this week's netflix

This is actually two weeks' worth of Netflix. I was done in by a flu-like attack this weekend and easily could have gone through four movies, but I ran out. Netflix almost has a built-in discipline tool...unless, of course, you sign up for eight films at a time.

New Releases

Vanity Fair: This film was decent for what it was, another unremarkable period piece. It did nod slightly toward images of imperialism, but not far enough. I don't recall it getting good reviews, possibly because it was haunted by two imposing phantoms: Thackeray's original, much more complex novel Vanity Fair and Mira Nair's excellent previous film Hysterical Blindness.

We Don't Live Here Anymore: My God. This movie cured me of ever, ever wanting to be a married English professor. I've pretty much had it with the rash of films these days that chronicle the lives of whiny cheaters.

Flashes from the Past

The Rapture: I rented this film based on the strength of a scene I remembered seeing somewhere that never occurred in the actual film. I wasn't too disappointed though. It was worth it to see David Duchovny's bad-ass mullet.

Six Degrees of Separation: This film was much more comedic than I thought it would be. It was simultaneously a realistic portrayal of how experience becomes anecdote and an over-the-top Pygmalion fantasy. I'd like to have a cocktail with Stockard Channing.