A Major Move from Netflix – and My Personal Response

Last week Netflix continued its push toward streaming video with a major move. Effective the first of September, there will now be a separate charge for streaming in addition to the charge for DVDs in the mail. A customer can elect to get movies by mail, by stream or both. The change was announced by a bare bones e-mail to customers, many of whom took to the Internet to express immediate outrage and threats to cancel.

Netflix is a smart company.  Streaming video has been the obvious future for some time and Netflix got the jump on everyone else by giving it away for free to its mail customers, even those who subscribe at the one DVD at a time level. That extremely good deal is now going to go up 60%, while those who get more than one at a time will see lesser increases. 

Bifurcating streaming subscriptions from mail ones will enable Netflix to drive a harder bargain in negotiating payment for streaming rights, because Netflix will be able to show that not all its members will be streaming movies, and Netflix should only have to pay for the ones who have paid Netflix for streaming rights. The movie by mail business has very high overhead compared to the steaming business, so Netflix is probably not that concerned about mail customers cancelling. It is highly unlikely a customer who has been accessing the Netflix extensive collection by mail will be switching to a Redbox kiosk instead. Some may cut back on the number of mail DVDs and plan to stream more to compensate. The streaming collection should grow as more Netflix resources are freed up from the mail business and applied to the steam side. If fewer people sign on for streaming, then Netflix should be able to buy content cheaper, and if more people sign on, then Netflix will have more revenue for purchasing.  

Here is how this has played out for me. I found streaming on my computer to be unsatisfactory. But as I saw the streaming collection grow, I got more interested and eventually invested in the equipment to stream to my home theater in the living room. After all, I was getting the streaming for free, so why not spend for the equipment. That is how smart Netflix was, because they knew people like me would not both pay for the streaming and buy the equipment. But now that I have the set up, I am likely to pay for the stream to use it, which is what I have decided to do.

I have been complaining for some time that my Netflix mail queue was not very exciting. Other than fairly new movies, most of what is in my mail queue I can also get from my public library, like I used to do up until a year or so ago. I have a much larger streaming queue, because that collection includes lots of documentaries and foreign films that appeal to me. I was streaming more and still getting my three DVD mail quota, but when I couldn’t get The Wire Season Two from Netflix, I got it from the library along with the final three seasons. I had been thinking of cutting back to two in the mail, but now I have decided to go back to just one at a time by mail, stream lots more and get some from the library again.

Bottom line is a win for both Netflix and me. They save on the overhead of mailing to me and I save on my overall payment to Netflix. I will be paying less than I was and watching as many or more movies. The one I get by mail will probably be a newer movie which I will watch and return quickly so I can try to get six or eight a month. I won’t have three mailed DVDs sitting around nagging me to watch. I’ll try to stream more than I was and use the library more for DVD sets, like a season of a TV series. 

More Netflix Modifications

Netflix did not seem to be able to send me Season Two of The Wire, so I have been receiving an odd mix of Netflix back up movies in the meantime. Seems strange they cannot send me The Wire disks from some other part of the country. I wonder if they are starting to let their disk stock shrink by attrition as they steer the customers into more streaming. They don’t even warn that it The Wire a “long wait”. I got on the hold list for seasons two through five at the King County Library (now ranked number one in circulation in the country), and they have been fulfilling my requests surprisingly fast.

Another Netflix problem is that the member reviews feature is not working all the time now. A Google search about the problem turned up an interesting blog posting by “The Professor”, one of the top reviewers at Netflix. He confirms that Netflix is not restocking its old DVD supply. I think The Professor is right, and that Netflix is purposely hastening its transition from a mail provider of tens of thousands of diverse movies on DVD to an internet streaming company with a much smaller inventory. Labor and other overhead savings will be enormous and movie viewers with more exotic taste will be stuck with whatever they can get from Netflix until some other company comes along with a better deal.

It is easy to be angry with Netflix, but The Professor is right that the company deserves credit. Right now there are lots of interesting foreign and independent movies available by Netflix streaming. New movies might also remain a Netflix mail niche for a while (I just received a DVD of Barney’s Version from Netflix on the day after it was released). But for older movies, it may be time to consider using the library again, and now I think I know how to control my library hold queue so I don’t get too many at a time.

Looking back over June, I see that I got 14 in the mail from Netflix and I streamed 9. My average ratings for them were pretty similar, 2.87 for the mail and 2.74 for the streams. Streaming ratings may average a little lower because they include watching some marginal possibilities that are not “mail worthy”. Following the philosophically positive approach of The Professor, if Netflix continues to stream foreign and independent movies, then maybe some folks who would not request them by mail will give them a stream try and be pleasantly surprised, and they might become more diverse film buffs.

Another way Netflix ups the ratings is by not showing or allowing a separate rating for each season of a TV series (though in fairness, neither does the IMDB). This makes a higher rating more likely, such as for a series that had a good debut and then went downhill after the first couple seasons. If the ratings showed a decline after season two, then Netflix members might not watch subsequent seasons. It is all about encouraging people to keep watching (and paying).

Though two seasons of The Wire top this current list, its graphic was used on the last list, so the runner up is being shown this time.

So again, here is what I have watched on DVD and streaming since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system explained at the link on the sidebar. Those watched via Netflix instant view, include “Streamed” after the numeric rating.

The Wire [Season Three] – 2005 (3.5). The detail is still working on catching the higher up drug pushers, but now we are shown more on the politics of the war on drugs, within the police department and in the city government. An interesting experiment involves a limited drug tolerance policy, while rival drug pushers forge a joint venture to maximize profits. But as the police detail closes in, disharmony and revenge cause turmoil for the pushers. This story arc continues on a more interesting line than season two.

The Wire [Season Two] – 2004 (3.3). The police detail is reconstituted by a Major who has a vendetta against a longshoreman’s union official, who he suspects is hijacking cargo. This leads to connections with smuggling drugs, prostitutes and other merchandize. The union people and smugglers are new, while most of the police and drug dealers remain the same. The freshness of the first season is diminished and a bit of deja vu sets in, though the overall quality is still there.

Bertie & Elizabeth – 2002 (3.3). Typically good acting is on display in this straightforward Masterpiece Theater telling of the romance and married life of the parents of Queen Elizabeth II. The stuttering of The King’s Speech is touched upon and the uplifting heroism of the royal couple during the blitz of London is portrayed. The abdicator older brother and his American seducer are devastatingly portrayed, making George VI and his Queen all the more appealing.

The Rainmaker – 1997 (3.2). Francis Ford Coppola adapted the Grisham novel and directed this nicely done movie about a new lawyer in Memphis who is mentored by a bar exam serial flunkee and falls for a young battered wife while taking on a corrupt health insurance company on behalf of a terminally ill insured who was wrongfully denied coverage. Matt Damon was quite appealing in a more down to earth role and Claire Danes impressed me again even before I recognized her. Danny DeVito was even under control. I wish Coppola would do more films.

Beyond Silence – 1996 (3.2). This German Oscar nominee manages to deftly handle some potentially heavy material about a musically talented girl growing up with deaf parents who are unable to encourage her musical pursuits. The father’s sister is a musician and steps in to prod the girl, much to the consternation of the deaf father who never has gotten along with his sister. The movie seems to find the right balance of light and heavy, happy and sad, while showing a quite appealing young lady who knows that her childhood was challenging, but also enriching. Director Caroline Link also made Nowhere in Africa, which I gave 4 stars, and I see she has a third movie from 2008, which is not yet available at Netflix.

That’s What I Am – 2011 (3.0) Streamed. Reminiscent of The Wonder Years, set in junior high in the 1960s, this family movie, produced by the production arm of World Wrestling Entertainment, intelligently presents issues of going steady, bullying, geeks, poor parenting, good teaching and homosexuality. Not a bad accomplishment, especially by being entertaining rather than preachy.

Marriage Italian Style – 1964 (2.9) Streamed. The main reason I streamed this was to see young Sophia Loren again, but what I found was a movie that I could appreciate for much more than her beauty alone. The story is about a poor Neapolitan girl thrust out on her own at 16 and ending up in a brothel, where she falls in love with a wealthy unmarried client and eventually gets him to set her up as his mistress. He comes to depend on her to help run his retail businesses, even though she is illiterate, and to help care for his ornery mother in her last years, but he steadfastly resists her attempts to get him to marry her. This is more of a drama, with its humor arising naturally, and Sophia showed her acting range.

16 to Life – 2009 (2.8) Streamed. This low budget indie coming of age movie, shot in rural Iowa on the Mississippi, is nice looking, well-paced and presents some interesting characters in a low key way. Written and directed by first time writer and director Becky Smith, born and raised in small town Iowa, it centers on one day in the life of locals working in a hamburger stand and dealing with love and sex related issues involving other locals and some upscale visitors to nearby vacation homes. Netflix only has this in streaming format.

High Tide – 1987 (2.8) Streamed. Judy Davis does her usual good job of acting in this Aussie movie about a young woman whose husband died and who then abandoned her young daughter to be raised by the paternal grandmother. Leading an aimless life she then stumbles upon the young teenager and grandmother and fumbles about trying to decide whether she can handle getting involved. The actresses playing the daughter and grandmother do well also. Netflix only has this in streaming format.

Barney’s Version – 2010 (2.7). The novel may have been acclaimed but this Canadian movie adaptation is disappointing, with an uneven and uninteresting script. A bit overlong, the film nevertheless fails to take the time to help us understand any of the characters. There are a few laughs up front, as the movie borders on buffoonery, but then as the hero marries the woman of his dreams (his third marriage) the humor disappears, but the drama never develops because the story jumps along without allowing for any character development beyond aging. Paul Giamatti does good with the little he is given, Minnie Driver’s talents are wasted and Rosamund Pike’s supposedly dream girl part is actually blandly written. I guess the story is supposed to be all from the hero’s subjective point of view, but that is not made very clear, and even so, it does not make the movie any better.

New in Town – 2009 (2.7) Streamed. Yet another version of the big city corporate downsizer sent to the small town to eliminate jobs at the local factory and then being charmed by the community and romanced by a member of the opposition, this movie offers nothing new while doing a so-so job of re-telling. Though portraying New Ulm Minnesota as the factory town of wholesome virtues, the movie was actually filmed in Manitoba.

The Velveteen Rabbit – 2007 (2.7) Streamed. This version of the classic combined live action and animation, but did not truly follow the source story line. The 8-10 age bracket recommended by Netflix is about right, but the gentle theme of needing to love may be prone to going over the heads of some kids. Though fairly well done, it seems like such a classic should have come across better. Part of the problem was not telling the correct story and part was the way the telling was done. The truer 30 minute animated version from 1985 is not available from Netflix, but is available through some libraries.

Gods and Monsters – 1998 (2.7). The script for this movie about the final weeks of the life of director James Whale won the Oscar for adaptation, but I thought it was weak, barely holding interest until well into the movie. Whale directed Frankenstein and several other films and was openly gay. His sexuality and experiences as a trench officer and prisoner of war in WWI brought out a macabre sense of humor which was reflected in his movies, but the film, using a relationship with a young heterosexual gardener as a vehicle, did not do that effective a job of helping us understand Whale.

Rebel without a Cause – 1955 (2.7). Watch this one only for historical reasons, to see James Dean in one of the three main movies he made, and Sal Mineo in an Oscar nominated role, and to see the first movie told from the point of view of post WWII teenagers. Otherwise the film is dated and now seems a bit stilted, in spite of what for its time was considered fresh and real.

How to Train Your Dragon – 2010 (2.4). Dreamworks quality animation is always impressive, even without watching in 3-D. The theme of this story is about a sensitive Viking boy learning to make peace with the dragons that have menaced his people for 300 years, but too much screen time is filled with violent dragons for my taste. Kids for whom it is truly age appropriate will probably enjoy the violence more than the sensitivity. Kids too young will probably see it also and really be scared.

Starting the Wire

This list includes some movies I streamed because they were about to disappear from the Netflix instant view list. Also, I thought I was through with newer movies for a while, but several more managed to trickle in. But the best this time around was the HBO series, The Wire, which I finally started watching.

So again, here is what I have watched on DVD and streaming since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system explained at the link on the sidebar. Those watched via Netflix instant view, include “Streamed” after the numeric rating.

The Wire – [Season 1] 2003 (3.7). Telling the story of drug dealing in the Baltimore projects by getting inside the dealings of the pushers and the strategies of the police and by beginning to track how the money from the drugs buys corrupt influence, the first season of this highly recommended HBO series is impressive. At first there are so many characters it is hard to keep them straight, but gradually their individualities emerge, even as we see how they play roles that are stereotyped in real life. Lines between good and evil get blurred by a fatalistic cynicism. Even those who want to try to do the right thing can easily become frustrated, but a few manage to succeed, if success is measured by integrity rather than organizational status. Though the episodes use different script writers and directors, the overall story arc is well maintained by the underlying core writers.

Ira & Abby – 2006 (3.1) Streamed. Jennifer Westfeldt wrote and starred in this NYC movie about a neurotic male psychology PhD candidate who meets an outgoing young woman who always seems happy. A sudden, serious unexpected relationship arises, followed by various relationship problems. A good ensemble of actors complements the leads as the story pleasantly unfolds, even in the face of problems. Co-writer of Kissing Jessica Stein, Jennifer tells fun stories with a laid back message.

Red Rock West – 1993 (3.0) Streamed. The script is the strength of this movie, a thriller harkening back to film noir, with good roles for Nicholas Cage and Dennis Hopper. Competent direction keeps things moving along, while our guessing what’s coming is sometimes a half step ahead and sometimes a half behind.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work – 2010 (2.9) Streamed. A fairly intimate look at Joan, over the course of a year, this documentary, also using archival footage, showed a woman who wanted to be an actress, supported herself as a female standup comic pioneer for several years until Johnny Carson showcased her into fame, then made a mistake for which Carson never forgave her, lost her husband to suicide and has had her ups and downs ever since. At 75 she is a workaholic who supports a fairly lavish lifestyle by taking virtually any paying job, and whose comedy, though still very funny, has become much more raunchy.

Farewell – 2009 (2.9). The title of this French spy drama is the code name of the reluctant French operative in this true story of a Soviet spy who in the Reagan years passed to the West information about Russian infiltration of the US intelligence community, in the hopes the pressure this would put on the USSR would lead to needed changes in that communist country. The movie is quite watchable, though not entirely clear at first. Rather than concentrate on scenes of spies about to be caught in the act, this film focuses more on the personal lives of the spies and includes aspects of the dealings between the governments of the US, USSR and France as the espionage came to their knowledge. Gorbachev is portrayed as using the affair to take the USSR in a different direction in dealing with the West.

The Company Men – 2010 (2.8). Numerous interviews of long term unemployed people and their family members were composited to form the characters in this movie about a greedy corporate executive who ruthlessly downsizes his workforce in order to pump up the stock price to maximize his gain when the corporation is bought out. The villain is a caricature and the other characters don’t seem to develop their own personalities enough to make them feel like individuals rather than composites. There is not much to learn from this movie, except for those who are quite uninformed.

Legendary – 2010 (2.8). A wrestler friend loaned me this movie [also available on Netflix instant view] with WWE wrestler John Cena playing his first straight dramatic role as the estranged older brother of a high school boy. Their father and the Cena character were both champion wrestlers, but when the father was killed in a traffic accident, the older son started a downhill skid and fell out with the family. A desire to take up wrestling and help his family reconnect prompts the younger brother to seek out the older one, in this indie film, which concentrates on the drama without overplaying the wrestling matches.

Secretariat – 2010 (2.8). Disney did this family friendly drama about the great racehorse and the woman who knew from day one her horse was going to be a special winner, and had to balance her roles as housewife, mother and race horse owner to achieve that goal. The horse and lady are the heart of the story and fairly well presented here. The other characters are not portrayed much beyond the minimum required by the formula.

True Grit – 2010 (2.8). I never saw the John Wayne version of this movie, so make no comparison. This one, though telling a story of a time and place where such things as it portrayed were not that uncommon, did so in a way that was too caricatured to be believable, but taken as a sort of filmed dime novel story intended for greenhorns it was passable.

Mine – 2009 (2.8) Streamed. Hurricane Katrina took a huge toll on the dogs and cats of New Orleans. They were not evacuated with their owners but instead abandoned in their flooded homes. Most of them died, but volunteer animal rescuers from around the country rushed in to save many others, quickly shuttling them on to various shelters where they were cared for and eventually reunited with their owners or adopted out. This documentary follows the story of five owners trying to find their dogs and then contending with adoptive owners who are reluctant to give them up. Straightforward work from a first time film maker.

The People vs Larry Flynt -1996 (2.8). This well enough done biopic concentrates on the pornagrapher’s legal battles against censorship, but also includes a little too much about one of his five wives. His battles resulted in a historic first amendment decision from the US Supreme Court, but the fine points of the legal arguments were minimally portrayed. There is a 2008 documentary which is supposed to provide better information, but for now, this film is enough Flynt for me.

In a Day -2006 (2.8) Streamed. I streamed this on impulse, supposedly being a short British romantic comedy about strangers who spend a day together. It was short and British but not particularly romantic and not funny at all. A low budget indie, it was a bit amateurish and boring at first, but then picked up a little steam and actually finished with an ending that was better than the rest of the movie.

Another Year – 2010 (2.7). Mike Leigh wrote and directed this disappointing movie about a year in the life of an older couple and some of their family and friends. Supposedly character driven, there is no plot, drama or character development to speak of and about the only reason to watch it is to see Lesley Manville deliver a top performance as a woman who is over the hill but pathetically does not realize it until near the end of the film, when she manages to bring some emotional impact into this otherwise lackluster movie.

It Could Happen to You – 1994 (2.6) Streamed. A cop in NYC really did win the lottery and share it with a waitress, but this movie reinvented the story to create distress in both their marriages, apparently hoping for more drama. The drama is tepid, as is the romance and the comedy. I didn’t expect much when I streamed this, and got even less. I hung in for the ending, which turned out to be stolen from It’s a Wonderful Life. So again, a 2 ½ star movie gets rated a 3 at Netflix.

Tattoo: A Love Story – 2002 (2.4) Streamed. This indie romantic comedy did have some funny dialog, but also a little too much profanity, especially from the supposedly straight laced heroine teacher of the year who falls for the biker who runs the tattoo parlor. Though it is pretty amateurish all around, especially the acting, it is not too unpleasant to watch.

Valley of the Bees – 1967 (2.2). Don’t bother with this old Czech movie. I expected a story of a medieval teenager in a monastery questioning religion, but instead got a tale of an adult runaway monk in a low budget semi-slasher film.

Last New Movie Batch for Now

Newer movies have still been showing on my home theater, but I am about ready to start spreading choices out over a larger date range again. This latest batch of new films has not been that exciting. I did finally manage to get a four DVD set of the 1985 documentary Shoah, which included over nine hours of viewing. Fair Game, a true political drama tops the list. Bringing up the rear is the disappointing Babel from 2006.

So again, here is what I have watched on DVD and streaming since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system explained at the link on the sidebar. Those watched via Netflix instant view, include “Streamed” after the numeric rating.

Fair Game – 2010 (3.4). This drama effectively tells the story of the outed CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband Joe. For those who did not follow this news story over the four year course, the movie provides a good presentation starting by showing the type of undercover work Plame did for 18 years, working to prevent nuclear proliferation, and how her husband, who had extensive ambassadorial experience in Niger, was asked by the CIA to investigate whether there was any substance to reports that Saddam Hussein had obtained uranium ore from that African country, and he did travel to Niger and investigated, reporting back to the CIA the story was not true.  The film then touches on the fraudulent methods the Bush administration employed to push for an invasion of Iraq and how Wilson finally wrote his op ed piece exposing the lie about Niger. What followed was a carefully orchestrated campaign to take the focus off the lies that misled us into the war and place it instead on Plame and her husband, exposing her as an operative without regard to how that would jeapordize the non-proliferation mission, maligning her professional status and work and accusing them both of dishonesty, conflicted self-interest and lack of patriotism. For those who did follow the news, this film adds additional information about the nature of Plame’s undercover work and the terrible pressure this ordeal put on their marriage. The film was well written, acted and directed and I decided to watch it a second time, listening to commentary from Plame and Wilson, who were quite pleased with the accuracy of the movie and the importance of the message it gives, that Americans need to stand up for truth and speak out when the government is lying.

Shoah – 1985 (3.2). Eleven years in the filming with five years of editing, this almost ten hour documentary by Claude Lanzmann, a WWII French resistance member, is a holocaust movie that does not use archival footage. What Lanzmann did was track down surviving prisoners, some of whom worked at the gas chambers and crematoriums of some German Nazi concentration camps in Poland, some guards and other Nazis (a few clandestinely filmed) and some townspeople who lived near the camps during the War. His interviewing style, usually with interpreters, was exhaustive and almost excruciating in eliciting details. He had a way of drawing people out in a low key manner, validating the importance of what they had to say by the time and patience he put in to extract minute details from them. He also sought subjective comments from the interviewees on their own thoughts and feelings and on those of the other players in this horrible drama of extermination. Sometimes the interviewees are on screen and at other times the camera visits the remnants of the sites while the interview continues in voice over. Most interviews are sparsely subtitled, but some are spoken in English. This is a unique historical record, confirming the mechanical organization of Nazi brutality, the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism and the almost totally hopeless situation in which these Jews found themselves. Netflix does not have this DVD set. The King County Library, now number one in circulation in the US, has one copy, which is the set I watched. They should buy more; Amazon has vendors who offer new sets for $70. If you ever get the chance to see this film, it is worth the time.

IMAX: Hubble – 2010 (3.0). This short documentary should really be seen in 3D at an IMAX theater, but I settled for the DVD version on my home theater [I’m not screening Blu-Ray yet, even though I have the player, because my TV is only 42” 720p; whenever I upgrade the TV, I may spring for the extra Netflix charge for BluRay]. The movie concentrates on the most recent mission to repair the Hubble, but most fascinating is the imagery traveling through the vastness of the universe, and back in time, via this amazing technology. [Editorial comment, not part of the movie comment: I wonder if we’ll ever learn why, from the billions of options, God chose this little blue speck for the Garden of Eden. Maybe someday we will have a powerful enough telescope to go back in time and see how the choice was made].

Cranford: Return to Cranford – 2009 (3.0). This two episode sequel to the British miniseries was a bit disappointing. It apparently started where the series left off, but gave no recap or assistance in helping the viewer recall the characters and the plot, so it took almost all the first episode to start to get things back in memory. Then we had to wind up a few plot items from before and add some new ones which also had to be wrapped up promptly. All the usual British period piece qualities were present, except the script was not top notch.

Casino Jack and the United States of Money – 2010 (2.9) Streamed. After watching the dramatized version of the story of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, I streamed this documentary from Netflix. If you are going to watch both movies, I recommend watching the documentary first, to try to get the factual chronology straight, though it is still sort of complex to follow. The drama gives a personal side not contained in the documentary, though they both show how greedy scum lobbyists and corrupt politicians and staffers are hijacking our electoral and governmental process.

Unstoppable – 2010 (2.9). Being a railfan definitely adds to the entertainment value of this powerful action movie about a runaway freight train. Character development and subplots are minimal, but there is some good chemistry between the always watchable Denzel Washington and his inexperienced accomplice.

Welcome to the Rileys – 2010 (2.9). The auto crash death of their 15 year old daughter has left an Indianapolis couple childless and depressed. When he goes to a convention in New Orleans, he meets a young lap dancer who reminds him of his daughter and decides to hang around to try to influence her out of the tawdry life in which she has become ensnared. His wife, who has not left the house since the death of their daughter, decides to go to New Orleans to find him. Simply written, well-acted by James Gandolfini (except for his odd accent), Melissa Leo and Kristen Stewart, and thankfully non-indulgent in sex scenes, this movie presents the difficulty of opening up when life seems to have closed on us.

Flipped – 2010 (2.8). This Rob Reiner movie borrows from the Wonder Years for junior high romantic angst and Rashomon for dual point of view. It has a few moments that are touching, but the central premise of a 2^nd grade girl being attracted solely by the looks of a new neighbor boy who joins her class, and then she can’t shake the attraction even as her intelligence and sensitivity continue to blossom into junior high years, while he continues to be dull and timid left me annoyed. Why didn’t she give up on him and find a better match?

Tangled – 2010 (2.8). Disney and Pixar present the story of Rapunzel 21^st Century style. Pleasant enough with a few elements to hold adult attention, though I wonder how youngsters would do with its length. I don’t watch movies with my young grandkids, so I don’t keep up with what is available in this genre. This film did not have the usual celebrity voice overs, which was fine with me.

The Illusionist – 2010 (2.7). This is the French animated film from the maker of The Triplets of Belleville. The technique is quite accomplished and unique, but as with Triplets, I did not find the story appealing. This tale was based on an unfilmed Jacques Tati script, and the animated sad hero was a takeoff on the Tati character, playing a magician who is being passed over by the emerging new entertainments of the 1960s. The young girl who still believes in him is perhaps intended to be allegorical, but I never felt a connection with her or their relationship.

Casino Jack – 2010 (2.7). Kevin Spacey says he keeps his personal life hidden because it makes it easier for audiences to accept him as the character he plays. That doesn’t work for me. I don’t know or care about his personal life and yet he is one of those actors who always seems to me like he is an actor rather than the character, and he usually plays unlikeable characters to boot, like disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff here. A very muddled script makes the story hard to follow, except to know that Jack and his cronies are total jerks and Graham Greene is an honorable Indian. A better bet, also from 2010, may be the documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money, available now on Netflix instant view, to get the facts, and then maybe watch this drama to add a personal element. 

Babel – 2006 (2.0). Knowing this would be marginal at best, I finally gave it a try. That was a mistake. This is a nothing script which tries to seem profound by teasing us with how three story lines will intersect. The first two merge pretty quickly, while the last one waits almost to the end of the movie, by which time we could care less. Cate Blanchett is totally wasted, while the film rolls incessantly on a young actress whose role is just to be deaf and horny and flash her pantyless private area. The narrative interweaving is about as shallow as could be and we learn nothing of interest about any of the characters as people.

Some Newer Ones

Movies from 2010 occupy seven spots on this list, and there are only two from before 2000. I decided to peek at some current picks for a change of pace, but did not find them much different from the older films I have been watching. An exception is the documentaries, which cover more recent developments and take the top four spots on the list.

So again, here is what I have watched on DVD and streaming since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system explained at the link on the sidebar. Those watched via Netflix instant view, include “Streamed” after the numeric rating.

Inside Job – 2010 (3.2). Charles Ferguson, who made the excellent No End in Sight about the Bush invasion of Iraq, also made this documentary about the financial crisis. The movie manages to legitimately simplify the technical aspects of the financial machinations of Wall Street, and also documents how Congress and our Presidents of both parties have been co-opted by the supposedly brainy insiders of the financial world, through campaign contributions and the resulting appointments to policy making and advisory positions. The film is particularly good for those who have followed this less closely; but for others there is not much new except for the shabby ethics of financial academics who allow the prestige of their university positions to be bought by means of undisclosed fees earned for writing articles supporting the questionable practices that led to the great recession, and the idea that our best young engineering minds were wasted on fabricating shoddy financial products rather than being put to good use inventing worthwhile tangible manufactures.  The fallen Eliot Spitzer is interviewed and comes across as a white knight against Wall Street blackguards, which is why they engineered his downfall as documented in Client 9.

The Tillman Story – 2010 (3.1). I was not familiar with Pat Tillman the NFL player, so when his death as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan was reported I assumed he was some sort of Toby Keith type patriot. What I learned about Pat and his family from this documentary was that they are free spirit humanists and that he and his brother volunteered for the Army because they believe in America as a nation that respects their beliefs whereas the 9/11 terrorists and the Taliban want to destroy them. When the military and the Bush administration tried to hide the truth of Pat’s death by trigger happy “friendly” fire, what was surprising was not the dishonesty and disrespect, but as this movie showed, the extent and shamelessness of it.

Restrepo – 2010 (3.0) Streamed. Spending a year in close quarters with an infantry platoon in an outpost on the edge of Taliban controlled territory in Afghanistan is a dangerous way to live, but a good way to make a documentary movie showing what it is like for the young soldiers facing mortal danger fighting a war that, at the extremely local level involved, is actually quite futile. The film makers let the soldiers tell their own story through scenes of firefights, down time and post exit interviews following their 15 month tour of duty.

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer – 2010 (3.0) Streamed. This documentary was slickly made by Alex Gibney, who has a good track record as a documentarian. Gibney scored some inside interviews with former NY Governor Spitzer and some of those who wanted to see him taken down, but the film was a little disappointing in not giving enough background and in concentrating too much on the sexual aspects of Spitzer’s fall. I would like to have learned a little more about Spitzer the man and a lot more about how the Republicans influenced the FBI to pursue the escort service Spitzer used and how the Republican US Attorney geared the public phase of the charges to out only Spitzer as a patron. Spitzer made it clear than he blames no one but himself for his downfall. One commentator observed that if Spitzer was a French politician, this scandal would have helped his career.

Nowhere Boy – 2009 (3.0). This Brit movie tells about John Lennon’s rascally teenage years when he struggled with conflicted feelings on reuniting with his mother who had given him up to her sister to raise. Mom was a flakey free spirit and Aunt was somewhat of a tough love advocate. Mom brings out his hidden musical talent, while Aunt tries to keep him disciplined, which renews the conflict between the sisters and creates an awkward love triangle. The younger Paul McCartney meets and musically mentors John, and George Harrison signs on, but the film ends before Ringo and the evolving band being named The Beatles.

Dirty Pretty Things – 2002 (3.0). Deserved praise for the script attracted me to this movie, which tells the story of two undocumented aliens in London. As if their struggle to eke out a living isn’t tough enough, she is subjected to unwanted sexual advances and he is pressured to engage in illegal activities. Well directed and acted, the film maintains an underlying hopefulness.

127 Hours – 2010 (2.9). This movie struck out on all its Oscar nominations, but the one for best adaptation screenplay attracted me. It is quite a feat to hold attention on a man pinned in a tight canyon, even though it is a true story, but with creative writing interweaving subjective delirium it was accomplished. Throughout the ordeal I tried to figure how I would get myself out of such a predicament, even though I have no experience or particular knowledge of such endeavors.

Conviction – 2010 (2.9). A troubled childhood ends in a young man being in the 1980s convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Convinced of his innocence, his sister, who doesn’t even have a high school diploma, decides to become a lawyer so she can work to overturn the conviction. This drama of the true story shows a little of the childhood encounters with the law and shows a little of the personal life of the sister, mostly how she relates to her two teenage sons and how she finds a supporting friend in another older female law student, but it concentrates mostly on the woman’s perseverance through the years as her brother experiences emotional swings. Though the movie was intended to be a story about the sister, the drama could have been enhanced by showing a little of what was going on through these years in the lives of the incriminating witnesses and investigating police officer, and with the man’s daughter who grew up believing her father, with whom she had no contact since he was convicted when she was still a toddler,was a murderer.

Made in Dagenham – 2010 (2.9). Sort of a British Norma Rae, this movie is about the 1968 strike of 187 women who sewed seat covers in a Ford factory in England. They were led by an unlikely young activist wife and mother of two small children. She rose to the occasion at the right time and shut the entire factory down, caught media attention and the sympathetic ear of a female cabinet member in the Labour Party government, forcing Ford to back down and give the women a raise to 92% of what the men were paid, with equal pay legislation to come in two years. The script is straightforward, with some coverage of the personal toll taken on the young leader and some good business about a corrupt male union official and a very sympathetic one. I would like to have seen more drama about the hardball tactics of Ford and the pressure it put on the government by threatening to pull out of Britain. A little more on the personal lives of some of the women would also have enhanced the tale.

Vanity Fair – 1998 (2.9). This A & E miniseries of the classic novel was fairly well done, considering the obviously low budget production values. It is supposedly a faithful adaptation. I just found all the characters rather unappealing, Becky because she was such a terrible person and never got her comeuppance to my satisfaction and most of the rest of the characters because they were so stupid. This may be as much a compliment to the actors as a criticism of the novel. I don’t feel like I learned anything from the film about the era portrayed or about human nature. The music score seemed inappropriate and was much too loud.

Fat Head – 2009 (2.8) Streamed. This documentary does a pretty good job of debunking Super Size Me, the popular attack on McDonald’s junk food, attacking the holes in the methodology of that experiment in eating nothing but McDonald’s food for one month. Unfortunately, it seems to be a curious mix of parody, science and libertarianism. The science is the most worthwhile part of the movie, pointing out the fallacies underlying the conventional wisdom of the food pyramid and the cholesterol scare, and advocating the paleo type eating style. The doctor interviews and animated diagrams are very helpful, but seem rather scholastic compared to the sillier material that precedes it. Interviewing McDonald’s diners was a waste of time. Curiously missing is any mention of sodium in food, especially in McDonald’s.

Islander – 2006 (2.8) Streamed.  An island off the Maine Coast is home to a lobster fisherman who makes a mistake that sends him to jail for five years in this low budget indie movie. During his incarceration, his young wife divorces him and takes their young daughter with her as she moves in with another fisherman. On release from prison, the convict is shunned by most of the islanders, as he struggles to learn from his experience and move on with his life. Bottom line seems to be you either like living on a fishing island off the Maine coast, or you don’t.

A Simple Plan -1998 (2.8). This thriller novel must have been pretty good, because the Oscar nominated script for the movie tells a good morality tale of how one bad choice can seem to force a crescendo of cover up challenges. A dramatic triangle involving three male culprits gets expanded as two wives become involved. The acting seemed a little weak at first, but that disappointment was soon overcome by the interest in following the story. Billy Bob Thornton got a nomination for his acting as a bit of a dim wit, but I thought it was an uneven performance.You couldn’t root for these characters, but you were tempted to sympathize with them a little as their moral rationalizations continued to fizzle.

Breach – 2007 (2.7). Robert Hanssen was a highly respected FBI agent, devout Catholic and dedicated family man, with many years of public service, when he was arrested in 2001for having been a spy for the Russians for 15 years. His treason was the most serious security breach in US history and caused 50 US agents to be identified and executed. This movie about the final phase of the operation to catch him in the act should have been very exciting, but the script was too weak, trying to show his idiosyncrasies, both blatantly and subtly, and detailing a few supposedly suspenseful incidents of trying to gather evidence before he returns to find the searchers. We know from the start he is a spy and will be captured and we keep hoping for a twist or plot enhancement, but the film just plods ahead to its conclusion. Chris Cooper does a good job as Hanssen, but it is wasted.