Last Chance: Anna Karenina, Lost in Translation, Shivers, and Big Trouble
Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 9:00AM Public Service Announcement for Happy Streaming! The following list of movies are available on streaming only until the end of this month. This is not, alas, a comprehensive list (good luck with that -- even the official press releases and specialty "what's leaving" sites are never entirely comprehensive / accurate). But here are 10 titles + that caught our eye and they'll be gone when May strolls in. Now's the time if you have any desire to watch them. To help whet your appetite or kill it, depending, here is our playful yet highly unscientific practice of freezing the movies entirely at random to see what image/quote comes up. Please to discuss the titles.
Ahhh, taxation without representation, brother. Nothing's free in this world you lucky first day motherfucker."
Training Day (2001) Netflix
"I love my life," it's Denzel's second Oscar.
Travolta, Newman, Witherspoon, and Jodie Foster after the jump...
Underneath them curls he's a pervert. I can feel it."
Staying Alive (1983) Amazon Prime
In which John Travolta goes to Broadway and Saturday Night Fever's critical reputation is tarnished
-I am now unmarried so let's cut the bullshit and the mini moves and get on with this big romance.
-I don't believe this. You think I've been waiting for you to come along? What is this shit?
Thief (1981) Amazon Prime
I once failed a movie trivia game because I didn't know this Michael Mann movie starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld. So... I should probably watch it? Anyone? Tuesday Weld is giving off major Gena Rowlands vibes in this scene.
Doctor, Doctor, please help us!
Shivers (1975) Amazon Prime
Oooh that arm does not look good. I'm not a doctor but I suspect she's about to become a raving sexual beast in this early Cronenberg.
-Is that for me?
-Yeah, it can be for you."
Lost in Translation (2003) Amazon Prime
Omg. I haven't seen this in so long and it's so lovely.
-It looks like a rat.
-You look like a rat.
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) Amazon Prime
I've never seen this one but Jodie Foster was the hardest working 13 yr old in Hollywood. She had five movies out that year including the hit comedy Freaky Friday and her Oscar nominated work in Taxi Driver. Remember when we did that mini retrospective?
You're never going to want anybody else as long as you live."
From the Terrace (1960) Netflix
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodard in a romantic sudser. This is the one I need to watch this week. Weirdly I've never seen this.
And I think certain older people shouldn't be making slanderous accusations especially when certain young naive people's mothers are paralegal secretaries at the city's biggest lawform and have won many successful lawsuits."
Election (1999) Netflix
And I think a certain young person was ROBBED of an Oscar nomination in 1999. Especially because they were better than half that competition. UPDATE: After I typed this Amazon Prime announced that it was debuting on their service on May 1st so it's still available after next week. Just not with Netflix.
[Grunting]
Big Trouble in Little China (1986) Amazon Prime
Kurt Russell has adventures. Straight boys loved this movie in the 80s.
Who are you?
Anna Karenina (1948) Netflix
Vivien Leigh! I'd like to tell you that she recovers from this illness but it's Anna Karenina so, you know, doomed. She's also sickening. Imagine looking that gorg' when you're at death's door.
Do these images stir any memories or command you to watch the movie?
Also leaving Prime: Matt Dillon is excellent in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy (1989); The Witches (1967) is an Italian auteur anthology starring Silvana Mangano. It seems to be dubbed though. Boo; Ingmar Bergman's The Passion of Anna (1969) subtitled thankfully; the crime drama about Pretty Boy Floyd (who you may recall was played by Channing Tatum briefly in Public Enemy) in a movie called A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970); the terrible drag queen comedy with Philip Seymour Hoffman & Robert DeNiro called Flawless (1999); must see French craziness Delicatessen (1992) which gave us the once awesome filmmaking duo Caro & Jeunet; the Oscar nominated Never on Sunday (1960); The World War II actioner Force 10 From Navarone (1978); Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta Jones in The Mask of Zorro (1998); Tom Cruise tries to kill Hitler in Valkyrie (2008); Brian de Palma's Antonionio riff Blow Out (1981); and the ice skating romance The Cutting Edge (1992).
Also leaving Netflix: Marilyn Monroe gives one of her most acclaimed performances in Bus Stop (1956); Be excellent to each other with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), Stanley Kubrick's vietnam flick Full Metal Jacket (1987), Ravenous (1999) because when you think of Guy Pearce you become hungry; sometimes I remember they made a sequel to Scooby Doo (2002) and become so frightened for the future of art; Oslo August 31st (2011)... Joachim Trier is such a fine filmmaker; Al Pacino in Author! Author! (1982)
Reader Comments (12)
Flawless? Terrible? Flawed, yes. But highly watchable and Seymour Hoffman was so good in it. I think he was SAG nominated and I was grateful.
I just watched Bus Stop for the first time, and I was so conflicted about it. On the one hand, Marilyn Monroe was really good in it - it is probably her best performance. But on the other hand, it is so incredibly misogynistic, to a degree that makes it hard to even watch it in its historical context (I can't believe that the plot wouldn't have been considered questionable even in the 1950s).
Anyway, Election and Lost in Translation are wonderful.
You should see Thief it contains the underrated Caan's best performance and an onform Weld.
Thief is SO good! But I love every single Michael Mann movie, you can't trust me. But it's great!
I've seen The Passion of Anna a long time ago. It was my first Bergman, and I was shocked by a 4 minute long monologue acted by Liv Ullmann in close-up. I had never seen anything like it. And the actors discussing their parts in brief moments. I was astonished. Has it aged well? I don't know, but your first Bergman is always unforgettable.
I watched both "From the Terrace" and Viv's "Anna Karenina" on Netflix.
"Terrace" is one of those '60s movies that has one foot in the studio era: Acting stiff, decades of plot fly by to the point of absurdity, and Fox's insistence on glamming Woodward like Marilyn is strange, to say the least. Author John O' Hara's screen adaptations weren't exactly classics...
Leigh is a lovely "Anna," but she is carrying this Karenina on her own. I kept wondering what a David Lean directed "Anna Karenina" starring Leigh would have been like!
Kurt Russel is such a HOTTIE, even now! He should've been nominated last year for the Hateful Eight.
LOL @ Julia's "I love my life". I mean that's The Pelican Brief reunion there people!
"Big Trouble in Little China (1986) Amazon Prime
Kurt Russell has adventures. Straight boys loved this movie in the 80s."
Non-straight boys from the 90's also love it. And what's not to love; it has John Carpenter, Kurt "the-best-hair-in-Hollywood" Russell, and plenty of James Hong who is always great. It's one of the most fun movies ever.
Lost in Translation.... BEST FILM..... EVER!!! I have the DVD so I don't need Netflix for that.
Thief is excellent! I should probably give From the Terrace a look, too.
Just watched Lost in Translation again (thanks to you Nat!). Haven't seen it since 2004.
OMG, that's such a wonderful film! Funny and melancholy at the same time. Two impeccable performances, the photography, the soundtrack, all amazing!
The wrong actor won the Oscar for Walk The Line but at least I can pretend it was a make up nomination and win for Election.
Funny you dismiss Big Trouble in Little China since you are a rice queen.