Netflix in November: Doctor Strange, 16 Candles, Children of Men, etc...
Thursday, November 1, 2018 at 12:40PM
NATHANIEL R in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Cape Fear, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Netflix, Sixteen Candles, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, streaming, superheroes

Time to play Streaming Roulette. Each month, to survey new streaming titles we freeze frame the films at random places with the scroll bar and whatever comes up first, that's what we share!

Here's what's new on Netflix...

When you leave, you should forget me.

The English Patient (1996) won 9 Oscars. Nine! As much as that's a wonderful movie -- and my god it hurts to look at these two (Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas in they're prime) they're so superhumanly gorgeous -- 9 is a lot. I'm glad Oscar has recently moved away from giving all the statues to one movie. It's been 10 years since we've had that kind of overkill (Slumdog Millionaire with 8)... and lately things have been winning closer to 3-5 which is more than enough for most movies, even the great ones...

The guy that introduced me to Rock called me up sobbing at night and said 'how could you do that to that beautiful man.'

The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin (2017) was released last summer -- Glenn reviewed it in his sturdy doc corner column -- but I haven't yet seen it and might sit down with it since we should all be well versed in the histories of the queer heroes.

I'll bet you a dozen floppy discs you don't even get a tit.

Sixteen Candles (1984) has a sexism problem but most 1980s movies did. "Floppy discs" HAHA. I haven't seen this in like 20 years. It isn't my favorite of the John Hughes classics (that's easily The Breakfast Club) but I cherish Molly Ringwald in it and the sight of Joan Cusack in a neck brace. Can you believe how young John Cusack and Anthony Michael Hall once were?

[no dialogue]

Doctor Strange (2016) has kind of already been forgotten, as Marvel Cinematic Universe movies go, right? That was a fast fade which might be why there is no Doctor Strange 2 on the docket still unless I missed the news (possibel). It's funny that I chanced upon this part of the movie since the introduction of the cape -- and subsequent action sequence -- is one of the most inventive things about the movie. And the Oscar for "Best Supporting Inanimate Character in a Superhero Movie goes to..."

Sometimes I think this movie might have been good if they hadn't felt the need to make the Doctor yet another cocky callous wise-cracking rich guy (very much in the Tony Stark mode) who is suddenly gifted with superpowers.

You think anyone here will help you? They hate you.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 1 (2018) is bingeable but unsatisfying. That's my lukewarm take. Part of the problem for me is Kiernan Shipka (sorry guys!) because she has that Emma Watson problem of not being able to differentiate her line readings and emphasizing too many words in each of them (a common child actor grown up problem) rather than modulating her performance for the ebb and flow of individual scenes and cumulative drama. The season has its moments but the characterizations are skin deep, the pacing is super slow (common Netflix problem),and  the need to be "edgy" makes lots of plot points and characterizations schizophrenic. And there is way too much 'borrowing' from other superior series. I couldn't believe the wholesale ransacking of one of Buffy's most experimental episodes "Restless" in the 5th episode here "Dreams in a Witch House". But maybe the target audience for this show won't know Buffy so they'll think it's brilliant?

All that said I definitely like Prudence (pictured above) as Queen Bee of the mean girl Sabrina rivals and the sidebar villain Miss Wardwell is great boo hissable fun.

You've won, it's over. You don't need to kill him.

Planet Hulk (2010) is like a Marvel warm-up for Thor Ragnarok only animated on the cheap.

-Say it again. SAY IT!!!
- You're a fascist pig.

Children of Men (2006) will probably be in the air this month with director Alfonso Cuarón reminding everyone of his genius yet again with Roma. 

Also New on Netflix in November

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Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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