Watching Netflix Instant

The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers. I have been on a...

vickivictoria — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:49:00 -0400

The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers.

I have been on a scary movie kick this whole month, it’s October—so I’d be crazy if I wasn’t cooped up in my room watching spooky movies by myself. I love a good scare.

I am really excited that two of Ti West’s best movies are on Netflix: The House of the Devil, and The Innkeepers. I don’t know about you guys but I am really excited about Ti West and his career— he’s only 32. I really like his style—which is old fashioned, slow burning, well executed spooky horror. He’s great with “the set up” in both The House of the Devil(2009) and The Innkeepers(2011). He looses me a little bit in during the climax of the House of the Devil, but I think he makes up for that a bit with Innkeepers. Horror movies are incredibly difficult to conclude, they get silly as soon as the answer of what’s been spooking you is revealed and the tension starts to recede. As soon as you can guess what will happen next, it’s not a scary movie anymore. But, Ti West does a pretty above average job with Innkeepers, I was with him till the end. Part of the reason is his female leads are really cool. In both movies the lady lead is smart, funny, inquisitive, and normal seeming—she’s someone you might know not some super unrealistic horror movie babe. He’s great with aesthetics in that way—the leads are not jocky teen types. I like that he seems to put a lot of effort into his characters being full people, I think that’s part of the reason I like his set-ups so much. I am really excited to see what he does next.

If you’re in for a spook, I would definitely recommend watching both of these (net) flicks.

Another off-Netflix post. This one is embedded right here for...

irenechicago — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:30:19 -0400

Another off-Netflix post. This one is embedded right here for your viewing pleasure.

irenechicago:

If you’ve ever wondered what RuPaul was doing when he was 27 back in 1987, check out this 19 minute piece of weird video art - a movie called RuPaul is: Starbooty.

This is the full length but it was originally done in 3 parts. They are also available on youtube but the quality is not as good and the quality of this video is not great. The premise is that she is an ex-model secret agent who has to stop two kidnappers who are holding the president’s son captive! “I was an ex-model and now I’m a top spy and I’ll work those little twins till they die! For America!”

As an experimental film it’s campy and trashy in the best way. We see her running around in the street over which an improvised score provided by RuPaul plays “I am star booty. Starbooty. Star star star booty. etc” and then drifts into narration and then dialogue.

RuPaul is so polished and controlled its interesting to watch her be a little gangly and raw in this video although there are moments of greatness, like the an INCREDIBLE monologue she gives about the dangers of drugs. I think it gives some perspective to Drag Race and made me imagine how he would have competed in the competition at 27. Side thought: Possible Looper spinoff…

Twenty years later RuPaul made another installment in the Starbooty franchise and when no one wanted to distribute it he released it himself. Because she is the baddest!

I’m a little shocked that this only has 96 views.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) Slick 70s heist movie...

irenechicago — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:56:24 -0400

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

Slick 70s heist movie with a fantastic soundtrack.

The premise is that four similarly dressed gentlemen who refer to each other by colors (Mr. Blue etc, sound familiar?) take over a subway train car. They demand one million dollars in an hour and will kill a civilian for each minute the city is late on payment. Walter Matthau is an MTA cop who has to piece it all together and bring these crooks DOWN! Hector Elizondo and Robert Shaw (from Jaws. god he’s amazing) play two of the criminals and they tear it up.

When I wrote ‘slick’ earlier I meant that everyone in this movie has style and attitude. This is dirty 70s New York City full of pimps and drug dealers. It’s a town where children laugh when bad guys brandish guns and one old lady is so nonplussed she sleeps through the whole thing. Fabulous.

Perfect for late nights, rainy days and when you’re feeling under the weather.

I will not give the remake the time of day.

This is a Hulu movie, not a netflix, but I feel like we can...

irenechicago — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 01:52:17 -0400

This is a Hulu movie, not a netflix, but I feel like we can start opening this up to other streaming platforms, yeah?

irenechicago:

Watched this documentary on Hulu yesterday. The subject is Marian Anderson, the lead singer of InSaints, who became notorious in 1993 for incorporating her dominatrix work into her live performances. I found this especially interesting in contrast to Karen Finley, who was censored for using her body to communicate the plight of powerless women. Marian Anderson lived both sides of that and I found myself conflicted by feeling inspired and overwhelmed by her tragedy.

Obsessively googling her after watching this documentary, I found Sadobabies, a 30 minute documentary short by a folklorist named Nancy Kalow. It features a group of San Francisco street kids in the mid-80s who live in an abandoned high school. Marian Anderson is one of those kids and you can watch here.

Sidenote: very excited about discovering folkstreams.net

And there is a follow up to Sadobabies called Losers Club that catches up with some of the kids five years later. Watch it here.

So all weekend I’ve been thinking about these kids who don’t have anywhere to go and still find it in themselves pursue their dreams and express themselves and I want to do something.

The Man Who Fell To Earth(1976): This movie mad me saaaaad. It...

vickivictoria — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:39:42 -0400

The Man Who Fell To Earth(1976):

This movie mad me saaaaad. It follows a (kind of) similar story line as Bowie’s 1972 concept album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, so it’s territory he’s familiar with. In this movie, David Bowie is an alien who fell to earth, a space oddity on a quest to replenish the water supply of his dying planet and save his alien family. Along the way he patents tons of alien ideas, he makes a lot of money, he gets sidetracked and depressed by our typical earthly woes: sex, alcohol, and church.You hope he’ll make it home one day… but will he? Watch to find out.

Also, what’s with the obsession with David Bowie’s nipples in this movie?

Bonus feature: Rip Torn’s penis.

The Game-David Fincher’s 1997 psychological thriller about...

vickivictoria — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:28:42 -0400

The Game-
David Fincher’s 1997 psychological thriller about a super duper rich asshole —pretty much Michael Douglass reprising Gordon Gekko, his Oscar winning role from 1987’s Wall Street— who gets stuck in a real life game where his life is always at risk but I never really feel bad for him because he is so rich. It seems like the kind of movie that should have a moral to it, but it really doesn’t. I’d say this movie is definitely worth a gander.

-Vicki

Dragonslayer- No, this is not a fantasy movie about a handsome...

vickivictoria — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 13:40:16 -0400

Dragonslayer-
No, this is not a fantasy movie about a handsome hero who slays monsters to save a beautiful lady. Quite the opposite. It’s a documentary by Tristan Patterson about a California skate-rat, Josh “Skreech” Sandoval. Skreech has no money and no home and people take care of him because he is an alright skater but he has no real ambition. He is what you would call “drug addled”. He skates the empty pools of foreclosed homes, sad and lost in an America ripe with depression. He has a pretty 18 year old girlfriend who smokes weed and doesn’t talk much, everyone wants to know, “What is she doing with him?”. Perhaps it’s just a phase for her.

-Vicki

Play Misty for Me:Women are SO crazy, right? Clint Eastwood has...

vickivictoria — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 13:56:00 -0400

Play Misty for Me:
Women are SO crazy, right? Clint Eastwood has bacne.

-Vicki

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life- Not a documentary! This is basically...

vickivictoria — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:22:00 -0400

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life-

Not a documentary! This is basically a French musical film about Serge’s life (with actors singing Gainsbourg songs). The magical/fantasy/very silly aspect of the film features a huge puppet called “his mug” (because he’s ugly but really it represents his sexy, cool ego). Best part is Gainsbourg cuddling a dog in the nude. Worst part is that the actress playing Bardot did NOT have a gap in her teeth. Lots of tobacco use.

-Vicki

The Lady Vanishes: 1930s Alfred Hitchcock. Difficult to...

vickivictoria — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:20:00 -0400

The Lady Vanishes:

1930s Alfred Hitchcock. Difficult to understand all of the old-timey accents at first. Unsure who the protagonist is until 45 minutes in. Unsure if it was a comedy. Some boring parts (probably just a generational thing). The movie got enjoyable once the lady FINALLY vanished (too far into the movie). The last shot of the movie is a hilarious one.

-Vicki

Half Nelson Who knew smoking crack was so sexy? Just kidding....

vickivictoria — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 21:11:47 -0400

Half Nelson

Who knew smoking crack was so sexy? Just kidding. Um, hottie Ryan Gosling is a cocaine addicted teacher at an inner city middle school. He is not a heroic figure who changes these kids’ lives, we are not talking about Keanu Reeves in Hard Ball. This guy in Half Nelson is totally fucked up. A lovely Broken Social Scene soundtrack over the whole thing, which kept me totally interested since I listened to them nonstop in high school.

-Vicki

OH MY GOD. Parker Posey is a NYC party girl (24 and...

vickivictoria — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:33:00 -0400

OH MY GOD. Parker Posey is a NYC party girl (24 and unemployed— just like me!) who has to get a job in a stinky old library. She has a crush on a hot Lebanese falafel street vendor. She dances. She has endless incredible outfits. She learns the Dewey Decimal System. Girls and gays will love this movie.

-Vicki

Kind of new to Netflix Instant is Fishing with John, a TV show...

vickivictoria — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 14:46:00 -0400

Kind of new to Netflix Instant is Fishing with John, a TV show that aired briefly in the early 1990’s on IFC and Bravo. Remember John Lurie, the musician/actor? I remember him most from the too cool for school Jim Jarmusch movie Stranger than Paradise. He was also interviewed in that too cool for school documentary Blank City (also on Instant Netflix) about a time in New York’s history (late 70s-early 80s) that was, simply put, too cool for school.

In this delightful TV series John takes his too cool for school guests out on fishing adventures. Guests include: Jim Jarmusch, Tom Waits, Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon (1980s too cool for school heartthrob), and Dennis Hopper. The show is classically narrated like an informative nature documentary with occasional remarks that fall on the side of “both men have boners”. The cinematography feels “late night” or “public access” or “too cool for school”. Nothing is left out. Tom Waits gets sea sick in Jamaica, so John and Tom take a gambling and whiskey break, and finally after all that he agrees to try fishing again at which point he puts a fish in his underwear. After the filming of that episode, Waits didn’t talk to John for two whole years. Not a single person in this series has any idea how to fish.

Ultimately, if you like any of the guys mentioned in this review, or, like me, you admire a time when people were just naturally too cool for school, then you will enjoy this funny show.

-Vicki

Not only did I not realize that Eames was actually two people-a...

aggiehewitt — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:24:30 -0400

Not only did I not realize that Eames was actually two people-a vivacious husband and wife design team- I also didn’t realize it was spelled E-A-M-E-S. I always figured Eames was some weird French expatriate who’s name was spelled, like, Hemerez or something. I thought this because I am not the type of person for whom the phrase “very important chair“ rolls off the tongue freely, without irony. Also because I have no understanding of how the French language works. I have been vaguely familiar with Eames for a while because I am the only person in my life who feels this way. Literally. Even my seventeen-year-old brother gets giddy at the mention of an estate sale and has spent his high school career trying to amass a rug collection. It’s not that I don’t care, or that I dream of being surrounded in trash. I don’t want to live in a boring white walled apartment with no art sitting in chairs from Wal-mart. It’s just that when I move past the phase of casually admiring a piece decorative art to analyzing it, I get the urge to jump off a low hipped roof. The fact is that these are luxury items, designed for and by a certain class of people, like it or not, and I just can’t get myself to worship furniture. Even if it’s extraordinary. Even if I want it. And absolutely no one agrees with me, and that’s okay.

But anyway, Charles and Ray Eames were basically the coolest people who ever lived. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want to have relationship these two had at the beginning of their marriage. They started working together and falling in love at the same time, equal partners in love and work.

But of course the world kind of treated Ray like shit, because the bad ‘50’s people couldn’t comprehend a creative partnership like theirs. There is a clip in this movie that will make your skin crawl, in which Charles and Ray are being interviewed about their business, and she has to stand BEHIND her husband as the interviewer tries to grapple with the idea of a man and a woman sharing work. You can see the wheels turning in the (female) interviewers head before she comes to the conclusion that Ray is Charles’ helper, she doesn’t do any designing but she’s still very important. Here is one of the most important designers of the 20th century being tarted up and presented as one of Santa’s elves. It’s so fucking gross.

I don’t know if I’m going to flag this one as a favorite, that title is reserved for the true masterpieces: Scream 2, Scream 3, etc., but I do recommend it. It’s good, it’s pretty to look at, and it’s inspiring. It’s the Oprah.com of documentaries. Watch it!

Hey everybody! So we are trying something a little different...

irenechicago — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:55:00 -0400

Hey everybody!

So we are trying something a little different with Vicki, our new contributor. We both watched this documentary and gchatted about it. Here’s the transcript.

Vicki: The Woodmans.

Irene: OK Let’s talk

Vicki: …this documentary made me consider yet again how at times the job of a documentary filmmaker is very morally ambiguous. In this case, having parents relive the pain and guilt associated with the suicide of their young daughter Francesca. But, also, oddly the (hinted at) jealousy of Francesa for being the most successful artist in the family.

Irene: right! Also it makes you wonder where you draw the line between being an artist and being a parent.

Vicki: Oh my god, Irene. It made me uneasy.

Irene: me too

Vicki: They seemed to question the way they raised the children—emphasizing that there was nothing more important in life than art!

Irene: She was their creation. I went back and forth with how I felt about her parents

Vicki: SPOILERS: But, then! After her suicide her father begins taking photographs in the same vein as hers. That was very eerie to me.

Irene: to me as well. I tried to find something cathartic in it for him but it seemed like he was in suspended animation trying to understand her or see things the way she did.

Vicki: Yes. My opinion of them changed and changed. And I wondered if that was because of the filmmakers manipulation of their interviews or just them.

She was their creation!

Irene: Well I don’t know how much I thought the filmmakers were manipulating my response to them more than anyone who makes something is showing you what they want you to see. It seemed like a fair and multifaceted portrait of them - who knows really.

Vicki: Yeah. I read that they did not attend the movie premier, which I can understand not wanting to watch themselves explain their daughter’s art and suicide in front of an audience.

Irene: I was glad they talked about her suicide and I was glad the father said things like “I made it to 72, that’s something I did that Francesca didn’t” (paraphrasing obviously) - it was bitter and sad and confident all at the same time.

No, I wouldn’t want to go to that premiere either.

Vicki: yes, you’re right. And in terms of Francesca’s photographs, I really enjoyed them

Irene: me too! they are incredible!! But if she were your daughter wouldn’t you be like “hey, are you ok?”

Vicki: Yeah I don’t know, they are beautiful and fascinating but here’s a 15 year old girl taking nude photos of herself, distorting her face or hiding in the wallpaper. I think her parents chose not to see them as autobiographical. And, I think her friends and family thought she was fine as long as she was photographing. I think it was when she didn’t make it as a fashion photographer in NYC, she was like, “Well what the fuck do I do now?”

Irene: well, remember those pictures she took when she was a young teen of the clothes pins on herself?

Vicki: yes. crazy

Irene: and how her friend said she was scared for her when she saw them? I mean, that’s an intense thing to do.

Vicki: yes! you’re right!

Irene: and this isn’t a facebook/youtube culture where people are constantly discovering themselves by broadcasting. The mom said she worried her daughter had narcissistic tendencies, remember?

Vicki: yes

Irene: It’s just strange and it’s so beautiful but it also seems neglectful on the part of her parents. Is that wrong that I think that?

Vicki: No, I think parents who didn’t look for the art in everything would question her motives. in that way, they are very optimistic. and at times I found myself jealous of her freedom to express herself as a teenager. I think most teenagers have a really hard time, and she didn’t hold anything back

Her parents are optimistic or in denial.

Irene: maybe a little of both.

But didn’t you love those people as parents? and her?

Vicki: Oh totally. I think they did the best they knew how and i think if things had gone differently, it would be without a doubt, “what a cool way to raise your child, to teach them there is no shame in expressing yourself through art.”

Irene: If Francesca didn’t cast such a shadow you could say that about Christopher. It could still be a great documentary about this family of successful artists. Nice people.

Vicki: yes, real nice people

Irene: but Francesca adds this whole other element and exposes all this ugliness

Vicki: yeah. the parents never fought, everyone was happy, she got along with her brother. but there was this whole thing about her never finishing a school year, always moving around and about. maybe always feeling like a stranger, which perhaps allowed her to be so comfortable showing herself as an artist with pride, literally naked

someone in the documentary said she had a rockstar quality and i was all like, “yup”

Irene: totally. Vicki! I have to go. I’m sorry

Vicki: bye shyreese

Irene: byebyeybye

Ladies and gentlemen, we here are very excited to announce the...

irenechicago — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:10:00 -0400

Ladies and gentlemen, we here are very excited to announce the acquisition of a new contributor!

This is Vicki. She’s funny smarty pants with lots to say. An exhaustive email she wrote to us started like this:

Dear Irene and Aggie,

I am writing to you because I have watched SO MUCH NETFLIX INSTANT since my retirement (unemployment) began at the beginning of March. Since I feel like I am in the entertainment industry (I researched for a historical reality show and my cat is famous) I feel that the endless hours I have spent with Netflix is justified. I also figure that I am further justified in my slothiness if I write to you guys about it (because of your blog, Watching Netflix Instant, or Watching Instant Netflix, or W.I.N.)

Love,

Vicki

The rest of her letter had about 30 different reviews for movies so look forward to those.

Vicki Marquette grew up in Albuquerque and Las Vegas before attending Vassar College where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Film. She was the researcher on five episodes of NBC’s historical documentary series “Who Do You Think You Are?”, which has since been cancelled. Now semi-retired (unemployed), she spends her time hanging out with funny people, tweeting, watching instant netflix, painting, and looking for jobs. Vicki lives in L.A.

I just did a staged reading of this like two hours ago, which...

aggiehewitt — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 03:51:06 -0400

I just did a staged reading of this like two hours ago, which means I had to watch it anyway so I thought I’d jab two aortas with one pen and write about it here. I am pissed that I had to watch it, not because I hate Girl, Interrupted, but because the only thing I’ve used Netflix for in the last month is to watch Breaking Bad over and over again, to the point that I’m too embarrassed to really talk about it and just kind of want to fold it into my post about Girl, Interrupted in the hopes that no one actually reads this stuff. I am literally watching Breaking Bad right now, as I write this. I hate anything that takes me away from it.

I am kind of a lesbian for Angelina Jolie in this movie.

If you could list the best movies you've seen while watching Instant watch, what would they be? I seem to click a lot of flops but I love it when I watch a good one!

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:50:11 -0400

Thanks for the message! We put a new tag on our posts for favorites and you can find them all by clicking #favorites on the right had side of the page.

Someone asked for classics as well - we added that tag too and will have more classic reviews to come!

Thanks for reading!
Xoxoxo

Thief dir: Michael Mann 1981 OK!!! OK. Alright. Oh god this...

irenechicago — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 09:33:00 -0400

Thief dir: Michael Mann 1981

OK!!! OK. Alright. Oh god this movie has my number so hard. It’s summertime you guys and if you’re in the US you know that we are in the middle of a heat wave that keeps threatening to turn into massive thunderstorms. Shit is hot and humid and the only reasonable thing to do is grab some popsicles, open the windows, point a fan at yourself and watch a movie.

James Caan is a thief (hence the title) who wants to complete one final job that will allow him to retire to the suburbs like a “normal” person. All he needs is a girl to agree (Tuesday Weld) a house in the burbs, a child and to get his father figure (Willie Nelson) out of prison.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT?! James Belushi? check. Dennis Farina playing a henchman? check. Crazy synth soundtrack by Tangerine Dream? check. Wet streets, nighttime, James Caan strutting around in tight jeans, cowboy boots and a leather jacket paired with a gold chain and no shirt? CHECK! A cameo by the Green Mill cocktail lounge in Chicago? Oh yes, check.

I really love Michael Mann. After spending years working on television this was his first feature and he came out swinging. The style and attitude of this movie is strong as hell.

It’s got bad ass and cool down pat and I was consistently surprised by the dialogue, which is incredible. There’s a beautiful scene in a coffee shop between James Caan and Tuesday Weld where he’s trying to convince her to be his suburban wifey. “often cited as the film’s high point, Caan has long considered the scene his favorite of his career” (wikipedia).

Every search I’ve made for this movie also brings up Drive (2011) and people have referenced it as though it’s a remake or homage and although there are some tonal similarities and referential shots they are not terribly similar. You will not go wrong having a double feature night with these two movies.

Katie Jarvis was discovered on a train platform having a fight...

irenechicago — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 10:03:06 -0400

Katie Jarvis was discovered on a train platform having a fight with her boyfriend. As Fassbender tells it on the podcast for the Museum of the Moving Image, when the casting director approached her she told her to ‘fuck off’.

Which is perfect.

She plays Mia, the 15 year old animal-girl spending her days pacing back in forth in an urban cage (drink every time she shares a frame with bars, gate, any kind of barrier) until her mean, slutty mother brings home a kind and hot boyfriend.

It’s just beautiful.

The rest of this is obnoxious and vaguely spoiler-y.

AND (pardon me) Andrea Arnold provides a great fucking new perspective to the sexist and gross fantasies that are so celebrated in literature, film and pornography. The lolita, step daughter, daughter’s friend, teenage next door neighbor etc. You know that classic story of the broken, older man who has maybe lost himself but is basically good maybe finding redemption in the arms (pussy) of a younger woman? For the male character to be sympathetic the girl needs to not have much of an internal life of her own and exists solely to tempt him/teach him something about himself. He just can’t help it! Isn’t that exhausting and boring? Why not just make everyone a human being? A complicated, sometimes awful, sometimes wonderful human being?

It made me want to hate watch American Beauty. Side thought: If she hadn’t been a virgin he would have boned her. Because you can’t taint something that’s already dirty. How is his restraint seen as heroic? God that movie is so condescending.

The main point of conversation is definitely the Mia/Connor plot line but I also adored the relationship she had with her younger sister. These are people with deep emotions for each other who do not have a language beyond rage and hate to express it.

Blah blah blah - I have feelings, just watch it! It’s good!