Netflix Watch Instantly Recommendation Thread

Thought it might be fun/useful to devote a thread that flagged semi-obscure or off the radar films & tv shows on Netflix's Watch Instantly service.

A few recent discoveries:

Burnt Offerings
MST3K: The Wild World of Batwoman
American Grindhouse
Vampyr
Who Is Harry Nilsson?
Shock Waves
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue
Man with the Movie Camera
World's Greatest Dad
Rolling Stones: Stones in Exile

There are so many MST3K movies available, it is awesome.

My roommate and I watched about three quarters of the Doors doc that Tom DiCillo made. Johnny Depp narrates.
It's pretty ridiculous and awesome.

xpost -- between that, the DVD sets and YouTube it's a golden time.

yeah, I think I've gone through about a dozen MST3K's this month already

x-post - I'm not a Doors fan, but that I've heard good things about that doc

Between checking a few months ago and checking a few days ago, a bunch of Criterion Collection films have been added. I don't remember so much from the Essential Art House boxes being available before, and it looks like almost all of them are there now.

Unfortunately, I found this out after I added the Bergman box set to my Criterion order the other day. Hopefully they'll let me return it unopened so I can get the Cassavetes box instead.

you can stream a woman under the influence now so... maybe rethink that, too

oh shiiiit, Killing of a Chinese Bookie is streamable now too!

Recently I've watched and enjoyed the following: The Watermelon Woman, Suspiria, Rockers, She, The Last Picture Show, and Le Jetee (inspiration for 12 Monkeys).

Oh and a lot of old Nickelodeon cartoons from the 90s have been added but y'all probably already know that.

The White Ribbon is available!

Claire Denis' 35 Shots of Rum

I think all of the Paul Morrissey Warhol-produced films are on there.

Louie season 1, one of the most fascinating shows in a long time.

Dogs Decoded: Nova is an awesome doc about recent canine research. Highly recommended for any dog owners.

Loved Louie as well.

Also streaming:
The Girlfriend Experience
Slings and Arrows
Blue Thunder

And HAVOC!

i watched the happy hooker goes hollywood on streaming netflix tonight. "recommendation" is a strong word, but i had fun.

"American Grindhouse"

Haha so amusing who co-produced this (it's okay btw as talking head features like this go).

if you liked "The Wild World of Batwoman", make sure to check out "Eegah!"

Louie season 1, one of the most fascinating shows in a long time.

Yeah, I never got a chance to check this out until it was on Netflix - it's great.

"I Am Love" is pretty fascinating

if you liked "The Wild World of Batwoman", make sure to check out "Eegah!"

I did and it was great!

barking dogs never bite - korean black comedy about eating the dogs
we jam econo - awesome minutemen doc

if i start posting on this thread i will be participating in 3 different netflix streaming threads which seems excessive

There's two other streaming threads? Did I miss something?

dont feel bad, one of them is my own self-indulgent fault and the other is on I Love Games.

JJJUSTEN MAKES ONE SENTENCIRIFIC REVIEWS OF ALL THE CRAP THAT HE WATCHES LATE AT NIGHT ON NETFLIX STREAMING XBOX SOMETHING WHY BECAUSE HE BORED ALSO BECAUSE
Netflix Streaming Film Recommendations: Because You Can't Always Play With Yourself

one is jjjusten's personal joint and the other has a tmi title

xp

Sorry jjjusten! I totally missed your thread. Thought I did a search first. Look forward to reading those threads.

Tales from the Script has interviews with everyone from Richard Rush to Paul Schraeder to Shane Black about big-studio screenwriting. Lots of guys I'd never heard speak before. Good documentary.

the documentary about milton glaser (hugely important graphic designer) is on instant netflix. can't wait to see it.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (aka "The Banksy documentary") is an unexpected mindfuck, and surprisingly isn't really about Banksy at all. I recommend!

yeah that looks good

^Had me all fucked up over art, commerce, life in general, for a couple days.

Recent watches:

Soul Kitchen
Vengeance
Valhalla Rising
Centurion
Rewatched first five eps of Party Down Season 2
Planet B-Boy

Another thumbs up for Exit Through the Gift Shop. Just watched the Joan Rivers doc this weekend, too.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a good doc, not sure if it's on Netflix instant.

Rewatched first five eps of Party Down Season 2

when are they going to put up the final 5 is my question

they took mall cops away :(

i only got to see, like, 4 episodes.

you could write, like, ten doctoral thesiseseses just watching that show and never leaving your couch. amerikkka writ sad.

Just watched Black Narcissus -- so good.

when are they going to put up the final 5 is my question

up now

Milton Glaser doc is good btw.

Just watched Black Narcissus -- so good.

― pixel farmer, Thursday, December 23, 2010 12:38 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Beautiful stuff like these seems worth waiting for the disc to show up, no?

I just watch Hoarders and old SNLs

Exit through the gift shop is so awesome

I know the disc would be better quality than streaming, but streaming is definitely better quality than regular tv -- there are far fewer compression artifacts than I get on cable. Maybe Netflix can tell I have decent downstream bandwidth (10 Mbps), I dunno. Turn off the lights in my office, watch fullscreen on the larger monitor, in with the earbuds, ask the family not to mess with me for two hours (or watch in the morning before they get up), a nice near-cinema experience.

"Beautiful stuff like these seems worth waiting for the disc to show up, no?"

Not with my TV, no.

ah good point

i'm a little of worried that Netflix is gonna phase out discs before the internet connections get good enough for streams to be disc-quality

I'M STILL HERE, one of the greatest and most underrated films of the year, is now on instant. Time will be very kind to it.

Just watched Moon, pretty good.
Now starting the Red Riding Trilogy.

Just watched "I Think We're Alone Now" about two disturbed dudes obsessed with Tiffany. Pretty interesting, if a bit depressing.

Come to think of it, both of the dudes are probably ILM regulars.

Finished Kipo and it's excellent. The animation is still dodgy (save for one episode) but the story is lovely -- I'd say that it's part of the post-Avatar/Korra cartoon boom.

Oh man The Queen's Gambit is extraordinary.

Been wondering about that, as I remember liking the book many years ago.

Oh man The Queen's Gambit is extraordinary.

Just seen this and thought it was fantastic. Anya Taylor-Joy's performance was riveting from start to finish, and I really liked the way all the different themes were explored - addiction, mental illness, sexism, adoption/parental neglect, the loneliness of genius, the tension of high-level competition and all in a lean, clean seven episodes. Also incredible outfits.

Might pick up the Walter Tevis book now too - loved "Mockingbird" but never really checked out anything else by him.

iswydt

ha! didn’t do anything tbh, purely unintentional ;)

omg @ Queens Gambit -can’t stop watching!

I watched the first ep of Queen's Gambit yesterday and I found it to be the strangest mix of boring and upsetting. Too many kid-genius story cliches seemed to be in play: the stone-cold precociousness; the curmudgeonly teacher; handily trouncing the older kids...playing chess on the ceiling was a cool visual idea which I found annoyingly redolent of A Beautiful Mind. I'm going to stick with this because Taylor-Joy is a really compelling actor and I'm assuming it gets more interesting as the character & plot develops.

I'm 3 episodes in, it's certainly not high drama but I find it rather comforting and definitely not too upsetting - every time they seem to telegraph some hugely traumatic event it ends up not working out that way - even the end of ep 2 gets smoothed over pretty much instantly. It all seems a bit Young Adult. The magic drug that causes lucid, persistent and controllable hallucinations within 5 seconds of taking it is lol but ok.

I've been catching up on Dark, but QG definitely caught my eye, looking forward to starting that.

yes I had a friend who stopped queen's gambit 20 minutes into the first episode because he couldn't deal with the orphanage/drugging kids/etc (he's overly sensitive IMO). I told him that all stops with the second episode but he didn't listen to me and went off and watched something stupid

The magic drug that causes lucid, persistent and controllable hallucinations within 5 seconds of taking it is lol but ok

I don't think this is what it's supposed to be doing though? I just figured it was reducing her anxiety/clearing her mind so she could then visualise the board

yeah it’s just a tranq

*just* lol

yeah it’s not causing hallucinations it’s just in taking them she discovered she can visualize the board - my take id she could prob do that without them but she associates w tranqs and thinks that is what helps her maybe

my take ~is~

ok i will accept these hot takes. (the book was 99p in kobo so i bought it & yes she does just seem to be particularly adept at visualisation.)

the lady chess show is very watchable bcz ATJ is extremely watchable -- i never found *her* boring even when festooned w/tropes (or the child that plays her in the first ep). it's kinda hokey schematic bullshit storywise, the moral arc of the drama is 7 eps and it bends towards EXACTLY what you expect at every juncture (but in a pleasing enough way on the whole)

the section in the mid-late eps where she was losing it bcz she's alone and too smart and angry and chaotic and beautiful i found stressy to watch bcz it reminds me of a good friend, who is also sometimes a bit stressy to watch bcz all these same things -- and bcz irl conflicts and causes don't tidily dissove the way hokey schematic-dramatic ones do so i was worrying a bit on my friend's behalf (and wondering if i shd direct them to this show: probably not)

just finished it, even allowing for hokey schematics it whipped ass. acting, production design, cinematography all about as good as i've seen in a limited series/made for streaming thing.

Yeah, "Queen's Gambit" is some solid entertainment, whole family enjoyed. Probably didn't need to be 7 episodes, but not going to complain, because it always looks good and Anya is a compelling presence.

Is it watchable with kids? How young?

Too many kid-genius story cliches seemed to be in play
annoyingly redolent of A Beautiful Mind

oh wait now maybe I don't want to watch this actually

xpost teens, probably.

I enjoyed watching the QG but agree it was a weird mix of sort of Truthbomb and Cliche. The relationship with Alma would've surely been quite a strong influence and yet I don't feel i really got a handle on that character at all. was there supposed to be some fabrication about Beth's age somewhere? At least there was one character who didn't pop up at the end as I was sort of expecting.

chess is for VLs

was there supposed to be some fabrication about Beth's age somewhere?

When she gets adopted she's 15 but the adopters want a 13yo so the governess nods at her to lie about her age. I don't think it's ever mentioned or of any relevance later.

yeah we wondered about that - did she fess up, or go into the wrong class at school? it didn't look like the latter but odd to leave it unclear.

We just finished last night. I was just kinda along for the ride at first (and, like the rest if y'all, for ATJ, who is great and who I expect to be great in lots more stuff if they ever start making movies again) and thought it was okay if a little boilerplate biopic-ish, but I was pretty much sold by the end. It won me over, maybe stoked a tear or two, who can say.

I think it was a bit Wes Anderson - really stylized, and I don’t think I would’ve liked it at all otherwise (I generally dislike biopics or fiction films in that style, I’d much prefer a documentary).

I somehow totally missed the revelation Townes was gay and was confused for a minute by their conversation when they meet up in Russia

We’ve been watching the (a&e?) Leah Remini Scientology survivor series. Some messed up stories!

watched the first ep of the queen’s gambit last night, and have the same reservations many itt do: my biggest eyeroll is the tranq (I assume thorazine?) which knocks her out during the day but somehow leads to extremely vivid and clear visions of an upside-down chessboard at night. (how quickly she picks up the game also stretches belief a bit but that’s ok.) and her “addiction” to them I thought was handled in a pretty hokey way. I hope the series takes the time to show us a little more about the secondary characters; everyone other than beth seems like a pretty leaden cipher to me

it looks nice though and everyone says it gets better so I’ll watch a couple more today

I really liked the way her mother was written & acted, very believable and affecting

Harry Belkin gets a pretty good arc as well (I think we have one or 2 more to go)

i enjoyed the dad's reappearance in the last ep. it's not a deep or complex show but there are some nice touches and some really good character work.

My impression was that the ceiling chess was figurative not literal - she doesn’t actually see the game playing out on the ceiling, she’s seeing it in her mind

A record-setting 62 million households chose to watch The Queen’s Gambit in its first 28 days, making it Netflix's biggest scripted limited series to date. pic.twitter.com/TVC3p4i5Bv

— Netflix (@netflix) November 23, 2020

Wow, I knew lots of people seemed to be watching it, but not that many.

I do have to say that I was kinda let down by the final episode. After doing such a great job of not falling into stereotypes and avoiding cliches throughout the series, they sort of just gave up and went full on sports movie for the last episode, even down to the "slow clap".

do you actually trust netflix to give you accurate viewing figures about their own productions? I certainly wouldn't.

Nah, but I wouldn't doubt that this one had huge numbers for them.

i like the phrase "chose to watch"

*deep sigh* "well, what are we choosing to watch tonight? the chess thing?"

Honestly surprised that it's doing so well, and I'm an ATJ fan. Guess I should watch it someday, along with Tiger King - really make it a 2020 K-Hole

We bailed after one episode of the chess show. I've talked to two friends this week who really thought it was based on a true story, which of course is normally the genre of this sort of thing, and would make it way more interesting. But no, someone just made it up!

Normally this is acceptable in, y'know, fiction but it seems too easy and unearned for a 'sports biopic' style show about a preternatural child prodigy. And the tranqs thing just makes no sense.

i was pretty enthralled with it. very watchable. but did feel a little let down by the final ep.

i thought the last ep was the most moving but I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

i share the reservations about the ending but i thought the show was pretty great for the most part, especially the performances (everyone was great, tho atj did outshine them all)

i like the phrase "chose to watch"

this is Netflix's jargon, adopted earlier this year, meaning that people watched at least two minutes of a programme. The Queen"s Gambit is 393 minutes long.

does that line up with any other kind of standard metric i.e. overnights etc?

they don't release anything but that "watch" statistic iirc

i share the reservations about the ending but i thought the show was pretty great for the most part, especially the performances (everyone was great, tho atj did outshine them all)

― la table sur la table (voodoo chili), Monday, November 23, 2020 1:00 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yah, i should add the ending didnt ruin it for me, by any means.

Yeah, to be clear, the ending didn't ruin the series for me or anything, it was just a misstep and a kind of unsatisfying way to wrap up something that I thoroughly enjoyed otherwise. I was surprised by how much I liked Harry Melling in this and, while I found it hard to take that kid from Love Actually seriously, the costume department really nailed the look for that kind of smart, "eccentric" wannabe "tough guy" kid.

https://compote.slate.com/images/89f1f4d1-b3ed-481c-b416-f5f87c48f8cb.jpeg?width=780&height=520&rect=3600x2400&offset=0x0

I mean, this outfit instantly gave me flashbacks to guys I'd compete against in scholastic bowl and math team even in the early '90s.