Those of you following me across the interwebs from Facebook know that from time to time, as a public service, I share a list of movie and TV titles on Netflix which catch my fancy. On Facebook, I only list titles because, I don't know, I fence myself in there sometimes because of my perception of its bandwidth - visual, intellectual or otherwise. Here in Casa de Blog, I feel like I have land, lots of land under starry skies above, so down goes the fence, and up go some titles of Netflix Instant programs which have caught my fancy - and some thoughts about why.
Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap - Ice-T is in conversation with the most luminous lights still shining in the rap firmament, starting in the waaaaaaay back with folks like Kool Herc and going up to a super-intense Kanye West. I don't pretend to know a ton about rap - probably more than most 1979 graduates of Cardinal O'Hara High School in Springfield PA, but still. What I do know about is passion and intelligence and love of the spoken word, and this movie has it in abundance. I could have easily watched it for about another five hours (oh that reminds me, my 15-hour DVD of Mark Cousins' "The Story of Film" is coming next week. Joy!). Bonus feature: if anyone would like a copy of my brother Jerry's Top Ten Rap songs of all time, pre-1990, let me know and I will email it to you. One of my favorite pieces of music writing ever, sibling-produced or otherwise.
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| Snoop is indeed in the movie, but I just added this picture because I love how his pigtail flies out in it |
American Horror Story - I have watched a lot of TV in my day - gigahours. But I have never ever ever seen anything like the first episode of the first season of "American Horror Story". Ne-vah. I watched four episodes in a row on Thanksgiving before I met my peeps for dinner (for which I gave thanks that my Mommie Dearest does not resemble Jessica Lange in this show), and then watched the rest of the first season that weekend. Pitch black dark and sometimes completely over the top - and I say that as someone whose favorite movie of 2009 featured Willem Dafoe getting his pee pee whacked on camera by a hammer wielded by Charlotte Gainsbourg (Lars von Trier's "Antichrist", BTW, for those who are curious, also on Netflix). By the end of absorbing that first episode of "American Horror Story", I thought I had gone through a marathon - what I just saw had to be at least four hours long, when of course I knew it must have only been a two hour movie pilot...and then it turns out it was only 51 minutes long. A crazy long slow-mo skid of a show - and a reliable source tells me Season 2 is even more intense. PS - I regard a man who has a blog called Kindertrauma to be a reliable source on matters like this.
Identity - I remember I had to watch this movie twice in a row, back to back, when I first saw it on video because I totally didn't get how what happened did happen - but it was completely intriguing enough that I wanted to find out, and tout suite! And now, 8 years later, I don't remember any of the twists of this film - really, tabula rasa - but I know the visceral feeling of WTF? when I saw this title listed is still strong enough to make me go back for a third viewing (I remember Amanda Peet was really good, and John Cusack is in it, and I swear that's it), Being 51 is turning out to be a great excuse for going back and seeing movies I have enjoyed and can't remember!
And reverting back to my Facebook habits, here are some titles I do remember and would suggest for your viewing pleasure, all featuring not-so-svelte actors to whom I am attracted: Sexy Beast. Take This Waltz. Bernie. Continental Divide. Young Adult (particularly for the magic that is Patton Oswalt). Tell me what you think if you see any of these Netflix standouts in my queue.
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