem. Next, dedicated teachers and mentors were enlisted. And finally, interested students of all skill levels have become involved, supported by their families and the school community. While following the entire team over the course of a few years, the film concentrates especially on three very appealing children of immigrants, an intelligent and beguiling girl with Caribbean roots, a boy who could be the next US President with African Ancestry and a quiet boy whose parents came from South America. Without preaching, this movie generates enormous enthusiasm for immigration, education, teachers, mentors and the ancient game of chess.

First Position – 2011 (2.9). Watching kids work hard to get really good at doing something that excites them and then seeing them in competitions to be recognized as one of the best is the subject of this documentary. The kids are boys and girls age 11 to 17 from diverse backgrounds and their passion is ballet. We hear from the kids, their teachers, families and friends as we follow them on the course to the final competition, and even without knowing much about ballet, we can see that it is a rigorous and artistic endeavor, we can tell which competitors are really good and we can’t help but find favorites for whom to root.

Undefeated – 2011 (2.9). This Oscar winning documentary intimately follows a white businessman who volunteers to coach an inner city Memphis high school football team which has a tradition of being a whipping boy for other schools. We pick up with the coach in his sixth year, with a promising group of players he urges to reveal their character, self-esteem and spirit of teamwork and try tp make the playoffs and do something no team from the school has done in its 110 year existence – win a playoff game. Two players of special interest are followed closely. Both are being raised by their grandmother. One is a good student too small to play college ball while the other is a marginal student with great size and athleticism. A third player has serious behavioral problems.

Dallas Buyers Club – 2013 (2.8). The overwhelming purpose of this movie seems to have been to create Oscar type roles for the male lead and supporting actor, a feat successfully accomplished. There is not much drama beyond how long these HIV positive men will live, and with the story set in the 1980s we pretty much know the answer to that. Character development is minimal for the lead and non-existent for the support. Criticism of the doctors, drug companies and the FDA is ho-hum. The female doctor role is a throw away. The only reason to watch is to judge the Oscar winning performances.

Our Nixon – 2013 (2.8). Home movies taken by three insiders of the Nixon White House are interspersed with interviews of them in later years, archival footage and recorded phone calls between them and Nixon in this unusual documentary. The three men all served time in federal prison for their crimes in the Watergate break-in and cover-up. Admittedly most appealing to political junkies and especially those who remember the Watergate times, the movie still is chilling to watch the stiffly sanctimonious President in public and then hear him on the phone with his sycophants as he gives his flattering self-assessments and expletive laden jibes at his perceived enemies and spotlight stealers.

Twenty Feet from Stardom – 2013 (2.8). Background singers aer the subject of this Oscar winning documentary. Predominantly African-American women, these singers often have voices better than the stars they support, but as their fairly extensive interviews show, they either were content to remain in the background or not that successful when they tried to go solo. We get some history and lots of memories and musical vocalizing. Though the movie could have used with a little more cohesion and structure, it is great to see these women finally given the respect they deserve.

Carol Channing: Larger than Life – 2012 (2.8). Definitely alive and still a dynamic and universally beloved entertainer, the Broadway star shines in this documentary that shows vintage clips of her performances through the years and adds many interviews and interactions with other entertainers and show biz types as well as fans of all ages. But the real strength of the movie is the time it spends close up with Carol as she shares so many of her stories with obvious relish, except for a few curve balls life threw, including one that lasted 42 years. There is a man in her life and they make a delightful couple.

The Invisible War – 2012 (2.8). The number of sexual assaults in the US military has increased as more women have enlisted and as the caliber of the men entering the service has become lower. The intimate interviews with some women who have been victims of sexual assault puts a real face on the problem and is the strength of this documentary. We learn that the trauma is compounded by the fact the perpetrators are men who were trusted comrades of the women and sometimes even their seniors in the chain of command. The final insult is the purposeful lack of justice in the system of addressing these charges, often with the alleged perpetrators becoming the judges or being friends of the judges, and blaming the victim being one policy employed. Time spent showing the pathetic PR attempts of the military and interviews with sympathetic members of Congress could have been left out. Mention was made of the fact some of our allies have set up systems to have such charges adjudicated by a process bypassing the military chain of command, but it would have been helpful to document further how those systems have worked in fact.

Starlet – 2012 (2.8). Dree Hemingway (daughter of Mariel) gets her first lead role, playing a young woman living with a young couple in a nondescript place in the San Fernando Valley, in this engaging indie drama. This trio does recreational drugs and the male is also hooked on shooter video games, but Dree kind of floats on her own. She buys a thermos from an elderly lady’s garage sale and finds $10,000 inside, and after quickly spending some on herself and her rescued Chihuahua mix, goes back to see whether the old lady might need the money enough to make Dree feel guilty. What follows is more comfortable to watch than it would seem to be, as Dree stalks the ornery old gal and they each indulge in only minor inquiry about the other and they both keep a lot to themselves, including what Dree does for a living and is not what parents would recommend. The ending seemed a bit flat, but on reflection should be taken more as an opening to the next chapter and an opportunity to think back and look for nuances in the story. I very much enjoyed the dog which is an exact copy of one I live with, except for gender and one ear position.

Treme (Season Three) – 2012 (2.8).  Producer David Simon says this series is not meant to be entertainment or drama, but rather stories of individuals making up the larger story of the recovery of New Orleans from Katrina. A little entertaining drama could help the series which seems to be dragging out the stories of so many people, interspersed with long scenes of their involvement in music and cuisine. This season seemed a little better than last, maybe because the characters and their stories are becoming a little more familiar, even as the story line of corruption in connection with contracts for rebuilding still is too muddled to follow. Lack of much violence this season seemed anticlimactic.

The American Scream – 2012 (2.7). Three families in a small town in Massachusetts really are into creating a frightening experience for Halloween visitors to their homes, and we watch them as they prepare their creatures, props and scenes in this documentary. The men in the households are quite different except for this hobby they share, but though we learn a little about their personal lives in the course of the movie it would have been nice to go a little deeper. The extensive work involved in their creations is elaborately covered, but the scenes of the visitors on Halloween night are quite short changed.

Beauty IsEmbarrassing – 2012 (2.7). Wayne White is an artist whose work is whimsical and irreverent and productive of enjoyable chuckles. His interviews in this documentary show a man who is comfortable with what he does even as he has a small chip on his shoulder about being dismissed by some critics. The movie does not have anything particularly memorable to say about art or artists, but it is fun to watch Wayne create and talk about his life and work.

Cutie and the Boxer – 2013 (2.6). A 19 year old Japanese girl comes to NYC and meets a 41 year old Japanese artist who paints with boxing gloves and sculpts with cardboard. Forty years later we have this documentary of their 40 year marriage which uses some of their old home movies but mostly just follows them interrelating and working on their art. She draws comic book style scenes about dealing with his ego, abuse and alcoholism. He is supposedly famous yet struggles to pay the rent. She has supposedly become liberated from his dominance but it seems to be mostly just her talk. Neither seems to have taken one ESL class in 40 years, their art must be an acquired taste and their sad son seems like a reticent chip off the old block. The couple is quirky enough to provide a few laughs though.

C. O. G. – 2013 (2.4). Some short stories can be made into full length movies. Some cannot. This one by David Sedaris about his memories of a break from post-graduate work at Yale to pick apples in Oregon probably should have been limited to a short film. The introspective commentary of the writer comes across in some scenes but is left to be intuited in many others and the net effect is disappointment.

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

The Way

The Square

Carol Channing: Larger than Life

Brooklyn Castle

First Position

Undefeated

Our Nixon

The Invisible War

Starlet

The American Scream

Beauty Is Embarrassing

Cutie and the Boxer

C. O. G.