My Adventures with Netflix

Netflix loves me.

We have a two out at a time subscription with Netflix where I get one and Michelle gets one at a time. I think the record for me is having the same movie for three months before I've watched it. That's an expensive rental.

Recently I was trying to watch some of the Academy Award nominated films before the Oscar telecast but that didn't quite happen. I had one for two months I think and then I had Frozen River for a month before watching it. It was an interesting film and Melissa Leo's performance was good, but it wasn't worth holding onto for a month and missing out on other films.

Lately I've gotten better. I'm trying to take advantage of the subscription rather than waste the money away. Plus my Queue is full.

You can have up to 500 films in your queue and mine has consistently been full for over a year. I usually just add titles to help me remember that I want to see them eventually, but I'm always having to either delete titles because I just went ahead and bought it or I need to make a tough choice and eliminate something to make room for a new addition. Even today there are some titles in there that I know are crap but someday I may be in the mood to watch, like the Love Guru. Hey, it could be good. After all, the Kings make the Stanley Cup finals in the movie. That may be the closest I get to seeing that happen. Ah hell, who am I kidding? The movie is going to be bad and I know it, yet there it sits in my queue taking up space. Even if I were to watch a movie a week, and never add another title to my queue, it's going to take me ten years to watch all of them. I guess we all have to have goals don't we? At my rate though, it's going to be more like 30 years.

But like I was saying, lately I've gotten better. I've actually had a few quick turn around lately. I got Rachel Getting Married and watched it right away.




This was not your typical Jonathan Demme film. He gets away from some of his signature character framing, like having the characters look directly into the camera when addressing other characters. Instead he goes for a more free roaming camera to let the action unfold naturally. The film had a real low budget feel to it, maybe even a documentary vibe, and at times felt improvised which added a sense of realism to it.

Anne Hathaway was good in her role of Kym, the recovering drug addict sister coming home for Rachel's wedding. The tension between her and her family was quite thick, and it takes some time to fully realize what incidents from the past are still pulling at this family and the lingering effects they have. Nothing is ever really drilled into your head, all the emotions and conflicts are left to unravel naturally so that you can discover them yourself and that adds a lot of tension and suspense to the story. There are moments of comedy as well as sadness, but it is all balanced quite well and it makes for a very enjoyable story.




The plot is pretty simple, but like with most independent films this is about the characters and not the story. The entire cast does an amazing and believable job. I would highly recommend this film for it's performances alone, as well as some good writing.

And speaking of character pieces, the next film I watched pretty quickly was Happy-Go-Lucky. This is the latest from Mike Leigh, writer and director of Vera Drake, Topsy-Turvy, Secrets & Lies, and Naked. I really hadn't heard anything about this film until the Golden Globes when actress Sally Hawkins won for Actress in a comedy. It also went on to get a nomination at the Oscars for original screenplay.

Hawkins plays Poppy, an extremely outgoing woman who looks to bring out the light in everyone she comes across. She's a thirty year old grade school teacher who is single and lives with her best friend Zoe. She's traveled the world, loves her friends, loves her job, and is really happy with her life. When her younger sister who is married and pregnant asks when she is going to settle down she really doesn't have an answer. There is no reason to, she has everything she wants and makes the best of what she doesn't.

Her exuberance at times was a bit over the top. She is constantly kidding around and trying to get others to laugh along with her. Her energy is contagious amongst her best friends and could be very humorous at times, but there were moments it was a bit wearing on me. But I think that is the point of the character when ultimately her actions towards those around her have a negative outcome near the end of the film.


Her fun nature is innocent and she means nothing but good things, but in the end she gets a glimpse of how her attitude and actions could be misinterpreted in a harmful way. It is in this one climatic moment that we get to see the serious side of Poppy, but even after that and she sees the hurt she has caused, she is able to shrug it off and go on with her life and once again get the positive out of a bad situation. It's a wonderful trait to have to always be able to be positive and fun natured to make everyone around you happy and upbeat, but it could be positively draining as well.

I thought Hawkins gave a great energetic performance and the character was well written. There were some good funny lines, but there were some that I also missed because the English accent was a bit thick at times and I'm sure I missed a few lines here and there. Overall it was an enjoyable film with quite a few laughs. If you are looking for a quirky comedy I would recommend it.

Well I got through those two films pretty quick. I'm going on a week now holding on to my most recent acquisition from Netflix. Hopefully I don't waste this one away, but as soon as I get through it I will let you all know. So until next time...