Christopher Nolan
Mark Duplass, who stars as Pete in The League, recommends Netflix picks on his Twitter account on a fairly regular basis. Tonight he pointed to the first feature by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception), Following. That got me wondering what other Nolan films were available for streaming, so here’s a Nolan Mini-Mega-Post featuring Following, Memento, & Insomnia.
Following, uh, follows a young writer with a penchant for stalking. He falls in with another stalky type, and they get into some trouble. The black and white, noir-style photography suits the subject matter well. Remarkably, Nolan made this movie over the course of a year, filming on weekends, for a ridiculously low budget.
Memento follows Leonard, who has lost his ability to retain short-term memories and has to piece his existence together out of clues he’s left himself via Polaroid pictures. Kind of like Dana Carvey in Clean Slate except, you know, not terrible. Is is one of those movies that you can’t watch the same way the second time, like The Usual Suspects or Fight Club, so if you’re watching it with someone who hasn’t seen it, don’t be a jerk and ruin it for them.
Insomnia is a remake of a foreign film staring Al Pacino and Robin Williams. But, despite all of that, it still has a 92 on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s not my favorite Nolan film, but it’s definitely Queue Worthy. Besides, what else are you going to do when every channel on your TV is showing football?
Super Troopers
Super Troopers is an absolute classic of the stoner comedy genre. Either you’ve seen it and you love it or you haven’t and you’ll hate it. Meow,* maybe you like it, but not so much that you want a DVD of it sitting around your house for your parents to find and try to watch while everyone’s over for Christmas. Fortunately for you, it’s on Netflix Instant!
*You’ve either seen it and you get it, or you think this site took a really weird turn.
Criminal
John C. Reilly can be a bit hit or miss in staring roles—you either like his shtick in movies like Walk Hard and Step Brothers or you don’t, and his independent films can as dark as his comedies are broad. But one thing Reilly has nailed is the likably unlikable character.
If you’re tired of criminals with hearts of gold (Oceans 11, Italian Job, etc.), then Criminal might be just the movie for you. Without giving too much away, I’ll say that you keep waiting for Reilly to do the right thing, but you’re not really disappointed when he doesn’t (he is a con man, after all).
Also, if you prefer Maggie Gyllenhaal in roles that lean more towards sexy than quirky Crminal is a good flick to check out.
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Here’s an interesting movie. A stacked cast, a quirky script, biting satire of the military industrial complex… and all based on a true story? Well, that was the pitch anyway.
I had to check it out just because of the tag line: “No Goats. No Glory.” In the end, the movie is as uneven as its Netflix reviews, which range from “headed for cult status” to “shockingly unfunny,” might suggest. Though I might point out to the latter reviewer that satire isn’t always laugh-out-loud funny.
This movie is worth seeing for at least two reasons: (1) to see George Clooney staring at things and (2) to form your own opinion of one of the strangest movies of the decade.
The Men Who Stare at Goats on Netflix
Football Megapost: Wildcats, Rudy & Jerry Maguire
In honor of today being the first Sunday of the football season, we bring you not just one, but three football movies.
First we have a true classic: Wildcats. I don’t know if there us much more that needs to be said about this movie than it stars Goldie Hawn and features Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. Oh, and you can stream it on Netflix.
Then there’s Rudy, the touching true tale of some guy who went to Notre Dame. It turns out that the main character is a bit of a jerk in real life, but he’s perfectly likable as played by Sean Astin. Plus, this is the movie Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn met on, giving us the cult hit Swingers.
Jerry Maguire isn’t exactly a football movie, though maybe you’d think it was if you tuned in at just the right moment. But for the purposes of this post, it’ll do. Actually, I really don’t like this movie at all. Maybe it’s from being forced to watch it. But maybe you like it, so for you we point out that it’s available on Netflix Instant.
48 Hrs.
This is Eddie Murphy’s film debut and an action comedy that actually took the action part seriously. I still think about 48 Hrs. whenever I hear The Police’s Roxanne (though, to be completely honest the scene it recalls for me is from the beginning of Another 48 Hrs.).
My favorite scene is near the beginning, when Cates goes to the police station. It’s done all in one shot, following Nolte around the station, with multiple overlapping conversations, including Cates berating a witness.
Like me, you probably saw this movie on TV a dozen times throughout the 80s and 90s, but a word of warning if you only ever saw it on basic cable: don’t watch it with kids in the room. There is an ample supply of f-bombs and some nudity.
Don’t forget to enter to win a new Apple TV from Qworthy!
Iron Man
Every few years, a new movie comes out an redefines the public’s view of super-hero movies. Actually, maybe it’s more like every 18 months. Now that it’s been a couple of years, and the world has been exposed to The Dark Knight, it’s hard to remember what a revelation Robert Downey, Jr., and company were to the pantheon of super people.
But they were. Plus, that suit is wicked cool.
We’ve mentioned before that streaming services tend to have lesser sequels of hit movies rather than the originals. In this case, perhaps because the sequel was also a big hit, we get the original.
And it’s only two years old! (And according to the DVD cover picture to the right, it’s “spectacular,” just like Teri Hatcher in Seinfeld.)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
You either like classic movies or you don’t, but there is no denying the charisma that Robert Redford and Paul Newman have in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You can make an argument that it’s an action movie in which nothing happens for large stretches of time, but that’s just the way it was before movies became non-stop assaults on our senses.
Despite the fact that Butch and Sundance spend almost the entire film somewhat-ineptly running from lawmen turned railroad security guards, they are so cool that you just want to be them (or want to be with them if that’s your thing).
This is the movie that named a film festival (and won four Oscars), so check it out. And let me know if it also sounds to you like the horses only have three legs.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on Netflix
The Professional
There are some movies you have to watch anytime they’re on. For me, this is one of them. Jean Reno is fantastic here, as he is in all his roles (yes, even Couples Retreat and the Pink Panther remakes), but it’s a young Natalie Portman that steals the show.
If you’ve only seen her in the Star Wars prequels, you might not know that she can act. But, here, she shows a craft she didn’t get to display in Lucas’s vanity project. (Fun fact: Portman was also in Beautiful Girls, the Matt Dillon flick that gave us the version of Sweet Caroline that everyone sings at baseball games.)
The Professional was written and directed by Luc Besson, writer-director of The Fifth Element and La Femme Nikita and writer of the Transporter movies, among others, which should give you an idea of the overall tone (and level of violence) of the movie.
The Jerk
One day, after I’m wildly successful through some fluke of my personality quirks, I’d like to think I’d crash and burn as successfully as Navin R. Johnson, Steve Martin’s greatest character ever. From the opening lines through the end when he’s found in the alley clutching his beloved thermos, the titular Jerk is the funniest ass in all of Hollywood.
Like all good comedies, you either love it or hate it. And, if you love it as much as I do, you’ll take any opportunity to watch it. I think I’ll go do that now. And then I’m going to look into getting this site listed in the phone book.
Also, pizza in a cup.
