this week's netflix

Premonition a.k.a. Yogen: This creepy Japanese film is based on the anime classic Kyofu Shinbun ("Newspaper of Terror"), which gives you a general feel for the plot. A man sees an article in a newspaper of his daughter's death in a car accident minutes before it happens. He is then plagued by newspaper premonitions (a boogeyman newspaper appears out of nowhere) of other larger-scale deaths. Apparently, he is not alone in having this particular affliction, and video footage discovered of another victim results in some of the more disturbing, and typically Japanese horror-style, images. While I was watching this film, the neighbors were throwing a gigantic house party, so I was thankful for the subtitles.

Iris: Now, this is a horror movie. Based on biographies of English writer Iris Murdoch, the film alternates between Kate Winslet as iconoclastic young Iris and Judi Dench as the older Iris, dying a slow, painful death from Alzheimer's. Please, please let this not be my fate. It is a well-acted film, and it made me look forward to director Richard Eyre's adaptation of Notes on a Scandal (based on Zoe Heller's book published in the U.S. as What Was She Thinking?), also starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett.

Summer TV sucks, so I've turned to Netflix for my boob tube fix. (It wouldn't be fair if I didn't admit my growing penchant for three summer shows: The Cut, Rock Star: INXS, and The Inside, featuring crazy gore and Katie Finneran as the best wise-cracking dame the small screen has seen for some time. She even smokes.)

Dead Like Me, Pilot Episode: I liked this quirky show about a sullen teen who is killed by a toiletseat-meteor and becomes a grim reaper, but how do I really know if all the first disc gave me was the pilot? C'mon, people.

Carnivale, Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2: Slightly supernatural goings-on and old-time religion in 1930s California? Why didn't anyone tell me? This is like the fun, outlandish TV version of my dissertation. Awesome.

Six Feet Under, Season 1, Episodes 1-3: I can't believe it took me this long to get on the SFU bandwagon, but I'm perched on the hay with my feet swinging in the breeze. So far, so good. I even like Peter Krause, which I didn't think was possible after We Don't Live Here Anymore.
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