Netflix Renaissance

Tools    





I have Netflix for a month, but I don't even see a "Classic" section.. I think I saw the few good ones. I only got it for a few recent stand-up comedy specials.

My cousin gave me Hulu, which I used to love, but of course they don't have any Criterion anymore, I couldn't find a single movie to watch.
Yea, it's hard justifying to continue to subscribe to Hulu since their Criterion section was lost.
The only reason I still have Hulu is so I can follow certain shows. I can watch South Park and Agents of Shield as they air. Once those shows go bye bye so will my subscription.



The only reason I still have Hulu is so I can follow certain shows. I can watch South Park and Agents of Shield as they air. Once those shows go bye bye so will my subscription.
Their television section has also kept me on the hook. They used to have Michael Mann's Crime Story on there, but I think they took it down. Recently started Wiseguy, and have been stuck on that for a while, so I'll still fork up the dough.



I hear ya. I have Hulu, Netflix and HBO Now. Even with these three packages it cheaper than cable. But Hulu and HBO will be gone eventually. HBO will probably be first since I have only two seasons left of GoT



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
I haven't seen it yet, but from the sound of things it's going to be really close to the material he performed when my wife and I saw him live a few months ago. We were pleasantly surprised that virtually all of it was new, but I'm guessing the flip side of that is that virtually all of it's going to be in the special, too.
Would you have any complaints from the live show you saw?



No, we both liked it.

It wasn't as great as his best stuff, but that's to be expected given that he seems to be trying to put out a new hour almost every year now. Given that pace, it was quite good. A lot of it managed to feel new but still be exactly the kind of thing you'd expect him to say, which I guess is pretty easy given how well-defined his worldview (be it real or a comedic put-on, or some mix) probably is for anyone who's watched all of his specials.

Definitely laughed hard, particularly at the end, though with live comedy I'd expect to enjoy it more, too. Assuming it's close to what we saw, hard to imagine anyone who's liked his current stuff not liking this new one.

Also, we managed to score really great seats: second row!




Quick bump on the Louis C.K. stuff: watched the special last night. Yeah, 90% similar to what we saw live. A few changes stood out, though. The email bit was new (and one of my favorite parts). The Elizabethan routine seemed a little shorter, but I'm not positive. He definitely did more than one "racist voice" (maybe three, even) during the live show, and I think he ended with the stuff about his father; he still had the "my boyfriend" bit, but I think it was before.



I know it's not a film, but I highly suggest the tv show 13 reasons why I absolutely loved it.
__________________
I do not speak english perfectly so expect some mistakes here and there in my messages



Re-watched the 1946 version of The Killers and enjoyed it more the second time around. Soo much so, I think I prefer this one to the 1964 version with Lee Marvin. Also, scored a copy of The Garment Jungle (1957) for ridiculously cheap, so I knocked that off the queue. Next I'll get to re-watch Richard Widmark throw an old lady down the stairs in Kiss of Death.

1.) The Driver (1978) (Long Wait)
2.) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (Long Wait)
3.) Kiss of Death (1947)
4.) Force of Evil (1948)
5.) DOA (1950)
6.) Gun Crazy (1949)
7.) The Brothers Rico (1957)
8.) The Phenix City Story (1955)
9.) Point Blank (1967)
10.) Criss Cross (1949)



Yea, it's hard justifying to continue to subscribe to Hulu since their Criterion section was lost.
You should check out Filmstruck. It's Criterion's new streaming service.



You should check out Filmstruck. It's Criterion's new streaming service.
I've been meaning to, just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

Are you a member? How is the film catalog?



It's pretty damn good. Has stuff you won't find on physical Criterion even, like Tarkovsky's Mirror.



Re watched Kiss of Death this past weekend; this movie holds up great. Just straight up Noir all up in yo face. The parade of noir continues next with Force of Evil (1948). The rest of these I have never seen before, so should have more to say about the next ten.


1.) The Driver (1978) (Long Wait)
2.) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (Long Wait)
3.) Force of Evil (1948)
4.) DOA (1950)
5.) Gun Crazy (1949)
6.) The Brothers Rico (1957)
7.) The Phenix City Story (1955)
8.) Point Blank (1967)
9.) Criss Cross (1949)
10.) Murder By Contract (1958)



I was really blown away by Force of Evil (1948). It's a movie that doesn't get as much praise as its contemporaries, but it's noir to its very bones. John Garfield carries this one. My noir kick continues with the proto Bonnie and Clyde (1967) in Gun Crazy.

1.) The Driver (1978) (Long Wait)
2.) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (Long Wait)
3.) Gun Crazy (1949)
4.) DOA (1950)
5.) The Brothers Rico (1957)
6.) The Phenix City Story (1955)
7.) Point Blank (1967)
8.) Criss Cross (1949)
9.) Murder By Contract (1958)
10.) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)



Yea, it's hard justifying to continue to subscribe to Hulu since their Criterion section was lost.
Never subscribed to Hulu before, but it is worth it to see A Handmaid's Tale, which is great. I have Hulu free for a month & then I guess I'll continue with it until the season ends.



Never subscribed to Hulu before, but it is worth it to see A Handmaid's Tale, which is great. I have Hulu free for a month & then I guess I'll continue with it until the season ends.
Mostly out of laziness I still have my Hulu account, and I've been meaning to watch A Handmaid's Tale; I've heard nothing but good things. It may be worth keeping hulu now since they signed a deal with NEON films, so we'll be seeing NEON movies, like Colossal, on hulu shortly after they get released theatrically.



Watched Gun Crazy (1950), which was a really interesting film for the time. Sort of a proto Bonnie and Clyde (1967) noir , Gun Crazy is about to a man/woman bank robbing team who resort to crime out of desperation. What's interesting about it is the female lead (Peggy Cummins) being the one who gets off on killing people (part of the sexualized nature of the film), and the man (John Dall) who is the pacifist; whose one act of murder is his ultimate undoing. While a woman manipulating a man to do her killing for her is a film noir staple, I can't think of one offhand where the a woman enjoyed getting her hands dirty as in Gun Crazy.

Dalton Trumbo, the famous blacklisted screenwriter, wrote the script.under the pseudonym of Millard Kaufman. While on the subject, since my last post I found out that Abraham Polonsky, the director of Force of Evil (1948), was also later blacklisted. Polonsky's politics are no secret in Force of Evil; the film takes place on Wall Street, the legitimate corporate world and the gangster underworld are hand in hand with hotshot lawyer Joe (John Garfield) working for gangster Ben Tucker (Roy Roberts); who wants to wipe out all of the small, independent "Mom and Pop" numbers games in one big business takeover. Force of Evil is a clear indictment of capitalism.

What I have next is one of the most norish film noirs ever noired. If Sam Spade, Mike Hammer, and Philip Marlowe all went see a movie together, they'd probably go watch D.O.A. (1950).

1.) Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) (Long Wait)
2.) DOA (1950)
3.) The Phenix City Story (1955)
4.) The Brothers Rico (1957)
5.) Point Blank (1967)
6.) Criss Cross (1949)
7.) Murder By Contract (1958)
8.) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
9.) Salvatore Guliano (1962)
10.) The Dark Corner (1946)

*The Driver (1978), which I previously had at #1 on my queue on "long wait", has been officially taken off of Netflix's DVD by mail program.



Crossed D.O.A. (1950) off of my list and is a clear example of noir style over substance. The plot itself screams of over the top noir: Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien), a notary public, takes a vacation in San Francisco; someone poisons his drink with a deadly toxin, and he has to solve his own murder before he dies. Even as noirs go, D.O.A. is bleak and is one of those movies that found appreciation later on (I think not until the 80s), and is now considered a classic towards the end of the classic period of the genre. It's also public domain, so you'll have no problem finding one of the 20 something DVDs that are out there; the problem is finding a decent print of it.

Next I'm going all Southern Gothic with The Phenix City Story (1955)

1.) The Phenix City Story (1955)
2.) The Brothers Rico (1957)
3.) Point Blank (1967)
4.) Criss Cross (1949)
5.) Murder By Contract (1958)
6.) Salvatore Guliano (1962)
7.) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
8.) The Dark Corner (1946)
9.) The Grissom Gang (1971)
10.) Brute Force (1947)


* Previously, I had Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) on my queue, after about three months of waiting for it I've since found an HD copy on youtube:




It took me wayyyy too long to watch The Phenix City Story (1955), which I downloaded during my golden age of piracy at college, but never got around to watching. I loved this movie; and the violence is part of the reason why. Part gangster movie/film noir and part high principled fable of ignoring society's vices, The Phenix City Story doesn't try to conjure up any kind of empathy for the gangster; women are brutally beaten/killed, and a child is murdered and then thrown from a moving car. The gangsters aren't flashy or good looking, but ugly and brutal in appearance. The organized crime syndicate is in charge of the political machine/police in Phenix City, so acts an extension of Jim Crow era segregation. There is a scene where innocent bystanders witness a fight in an alleyway, and someone shouts "Lets get out of there, the cops are coming."

The movie is based on fact, Phenix City was a haven of crime and corruption during the 50s. When local attorney Albert Patterson ran for and won Attorney General of Alabama, on the promise that he'd clean up Phenix City, he was shot three times in the mouth in his car when leaving his law office one evening. After that, the Governor called in the National Guard and declared martial law, there is actual newsreel footage used in the film of soldiers taking slot machines to the middle of a field and lighting them on fire.

The Phenix City Story gets preachy, and sort of lionizes Albert Patterson's son and future Governor of Alabama, John Patterson (Richard Kiley). When the younger Patterson returns from Germany after the Nuremberg Trials, he says he returns to "a different form of dictatorship" with the criminal syndicate. Alot of parallels are made between fighting WWII and fighting criminals, about evil flourishing when good men do nothing, and about how democracy and the ballot box is where the fight should take place. After Patterson's father is assassinated, he takes his father's place on the ticket and wins. The film ends with Patterson being elected to Attorney General, and in reality would go on to be Governor of Alabama from 1959 - 1963. While his Governorship at the time was seen as progressive (probably reformist would be a better term) he had a staunch anti civil rights stance, which earned him the endorsement of the KKK (ooops).

I changed my queue around a bit, and am getting Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Guliano (1962) next. I really enjoyed Rosi's Lucky Luciano (1973), so I'll be checking out more of his work.


1.) Salvatore Guliano (1962)
2.) The Brothers Rico (1957)
3.) Point Blank (1967)
4.) Criss Cross (1949)
5.) Murder By Contract (1958)
6.) The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
7.) The Dark Corner (1946)
8.) The Grissom Gang (1971)
9.) Brute Force (1947)
10.) Odd Man Out (1947)