With thousands and thousands of selections on the Netflix Watch Instantly service, it would be impossible to see them all in one lifetime. So here's a handy guide to find the films worth watching, the hidden treasures, the diamonds in the rough, the movies you thought might suck but actually kick ass, and so on. These selections come from my weekly appearances on "SBK Live" on Real Radio 104.1 FM (www.sbklive.com) on Monday nights at 8:45 pm.
From my original review posted on Examiner.com (found here):
"Cleanflix is a crazy documentary
about the insane practice of editing movies and reselling them to the
“family values” market. Starting up in Utah and quickly spreading
throughout the Midwest, savvy businessmen realized that there was a
large market of people who wanted to watch rated-R films but without all
the dang cussing and sex and violence in them. Basically, they wanted
to take out all the stuff that makes the movie rated-R in the first
place. After all, a respectable family is the one that sits all the kids
down for a sanitized viewing of The Big Lebowski (click here for an idea of why a censored version of The Big Lebowski is so funny)."
This is a fascinating documentary, one that I saw through the Florida Film Festival a couple of years ago, and I am glad to see it here available for easy, mass consumption. Because this story is crazy and people need to know about it.
Okay, this one isn't some sort of hidden gem or unknown masterpiece or hipster choice of the week, this is the one and only Glengarry Glen Ross, which is a heralded and well known movie.
But it IS twenty years old, almost drinking age, and since this movie was released, many things have happened, the world has changed in GREAT ways, and a whole new generation has been born into this post-Glengarry Glen Ross world. So sometimes certain things bear repeating, and this is one of those things. Watch Glengarry Glen Ross.
There, I said it. This is initially aimed at the youngings, those in the early 20s and youngers, the people too young to have seen the movie upon release and who haven't had a chance to see it yet. Hey, it happens, I understand. No one is judging here. This is your chance to see an excellent reason as to why people actually give a shit about that old dude Al Pacino, or Kevin Spacey for that matter. And you may be surprised to see a svelte Alec Baldwin, doing back then what he does best now - being a charismatic blowhard (albeit for one scene only, but oh what a scene). And there's this old guy in it named Jack Lemmon, and while it's no big deal to a whipper snapper like you since you don't even know who he was, just be advised that this performance from Mr. Lemmon was kind of a big deal, and his portrayal of sad sack Shelly "The Machine" Levine was something of a revelation to legions of admirers, fans and followers.
And for those of you, who have seen this movie, why not revisit it? When was the last time you even saw it? Back when it came out? Twenty years ago? Do you really remember the great lyricism and sing-songy quality of David Mamet's dialogue, being expertly and precisely spit out by actors of the highest order? Do you remember Ed Harris's tough exterior but insecure on the inside performance? Alan Arkin stumbling and bumbling around, oblivious to his surroundings? Pacino just killing it as the office hot shot? That aforementioned Baldwin walk on? Come on, this this is worth watching again.
From 2001, Sexy Beast is an insane crime drama, made insane by a blistering, electric, white hot performance from Sir Ben Kingsley, who got himself an Oscar nomination for acting with a role that is the exact opposite of the one he won an Oscar for twenty years prior, that of Mohandas Gandhi. Here in Sexy Beast, Kingsley plays Don Logan, an extremely violent and vitriolic sociopath of a mobster who is deadset on recruiting this one particular guy for this one particular job. The problem for Don is that this guy is retired and living the life of Riley in Spain, so Don has to crash this dude's house, impose himself on this guy, and then try to force him to come back to London to do a job. This is a well-made movie, featuring great English actors like Ian McShane and Ray Winstone, but no one is fooling nobody, in the end this movie is all about Sir Ben and how awesome he is in this role. So get with it and watch this now on the ole Netflix Watch Instant service.
From 1996, Bottle Rocket is Wes Anderson's first feature length film, co-written and made with fellow first timers Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson, and what a way to start this gaggle of varying careers, most notably that of reluctant actor turned movie star Owen Wilson, and most interestingly that of writer/director Wes Anderson, who has carved out an incredible niche for himself in the modern movie landscape in the fact that he has developed a distinctive and what many say "quirky" style which is easily distinguishable from the rest of the crap out there (though really this is because most people don't notice that he is actually aping the cinema greats of the 1960's French New Wave movement, what with their over stylization, painstaking detail to set design, and attention to strange character details), and much of his style and quirk can be found in Bottle Rocket, which includes the use of a fantastic score penned by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh, and this great debut can be seen on the Netflix Instant so get to watching and enjoy and oh yeah James Caan is in this too so that's cool.
From 1974, The Conversation is the fantastic, award-winning thriller that Francis Ford Coppola directed between The Godfather Part II and Apocalypse Now, so to say he was in the midst of a nice run is an understatement. Featuring a world class lead performance from Gene Hackman, who was pretty much operating at the height of his powers at the time, small roles for Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall and John Cazale, and a tight story told really well, The Conversation is where its at, a great movie that is worth being talked about on the same level as Coppola's other towering works of art.
"What makes Headhunters so good is how every scene
and each piece of dialogue and every action resonates through the whole
movie, as everything has a point and purpose – there isn’t a single
wasted moment in this movie, it’s all information that will ultimately
serve the overall picture, which keeps the movie hurtling forward pretty
relentlessly and in an very entertaining way. A great central character
plus a very well told story makes for a great movie, easy to recommend
to anyone looking for a fun crime movie to take in."
That sells it right there, me thinks. Great story, great plotting, tight movie, it's totally worth seeing, trust me on this one (of course you trust me, why else are you even here? This is all built on TRUST).
"For thought provoking and idea driven science fiction, genre-hopper Michael Winterbottom brings us Code 46,
a film that explores the consequences of human modification and genetic
sampling and cloning. No intergalactic space battles here. Hell, they
don't even leave Earth. And there's no time travel either. It's just a
story set in the future, albeit a future where people speak a language
that is a mixture of English, Spanish and French, one can take Empathy
Drugs so they can read people's minds, and a special law is created to
prevent accidental genetic inbreeding. Guess what numerical code that
law is. Go ahead, take a wild stab at it, genius."
This is a great sci-fi tale, an interesting love story, and overall, a fantastic movie. So get with it.
Finishing out the horror movie centric month of October is Audition, one of the most twisted and deranged movies out there. It starts as something of a weird romantic comedy, as a widower is convinced by a friend to put on an audition for a fake movie in an effort to see a lot of single women in one shot and choose the right one to court. Of course they pick what they think is a lovely young girl, but she turns out to be something much, much more. You pretty much will never forget the last twenty minutes of this insane movie, from legendary director Takeshi Miike, master of the sublime and the horrific.
"That is until 1983's The Keep was made readily available on that wonderful bottomless treasure chest known as Netflix. Mann's second feature film between the bad ass Thief and the amazing Manhunter, The Keep
was a critical and commercial failure upon release, and apparently
Paramount was so embarrassed by it that they never even bothered
releasing it on DVD. But now, 27 years later, this oddity of a film is
out there for all to watch at the click of a button. And if you are a
fan of Michael Mann films, you have to see what his version of a horror film looks like."
This is a strange one, not exactly great, but definitely interesting enough to check out. Plus the score by Tangerine Dream is suh-weet.
Made in 1986 but not released until 1989 because the producers didn't believe in what they had and initially felt it was not marketable, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is the kind of horror movie that many people try to make but few manage to pull off, and that's the kind of horror that is scary and intense because it feels so real and plausible - a movie that reflects the real horrors of our world can be one of the most unpleasant and unsettling things to watch, and based on a real life serial killer, the low budget, down and dirty and ultra realistic Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer will leave you feeling like you need to take a shower afterwards, because surely just watching this movie is enough to make you feel dirty, like you watched something you shouldn't have. For these reasons this is one of the most horrifying movies ever made.
"Like so many of the greatest films ever made, The Night of the Hunter
pretty much bombed upon release. Critics did not like it, audiences
stayed home in droves, and the awful reception prompted Laughton to make
a vow to never direct a movie again. And this is one of the biggest
travesties in cinema history - if this crazy movie was Laughton's first
as a director, imagine what kind of intense films he could have made
with some practice. It's not like German expressionism was huge in the
1950's. Hell, pretty much nothing German was in vogue in 1955. but
Laughton took a thirty year old cinematic style and applied it to the
films of his day, and the result is a weird and fairly unsettling movie.
From 2003, Bubba Ho-Tep is a crazy movie about old age Elvis (Bruce Campbell) and an elderly black man who thinks he's JFK (Ossie Davis) battling an ancient mummy that is feasting on the souls of the residents of an old folks home in Texas, and if that sounds ridiculous to you, it's because it is ridiculous and it is also awesome. Campbell is an amazing old Elvis, and the whole movie is taken pretty seriously, which sells the silliness and ridiculousness all the more. October means Halloween means scary movies, so this is scary movie number one for this month, I think you'll enjoy it quite a bit.
Released in Japan in 2000, and unable to get distribution in North America for years due to it's intense, graphic, violent content, Battle Royale is the story of a class of 15-year old school kids who are forced on to an island where they must battle each other to the death until there is only one person left. This is done by the government, in an effort to curb youth crime in their country. An over correction, perhaps? This is a fantastically made movie, and it's more than just a violent spectacle, as it actually has something to say and does so simply and splendidly. Of course this movie was finally made readily available here in North America 12 years after it's release, thanks to the huge popularity of The Hunger Games, which itself bares more than one similarity to the plot of this most excellent and very popular Japanese film.
"Obviously this was a big role for Pacino, and an important one, as it
led directly to him getting the role of Michael Corleone in The
Godfather, so for that reason alone The Panic in Needle Park is a classic film
worth watching, but it is also a very well made movie. The whole
documentary-style approach to telling a fictional narrative has become
much more popular in our current culture than it was in 1971, so this
movie actually holds up very well and fits right in with the style of
today, which is fascinating. And the movie has a dark yet hopeful
ending, one that suggests that perhaps all is not lost between these two
lovers, though it’s going to be a tough row to hoe, that’s for sure."
Young Al Pacino in a super gritty and realistic 70s drama. How can you go wrong?
From 1978, Days of Heaven is Terrence Malick's second film, and what a film it is. This is the type of movie that didn't get much love when it first came out, but over the years it has become known as a classic and is one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time. Featuring lush cinematography (much of it thanks to Malick's insistence of shooting during the "magic hour"), great acting and Malick's now signature lyrical approach to storytelling, many other directors would have made a pretty rote and basic movie with this same plot, but in Malick's hands, this becomes a memorable, thoughtful and very well made movie. And of course, since this is from the 1970's, it has to have a dour ending for it's antihero, but aside from that trope, there is nothing cliche or unoriginal about this movie.
From my original review published last year on Examiner.com:
Bellflower is one of those super intense and very
personal indie films that seems to actually be a living, breathing
thing, a thorough representation of a particular person’s mindset and
vision, starting with a personal pain that is common and universal and
pushing it into another world in the way only cinema can. The story is
fairly simple in that it revolves around the lives of a group of adrift
and confused twenty-somethings, and specifically one relationship that
starts beautifully and of course goes completely tragic.
And now it's on the Netflix Instant, ready to show you what's up, and how a filmmaker can do so much with so little.
Deep Water is a 2006 documentary about a yacht race around the world and the nine men who took up the challenge. In 1968, a British newspaper put up a reward for the first person to circumnavigate the globe solo in a yacht, and they had a separate prize for the person to do it the fastest. They gave a five-month window for the contestants to get started, and eight experienced sailors made their way out to sea, each alone in their own vessels, and at the very last second, a ninth inexperienced man made it out into the water with a boat he built himself, and of course this documentary focuses mostly on this final man, as his story predictably is the most interesting and crazy. But the entire race is incredibly interesting, and let's just say there is a reason why this is not a regular event. What really makes this documentary is how the newspaper gave every sailor their own camera and audio recorder, so they were able to get some incredible open sea footage and record their stir crazy thoughts that really puts us the viewer in the same mind set as the sailors, and helps us really understand how hard this task was and what they all went through. This is a fascinating film and definitely worth watching, so dig it on the Netflix.
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky is absolutely insane. I can not, in one mere paragraph, explain to you the violent insanity contained within these 90 minutes of Chinese jail movie magic. Shot in 1991 and based on a Japanese manga, the movie is set in the distant future of 2001, in which all prisons have become privately owned companies, allowing for rampant corruption in the penal system. Riki-Oh is sentenced to a prison run by a crooked warden and his assistant warden and four prisoners known as the Gang of Four, who exert control over the prison through violence, but they soon find out that Riki-Oh is no average prisoner. Loaded with some of the craziest fights and over-the-top grossly violent imagery that quickly and frequently extends into the world of the cartoonish, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky is a genre classic, a cult favorite, and surprisingly well loved by the critical community. So make sure you aren't eating anything and check out this supremely screwed up movie.
From 2000, In the Mood for Love is a very lyrical and quite beautiful film about an unfulfilled love and romance, born in the face of spousal infidelity, and killed through the characters' desires to not repeat their spouses' mistakes. Made without a screenplay, this movie was formed first through the actors on the set and their different choices, and then in the editing bay when these choices were parsed out and strung together to make a very good movie. Not all movies about romance have to be dumb, empty-headed and morally depraved romantic comedies; sometimes they can be grown up and introspective movies, made for grown up people who know a good thing when they see it. So check out In the Mood for Love on the Netflix Instant, yo.
In 2005, Philip Seymour Hoffman starred in the biographical film Capote, and his award winning performance in this very well made movie launched him into the next level of actorhood, a formidable professional, a force to be reckoned with, a sure fire performance regardless of surrounding circumstances, immensely reliable and likeable, even when playing bastards and straight up evil doers. It really helps that his fantastic central performance as writer Truman Capote is actually enveloped by a wonderfully made film, richly detailed and confident in its pacing and technique, with the movie itself getting some award consideration, which makes Capote really the total package. And it's the right kind of biographical film, the one that eschews simply going through the "greatest hits," so to speak, and instead focuses in a single period in a person's life, showing how that one part of their existence greatly effected the rest of their lives. And here, the portion of Truman Capote's life that involved becoming very personal and close with a convicted murderer and using their friendship as a way to make a well regarded and highly successful nonfiction book is probably the most telling about the man, the most informative about who he was and what he was after. Capote is a fantastic film, very moody and introspective and loaded with great actors doing what they do best, and it's definitely worth checking out.
From 1968, Once Upon a Time in the West is the final spaghetti western from Italian director Sergio Leone, and it's a fantastic, sprawling, epic movie that features pretty much everything you would want from a film. It has great action, great dialogue, great acting, superb direction, a great Ennio Morricone soundtrack, it's all there, making for a fantastic film. Henry Fonda plays a bad guy, which was already against type, and here he plays him as such a cold-blooded bastard that it was downright shocking when it came out in '68. His nemesis is Charles Bronson, no stranger to awesome westerns or action movies himself, and their rivalry culminates in a great finale, and at 165 minutes, it's a nice, long build up to a great pay off, something Leone always excelled at in every film he made. Check it out now!
From 1976, Network is a movie that was intended as a satire in its time but now comes across almost as a documentary. This whole movie is about how television (and the television consumers) has the potential to bring out the worst in people, especially when ratings and money come into play. This movie was seen as outrageous when it came out (or says that poster up there) but what was seen as absurd and crazy in 1976 seems commonplace now, which is downright scary. This was a comedy of sorts, but now it's a portrait of all the things wrong with television culture and how it is consumed. Network is an incredible, award-winning film, made by director Sidney Lumet when he was in the midst of a hot streak of awesome movies, and it features world-beating performances and one of the most verbose, robust and explosive scripts ever, and it makes for one of the best movies available to watch on the Netflix Instant right now. So sit back and dig in to the insanity.
In 2000, director Terry Gilliam set out to make a weird and off-kilter film adaptation of Cervantes' Don Quixote starring Johnny Depp, and when he started making his movie, he allowed a few folks to tag along and film everything for their own "making-of" documentary. The result is Lost in La Mancha, the ensuing documentary that detailed the incredible bad luck and untimely demise of Gilliam's production, as a series of rather unfortunate events resulted in the movie being shut down and never being completed. This is a fascinating look at a movie production gone wrong - you know how many "making-of" documentaries are out there that show movies being made from start to finish? Here we have a well-made documentary about one of these big productions getting screwed up, and it's a fascinating and kind of heart breaking look at something that most people never get to see.
From 2000, The Way of the Gun is an excellent crime drama, written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the writer of The Usual Suspects, and it is his first directorial feature film. What happens when a pair of criminal drifters (Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro) discover that a wealthy couple has employed a woman (Juliette Lewis) to act as a surrogate mother for their baby and decide to kidnap this woman and hold her for ransom? A big old ugly mess, that's what happens. With a great cast and great writing, The Way of the Gun is a moody, cracklin', crazy movie, with some interesting character work, and a tense story that builds up to a great final shoot out that will leave you wincing at least once, guaranteed. This is a great movie and you can watch it right now on the good ole' Netflix Watch Instantly service.
Thief is a 1981 crime drama starring James Caan and loosely based on a real-life jewel thief, and it is Michael Mann's first feature-length film. Who is Michael Mann? He's the guy who made Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Ali, Collateral, Public Enemies, and Miami Vice, both for television and film, so if you like any of those (and chances are you like most of them), you'll love Thief. It has all the typical Michael Mann-isms, like a brooding, contemporary score (here composed by Tangerine Dream, almost like a warm up to their collaboration on Blade Runner), stylish cinematography, and a story about manly men struggling with their manly ideals and professions - it's all there. Plus this movie features the first film performances for Dennis Farina, William Peterson and Jim Belushi, so that's something worth checking out as well. So get with it and check out this great, intense movie.
So what does a political sex scandal in New York state and the 2008 worldwide financial meltdown have in common? A helluva lot more than you think, at least as posited by Alex Gibney in his extremely well made, intelligent, entertaining and infuriating 2010 documentary, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer. Depending on your own political views, you might find this documentary to be somewhat one-sided, but if you can put your allegiances aside for a little bit and take in the facts and actually think about them, you may find out something very interesting about the people whom we somehow put in charge of our country. Or maybe when this movie is all said and done, it was just preaching to the choir the whole time, as you nod your head in agreement with the film. But in any case, this is an excellent documentary, and very much worth watching.
From 1973, The Long Goodbye is film making legend Robert Altman's update of the classic 1930's/1940's hard boiled noir detective story. He took classic and iconic 1940's detective fiction character Philip Marlowe and had him operate in the more cynical and twisted world of the 1970's, and what resulted is a very unique and interesting detective story, one in which the main character is seemingly out of step with the world around him and must navigate through a world of characters both familiar and different - along with the tough mob bosses and corrupt cops and hard-talkin' characters are hippies and nudists and New Age beliefs and that general 1970's malaise that was just setting in after the intense civil rights movements and Vietnam War. Featuring a great lead performance from Elliot Gould, The Long Goodbye is a fantastic film and definitely holds up as one of the best and most unique noir films ever.
From 1989, The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover is an insane, masterful film, both brutal and elegant at the same time, and with a loaded ending that will be near impossible for anyone to forget. The story is about oafish, inconsiderate and impulse-driven people trying to live a posh and fancy-shmancy lifestyle, and it is the very definition of putting a silk hat on a pig. The Thief (Michael Gambon) is an English mobster who runs a very posh restaurant and throws his weight around, terrorizing everyone in his sight, including his Wife (Helen Mirren), who strikes out against her abusive husband by carrying on an affair. And of course, this is all goes horribly wrong for everyone involved, leading up to the aforementioned insane ending. This movie was originally released unrated, as opposed to be slapped with an X-rating, and is now considered an NC-17 film due to copious amount of sex and nudity and brutal nature of much of the film. So get the kids and pop some popcorn cause this is one you will all remember.
From 2009, Thirst is a South Korean vampire film which pretty much blows all other recent vampire movies so far out of the water it ain't even funny. A celibate and very strict Priest becomes a vamp through a failed medical experiment, and his lifetime of repressed desires becomes far too much for him to bear. He slowly gives in to his impulses, over time becoming more and more different from the honest and well-meaning man he once was, and he drags down those around him in a spiral of lust, love and death. Thirst is exceptionally well-made, fine tuned and crafted almost to within an inch of it's life, but all done in service of a great, inspired and interesting story. So check out this movie if you are looking for an excellent horror movie that has more to offer than just some blood and guts.
From 1999, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a wonderfully weird crime drama about an enigmatic hit man who works for the mob. This hit man is only known as Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) and he lives alone on the roof of a building, where he trains homing pigeons and reads the Hagakure ("The Way of the Samurai"). He lives his life by the ancient samurai code, but his old school style clashes with the modern world, and when the mob feels the need to turn on their hit man, it's just him versus them, with his "master" stuck in the middle. Director Jim Jarmusch often makes very quirky indie films with strange characters and bizarre dialogue, and in Ghost Dog it all works great. Whitaker gives an awesome performance and this film also features the first movie soundtrack from the Wu Tang Clan's The RZA. Not afraid to get quiet and contemplative, the subtle relationships and character work couples well with the mob drama aesthetic and hip-hip overtones, and it all combines to make a very memorable film.
One of director Steven Soderbergh's "experimental" films, The Girlfriend Experience is a low-budget drama about a call girl, her job, her clientele, her personal trainer boyfriend (who knows what she does for a living), and a possible chance for her to escape a life with which she is growing increasingly frustrated. Starring adult film star Sasha Grey (who has since retired from the porn industry and is now making a full-fledged run at "legit" cinema), The Girlfriend Experience is notable for its style and the way it was made; having a mini-budget of $1.3 million, this movie was pretty much an excuse for Soderbergh to grab a Sony RedOne digital camera and hit the streets of New York City guerilla-style (meaning no filming permits), running and gunning with his actress and a tiny film crew for extra maneuverability. It also acted as an excuse for Soderbergh to work with non-professional actors, which he seems to love to do every so often. It's a well-made movie, more about the characters and human nature than any big plot or story mechanics, and it shows that Soderbergh can make a movie with just about anybody. Check out my original review right here.
Made in 1993 and released in US theaters in 2001 thanks to Quentin Tarantino, Iron Monkey is an awesome kung fu film that will totally kick your ass if you give it the chance to do so. Basically a Robin Hood type of story with a local doctor robbing from the corrupt village officials and giving the spoils to the poor, Iron Monkey features a simple but well told plot, nicely developed characters, and most importantly, incredible fight scenes. Directed by kung fu master and living legend Yuen Woo Ping (who is behind the amazing fight choreography for all three Matrix movies, both Kill Bills, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Kung Fu Hustle, and the Jet Li movies Fist of Legend, Unleashed, Fearless and Once Upon a Time in China), the first fight is a little jokey and goofy and has some comedy elements to it, and as the movie progresses, the fight scenes become more and more brutal, and the final fight between three guys standing on top of flaming poles is one of the most incredible fights ever put to film. If you are a fan of good martial arts movies or just action movies in general, then you will will love Iron Monkey. So get on it.
Two documentary filmmakers set out to New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina and started working immediately on a film about the disaster and the aftermath. They soon met Kimberly Roberts, an aspiring rapper and resident of the now flooded and destroyed Ninth Ward, and they find out that she not only stayed in the flooding Ward with her family during the storm and managed to survive, but she also grabbed a video camera and did her own documenting, getting footage of the neighborhood in the days leading up to the storm and some scary and all too real footage of the storm itself. They smartly made Kimberly and her family the focus of Trouble The Water, their very compelling and incisive film about Hurricane Katrina and the widespread effects of this historical natural disaster.
This 2002 film from South Korea is a wild thriller about a man who goes to desperate lengths to save the life of his sister, and how his actions sets of a string of violent acts from several people, and it all adds up to an intense and incredible movie. From director Chan-wook Park (Oldboy, Thirst), this is his first in an excellent trilogy of films centered on revenge and it is weird and strange in all the right ways, while the story itself is very compelling and told with the help of some great acting and strong direction. So grab Grandma and the kids and pop some popcorn, because it is time for everyone to bond over some gruesome, righteous vengeance.
From 2011, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia his the controversial Danish director's most accessible and adult-minded film, as he skipped the usual "shock" cinema he seems to enjoy pushing so much and instead concentrated on his themes and characters instead, ultimately serving the story as opposed to his own desires. In Melancholia, Kirsten Dunst, who won the Best Actress award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival for her role in this movie, plays a depressed woman who can't break out of her funk even on her wedding day, and the first half of the movie plays almost like a comedy of ill-manners as her family deals with her depression during the wedding reception. And the second half of the movie focuses on her severe depression leaving her immobile and despondent, while her sister, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, tries her best to help. And the entire time, there is a distant planet called Melancholia, recently discovered and believed to be making a pass very close to the Earth, which thrills many people, but leaves others in fear, as they suspect this planet Melancholia will actually slam headlong into Earth, killing them all. An interesting, intense, and surprisingly poetic and beautiful film about depression, Melancholia is a great movie that isn't full-on science fiction but instead uses it's great science fiction premise to meditate on a very emotional and reality-based subject matter, and it's done extremely well (click here for my original review).
From 2010, Monsters is a low-budget sci-fi film about two Americans - a journalist and a tourist - struggling to get back home from Central America to the United States. Why are they struggling to get home? Because in this world, Mexico has been walled off and declared an INFECTED ZONE, in which a NASA satellite crashed, unleashing a host of alien creatures and monsters onto Earth. Overcoming their obviously limited budget with smart camerawork and a dash of surprisingly well done CG effects, Monsters is a very strong film, which also excels thanks to a good story and good acting, and it should interest fans of science fiction as well as people that normally wouldn't see a movie along these lines. And this movie should definitely interest people who are into independent films, especially those low-budget ones that do a lot with very little (click here for my original review). Watch it Instantly right here on Netflix!
A 2008 film from British visual artist and first-time feature length film maker Steve McQueen, Hunger is about the 1981 Irish hunger strike in the Maze prison, in which IRA volunteers were held without any sort of political status, as that was stripped from them by the British government in 1976. Led by Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), the prisoners strike first with a "no-wash" strike, in which they don't wash or shave and get as dirty as possible (much to the prison guards' displeasure), and then they build up to the hunger strike - in the meantime, the guards are depicted as savage monsters, mistreating the prisoners at every opportunity. Full of strong acting, especially from Mr. Fassbender, and filmed with style and interesting directorial choices from Mr. McQueen, Hunger isn't exactly easy watching, but it is a very well made and incredibly interesting film, and definitely worth checking out.
From 2007, this documentary follows the lives of four separate people in Los Angeles, all of them aspiring actors, all of them relegated to dressing up in costumes and standing on the sidewalk to take pictures with tourists for money. There is a Superman, a Batman, a Wonder Woman and an Incredible Hulk, and the people in these costumes are all fascinating in their own ways, as they all came from vastly different backgrounds to only find themselves standing side by side, vying for the attention of the same tourists and their dollars, selling themselves one digital picture at a time. This documentary is both very funny and kind of sad, but never in a mocking or cruel manner - these people are given the proper respect and sometimes just enough rope to hang themselves - and it makes for a very entertaining and surprisingly insightful ninety minutes.
An Italian mob movie from 2008, Gomorrah is one of the most visceral, real and in your face gangster movies ever. Forget what you think you know about the mob - the whole group of old Italian men sitting around in expensive suits and pulling the strings on heists from a distance? That's the Sicilian style mob. Gomorrah is about the Camorra crime syndicate, which is much rougher, tougher, more brutal and, most of all, de-centralized. With no clear leader, there is no head to cut off of this body, hence it is nearly impossible to stop these criminals and their grip on their communities. Based on a non-fiction book of the same name, this is an incredibly well made movie, both stylish and grounded, fantastical and real, use your Netflix account now to check out the best mafia movie since Goodfellas.
From 1998, nominated for seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography), cut down from a surely genius six hours to a more manageable 170 minutes, and featuring so many A-list actors that a number of them didn't make it into the final cut of the film, Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line is a war movie not like any other. Bringing his love for the world and his curiosity about mankind's coexistence with the brutality of nature into the folds of an epic World War II drama about the men fighting for Guadalcanal in the Pacific Ocean, Malick takes the time to focus his camera on the trees and on running water and on the local wildlife, because to him these things inform the men fighting for survival, life feeding into life, with death constantly in the air, looming, vast and inescapable, and this dread and angst unfolds throughout the movie. It's a masterwork of a film, brilliant in its layers and easily re-watchable. If you have the time anyway.
Before there was Inception, before there was The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, before there was even a Memento, there was Following. Christopher Nolan's feature-length film debut, Following is a neo-noir British film, a story about a writer who follows people and watches them for inspiration, and of course ends up following the wrong person. Despite the financial limitations of this film, much of Nolan's style and handiwork is evident from the get-go, including the non-linear structure of the plot that now seems synonymous with his style of storytelling. This a great little movie and it's very interesting to watch it now, as today we all know Christopher Nolan as one of our biggest filmmakers working right now, but once upon a time, just like many other people, he was a struggling writer/director making a movie with his friends during their spare time - it's just rare that the results happen to be this good.
From 1975, Bucktown is the story of a man named Duke Johnson, who returns to the little craphole of Bucktown to bury his deceased brother. He then finds himself re-opening his brother's nightclub, which goes well for about three seconds before the local redneck sheriffs come rolling around looking for their kick backs and bribes. Instead of paying off the cops, Duke stands against them and soon calls in some help from the "big city" to come in and help get rid of these greedy, racist cops. But what happened after this, even Duke couldn't see coming. A story about the corruption of power and the strength (and frailty) of loyalty and friendship, Bucktown is a kick ass blaxploitation flick featuring great performances from Fred Williamson and Pam Grier, as well as a pre-Apollo Creed version of Carl Weathers.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 sets itself apart from other documentaries and films about the black power and civil rights movement by the simple fact that it was filmed and presented by a group of Swedish journalists. During those years reflected in the title of the film, these inquisitive Swedes went to America to learn about the civil rights movement, filming it all and speaking with people ranging from Stokely Carmichael to the average dude living in the ghetto. Split into nine chapters, one for each year, this is not a definitive or complete look at the civil rights movement, but instead is very much like a mixtape, giving you a select group of choice, hand picked tracks to give a strong impact and overall feel of the time period. This is an interesting look at a very tumultuous time of our country's history from a very outsider-ish perspective, and it makes for a very well done and interesting documentary film.
Winner of the Best Documentary Feature at the 1996 Academy Awards, When We Were Kings is a film about the great 1974 Rumble in the Jungle, in which young boxer and world heavyweight champion George Foreman took on an aging former champ in the form of Muhammad Ali. The documentary is comprised mostly of footage from the days leading up to the fight, followed by the fight itself, as the cameras followed around both Ali and Foreman. With the fight taking place in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the politics and landscape of that country are brought into focus through the prism of this fight, along with the Civil Rights struggle in our own country from that time and what Ali and Foreman meant to the people en masse. Fascinating, well made and above all else entertaining, When We Were Kings is a great way to spend 90 minutes on the Netflix Watch Instantly service.
From 1973, this blaxploitation classic features a pair of interracial cops investigating an armed heist that turns out to be far trickier than they initially thought, sending them on a wild path through both Detroit's criminal underground and political scenes alike, with everything in between. What makes Detroit 9000 special is that it manages to transcend its genre and works simply as a great film and not just as a piece of exploitation cinema. Great music, good acting, interesting characters, good writing, Detroit 9000 has it all, with plenty of 70's style to spare.
In 1983, this insane masterpiece of horror cinema was unleashed upon the world. Speaking volumes about sex and violence in entertainment and art and how it is taken in and changes the viewer, Videodrome is the story of a sleazy cable-tv programmer (James Woods) looking for the next big sensationalistic thing to put his little station on the map. So when he is handed a piece of apparent snuff film, he sets out to find out more about the creators. The effects of this film and his search go places where you would never expect. It's a tense, gory, philosophical and well-made movie, from the mind of David Cronenberg (The Fly, Dead Ringers, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises).
Released in Spain as Los CronocrÃmenes, Timecrimes is a super tight, low budget sci-fi movie about what happens when a guy accidentally travels back in time and the repurcussions this one event has on his life and the lives of those he knows. The story is presented so that the plotting and logic of the film slowly come into focus and it all makes for an expertly written time travel story, something that is actually pretty tough to do. Written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, for whom this is his first feature length film, and who also appears in the film as the scientist working on the time machine, Timecrimes is a pretty incredible first film, and as it is slated to go through the Hollywood remake treatment soon, it would do you good to just use your Netflix subscription to check this movie out here and now. Salud. Watch it instantly on Netflix right here!
From 2006, this South Korean flick mashes family drama and comedy with big monster horror and the result is a wild ride of a film. The Host starts with a giant amphibious creature of some sort coming out of the Han River to attack the people chilling in the park and to take people back to its lair. Unfortunately for the creature, it decides to take a young girl back for a late night snack, which results in the girl's eclectic family members setting out on a mission to get her back. Extremely well made and full of great moments, The Host is one of the best monster movies ever made. Watch it instantly on Netflix!
From the director of Drive and starring up and coming actor Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Warrior) comes a movie about Britain's most expensive and most violent prisoner Charles Bronson (he changed his name to that, thank you very much). This is a wild and intense movie, with a good portion of it set up like a performance art piece, with Hardy as Bronson donning crazy make up and giving insane monologues to the camera as he reflects on his life. Equal parts celebrity, artist and psychopath, Bronson is a fascinating and incredible film about a stunningly violent and fascinating man.
