Stream This: Mustang, The Big Short, Hello Dolly, The Painted Veil
Saturday, July 9, 2016 at 9:16PM In the effort to stay au courant we're going to try to do "new to streaming" weekly, alternating between Netflix and Amazon Prime sometimes, big lists, sometimes highlights. This will also give us a chance to link to previous coverage of the old films that are "new" again via the power of the internet. But first a last chance notice...
Last Chance Netflix (Expires July 16th)
-Y'all were watching I take it. Did you see us fight?
-No.
-Trap."
Serenity
I've been curious to watch Serenity (and Firefly for that matter) again to see if you can easily chart Joss Whedon's growth from self-created warm-up to Studio-hire mega-success in The Avengers. He was always good at selling team dynamics, though. That was clear from the earliest episodes of Buffy. We previously covered Serenity in Season 3 of Hit Me With Your Best Shot. I miss Whedon as TV creator on his own urges -- Agents of SHIELD just did not do it for me.
New to Netflix
We've freeze framed nine more titles totally at random to share whatever popped up for your amusement. Here we go...
-Lot of smug looking people here.
- It's like someone hit a piñata filled with white people who suck at golf."
The Big Short (2015)
Remember when this was suddenly a major Oscar player last season. That took me off guard even though I was at the actual premiere. It won Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars. Serious films with funny memorable lines are often popular in those categories.
I've decided to join the human race again.
Hello, Dolly! (1969)
Babs. Babs. You're really overworking this monologue...
Oh good, good. It was just a prologue to more singing. "Before the Parade Passes By" Much much better. (I'm so excited to see Bette Midler do this role on the Broadway stage this season.)
I know she's kind of socially retarded and weird. But she's my friend so just promise me you won't make fun of her.
Mean Girls (2004)
Remember when we did a whole theme week on this movie? That was fun. If you missed our live podcast commentary, you can stream the movie on netflix while you listen to Joe Reid and I talk at you (two parts can be downloaded here though I don't think it's on iTunes anymore)
Mustang (2015)
If you didn't get a chance to see this French/Turkish film in theaters before its Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film, catch up. This story of teenage sisters who are imprisoned in their own home when their family thinks they've become shamefully wild, is gripping. Despite the despair that naturally crop ups in such a story, it has a surprisingly full range of feelings: joy, love, rage, and humor, too. Top Ten List 2015.
A War
Mustang's competition for foreign film last season. They both lost to Hungary's Son of Saul. The film stars Pilou Asbaek (Game of Thrones) as a Danish officer who faces war crime charges at home for a decision he made in Afghanistan. Solid drama. [Random Oscar/Box Office Trivia: A War was the lowest grosser of the 2015 foreign film nominees Stateside with only 122K in US revenue. Even the very low profile Theeb from Jordan fared better with $283K. Son of Saul and Embrace of the Serpent were both arthouse hits taking in well over a million dollars at the US box office. Mustang almost broke out with a solid $845k gross.]
Jack: Power to the people.
Tess: To the little people.
Working Girl (1988)
Did you read our Best Shot party on Working Girl. It was a good one. Well worth a revisit watch if you haven't seen it in years.
Okay boys, show of hands. Who can see in the dark?
Catwoman (2004)
Oh good christ. I've forgotten how truly terrible this film and Halle Berry in it are. She just cannot do comic book stylization to save her life. Also terrible in the X-Men films. Not every actor is meant for superhero work.
-What's that you're doing?
-I'm testing the nitrate levels on a local tomahto.
The Painted Veil (2006)
I promise this movie is more exciting than that dialogue exchange! Or then any synopsis you'll read of a doctor investigating the cholera epidemic in China. And both Edward Norton and Naomi Watts are sensational in it. This is also the moment that it sunk in for me that Alexandre Desplat was the real deal Great New Composer and that his exciting work on Birth (2004) and The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) weren't lucky twice in a lifetime brushes with genius but, just, you know, what he can do on any given Tuesday.
No sense being a grifter if it's the same as being a citizen.
The Sting (1973)
Best Picture Winner. Paul Newman & Robert Redford (double sigh)
ALSO NEW (Late June/Early July):
Reader Comments (9)
There's additional synergy in your selections because Halle Berry gets to deliver the one line in X-Men that remained from Joss Whedon's script punch up. This, of course is the line about a toad getting hit by lightning, which to this day is still one of the worst lines in a major blockbuster.
Unless you realize that it's a Joss Whedon line delivered all wrong. The first part. "Know what happens to a toad when it's hit by lightning?" should be delivered with total seriousness followed by several dramatic beats. The second part. "Same as everything else" should be delivered with a shrug as the bad guy gets zapped.
Not really Halle's fault, but an interesting relic from when we we weren't really sure what comic book movies should be before Joss himself directed the cornerstone of the most successful comic franchise of all time.
Yes, I used to hold that Naomi Watt's best performance was in Mullholland Drive but my mind has slowly changed to The Painted Veil over the years. She is better on every re-watch of that. Sensational is right.
I also agree that the score is terrific.
Does credit for the Painted Veil score really belong to Desplat? All I can remember is the Satie Gnossiene (No. 3...?) which was haunting and used to such effect
"Hello Dolly" on Blu Ray really shows were all the money went.
Norton should've have broken into that terrible 06 Actor field.
Sharon Stone is good camp value in Catwoman.
That Halle Berry line was the reason I stopped watching Xmen movies for a while. It ruined the entire movie and character. I just immediately stopped liking Storm. Storm is a very interesting character that has been butchered by several actresses playing her all wrong. Is it safe to say that Halle Berry peaked with Monster's Ball (and that's a very very steep peak) and was never able to fully recover after Catwoman?
Wanted to like Marcella due to my current obsession with UK TV dramas, and the lovely Anna Friel, but man, is that show a trainwreck.
Wholeheartedly agree re The Painted Veil. Naomi Watts has never been better.
Hello Dolly is the perfect example of a ridiculously huge budget ruining a movie. Every number has to be a wowza and then some. There's little room for a charming little song and dance or a pleasant bit of comic buffoonery. Everything is overdone and overstuffed.
Robert A. - So THAT'S how you're supposed to say that line. You cracked one of the biggest mysterious in film of all time!