this week's netflix

Meantime: I was really looking forward to this TV movie from director Mike Leigh that has the distinction of featuring the first screen performances of Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. But as it turned out, this was the week I was visited by the Netflix gremlins. I put the DVD in, and the only audio that worked was the foley track (if that's what it's called). I could hear a woman scratch her arm, but I couldn't hear a single spoken word. I contemplated watching the film that way, out of sheer perversity and the fact it looked good, but in the end I gave up. It's possible that switching from Dolby to DHS might have solved the problem, but I didn't figure that out until it was too late.

Nowhere Man: Now here's where the gremlins got nasty. For some totally unknown reason, not only did I put this film in my Netflix queue, but I actually had it saved before its release. The description was so vague that everytime I read it, I still had no idea what it was about. Something about humor that stings like a BB. I figured there must have been some reason to watch it if I saved it, right? Wrong. This is the kind of film that undergrads make and force their friends to watch in return for free Jaeger. I'm not even going to talk about it, but I will share this quote from a fan (read: the filmmakers) on IMDB: "This no budget hand grenade rips apart the mold of gutless, brainless and disingenuously politically correct products that have become DE rigger in film-making today."

Marathon Man: I had never seen this film before and it rocked! Unlike the action blockbusters of today that leave your mind the minute you walk out of the theater, scenes from the movie have stayed with me all week: Laurence Olivier pushing his dental pick into Dustin Hoffman's cavity (No! It's not safe!), the Jews chasing the Weisse Engel through the diamond district, Dustin Hoffman realizing William Devane has driven him back to the torture site, the diamonds falling through the grates and then Olivier eating one, Dustin Hoffman jumping the ramp of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the amazing old fogie car chase through the Upper East Side. If you're like me and have gone this long without seeing this film, it's your lucky day.

Free Radicals a.k.a. Böse Zellen: Apparently, people in Austria are just as lonely and messed up as everyone everywhere else. Lives of the troubled intersect and while the film is pretty enjoyable, there is little to no resolution. The acting is decent, the storylines are engaging enough, and now that I think about it, there was a lot of sex.

Dead Like Me (S1, E2-6), The Wire (S1, E4-5), and Carnivale (S1, E3-4) were also in the mix. I am so enjoying Carnivale, even if (or more likely, because) it's just an extension of what I think about all day. I'd try to get a job writing for the series if it wasn't, um, cancelled. So's The Inside. Do I have bad taste or do the networks?
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