Feeling that need for TV, I’ve decided to go for a free two-weeks Netflix trial. My queue:
- The Straight Story
- Whale Rider
- Nashville
- The Point
- Dr. Strangelove
- Shane
- Network
- Fargo
- Risky Business
- Big Night
I don’t see many movies so, over the past few years I’ve built up a list of a hundred or so that I ought to watch. I figured I’d pick ten of the ones that I’d be least likely to pick up in a video store, knowing full well that there’d be something brighter and shinier distracting me.
This is my NetFlix queue. Ten points to anyone who can find the unifying theme.
1. The Birds
2. Vertigo
3. Play it Again, Sam
4. The Maltese Falcon
5. Escape from Alcatraz
6. Birdman of Alcatraz
7. The Lady from Shanghai
8. Dirty Harry
The Straight Story is a GREAT movie!
I’m glad to hear it. :) I remember, in the 90s, hearing NPR interview the tractor-driver in question. I thought it was one of the coolest things I’d ever heard, and anticipated many a follow-up interview. Yet there was nothing. When I heard about the movie a couple of years ago, I knew I had to see it. Knowing that it’s also a good movie makes it doubleplusgood that I’ll be getting that one first. :)
I just watched The Straight Story again a few months ago. A great supporting performance from Sissy Spacek. And, if you like Richard Farnsworth (who plays the lead), I recommend adding The Grey Fox to your list.
By the way, if you haven’t seen Tender Mercies (or, even if you have seen it), add that to your list. The best work I’ve ever seen from Robert Duvall in a moving Horton Foote screenplay.
Yeah, well my grocery list consists of:
milk
cereal
provolone
orange joice
1 lb. ground beef
paper towels
laundry detergent
So, uh, why is this sort of thing supposed to be interesting?
Because the entertainment industry is widely discussed and popularly enjoyed. Knowledge of movies, in particular, is an essential form of social currency. There are thousands of blogs and dozens of weekly and monthly journals dedicated to the topic.
Paper towels, to the best of my understanding, lack such widespread popularity.
So that’s why there’s more attendance at the Virginia Film Festival than at the Virginia Grocery Festival. (This year’s theme: “Frozen Foods and Global Warming”)
The Straight Story is very, very good, but you’ll probably like the Whale Rider even more. Excellent film that my wife and I both enjoyed.
And you’ve never seen Fargo???
And you’ve never seen Fargo???
You’ be shocked by the films that I haven’t seen. Taxi Driver, Godfather II, Scarface, L.A. Confidential, Reservoir Dogs, 2001, Good Will Hunting, Psycho, Manchurian Candidate…the list goes on and on. I’m a film ignoramus.
Psycho!? Lordy, I’m a failure as a mother.
Waldo, we just signed up for Netflix, too. So far, we’ve seen:
La Cage Aux Folles
Wasabi (Jean Reno)
Wings of Desire / Der Himmel über Berlin
Next up are:
The Chorus
Black Robe
Faraway, So Close!
La Cage Aux Folles II
Trois Hommes et un Couffin
Diva
The Fast Runner
Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast
Goodies
Kids in the Hall
SCTV
Kill Bill I and II – must see!
I [heart] netflix. No more crap with having to drive somewhere. For the casual watcher, who has a flexible schedule, it’s great.
And Shaula, way to go with the Wim Wenders stuff. Wings of Desire (and thoat whole series) are great.
John, I was living in Europe (France, specifically) when Wings of Desire was released. I was floored by it then, and so I was excited to share it with my husband, now. I’m looking forward to seeing Faraway, So Close!, partly for the opportunity to see Otto Sander on a longer leash than he had in Wings of Desire.
The bottom of our queue is now a veritable Wim Wenders/Bruno Ganz/Otto Sander festival. :)
When we decided to sign up for Netflix, part of how we justified it (the money but also the time to watch the movies), was to use the service to watch movies that we just can’t get our hands on here; plus, for foreign language study (brushing up my French and Japanese, mostly). We were delighted to find Video Fan when we first moved to Richmond, and are very happy to support them as a great locally-owned independent business, but if they *don’t* carry something we want, it goes into the queue.
Plus, I really enjoy watching an artist’s body of work in sequence–to watch their development, and to get a feel for their style. So, when we find that any part of a movie “click” for my husband and I, we queue up more films by the same director, and/or screenwriter, and/or actor. Our queue seems to get longer much faster than it gets shorter! But it is a great way to really hoover up an education out of the viewing time, too.
(I know. We are total nerds.)
speaking as a film dork with hopefully at least a tiny amount of credibility,
i can highly recommend 2001, Dr. Strangelove, Network, Big Night, Psycho and L.A. Confidential.
i felt The Straight Story, Whale Rider, Fargo, Risky Business, Taxi Driver, Godfather II, Reservoir Dogs, and The Manchurian Candidate were flawed but still quite enjoyable and worthwhile.
and i’m not at all ashamed to admit that i haven’t ever gotten around to seeing Nashville, Shane, or Scarface. “Good Will Hunting” is sort of overwraught and crummy, in retrospect.
> Janis Jaquith Says:
> Ten points to anyone who can find the unifying theme.
San Francisco (+10)
…and for the record i thought the major problem with “Whale Rider” (SPOILER ALERT) was that the movie sets up this central dramatic situation where the girl isn’t respected by her father (or father-figure, i can’t recall which) and the central conflict of the film has to do with how she’s independent and strong-willed and has self-respect but her patriarchal culture won’t recognize this, and the dramatic tension arises from whether or not her father(-figure) will recognize this… eventually he does, but only because of an explicitly religious deus-ex-machina which implies rather disingeniously that she’s deserving of her father’s respect only because she magically turns out to be a Christ-type figure in this obscure (from my perspective) indiginous New Zealand religion.
it’s like the movie ultimately agrees with the Father… this conclusion means that if she wasn’t this magically chosen person, then her father never would have begun to respect her… the films ultimate thesis ends up meaning that being independent and stong-willed and smart and resourceful and self-respecting isn’t good enough and that a girl can only ultimately earn her father’s respect through being lucky enough to be magically turn out to be a religious figure with special powers. the sexist and rigidly religious patriarchal society (as represented by her father) doesn’t ever have to admit fault or even change his/it’s views, she’s ultimately accepted only because of what’s basically a loophole.
plus this ending sort of also asks you to actually believe in their religion for this whole conclusion to even work dramatically, which i’m assuming like 99% of the audience probably doesn’t.