Ryan McNeil
That’s better!
After a week spent watching a lower amount of titles, and most of them being stuff I’ve seen before, I managed to get some flicks scratched off the watchlist. A lot of these were actually TCM recordings, which have become a bit of a godsend where it comes to exposing me to new material. It’s funny actually, because even though the last twelve months have seen the dawn of my Netflix use, I still continually turn to other avenues when I want to watch something I’ve never seen.
I think that much of my preference for Lightbox patronage and TCM viewing comes from an appreciation for curation. It’s not easy – as I’ve been subject to after a few failed rounds of curation, and many more stories of the same. On the one hand you want people to try something new, but intent and mood are so hard to gauge. In that way, context is key. Try it sometime – see if you can put together even a double-feature that people appreciate. That’s also what makes an entity like Netflix so daunting, since it’s just a seemingly bottomless pit of material. One needs to get to the end of the line at some stage.
To that end I’m a fan of film-lovers that can point me towards the good stuff. Whether it’s NOW, VOYAGER…CITIZEN FOUR…or ALTMAN.
Curation. What a concept.
Here’s The Week at Hand…
Screenings
BIG HERO 6 – Really fun. Podcast coming Monday.
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
THE FOG – I want to podcast from a lighthouse some day.
I CONFESS – Lesser-known Hitchock that’s pretty badass.
NOW, VOYAGER – I feel like I should have seen this one ages ago.
ALTMAN – Not bad, but a pretty standard retrospective doc.
I, ROBOT – Better than I thought it would be!
Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Seen Before
THE MALTESE FALCON – It’s Noirvember, right?
THE INCREDIBLES – No capes!
Boxscore for The Year
247 First-Timers, 173 Re-Watched
90 Screenings
420 Movies in Total
First-Timers: Interstellar, Cameraman: The Life and Works of Jack Cardiff, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Haywire, The Trial (1962 film), and later tonight, Memories of Murder.
Re-Watches: Manny & Lo, Robots, and Dick.
The Trial is really something ain’t it? How is there not a better DVD/Blu-Ray of that making the rounds?
While I agree with you on the Lightbox curation – I do not have the TCM channel so I cannot comment – I like the sense of discovery that comes with Netflix. Yes, it is a bottomless pit, but I like the fact that it forces me to blindly take chances on titles. There is also a sense of diversity, both from a cultural and a genre standpoint, that I can get on Netflix that is often missed when dealing with curated works. The danger with relying too heavily on curation is that it allows people to gravitate more towards stuff that already suits their personal taste in the first place. Sometimes the only way to discover you like a new dish is to take a random chance on it.
On a side note I, Robot falls in my wife’s lists of films that she will watch every time it’s on television. It is a enjoyable film for what it is.
New to me:
Why Horror? – Really good documentary on why people are so taken with horror films.
Fandry – A strong, but slightly depressing film, about India’s caste system.
The Deer Hunter – So it turns out that I had never seen the film in its entirety. Regardless, a brilliant piece of filmmaking.
Brahmin Bulls – Formulaic plot but solid performances.
Dear White People – The film really hit me on a personal level. A great film, too bad it only expanded to a whopping 3 theatres on Friday…just ridiculous.
Heaven Can Wait – It was uneven but mindlessly entertaining.
Why do I find myself with fond memories of FRIDAY? I’m going to try to catch up with DEAR WHITE PEOPLE this weekend.
And don’t get me wrong – I enjoy spelunking in the Netflix caves, but just the same way that I dig treasure hunting, I enjoy people around me pointing me towards the hidden gems.
(Treasure…gems…see what I did there?)
Having someone that knows you throw titles your way is priceless and incredibly rewarding. It’d hard to find someone that gets you well enough to do that, though. With everyone bringing something different into a film, recommendation is always hard, but even more so over the internet I’d say.
First time:
Afternoon Delight
And I re-watched Rashomon.