Au Revoir Netflix

The increase in Netflix streaming price prompted a look at what I have streamed in the last six months and the realization that for now it is not cost effective. So I have cancelled Netflix streaming effective this coming week. The same movies of marginal interest have been in my queue for quite a while. In fact what prompts me to stream most movies in my queue is the impending expiration of streaming rights. I have likely pretty well tapped out the old Netflix movies of interest. There are probably some good documentaries and foreign films left to glean, but they are almost always available through the library. This current list of movies watched includes a final flurry of Netflix streams.

DVDs in the mail seems old fashioned since stopping them from Netflix when they jacked the price up a few years ago. Their star rating algorithm no longer works for me and the filmographies are not complete unless you subscribe to DVD service. The IMDB provides free information and Red Box kiosks are quicker (though I still have not used one). The library and PBS TV will work fine for now.

So my eleven year relationship with Netflix has come to an end. Netflix as a business has been going through some ups and downs with its stock currently rated two stars out of five by Morningstar.

O.J.: Made in America - 2016 (3.0). An extended production of ESPN 30 for 30, this five part documentary puts the OJ murder case and later trial in Nevada in historical context, particularly regarding the oppressive treatment of African-Americans by the LAPD and how that affected the jurors in the murder trial. Archival footage is expertly mingled with recent interviews of many of the people involved in the trials and surrounding events. Though we are familiar with the case, this movie not only refreshes our memory but sharpens it and keeps us riveted to the screen.

Tab Hunter Confidential – 2015 (3.0). A young heartthrob with no talent turned into a box office phenom by Warner Brothers in the 1950s and a candidate for some third rate "whatever happened to" movie over 50 years later might be what was expected of this documentary. But we are quickly corrected as an eighty something Tab looking handsome and healthy proceeds to tell us his life story, about being almost unnaturally handsome, seeking escape in the Coast Guard, having a lifetime love of horses, falling into a movie career, being overhyped, working hard to learn to act, supporting his single mother who was afflicted with mental health issues, dealing with his homosexuality while keeping it from destroying his career, and about his family, friendships, business relationships and loves. This is a very enjoyable visit with a really nice man and it is not surprising that so many notable people chose to offer their filmed comments to supplement the archival and contemporary footage.

The Last Man on theMoon – 2014 (3.0). Twelve humans have walked on the surface of the moon. In 1972, the last one was Gene Cernan and he tells his story in this effective documentary. We get his personal and professional biography as he takes us with him to revisit the sites and mementoes of his life journey. Of course he cannot take us back to the moon in person, but with archival footage and computer simulations we can come close to realizing what he experienced. The production values are high and Cernan is engaging as he gently explains how he feels today about this remarkable thrill from his past.

Paradise Lost 3:Purgatory – 2011 (3.0). After almost 18 years of incarceration, the story of the West Memphis Three gets another documentary update. This time new evidence and expert testimony are developed and presented to a new judge. All the new interviews are put in context with footage from the earlier movies and we see how prison has changed the three convicts, how many other people, including especially one surprising member of a victim family, have changed in their lives and attitudes, but how Arkansas criminal law prosecutors fight tooth and nail to prevent the men from getting new trials. As the prospect for new trials gains strength, we get a new suspect and a sudden resolution.

If I Were You – 2012 (2.9). A pleasant surprise, this romantic comedy from write and director Joan Carr-Wiggin has a nicely paced script with some clever lines, modest laughs and sincerity in presenting the issue of marital infidelity from three points of view, the husband, but primarily the wife and the other woman. Good acting by the two women, especially Marcia Gay Harding.

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations – 2000 (2.9). The makers of the original documentary about the West Memphis Three, teenagers in Arkansas convicted of supposedly satanic murders of three eight year old boys revisited the story several years later as a movement has arisen to free them as wrongfully convicted. New evidence and expert re-examination of the evidence is argued as a basis for new trials. The original trial judge handles the new proceedings and this time decides to exclude cameras, but there are plenty of ongoing interviews with the prisoners, their families, families of the victims, witnesses, police and attorneys and others. The likelihood of the boys being exonerated seems to be growing and a very likely candidate for the true killer comes into view.

Trapped – 2016 (2.8). Southern legislators have passed many laws in recent years purportedly to make abortion safer, when in fact their purpose is to make it impossible for medical practitioners to comply with the myriad of regulations so that abortion will effectively be outlawed. This documentary follows the efforts by the few remaining clinics and their doctors to stay open to serve women seeking an abortion. Roe vs Wade recognized the right to abortion, but a later case allowed states to regulate the practice so long as the laws do not place an undue burden on women. The Texas law has been challenged in the US Supreme Court with a decision due in June 2016.

Spotlight – 2015 (2.8). Somewhat in the mode of All The President's Men, this drama follows a team at the Boston Globe as they work up the story of the Boston priest sexual abuse scandal and ongoing coverup by Cardinal Law. This scandal in the Catholic Church worldwide has become quite well known and been covered in many documentaries and other media, so this movie does not break new ground other than touching on the failure of the Globe to investigate the story much earlier. What could have made the film more informative would be showing more about the other institutions and individuals who facilitated the coverup.

Taxi Teheran – 2015 (2.8). Iranian director Jafar Panahi came up with this clever movie to comment on artistic repression in his country. The premise is that he is posing as a taxi driver in Teheran and using a disguised dashboard camera to film a succession of passengers who dialogue about various aspects of their lives as affected by the policies of the regime. After first thinking this is a sort of candid camera stunt, we realize it is a smart drama blending humore with probably about as sharp criticism as could be allowed without getting the film totally banned. The movie is also titled Taxi and Jafar Panahi's Taxi.

Fruitvale Station – 2013 (2.8). Based on a true story of a shooting of a young black man by an Oakland transit policeman, this drama gives the background on the man by showing some of his past history and then going into detail by following him in his interactions the day of the shooting with family, friends, enemies, strangers and the police. Michael B. Jordan plays the role quite effectively, presenting a nuanced performance of a young man trying to figure out where his life might be headed.

The Keys of theKingdom – 1944 (2.8). Gregory Peck plays a sincere young Catholic priest from Scotland who is sent to Imperial China as a missionary in this WWII production from the A. J. Cronin novel. Good production values, fine acting by Peck and the use of Chinese actors for the subordinate roles help this movie hold up fairly well after 70 years. The loudly annoying Oscar nominated music by Alfred Newman is something that movies thankfully left behind.

Daughter of the Dawn – 1920 (2.8). A movie made in 1920 outdoors in Oklahoma with a cast composed entirely of Kiowa and Comanche Indians is so unique that it is worth watching even though it is a quite hokey drama. Thanks to film preservers and Oklahoma historians for keeping this film in being and thanks to Netflix for making it available.

Beasts of No Nation – 2015 (2.7). This Netflix drama based on the novel of the same name tells a story of a boy in West Africa whose village is caught between government forces and rebels in a civil war. His faily is killed and he is taken captive by a warlord running a battalion of boy fighters. He is quickly converted to a soldier and partakes in violence at first by being forced and then gradually of his own volition. The movie has good production values and acting but the accents make the dialogue hard to decipher at times and the fictional story is totally lacking on any bigger picture of what the war is about and who the parties are. As a first personal account of the young boy who does not understand the political issues the film is limited in what it can accomplish.

The Big Short – 2015 (2.7). Trying to explain to the general public the financial instrument machinations that led to the housing bubble and 2008 financial crash is hard enough to do in a book but even harder in a movie made from that book. The resulting screenplay won the Oscar but did not make this esoteric subject generally interesting, and the jumping around between so many characters who predicted the bubble or otherwise tried to warn others and then decided to turn the prediction into personal profits is about as confusing as this sentence. Blurring the line between documentary and drama is tricky work.

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

Tab Hunter Confidential

Last Man on the Moon

If I Were You

Spotlight

Taxi Teheran

Fruitvale Station

The Keys of the Kingdom

Daughter of the Dawn

Beasts of No Nation