Watching Netflix Instant

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

Some times I think this show is mean spirited, but I always forgive it because it is so funny. Speaking of mean spirited, if you click the picture it will take you to a clip from the psa that inspired it. 

-Aggie

Can you believe I had never seen this movie before? What a sad life I’ve led.

So sweet and realistic! I am amazed they were able to pull off the scene in the laundry room between Charlie Sheen and Kerri Green. There is an INTENSE moment where he puts the towel around her shoulders, yowzers, you feel that. I felt like I was sitting in the band room closet all over again. Girlhood nostalgia to the max!

Winona Ryder looks like an adorable little boy, Piven is full of roid rage and poor Corey Haim … what can be said about that little guy? Kerri Green looks a little like Emma Watson.

This movie is full of teenage feelings.

30 of 100 minutes

Michelle Williams is one of those actresses whose movies I will automatically try to watch regardless. You have to crack a few eggs to make a Wendy and Lucy.

Good gravy what I saw of this movie is terrible. Michelle looks great - almost TOO great. For the first 20 minutes of this movie I was wondering where this economically strapped, depressed, neglected wife/mother got her hair done and why everyone else looked like they belonged on Eastenders.

Then things get crazy. CRAZY SEXY. Ewan McGregor is back to doing what we loved him for in the 90s, awkward realistic fully nude movie sex. God bless. I thought “OK! Now this movie is going somewhere!” And just as I thought that and they climax, CUT TO the soccer stadium where her husband and son are being blown up by a suicide bomber. Oh wait, does this mean that I’m going to have to spend the rest of this movie watching Michelle Williams be a sad widow while listening to political rhetoric? No thanks.

Sidebar: This look (oh god, she’s so happy in that picture) was the inspiration behind my wedding hair. - Irene