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.

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

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 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. 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

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 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!   

I haven’t contributed to this blog in an unforgivably long time. Part of the reason for this is that I spent most of September traveling. One of the places I visited was Yellowstone National Park. It was a brief but memorable trip to Yellowstone’s back country, where I saw a grizzly bear and shared a camp site with rutting elk (that means mating). When elk are “in the rut” they make a sound akin to women screaming all night long. 

It was an amazing experience, and since getting home I have been obsessing over Yellowstone. Enter Netflix Instant Watch. This BBC special called “Yellowstone: The Battle For Life” is an awesome three part series that documents the wildlife through the seasons (including the screaming elk in “Autumn”). Each episode is a season, but they’ve skipped spring for some reason. Maybe Yellowstone doesn’t have a spring.  The animals who live in Yellowstone have bizarre and fascinating lives. I suggest you investigate. 

I watched this movie because my high school acting teacher David Schwartz is in it for three seconds. He plays the principal who has to have a sad and stern meeting with Sam. As far as I could tell this is a black comedy starring Richard Schiff as a do good attorney in a world gone mad. 

-Aggie

Because of my interest in both this movie and Food Boy, Netflix has given me a new row of suggestions, called “goofy comedies.” I like that these two films are in the same category. I also think that Christopher Guest may have directed Food Boy. 

-Aggie

Crunch: Candlelight Yoga

Sometimes I use Netflix instant watch to work out. Maybe “work out” isn’t exactly what I mean. Crunch: Candlelight Yoga is closer to a really good, long stretch. It’s my favorite! The aesthetic is very last season of Melrose Place, even the candles have a late 90’s Bed, Bath & Beyond feel to them, and the outfits are equally turn of the last century. Picture the yoga class that Phoebe from Friends would be in. Fun, right? It’s lead by Sara Ivanhoe, who’s actually kind of badass. She has a masters in yoga philosophy and produced her own series called “Yoga on the Edge” in which she improvises yoga programs in single takes, and lets you see her mistakes. She has the most soothing voice I have ever heard and she says things like, “you work hard the rest of your life, now is your time to relax.” Nice. Usually when I do Crunch: Candlelight Yoga I haven’t been working hard, I’ve been watching the complete second season of The Hills on Netflix, and I need something to justify my day. Crunch: Candlelight Yoga never disappoints. 

-Aggie

I watched this movie today with Irene. It was my third time seeing it on Netflix instant watch. It is possibly the most disgusting movie ever made and I am kind of obsessed with it. -Aggie

For how sick and weird it is this movie has a surprising pedigree if you’re into kid shows. The main boy, the one with the ‘food gift’, was in High School Musical and the female lead was on the Suite Life with Zach and Cody. Have all those Disney kids been trained to direct their performances to the back row? Guys! You’re being filmed. Chill. You’re giving yourself wrinkles. This movie is notable for it’s set direction, styling and use of cold cuts. - Irene

As a rule I don’t like science fiction, but as a rule I love Jake Gyllenhaal, especially as a likable yet disturbed high school student in the late eighties. I choose to consider this movie to be an arty character study about a teenage boy going crazy, even if writer/director Richard Kelly thinks it is about a bunch of other weird bull shit. 

-Aggie