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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Two Movies

The Man Who Wasn't There
The Maid

Boned Jello

I'm hot and cold on watching movies; right now I'm hot. Watched The Man Who Wasn't There yesterday, a film I'd never heard of!  A Coen brother's film, no less. With Billy Bob and Frances McDormand!  Sheesh.  I can see how some will find it too slow paced,  but I was spell- bound. Reminded me of  Body Heat in many ways, besides being in B&W.

The Maid is set (I think) in Argentina -  Spanish language and subtitled anyway.  "Comedic drama" is not the first description that comes to mind; not even "dark comedy,"though that'll  do.  The maid made me think of  what Beverly Sutphin ( Serial Mom) may have been like, before she really lost control.  Some overwrought Nimrod, of the type who still likes Obama's compassion no doubt, complained about animal cruelty; there is none. Also noteworthy, just about every adult is shown full frontal without having caused in me so much as a twitch (not that I ever would have been moved by dangles).  All in all, I give it the 3.7 that NetFlix predicted for Man Who Wasn't There, with the Coen's getting the  4.0.  I continue to be impressed over how accurately NetFlix is in suggesting what I'll like.  Kind of scary, actually.  Makes me think of a rat cage over my head.

Both movies are Instant Watch, which I did using ROKU, a device I still think is the best Woot thing I ever purchased.  ROKU is also adding HULU, so there's that; and the price looks like it's now in the $50 range.  Tell us what you think.


7 comments:

  1. I loved "The Man Who Wasn't There." The reason it isn't better known is that it came out in the fall of 2001 right after 9/11 and the anthrax scare.

    A lot of good movies (Zoolander, for example) and books got washed out, that is, their marketing plans fell apart because the public's attention was elsewhere. FYI: James Gandolfini and a young Scarlet Johanson (sp?) are also in it.

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  2. Jon Polito too. What a cast Gandolfini was surprisingly good (I tuned him out after he jumped on the anti-Bush, pro Obama bandwagon); Scarlett - totally unexpected element there!)

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  3. Oh I'll definitely watch the Coen movie, didn't even know it existed. I plopped The Maid into the queue, but it does seem every time I want to read a movie, I pull out my Kindle.

    Seeing Netflix on the Samsung blu-ray from 2 years ago, streams it in well. Also gets pandora, got two excellent channels set up there. Iggy Pop playing now (that guy is a whole lot smarter than you think).

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  4. I just subscribed to Netflix and my first film was La ley de Herodes an excellent Mexican black comedy that tears the Mexican PRI a new one; highly recommended. And we just finished The Story of Qiu Ju a Chinese film.

    I like Netflix because of its foreign film selection.

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  5. I can't think of a movie with Billy Bob Thornton in it that wasn't, at least, thought provoking if not down-right good.

    And if I may suggest one it would be "U Turn". It came out in 1997.
    BBT isn't the main star but his character is well done. And if you have a twisted sense of humor and a dislike of Sean Penn you might injure yourself from laughing and wincing at the same time.

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  6. Bad ... I'm with you re foreign film. I put those two on my list. Thanks.

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  7. Speaking of barbers, The Barber, was a good movie with Malcolm McDowell. Not a foreign film.

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