Oh Netflix, why you gotta do me wrong?
I’ve humored you and your ‘recommendations’. Some were even semi-decent. But it seems like I’m on a losing streak lately, to the point where I’m so hesitant about starting a new show or movie, I figure I’d just re-watch a sure thing (Breaking Bad binge, anyone?).
From one of the best movies of the year to one of the worst:
Saw: Legacy was so abysmally bad, it really boggles the mind that a studio actually agreed to finance, let alone release this piece of drivel. Keep Reading!
A movie about the making of the best bad movie ever made: doesn’t sound too enticing, does it?
Unless you’ve seen The Room, that is. (Extra points if you’re lucky enough to have attended a midnight screening of the cult classic, spoon-throwing audience participation and all.)
If you’ve never seen The Room, go watch it now; then pick up Greg Sestero’s ‘The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made‘ in audiobook form. You can thank me later.
I don’t normally go for biopics, because I generally find non-fiction boring, but The Founder was a story I was strangely drawn to, possibly because I had read the broad strokes of Ray Kroc’s story a while back and found it fascinating.
For a movie that lacks the major drama we’re used to expecting from biographical films, turning an anti-hero salesman into an interesting figure was a big ask. Still, Siegel and Hancock’s adaptation of the history behind an unusual man who turned a revolutionary idea into the fast food empire we all know today rose to the chalenge.
It’s not often that I watch a movie that profoundly scares, upsets or disturbs me, but which is a tough one to recommend. Such was the case with Requiem For A Dream, for instance: I watched it alone, at night, in my dorm room, and it stayed with me for weeks. Although not a horror flick per se, it terrified me far more than any monster or haunted house movie ever could, because in the case of Requiem, the horror factor was all too real. It’s not for everyone, therefore I wouldn’t be quick to recommend it to a lot of people, unless they have the stomach for it.
Torture porn movies are also famously hard to recommend, even to a horror fan, because I realize not everyone shares my tolerance for gore. Yes, they fit the bill in that they’re scary, but they’re also quite disgusting, and a far cry from the type of horror flicks that seem to top ‘best of’ lists, such as The Babadook, Insidious, The Conjuring and every type of paranormal activity movie that usually leaves me cold. (The one exception to the rule was The Blair Witch Project, and only because of the is-this-real-or-not hype surrounding its original release, back when the internet and social media weren’t readily available to help debunk urban legends).
All of this is by way of explaining that, for me, what classifies a movie as ‘horror’, or at least good horror, is quite subjective.
It’s been a big summer for Mr Stephen King, hasn’t it? With It racking up rave reviews left and right, Mr Mercedes about to wrap up its first season, and now Gerald’s Game out on Netflix, it seems the King of Horror can do no wrong these days.
I’ve yet to see It (it was just released this week in these parts) and I’m holding off to binge-watch Mr Mercedes, but I did just see Gerald’s Game, and it didn’t disappoint.
Alright, we’ve done books and TV, now let’s dive into this random assortment of movies; there’s no rhyme or reason to this selection, other than it focuses on (mostly) recent films, so without further ado, here’s what I watched this summer:
Yes, I realise it’s been officially fall for a while now, but both the weather and my current location still scream summer to me, so I’m still operating in beach mode. And although it’s hasn’t been a conventionally productive period for me, it was quite relaxing, and exactly what I needed after a not so wonderful winter.
And it’s been somewhat productive in terms of pop-culture consumption. I enjoyed several books, movies and TV shows, and that’s exactly what this post is about: a handy list for me to keep track of everything I read and watched over the summer.
I wish I were one of those people who rush to see every new movie (or at least the ones who appeal to them) as soon as they hit the theater, or like those who check out every new show that looks promising. Binge-watching has spoiled me when it comes to TV, so aside from the few shows I follow regularly, lately I find myself preferring to just wait and binge on slightly older shows or just focus my attention on mini-series I can watch start-to-finish over a weekend.
As far as movies are concerned, I go through phases. Some weeks I don’t even have the attention span to sit through a whole movie; others I refuse to invest the time unless it’s a must-see. Over the past few months, the only “new” movie I saw was Nocturnal Animals (loved it).
Then there are times when I try to dig up a handful of movies of a certain genre and watch them back-to-back. So, given my recent disappointment in 13 Reasons Why, I figured I should get my teen drama/rom-com fix wherever I could get it, so I picked a few films off of random recommendations:
