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Great Films You Might Have Missed on Netflix Instant: The List

Here is my list of great films on Netflix that often get overlooked.  Most of them are recent films that probably only played in indie theaters or had a limited release. I will be adding to this list and adding more reviews as time goes on. (Note: film availability on Netflix streaming is always subject to change.)

Exit Through the Gift Shop
Kick Ass
Man on Wire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Fall
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
The Killing
The Secret in their Eyes (El Secreto de sus ojos)
Precious

Here's a quick list of great films you've probably seen (and if you haven't you should), but might want to watch again on instant:
Being John Malkovich
Big
Gangs of New York
Raging Bull
The Big Lebowski
The Graduate
This is Spinal Tap

"The Lottery" vs. "Waiting for Superman"

This weekend I finally watched Davis Guggenheim's "Waiting for Superman" and can now compare it to Madeleine Sackler's "The Lottery" another recent documentary bemoaning the wretched state of public education. While both films come to essentially the same conclusion, I felt that "The Lottery" was an appalling piece of journalism and might as well have been a feature film length paid advertisement for a specific charter school (Harlem Success Academy). It was completely one-sided and was irritating to watch as a result.  "Waiting for Superman" probably could have been a little more balanced in it's approach, but it is a much better film, with a more of an attempt at discussing the issues at the root of the problem.  

From a film perspective, both had their strong suits.  Both visually engaging, "Waiting for Superman" had creative use of graphics and animation that was cool to see and "The Lottery" had some beautiful footage in the beginning of the film.  Some of the characters were engaging in "The Lottery," but I thought that the last scene of "Waiting for Superman" is emotional and quiet and resonated better for me.  If you are going to pick one, hands down it's "Waiting for Superman."

Improving Your Score on the Facebook BBC Book List Challenge

Okay, so if you are competitive about nerdy stuff like me, then the Facebook BBC Book List Challenge thing is really bugging you right now and you probably hate those smug assholes who have read all 100.  Then you pause for a minute and think, but I can live with myself if I never read Bridget Jones Diary (yeah, I can) and what normal person reads the entire Bible cover to cover? (Yeah, yeah literature references, blah, blah Western culture).  

However, after browsing the list once again most of the rest of the books look pretty good.  Obviously you could head to the library and start checking out stacks of classics, but if you are busy, and endowed with multiple digital devices that can act as readers (i.e. iPhone, iPad, Kindle) it's very easy and FREE to download many of the classic books on this list using the free apps and downloading from numerous free libraries, particularly Project Gutenberg.  It has a number of different ebook formats available for many classic works including: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; most of Charles Dickens work, which is always entertaining, such as Bleak House or A Christmas Carol; Bram Stoker's Dracula; Pride and Prejudice and most of Jane Austen's work; the Bible; The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a childhood favorite of mine; Shakespeare, Zola, Fitzgerald, Hardy, Tolstoy, Twain, Melville, Flaubert, Joyce, all the Brontës, etc.  

I find that the free iPhone/iPad app Stanza works well for me and even includes a "night" profile with dark background and light text for reading in bed next to someone who is sleeping.  Downloading books with Stanza is the work of a moment, and it saves your place for you in the book, so when you come back the next time you don't have to thumb through it.

If you don't have a digital reading device and don't like reading on your computer, there's really only on thing you can do: go through your parents' attic and look for the boxes of books you were assigned in your high school English class but that you didn't read.  That should cover at least 10 of the books right away.  After that, just hit the library.

P.S. If you are looking for a less arduous and more entertaining way of consuming Genesis from the Bible, read The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb.  It is so entertaining.  Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Genesis-Illustrated-R-Crumb/dp/0393061027.

"Restrepo" Co-Director Tim Hetherington Killed in Libya

Tim Hetherington, co-director of the documentary film Restrepo, was killed today in Libya during an explosion that killed another photo-journalist and injured several others.  Hetherington's photos have a fine art quality to them, bringing an aestheticism to chaos.  I have heard people critique the notion of making decay and despair look beautiful, but I think in many cases he brought a humanity to his subjects by photographing them in this way.  He also used his style to create contrast that is poignant and sometimes achingly sad.

It is not surprising that he was killed in the field, considering that he frequented the world's battle grounds, documenting the human suffering he encountered there.  However, it is even more tragic to lose a principled journalist whose stated purpose was to document the reality on the ground, without being tainted by politics.  This is the spirit of journalism that media needs.

Stay tuned for a review of Hetherington and Sebastian Junger's film Restrepo about American soldiers defending an observation post in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley.
Below is more of Hetherington's work that can be found on his site.

LA Times: "Libya blast kills photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros"
Vanity Fair: "Tim Hetherington, 40, Killed in Libya"
The Atlantic: "Tim Hetherington in Sierra Leone"
Tim Hetherington's Website

Old School Bandito, Moving Day '08

Rambling 1/Watch "Adaptation"

I should just start writing.  Then stuff will happen.  I always write just like the movie or book I just consumed.  It’s like diarrhea, or logorrhea really, spitting back out what I just digested.  Or didn’t even digest really, because I have barely even let it sit in my mind long enough to figure out what I think about it.  I was always good at imitation, but I can’t think of my own thing.  That’s what I want to do, think of something wholly new and profound.  I want to be a genius and shock the world.  I want everyone to like me and respect me and admire me.  Most of all admire.  Why do I like that?  Am I addicted to it?  Is it something I was given as a child and never weaned of? 

I just named the document “Rambling 1.”  Make sure you put quotation marks, grammar is important.  The sad thing about imitation is that it never really reaches the mark.  It can never do what was so great about the original, inspire people to imitation.  Or if it does, it becomes like this sad repetition of imitation after imitation, until the quality is so degraded it doesn’t even come close the original any more.  And then you could say you have something new.  It’s like what Kaufman does with his movies, it’s like looking in a mirror at another mirror, or looking at a picture of girl reading a book and its cover has a picture of a girl reading a book and its cover has a picture of a girl reading a book… It’s like that story I listened to on the New Yorker podcast, where the man made the miniatures that were “below the crust of the visible.”  Maybe that’s where genius lies.  Below the crust of the visible.  It’s there, but we can’t see it.  All we see is the flower that sprouted from the seed of genius.  We never know what the seed looks like.  Maybe the creator doesn’t either.  All anyone sees is the results.  But I didn’t explain it quite right, I don’t mean the inspiration, I mean the actual act of the creator, is below the crust of the visible, it’s not something any of us perceive but the result is something beautiful and amazing.  I think we all crave the opportunity to create.  It’s human nature.  Some of us create by taking things away from people.  It’s leaving our mark on the world.  Some people like to leave things behind.  It’s kind of like dogs peeing on fire hydrants.  Either way, we are remembered.  Since we are so ephemeral, it gives us comfort to know that.  I am already trying to figure out what I can do with this.  Can I turn it into a film review for Adaptation?  Or would I just look like an idiot?  Worse, a self-indulgent, conceited idiot.  Probably, but that wouldn’t stop me.  The whole concept of blogging is really self-indulgent anyway.  It’s the perfect example of the “leaving a mark” syndrome.  I think it’s kind of funny though.  Because of the whole archiving of data situation, no one really knows how long digital stuff will last.  Will it just float for eternity in the blogosphere?  Obviously it will disappear one day.  Every link becoming a 404 not found page, until no one remembers your poetic musings on politics, art, and culture; your clever title; or your false modesty. 

Now I’m going to ruin the movie, just because I feel like it.  At the end, when Meryl Streep is crying over her dead lover she says, “It's over. Everything, I did everything wrong. I want my life back. I want it back before everything got fucked up. I want to be a baby again. I want to be new. I want to be new.”  I love that quote.  That’s all.  I think it’s perfect.  Charlie Kaufman is a great writer.  I don’t love everything he’s done, but I liked this film.  If you haven't seen it and want to know what it's about go here: Adaptation.

Great Films You Might Have Missed on Netflix Instant: #2 The Secret in their Eyes (El Secreto de sus ojos)

Argentine director Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) had a limited release in the United States this year.  I wanted to see it in the theater, but I never got the chance.  I was happy to find it was available on Netflix Instant.  I am happy to add it to my list of gems available for streaming via Netflix.  This is a great film.  I am a lover of mysteries and crime stories, but while this was a story of an investigation, as all good detective stories do, it transcended the genre.

Set in Buenos Aires partly in the 1970’s and partly in the modern day, The Secret in their Eyes is the story of Benjamín Esposito (Ricardo Darín), a retired investigator for the criminal court, who is attempting to write a novel about one of his old cases in an attempt to gain closure for himself in regards to the case as well as in regards to his unexpressed feelings for his superior in social class as well as in the judicial hierarchy, the straight-laced Irene Menéndez Hastings (Soledad Villamil).  As he attempts to piece together the past, Benjamin brings his novel to Irene, now a judge in the courts, not only to seek her opinion on his work, but to probe the waters. 

The case that he could never forget was the investigation of the rape and murder of a young newly-wed school teacher, Liliana Coloto (Carla Quevedo).  As Benjamin begins to investigate the case, he is struck most by the deep love demonstrated by her grieving husband, Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago).  Spurred by Ricardo’s determination to find his wife’s killer, Benjamin digs deeper in the case finding new leads and what he suspects to negligence on the part of his colleagues.  Benjamin’s efforts to give Ricardo his simple justice is set against a backdrop of corruption in Peronist Argentina.

Beautifully shot with simple and honest framing,  the film is a joy to watch.  Argentinian Spanish is a very expressive and beautiful language, so even if you don’t like subtitles you should make an exception.  The acting was excellent as well, so despite the fact that minor subtleties of language or word play might be missed,  I really did not feel that I lost a great deal by having to read subtitles and not understanding the language.

I must confess that my idea of Argentina in the 1970’s was some nebulous combination of the Wild West and a police state.  I never imagined there would be courts and murders would be investigated, and people would dare to have dreams and ambitions.  I never imagined it would seem so “normal.”  It could have been New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, any number of U.S. cities with a history of corruption and violence in the 1970’s.  It is a universal story with universal themes: love and justice.  If a man can but gain one of these two things in life, it is possible that his soul can be at peace.

Previous Posts in Great Films You Might Have Missed on Netflix Instant:
 Great Films You Might Have Missed on Netflix Instant: #1 "The Fall"

"Life in a Day" Reaction

 As I had hoped I was able to watch "Life in a Day" on my computer at work and was relatively undisturbed for the duration.  I wish I could have watched it at home on my TV (even though the highest quality available was 480p) with my blu-ray player streaming YouTube, but there was no way I was going to get home by 5pm (although the film actually started at 5:30pm).  

 I really enjoyed the film, I thought it was really beautiful and joyful and sad and funny and dark.  It really did a good job of evoking the human condition in a beautiful and interesting way.  It is chronological, proceeding throughout the day starting with early morning, continuing to breakfast, etc, and it's thematic, dealing with different issues that affect us in our everyday lives as human beings.  A few of the participants are threaded throughout the film, but the film does not really follow any particular story lines.  It's just a constant discovery of beauty, humor, pathos, and fear in the world.  While some of the footage is obviously not very high quality, some of it is very well shot.  One of my favorite visual images is the glowing, floating lanterns near the end.

 My lasting reaction to the film is that it was a really cool concept and well executed.  I really felt like I was participating in an event, merely by watching the film.  So kudos to the director and producer as well as Sundance for supporting it.  I want to say good job to YouTube too.  I didn't experience any interruptions throughout the whole film and I'm sure they must have prepared for the insanity of streaming a film live to millions of people.

Youtube + Sundance + Ridley Scott/Kevin MacDonald = Life in a Day

This looks so cool.  I'm tuning in.  It's a feature length doc cut from the 80,000+ submissions (over 4500 hours) of footage filmed of people's days on July 24, 2010.  It starts at 8pm ET/7pm CT/5pm PT.

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/lifeinaday

Here are two shorts cut by some of the people working on the project from the footage.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92: Movement 2 (Allegretto)

Here's a good YouTube video of a performance of the piece.

Great Films You Might Have Missed on Netflix Instant: #1 "The Fall"

Tarsem Singh’s The Fall (2006),  presented by David Fincher and Spike Jonze, tells the story of eternally curious and unabashed explorer Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) an immigrant child laborer recovering from a fall in a citrus grove.  In her reconnaissance of the invalid hospital, where she is being treated for a broken arm, she discovers Roy Walker (Lee Pace), a young stuntman, convalescing after a devastating accident that leaves him paralyzed.    To pass the time and entertain her, Roy begins to tell her a fantastic story of adventure, but he soon realizes Alexandria's ability to pass unnoticed throughout the hospital corridors and attempts to manipulate her to aid him in his desperate ploy to secure morphine.  The story is completely engaging even as it shifts between fantasy and reality, blending the two.

The costume design is extravagant yet calculating.  The imagery of the film is a tapestry interweaving the earthy hues of early 20th century California and the jeweled tones of exotic locales such as India and Spain.   It’s a visual feast.  The opening scene is a particularly beautiful high speed sequence scored with one of my favorite pieces of music of all time:  Beethoven's 7th Symphony, 2nd Movement, the Allegretto (incidentally the same piece chosen to score the climatic moment of The King's Speech).  This is one of the most dramatic, emotional, and beautiful compositions ever.

This film is very engrossing and it has a strong emotional core.  Untaru gives one of the best performances by a child actor I have ever seen and the interactions between Untaru and Pace are amazing.  This is certainly a film to go back and watch.  Watch The Fall on Netflix Instant. Stay tuned for more films you might have missed that are available on from Netflix Instant.

Great Films You Might Have Missed on Netflix Instant

I love Netflix.  It is the best.  I do have one or two complaints, as I often do.  One is because of their deals with the studios or whatever it is, they will frequently take down movies that are offered for instant play.  I guess this is to keep DVD sales up?  Not sure.  Two is sometimes the instant streaming quality is not good, not because of the internet connection, which of course can affect it too, but because full HD quality is not available for whatever reason, again I think it has to do with the studios.  The final complaint, that I've heard some people make is that there are no good movies available via instant.  While I agree that lots of good recent film and television shows are only available via DVD or blu-ray (like how else can I catch up on Breaking Bad?), there are actually a ton of great films on Netflix available for streaming.  There is a wealth of documentaries, foreign films, and classics, enough to keep me occupied for years, but there are also all kinds of great films waiting to be found.  As I stumble upon awesome instant films, I will post reviews.  Don't wait too long to check them out, though.  You never know when they might get pulled down.

"True Grit" vs. "True Grit:" the debate continues

There's a debate?  Apparently.  I was driving home and I heard Terry Gross interviewing the Coen Brothers about True Grit (see below for the link) and she mentioned going back to watch the old film.  She did not like it very much either, and mentioned some of the things I had noticed about it.  The Coen Brothers were polite of course and would not critique it, but the comments after the article on NPR's website do discuss the old vs. new film and some of the comments surprised me.  Some people liked the old version better.  One guy says:

Ultimately, the 1969 film is a classic, while the new film is very good as a differing interpretation of the mood, but fails to capture the charm or the chemistry between the characters and truncates the story eliminating some of its power.  Don't get me wrong- I like the latest "True Grit," but comparing the two films, though inescapable, is like comparing Beethoven's 9th to Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind."

Whoa!  Is this a generational thing?  I feel like he got it completely wrong.  Crap is crap, no matter when it was made.  Are you saying that there were no good movies made in the '60s by today's standards?  This is just goes to show how some people feel about The Duke I guess.  For us young'uns, the Coen Brothers have made some of the best films of our generation, so we're gonna stick by 'em.

The article and link to Terry's interview: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/12/132744499/coen-bros-on-wet-horses-kid-stars-its-a-wild-west.

"True Grit:" When remakes are WAY better

I didn’t realize that I wasn’t a fan of John Wayne.  I hadn’t really ever thought about it, but I’m not.  To some, those words might be blasphemy and I apologize and I might reserve that judgment until I’ve seen more John Wayne movies, but I’m definitely not a fan of the original True Grit.  This weekend I watched the both original and the new Coen Brothers’ version, and contrary to the typical original/remake pattern, this is one remake that is way better.  There’s really no comparison; the acting is better, the cinematography is better, the music is better, the writing is better, the action is better.  I have been informed that the 2010 version follows Charles Portis’ 1968 novel more closely, which makes sense as the plot hangs together much better, and as a final critique of the 1969 John Wayne classic, they couldn’t even film the night scenes at night (I might just be being snobby now, but it’s John Wayne, can’t he get a budget to allow filming at night?)  It’s not even really worth discussing the old film any more, so let’s dispense with it and move on to the Coen Brothers version.  

I tend to enjoy Coen Brothers films, which often to tell the story of a place and an era through strong characters and intriguing plots.  This film was certainly a period piece, though perhaps in following the book closely, they lost some of that coloring in of the place and time, and focused too much on character and more so on plot (When these are the “flaws” of your film, you know you’ve reached a respectable level of film-making).  The film is, of course, beautifully shot and lit (I would have expected nothing less) and some of the classic cowboy riding at dusk shots are no less powerful for their well-used framing.  The overall visuals of the film were pleasing and appropriate, while the music was unremarkable, but compared to the inappropriate tone of the 1969 soundtrack, it was excellent.  Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon play their roles with a touch of subtle emotion and the rugged dignity expected of western heroes.  

The real achievement in the film is the breakout performance by Hailee Steinfield as the stubborn and strong-willed Maddie Ross.  Steinfield’s portrayal of the 14-year old Arkansas farm girl/family bookkeeper who, becoming the de facto head of the family upon her father’s death, takes the execution of family duty with the utmost seriousness.  Maddie Ross takes the train to Ft. Smith to tie up her father’s affairs after his murder.  Fearing that justice will not be exacted from his murderer Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), she takes the matter into her own hands, hiring crusty U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), whose standard approach is to shoot first and ask questions later, to track down Chaney and bring him to justice.  Steinfield is at once childlike and masterful.  She maintains the innocence and bit of naivete present in Ross’ character, while allowing it to be tempered by her quick wit, practicality, and heavy load of responsibilities.  Despite the fact that the young girl is a shrewd business-woman, who will not be gainsaid, on the eve of her departure into the Indian Territories to find Chaney, she cannot but help writing her mother with a touch of excitement of the “great adventure” on which she is about to embark.

Overall, the film is entertaining, and well executed.  I found it to be a satisfying viewing experience.  It is not, however, as good as the Coen Brothers’ previous western film, No Country for Old Men.  But that is another story altogether.

Town Lake Photographic Expedition

During my trip back to Texas for the holidays, I took the opportunity to shoot a few different times.  It's nice to get some fresh locations to spark the imagination.  My uncle has been pursuing fine art photography (check out his site) the last few years and we took an afternoon/early evening to go out and shoot together.  We see things differently, so it was cool to shoot with him and see what he sees.  He likes to shoot on the darker side, so I ended up exposing lots of images darker than usual and I liked the results.