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.

we watched "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" yesterday--a good kids movies with a bunch of hipster comedy voice actors (Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Eric Andre.) My 6 yo laughed a lot. Bonus points for making it explicit that the main character is gay at the end.

This was surprisingly good, although maybe I shouldn't have been when I saw that some of the folks from Into the Spider-Verse were involved. Totally agreed on your bonus points as well, that was sweet and well integrated into the story. One of my favorite non-Pixar kids flicks in a bit now. I liked how the animation almost looked Claymation-ish at times and the way they played with the formats for the memes and other references.

The trailer for this makes it look terrible but i'm glad we tried it. It's great - even if I can now, 18 hours later, barely remember a thing that happened in it. At first my kids were like 'U???' (the all-ages rating in the UK) and then, at several times during the movie scoffing - 'There's no way this is a U!'

I do remember thinking 'great, the movie's almost over - we can get the kids in bed!' and then looking and realising we were only at the halfway point. Pretty action-packed Act II.

also enjoyed mitchells, the mall scene was an incredible and hilarious set piece

every single person I know who's into animation has been raving about this

yeah its great!

On a personal note I haaaaaate this illustration style and consider it a little young for somebody going off to college:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/3rEAAOSwss5f~EeR/s-l400.jpg

I enjoyed seeing the Sony/Spiderverse style in another context, which fit well with the general internet/tech themes, and there were definitely good parts, but by the end I think I hated this movie? The LGBT representation angle was like one semi-step forward (does she ever directly interact with another person not in her family?) and nine steps back: par for the course for virtually all mainstream animated movies I know I know, but christ the pro-family hetero-normative propaganda was relentless and felt more pointed in light of the main character's pretty much irrelevant sexuality. Plus Maya Rudolph was not sufficient distraction from how sexistly thin the mom character was.

That said, I might actually have embraced it if the contractually obligatory in media res opening had been cut, and they'd had the confidence to let you enjoy the surprisingly subtle switch from family drama to global apocalypse. I was really hoping Thor Ragnarok making fun of "bet you're wondering how I got here *record scratch*" would kill this off

lol that was a bit more denunciating that I intended, but tbf I wouldn't have written all that about something completely mediocre

No I think that's really fair. And the dad is super front and center but what's he about again? He likes THE WOODS and wants to LIVE OFF THE LAND except he sorta sucks at it because LOL DADS AM I RIGHT. I mean it was fun and way better than I thought it would be but I'm pretty tired of the climax of like every animated movie being 'Family is the most important thing everrrrrr'

I'd argue that the treatment of the parents was somewhat intentional - the parents are sort of on the periphery of someone preparing to go to college and absolutely absorbed in a creative pursuit that the parents aren't really engaging with. To Katie, her parents are frustratingly one-dimensional!

I think that was part of what she learns, there is more to her dad than she realized or paid attention to! I do definitely agree that the mom character doesn't even get that kind of revelation though, which does suck.

I was really hoping Thor Ragnarok making fun of "bet you're wondering how I got here *record scratch*" would kill this off

I also hate this, and it's so pervasive. So many book club "literary" novels do it too. Just start the story at the start!

Someone suggested that so many of these films centre on the dad/child relationship because dads are the ones who bring the kids to the cinema. I'm not sure that's true, but I think it is true that mothers will sit through any shite about ponies or whatever and just tune out, whereas dads will only go if there's something in it for them. (Sweeping generalization, I know.)

I really enjoyed the film while I was watching it, but agree with all these criticisms.

xp
Yeah the father-daughter conflict didn't really make sense to me. He's worried about her choosing an artistic life (at the very start of college? ok) because he failed as an artist--his chosen medium being a single log cabin? Which they moved out of when they had kids? I guess? Also he doesn't like technology, so he's literally never watched a single one of her movies? Quite possible I missed something there.

I kind of pity animated screenwriters. You're writing for a medium that means you can literally depict anything imaginable—and this movie does have some awesome stuff in it, no doubt--and what we get is movie after movie telling you to believe in yourself and love your family.

Wrote that before jon's posts. That's an interesting point about it being from the daughter's less than generous POV, thanks (though yeah I think that makes the mom's non-arc even worse).

trishyb: I can't remember where it was now, but I read an article the other day about this phenomenon. The most depressing part was an anonymous quote from a screenwriter that studio execs now demand the nonlinear beginning trope and ask for rewrites to make it happen. Sad to hear about it spreading to books as I can see the economic logic for streaming entertainment (get them hooked), but books have a different level of investment to them.

In media res dates back to ancient epics, e.g. Iliad and the Odyssey.

Also gotta imagine that the whole in media res things helps with streaming services' need to grab eyeballs immediately.

right, that's the economic logic I meant

Not sure how seriously to take Leee's point, but I'm not saying it's brand new or cannot be done well. Just that it's becoming ubiquitous and hacky/cliched, and in this particular case it totally undercut one of the things the script did well, which was letting a robot apocalypse unfold in the background of a more conventional family drama before erupting into the foreground. Also the actual substance of the prologue was bad: my family is so weird: I make movies on my phone, and my little brother likes dinosaurs, an incredibly unique interest for a child

Also gotta imagine that the whole in media res things helps with streaming services' need to grab eyeballs immediately.

This is exactly where it comes from in books, too. I've been on a fair few writing courses, and they'll all tell you that only established writers can get away with a slow buildup. If you're new, you need to record-scratch that first paragraph in order to grab an agent, then a publisher, then someone who looks at the sample on Kindles.

We watched ET the other day, and that film starts so slowly. And so creepily, too. Imagine if it had started with them all on their flying bikes, then cutting to Elliott going "And I thought letting the frogs go was bad!"

lmao

If your movie opens with any more buildup than The Naked Kiss, I'm already bored.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AU3QDnpFm8

lol

Lupin back June 11

Nothing worth watching for a month huh? Finished Lupin, goofy fun, last episode could've been a bit less stupid.

Oxygen is a pretty tight high concept thriller, I did twiddle my thumbs or get a bit exasperated once or twice but the two big reveals are well worth it imo.

Halston was good! It was entertaining!

iirc people now post Netflix takes mostly to the "But is it on Netflix? thread for non-Netflix services" thread. that said, it does seem particularly weak as a service this year. I think I've watched more Jeopardy than anything else

I'm three episodes into Sweet Tooth and it's pretty good so far. Quite a refreshing change from the usual post apocalyptic fare.

Lots of talk about Bo Burnham's Inside on the Eighth Grade thread, though not positive

Netflix is basically Crackle now, except they still have a lot of money so they're bringing you 1000x as much Crackle.

Lupin is among the best things they've done imo. And very much looking forward to the third season of Sex Education which is one of my favourite TV shows ever. It's a low hit rate admittedly but the hits are outstanding.

Not sure about Lupin. It's good fun but the stupidity of the finale detracted somewhat from my enjoyment and the twists were all fairly predictable this time around.

thought it was frequently dumb but very fun, we binged it in a day.

Ragnarok s2 was kind of a drag though. Lol @ their Loki basically just playing Scandinavian Tom Hiddleston.

Been watching older shows mostly - rewatching old seasons of Community, finally checking out Line of Duty, Trapped, Borgen etc.

Still scared to check out Inside - loved Eighth Grade but Bo Burnham's whole schtick seems exhausting. I also hate musical comedy.

Would definitely recommend ignoring 100% of Burnham’s specials then.

I watched twenty minutes of Inside and couldn't stand it anymore.

On Becoming a God in Central Florida has shown up on Irish Netflix. A more aggressively unpleasant drama series I have not seen since the super-depressing days of Breaking Bad. Stupid, desperate people doing stupid, desperate things, with a weird sort of baddie who appeared to have been modelled on Pierce's dad from Community. I watched it thinking it would get better (because it got good reviews in the US), but it got worse instead. Obviously Kirsten Dunst was solid gold as always, but that's about it. But what do I know, I don't even like Midnight Diner, which everyone else seems to love.

Had difficulty taking Lupin seriously when in the very first episode he manages to fake an identity well enough to trick the Louvre by...creating a fake wikipedia page.

tbf I don't think you should take Lupin seriously! I enjoyed S1 but haven't felt immediately compelled to watch the second; my Lupin hot take is that the kids' animated reboot of Carmen Sandiego is both better and pretty similar.

Well, "seriously" - I see it as a cool heist show and within that I would like my heists to be clever.

I'm also kind of meh on Lupin, but the last season of Carmen Sandiego that I watched was a real drag -- the first few seasons are pretty good, though.

Lupin feels a lot like Sherlock, where implausible details keep piling up, but it's still a fun experience.

I liked the first five episodes a lot but am kinda bogged down after episode 2 (7) of this current batch.

needs more heists

main dude is very charismatic though

he’s great in intouchables too

There's a good profile of him on the New Yorker's site. (I don't know if they're still on strike, thus making reading their articles Bad, but there it is anyway.)

BREAKING: We have averted a strike! After more than two and a half years of negotiations, @newyorkerunion, @p4kunion, and @ars_union are proud to announce that we have reached an agreement in principle on our first contracts. Here are some of our wins: pic.twitter.com/gBzOwbKpqI

— The New Yorker Union (@newyorkerunion) June 16, 2021

he’s great in intouchables too

he's fine but that is a cursed movie if I've ever seen one, horrible memories of watching it w/ right wing french acquaintance who delighted in its portrayal of black people and the disabled as Somehow Human Too?

yeah it doesn't bear a lot of scrutiny. he just has this way of sweeping all doubts away through his magnetism.

Story of my life.

Rewatching the first season of Black Summer as Season 2 has just dropped.

Forgotten how tense those first few episodes were

needs more heists

Yep. Part 1 was great fun, this one not as good but had its moments

On Becoming a God in Central Florida

this show was a mess in several ways but I still really liked it, I think? Dunst obv was the best thing about it but I also liked her coworker who got sucked up by the MLM. I dunno, I thought it was fun in general and was at least not a super tired retread of other shows. I'd have been happy with one more season.

I liked it fine, nothing more than that, and at the same time was glad it was not renewed.