Now Streaming: Luke Cage's Day Off - A True Story
Monday, October 3, 2016 at 9:30PM The following titles are now streaming for your pleasure. We've freeze framed them at entirely random places and shared the first thing that came up as is our whimsical practice. Do you have any desire to see (or revisit) these based on this evidence?
NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
LOL. Totally forgot about this sly partners in crime shopping scene. Have you seen this recently? It's so great but for every cutaway to Mickey Rooney (sigh). Nominated for five Oscars including Best Actress. (It's actually kind of a surprise that this hasn't been remade since it was originally envisioned for Marilyn Monroe and could have obviously been an entirely different sort of movie.)
seven more after the jump including Marvel's Luke Cage and a 1940s Best Picture winner...
[Music Playing: "♫ If you ain't gonna do me right I might just do you in Ain't it a sin ♪"]
Marvel's Luke Cage (S1)
I'm not sure what to say about this one. The first reviews I read were raves and surely there's some potent escapism in a bulletproof black man, given the sorry news of late. But I was... bored. I can only speak for myself. I enjoyed that literary and culture references (the show works hard for atmosphere) but the sports talk flew way over my head. I've watched about four episodes -- the fourth, a flashback origin story, was by far the worst with painfully cliche dialogue so I don't know that I'll continue. Though the cast is refreshingly filled with POC and it takes place in my neighborhood (I love the opening credits for all the familiar street signs) the pacing is like molasses and when the action scenes come -- generally just one brief bit an episode -- they disappoint. As it turns out, I have the same problem with Luke Cage as I always had with Superman; invulnerability is just not an exciting superpower. Action sequences work best when you can both root and fear for your hero.
Mr Houdini, I don't know what they did but two things I do know - There was no trickery done in this dark room and there are no fairies at the bottom of my garden.
Fairy Tale: A True Story (1997)
I remember when this came out I wanted to see it but never did. Perhaps now. It's about photographs of fairies and an investigation into whether they were a hoax or not. I had totally forgotten that Harvey Keitel played Harry Houdini in it.
From what I read here Mr Beauchamps the writing isn't much different than the cover."
Unforgiven (1992)
Uff. Gene Hackman was such a great actor. Nobody has been able to talk him out of retirement (sigh). Unforgiven was nominated for nine Oscars, winning four including Best Picture and Best Director. But having recently seen Howards End fully restored in the theater (which had also had nine nominations, winning three), my anger about this Oscar season came roaring back to life. Unforgiven is a good movie, don't get me wrong, but it's no patch on the exquisitely complex Howards End.
She looked like a crack whore last night.
Viva (2015)
Did you ever see Ireland's Oscar submission from last year? It's about a twink Cuban hairdresser who wants to be a professional drag queen but his plans are put on hold when his ex con Dad returns home. It made the Oscar finals last year. There's actually quite a good number of last year's foreign Oscar submissions available to stream right now including Greece's Xenia, the Dominican Republic's Sand Dollars, Iceland's Rams, Israel's Baba Joon, Norway's The Wave, Portugal's Arabian Nights Vol. 2, Sweden's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch..., Taiwan's The Assassin, Thailand's How to Win at Checkers, and all of the nominees that lost to Son of Saul in case you missed any of them: Colombia's Embrace of the Serpent, Denmark's A War, Jordan's Theeb, and France's Mustang.
-I don't even have a piece of shit. I have to envy yours.
-Thanks
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
I never got the appeal of this movie. I think I was too much of a good boy when I was a teenager to relate to high school movies where the smug rebel is the hero. You?
Please turn around. I can't do it with you watching.
Saving Mr Wu (2015)
Andy Lau is captured for nefarious reasons. My guess is that after this pee break he's going to kick their asses.
- Mind if I sit with you charming people? You two seemed to be having so much fun over here I couldn't resist it.
- Oh we just love to spread merriment. Our hearts are God's little garden - just an occasional weed here and there.
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Celeste Holm is so fabulous in this movie - It's saving grace really because boy is this Message Movie about Anti-Semitism a slog whenever she's offscreen which is a lot since she won Best Supporting Actress and she was actually a supporting player. This Best Picture winner was undoubtedly more bracing at the time in the 1940s when Anti-Semitism had run so rampant that there'd been a whole World War (still fresh in the memory) that started thanks to a racist being voted into office in Germany who kept stoking the hatred and scapegoating minorities. [Sound familiar? Let it be a lesson to all of us to never idly sit by while racists are buoyed into power -- everyone loses if they win, even the angry "majority" members that vote for them. Don't let it happen here in America on November 8th. Vote Hillary!]
Also Newly Available To Stream
Amanda Knox (2016)
Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004)
Blue Streak (1999)
A Cinderella Story (2004)
The Commitments (1991)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief (2008)
Ghost Town (2008)
Grizzly Man (2005)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
The Imitation Game (2014)
Millennium (1989)
Murder Maps (season 2)
My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree (2016)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Oriented (2015)
Patton (1970)
Picture This! (2008)
Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin (1997)
The Queen of the Damned (2002)
Quiz Show (1994)
Robotech (1985)
RV (2006)
Snake Eyes (1998)
Snow Day (2000)
Sphere (1998)
Three Kings (1999)
Titanic (1997)
The Uninvited (2009)
Unsealed: Alien Files (season 4)
Without a Paddle (2004)
X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time (2015)
Coming Soon
October 3: Dheepan (2015) - Last year's Palme D'or winner; October 4: American Horror Story: Hotel (season 5), Chevalier (2015) - Greece's current Oscar submission, Dartmoor Killing (2015), The Flash (season 2), The Grinder (season 1); October 5: Arrow (season 4); October 6: iZombie (season 2); October 7: The 13th (2016) -Ava DuVernay's new documentary / Oscar hopeful, Dinotrux (season 3), The Ranch (season 1), Russell Peters: Almost Famous (2016), The Siege of Jadotville (2016), Supernatural (season 11); October 8: The Originals (season 3), Vampire Diaries (season 7); October 10: Kuromukuro (season 2) and Love Between the Covers (2015)
Reader Comments (15)
Gene Hackman was such a great actor. Nobody has been able to talk him out of retirement (sigh).
I respect him for saying Hollywood is filled with jerks regardless of your pedigree on the totem pole. Besides he had no clue he'd be ignored for being awesome in a Wes Anderson flick. At the end of the day they're still ignoring those in the actors' branch.
Will you watch Nightmare 2 for a Halloween write up?
Nat: I wasn't bored by the fourth (the performances carry through the weak moments), but they do, in episode 8, pull out weapons strong enough to get Luke Cage hurt. But because those weapons are used by the worst MCU TV villain to date (seriously, Diamondback gets a lot of atmospheric build-up across the first half, but he's, sadly, kind of a huge let-down)...well, double edged sword.
Thank-you, Nathaniel, for pinning down why I, too, do not see the appeal of FERRIS BUELLER. That snarky young Republican just annoys me every time.
Co-signed. I also find Ferris Bueller to be annoying.
No remake for Breakfast at Tiffany's bcos it's such a almost perfect classic (well, perfect if u minus Rooney) and Hepburn is so identified with Holly Golightly that everyone knows its a no go territory
No actress could ever replicate Miss AH's Tres Chic or outdid her unique charm & vulnerability. Well there is one Emilia Clarke who tried & failed spectacularly on Broadway!!
I just adore Breakfast at Tiffany's. it is just so effervesently watchable. And Celeste Holm is indeed wonderful and a worthy winner in Gentelmen's Agreement.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is just ADORABLE but also infuriating at times, I mean goddamit Audrey and hot leading man, just HOOK UP already!
Gene is indeed a wonderful actor. Just saw him in The Birdcage, what a fun movie..
When I first saw it, I really like Ferris, but now that I'm about to become a teacher, he just seems like an utter nightmare.
Might have to revisit Quiz Show. I remember really liking it but nothing specific.
A Pigeion Sat on a Branch... still pops up in my thoughts regularly. It's so good at what it sets out to do. A must see if anything on this list is.
I wish you could revisit the movie of that year, IMO, The Crying Game: gripping, complex, arresting!
Travis C: Snarky? Yes. Young Republican? Probably not. Unless his persona changes wildly from the end of the movie, Ferris' future would seem to be heading toward artistic pursuits, not bumping shoulders with Alex P. Keaton on Wall Street. Rock musician. Writing. Film production.
Craver: Infuriated with the sexual tension, but not with Mickey Rooney?
Ferris Bueller is entertaining enough, but I absolutely agree - even at the irresponsible age of 12, I cringed at the thought of the mayhem that he caused in one day with absolutely no consequences.
Cal -- i love that movie too but I genuintely think HOWARDS END is a masterpiece.
The problem with Ferris Buehler is two-fold--1) This is in no way, not even close, a real high school student. 2) he thinks he's quite clever, when he's not, and yet he still gets away with all this crap. Quite an irritating character. But I do like the Beatles song performed during the parade.
Volvagia: there are plenty of artistic people who lean right. For example, he could be a model for a young Clint Eastwood or Kid Rock.
Travis C: All right, sure, if you associate the term Young Republican with politics alone (which is a way to read Bueller) as opposed to, specifically, "Alex P Keaton-alikes" (which is in no UNIVERSE a way to read Bueller) and was closer to the crux of my rebuttal.