Netflix

It's been a couple of years since I did the Netflix thing. I haven't spent the kind of time at home that really necessitates a subscription in a long time. That's a little different now. I haven't gotten through as many movies as I would have expected, seeing as how it was the holidays and there was shopping to be done and people to see. . . but I have watched a few things. I will give you a brief review of each, in case you care what I think:


Wordplay: This is a great documentary. About 2/3 of the way through the movie, Ben was compelled to go online and find a NY Times crossword puzzle and start working on it. And a few weeks later when we found a Crossword "game" for Ben's DS, we had to get it. We spent a good portion of Thanksgiving break doing the puzzles. I would recommend this documentary.


Year of the Dog: I wanted to love this. I thought it would be quirky in a good way, but really, it didn't do much for me. It was just weird for the sake of weird, and pretty depressing, really. I'm glad we didn't see it at Sundance last year :)



Evening: If this movie hadn't been cast with a bunch of actors and actresses I loved, I think this movie would have bored me to death. There were moments in the film that no one but Vanessa Redgrave could pull off. . . but because of the cast, it was good. A little slow, but beautiful. Worth watching on DVD.


Knocked Up: honestly, I wish I could have that 2 hours of my life back. I thought it would be funny, having just given birth myself, but I really couldn't get into it. It was like the American Pie movies. Dirty jokes just aren't funny to me, and therefore, neither was this movie.


Marie Antionette: It was pretty. I was impressed with all of the things I expected to be impressed with. But it was oddly written, and didn't have much of a story. It was actually a much quieter movie than I expected. There was surprisingly little dialogue. And it did very little to teach me about Marie. I think it would have been a better movie if I'd already known the whole story really well.



Away From Her: I know everyone loves this movie, but it was just a little too quiet for me. I didn't manage to finish it because I kept falling asleep. I know I'm a sleep deprived new mom, but that seemed like a bad sign. I didn't even finish watching. . .


Breach: I really liked this. Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillipe were great. I sort of felt like Laura Linney phoned it in, but that's probably just me. The story was fascinating and it was appropriately suspenseful without overdoing it.


Perfume: The Story of a Murder: It was a good movie, not great, but good, until the last 15 minutes. Seriously stupid ending. If you stop 15 minutes before the end, though, you really might enjoy it. The thing that really struck me about it was how quiet it is. There isn't a ton of dialogue, and the narrator really works in this case. And I don't always like narrators.

The ones I still have waiting. . . Fracture, December Boys, and Catch & Release. I'll let you know what I think. . .