I kinda skipped over the last few movie experiments at Netflix, but it occurs to me that I should record the failures along with the successes, so here goes:
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge - This Bollywood film was one of a batch I queued in response to Jean's curiosity regarding the field. I got it by scanning best-of lists and picking a few. Unfortunately, while the plot was familiar (arranged marriage, love on the way), it seemed dated and trite, so Jean was unable to overcome her resistance to musicals to plod through the movie. I didn't really want to see it without her, so fail.
Chop Shop - This was a streaming offering, another film by Ramin Bahrani, who did 'Man Push Cart', which was bleak, bleak. This one seemed to have a slightly more upbeat mode, but there were clouds on the horizon, and we couldn't bring ourselves to watch to the finish, given how MPS ended, abruptly and ugly.
The Science of Sleep - This is a movie written/directed by Michel Gondry. He co-wrote 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' with Charlie Kaufman, and directed that film too. We loved ESotSM, but it seems that without a collaborator, Gondry is prone to wander all over the map. TSoS is a jumble, meant to capture the dream life of the main character, and how his fantasies bleed over into his reality. In fact, while I had little trouble determining when his mind was overwriting reality, it still seemed like a buncha 'just because'. And the ending was entirely too WTF for my tastes. We watched the whole thing on the strength of the previous movie, even while asking ourselves if it was worth continuing. I'd have to recommend against it.
On the bright side, I've been streaming Red Dwarf, which I watched on PBS in Ohio a couple decades ago. Very fun, silly British Sci Fi comedy.
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