Netflix Nuggets #3

We've recently had a Documentary Edition and a Television Edition of Netflix Nuggets, but that's hardly meant to imply I haven't been keeping up with the good ol' standard narrative movies too. I've once again compiled another small list of "regular movie" titles I've found whilst cruising the digital aisles of Netflix, which you can find below. Enjoy!

(And by all means, if there are any titles you'd like to get my thoughts on, feel free to leave suggestions in the Comments section. I welcome any and all constructive input!)


BUTTER

I'm a sucker for a good ensemble cast movie, especially when it comes to comedies. Usually you can tell everyone had a good time on set working with each other by how well their onscreen chemistry is conveyed, and the more stars in a single flick the higher the chance one of your favorites is in the mix. It was these qualities that initially drew me to Butter; namely the presence of Hugh Jackman (as a cowboy hat-wearing car salesman, no less), Olivia Wilde, and Rob Corddry. The story follows two primary protagonists: Laura Pickler (Jennifer Garner), the wife of famed butter sculptor Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell), and Destiny, (Yara Shahidi) an orphan who has spent most of her life moving from foster home to foster home. When Destiny decides she wants to enter the Butter Sculpting Competition that Bob has dominated year after year, Bob decides he's ready to hang up his tools and let someone else have the spotlight. But Laura isn't ready to fade into the background, and thus begins an occasionally funny, occasionally silly, occasionally meandering tale of intrigue and social politics. Butter plays on a number of stereotypes for laughs; namely that of aggressively conservative American housewives. Garner plays the role with sufficient stuffiness, but some of the jokes fall a bit flat before all is said and done. The rest of the cast is entertaining enough, but not as laugh-out-loud hilarious as I was expecting. Wilde plays an excessively shallow stripper whose primary mode of transportation is a bicycle and again, the concept is great; watching her attempt to pedal away in a huff wearing heels and revealing clothing. But it wears out its welcome all too soon. The saving grace of the movie is Yara Shahidi, who is more or less the "straight man" to the other characters' more wacky tendencies. She's not going to go up for any Oscars, but she's a good child actor and she plays her role convincingly well. Overall Butter is entertaining enough, and squeaked by with an acceptable rating in my book; but it really could have and should have been much better. It's funny in places, and I laughed once or twice; but despite the very definite plot structure the whole movie felt a little lackluster - as though it had no sense of direction or purpose.


DARK HORSE

Dark Horse was a movie I queued up on a total whim - and a little bit because it had Selma Blair. Abe (Jordan Gelber) is a 30-something-year-old man with a pretty bad case of arrested development. He lives at home, he works for his Dad's company, he spends most of his money on collectible action figures and toys; he's every "failure to launch" cliche rolled into one. He meets Miranda (Selma Blair) at a wedding at the beginning of the film and commences pursuing her romantically, in the process discovering that she's also living at home and struggling with some failure-to-launch of her own. An unlikely relationship develops between the two, and in a desperate bid to give her life some sense of purpose she accepts Abe's proposal of marriage. From there, this already-strange film takes an even stranger turn as some of the layers of symbolism and meaning embedded within begin to unravel. Dark Horse is a head-scratcher; at least it was for me. Abe is incredibly unlikeable as a character; he has a short temper, his hobbies are puerile to the point of pathetic, and his delusions about himself are undeniably visible. Miranda is equally inscrutable as it's unclear if she's clinically depressed or just sad all the time. And while it's possible to have unlikeable characters be compelling, it's a fine line to tread and it's hard to say whether or not Dark Horse pulls this off. This is largely due to the unexpectedly avant-garde twist the film employs within its final half hour or so. It goes to great lengths to lay out a map of its meaning and symbolism, so maybe it's just that I didn't find anything to relate to. But I was overwhelmed by a relative apathy by the film's conclusion; an apathy accented by a kind of hopelessness. I'm not entirely sure how to categorize Dark Horse; it's not strictly a comedy or a drama or a black comedy. It's more akin to a mashup between the Coen Brothers and David Lynch - both of whom I greatly admire. I didn't really like this movie, but it has all the earmarks of a cult classic so I won't go so far as to say it's not worth watching. But personally, I was neither wholly compelled nor wholly repelled by the experience.


IDENTITY

Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (or Ten Little Indians...after it was renamed from a much more offensive title) was a seminal work of mystery literature, and has gone on to directly or indirectly influence thrillers and mystery books and films alike ever since its release in 1939. Identity, while not a direct adaptation of Christie's work, nevertheless uses some of the narrative devices employed by that book. It's a fairly simple setup: ten strangers arrive at a motel in the middle of nowhere during a rain storm that's cut them off from their respective destinations. Stranded, the various characters begin getting picked off slowly by a deranged murderer and of course begin to panic - each suspecting the other of guilt in turn. As you can expect, there's a big twist that ties the whole thing together - with a second twist closing out the film just before the credits. Both twists are fairly predictable, though you probably won't see them coming too far out. John Cusack takes the lead as limo driver/former cop Ed Dakota. He does an admirable job as a concerned by relatively tight-lipped character, appropriately similar enough to the anti-hero detectives types of hard-boiled crime novels. Amanda Peet plays Paris, a hooker attempting to restart her life far away from her former life in Vegas. Ray Liotta plays a cop (again) named Sam Rhodes, who seems to be hiding a pretty damning secret of some kind - but of course I'm not about to spill the beans on that front. I can't say too much more about the movie without giving something away, but overall it's a good thriller with some psychological horror elements thrown in for effect. Since it takes place at a lonely motel and involves the murder of some of its occupants, it reminded me of Psycho in several places. There are one or two grisly moments that move the film from basic thriller into more slasher movie territory, but they're few and far enough between that I wouldn't go so far as to call Identity a horror movie. Again, the twists don't take too long to unravel, so Identity won't have you on the very edge of your seat the whole time. But it's a solid entry in the genre and for any diehard fans of mystery thrillers it's a must see.


IRON SKY

As I've mentioned before, in a few places, B-grade cinema and/or the overall grindhouse aesthetic has made a solid comeback in recent memory. We're sophisticated enough as an audience (for the most part) to need a foray into ironic movies replete with self-deprecation every once in awhile. Personally, it's a trend I enjoy - regardless of how it's presented or where it comes up. While Iron Sky was actually a largely crowd-sourced film and not technically part of the "Hollywood machine," it still fits into this ironically ridiculous tradition I've come to enjoy so much. The concept is as ridiculous as you could possibly conceive: after being defeated in WWII, the Nazis retreated to the dark side of the moon to rebuild their defenses and regroup for an all out assault on planet Earth in the future. The movie more or less opens on the events that lead into their attempted return and predictably works its way into an epic space battle before conclusion. The overall idea is silly enough, but there's plenty of equally ridiculous goings-on in the smaller details of the story including the re-election of a Sarah Palin-like presidential figure (Stephanie Paul), a black astronaut (Christopher Kirby) the Nazis "turned" white in an attempt to make him a part of the "Master Race," and several others. Iron Sky is, as you can surmise, a comedy. And I laughed out loud plenty of times, but it wasn't as good a movie as I was hoping it would be. Just about all the pieces are there, but one or two of the actors overdo the already hyperbolic elements in the film and one too many times the movie goes careening into the eye-rolling without sufficient subtlety. Where it really succeeds as a spectacle is when you consider that much of the film was made through Wreck-A-Movie; a company that specializes in participatory cinema and in crowdsourcing various aspects of production. And I loved the concept enough to say that I recommend seeing Iron Sky, despite the fact that - objectively - it's not that great of a movie. But it's self-aware enough to make it worth seeing, and there are a number of references to other movies with similar themes or stories: namely Der Untergang (Downfall) and Dr. Strangelove. In fact, Iron Sky feels a lot like an homage to Dr. Strangelove - though it's not anywhere close to being as strong a film. I think ultimately where the movie fails is in attempting to weave too much social commentary into its narrative; I think it should have just stuck to being goofy and self-deprecating. Such as it is, Iron Sky is still unique and funny enough to be worth your time. And it's a real novelty of participatory cinema to boot; if it doesn't give you the itch to check out Wreck-A-Movie and possibly become a part of their next production - I don't know what will.


LOVE

I can't help but recollect the dark words of Agent Smith in The Matrix Revolutions every time I see this title: "...only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love." And Love is certainly not without its fair share of insipidness. But there's definitely more to it, and it's not all bad - I'm relatively surprised to say. Fans of Angels and Airwaves will recognize this film right away as part of the band's multi-platform media endeavors. Fortunately, if you're not a fan of Angels and Airwaves, there's not enough of their signature here to be a deterrent. The movie begins with a Civil War battle on the brink of erupting. One of the soldiers is told by his commanding officer to leave the battlefield in search of an artifact recently discovered and after wandering for a brief montage the soldier comes upon a crater - though we don't see what's within. We are then taken to a space station where a lone astronaut loses contact with mission control for reasons we're not yet privy to. The next 50 minutes or so of the film's run time is occupied with charting his loosening grip on reality, as the isolation slowly drives him crazy. The last 20 minutes or so of the movie deal with how his isolation is resolved and how he's brought to a higher plane of existence because of it. If it sounds an awful lot like 2001: A Space Odyssey that's because it very much is. In fact, the film goes further than simple homage and openly reproduces elements from that film; in some cases shot-for-shot. You don't get the impression that it's done maliciously or with the expectation of surpassing Kubrick's masterpiece, so it's not wholly offensive - at least it wasn't to me. But it wouldn't be unfair to say that this movie is the poor man's 2001. Love was a strange viewing experience for me, because it repeatedly had me loving it and then hating it - sometimes within the space of a few minutes. The long stretches on the space station are mercilessly tedious; though this was likely intentional and meant to convey the sense of loneliness and instability the astronaut experiences. Interspersed with these vignettes are dreams the astronaut has of a beautiful woman who is seductively dressed and posed, and constantly having her hair tossed about by some stock fan off camera. These scenes could be transplanted shot-for-shot into a tawdry rap music video and they'd be perfectly at home, so it was in these moments - for example - that I despised this movie. Then, during the film's opening Civil War battle scene, I was awestruck by how beautifully the combat was captured in slow motion. One particular shot made my mouth literally hang open: the grizzled and long haired general swings his saber as the soldiers around him clash in conflict - all in muted tones and caught in a jaw-dropping slow motion. If slow-mo were ever being exploited gratuitously, it's in the opening moments of this film. But that didn't make it any less captivating to see. Love is certainly more optimistic and more light than 2001 (in case you couldn't tell by the title), and for all its faults - I ultimately enjoyed it. Love is tedious, beautiful, pretentious, thought-provoking, and haunting...not in that order, and sometimes all at once. It's cerebral and definitely on the experimental side; an art-house film of debatable merit, but undeniable presentation.


THE REBOUND

It should come as no secret to frequent readers of this blog or friends of mine that I like chick flicks as a general rule. And having seen all of the bigger and better-known titles I can think of, I'm always on the lookout for an indie or underground rom-com to tide me over until the next Sleepless In Seattle, 13 Going on 30, Crazy, Stupid, Love, etc. It was by such intent I was directed towards The Rebound, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones as leading lady Sandy - a woman whose recent divorce has taken more of a toll on her personal life than she cares to admit. Justin Bartha plays Aram, a young man she meets at a Women's Center where he volunteers. At the urging of her stock character close friend, Sandy decides to "get back out there" into the dating world while Aram becomes something of a nanny to Sandy's two children. But they predictably begin to form a romantic bond that transcends their relative age gap and the rest is something you've seen before in a host of other, and more importantly, better films. I'm trying to resist the urge to be too vicious with this movie, but it's a bit of a struggle given how pitifully it achieves its goals. To start with, Aram is a perfect character. There's no need for character development with him because he's already a better human being than anyone you've met; you could practically hear the writer's backlog of Freudian hangups being poured into him during the writing process. He's a Women's Studies studies major with a passion for feminism who volunteers at a Women's Center, he's great with kids, he's conscientious and respectful all the time regardless of the circumstance, he does humanitarian work, he's technically divorced because he was in a green-card marriage for a close friend of his who was on the verge of being deported: he's perfect. He's too perfect, even for a chick flick. Then there's Sandy, who is constantly injecting her conversations with various feminist mantras. Feminism is awesome, I mean that - I don't have anything against feminists and I'm certainly not sexist. But we only need to hear her tell her daughter about the power she has as a woman or comment on how she doesn't need a man once or twice to get the point. She's every annoying feminist cliche rolled into one and to top it off, Zeta-Jones turns in a subpar performance. She's not terrible, but she's been so much better in so many other films I was genuinely surprised to see her acting with such visible effort. I don't really mind a predictable story if it's handled the right way; there's a way to be pleasantly predictable without just slacking off on keeping the film engaging. The Rebound is a good example of the latter; you can see practically every beat coming a mile away and there's precious little with which to justify it. The premise of The Rebound was compelling enough; I really liked the idea of exploring the societal double standard that says men dating younger women is somehow more appropriate than vice versa. But instead all I got was Justin Bartha always saying the perfect thing and Catherine Zeta-Jones trying too hard.


SLEEPWALK WITH ME

Any Mike Birbiglia fans in the audience? If so then this title should be very familiar. Birbiglia has gained critical acclaim with his one man show of the same title. But Sleepwalk With Me, the film, is fortunately not just an exercise in redundancy. The movie opens with Mike addressing the camera, opening the film the way he does his standup performance. From there, it transitions into a standard narrative - occasionally interspersed with vignettes of Birbiglia addressing the camera, transitioning from various parts of his story. The story he tells is one that's the textbook definition of bittersweet, and almost embarrassingly frank. Mike Pandamiglio (Birbiglia's cinematic counterpart) is a struggling standup comic who feels like his life is in a bit of a rut. He's in a steady relationship with Abby (Lauren Ambrose), but he's beginning to develop a sleepwalking problem that's more than once put him in precarious positions. As he begins to pursue his standup career more seriously, his relationship with Abby begins to crumble and his sleepwalking becomes exponentially more problematic. Birbiglia opens the film by saying that everything he's about to relay is fact; that this is a completely true story. He makes mention that often after his shows people ask him if it really did happen the way he says it did, and asserts that he's fabricated nothing. Despite some of the rather shocking things that happen to him - mostly on account of his sleepwalking - the film evinces a kind of sincerity that seems to corroborate Birbiglia's claim. Moreover, he makes no attempt to paint himself as a hero or a great guy throughout the course of the film - lending the whole movie an even greater feeling of authenticity. Sleepwalk With Me has a number of a laugh out loud moments, and just as many that will make you cringe with embarrassment or mortification for the people involved. Birbiglia's standup is much more laugh-a-minute than this film, which is as many parts drama as it is comedy. But Birbiglia is such an evidently likeable guy - even when he's not behaving in a likeable way - that it's hard to deny the inherent charm the film brings to the table. I greatly enjoyed Sleepwalk With Me; it's a fantastic piece of independent cinema that reminds you just how powerful low budget films can be with the right material in the hands of the right people. If you've seen Birbiglia's one-man show then Sleepwalk With Me won't offer any revelations you're not already privy to. But that shouldn't put you off watching it. And even if you don't know the first thing about Mike Birbiglia, Sleepwalk With Me is the perfect introduction.