Monday, November 10, 2008

What's In the Netflix Queue #20

I guess this should stand as some type of watermark (#20!). Regardless, the next 10 titles in my queue:

1. The Night of the Shooting Stars- No excuse for never seeing this one. I think IFC, back in the day, programmed everything else around this film. It was on continually. I might have caught bits and pieces, but I know I've never seen the whole thing. Anyway, this is as good a place as any to begin my viewing of the Taviani Brothers and their films.
2. God's Country- I've been working my way through the films of Louis Male for a couple months now, and I'm just left with his documentaries. There are several Malle films not available on DVD- namely "Alamo Bay" with Ed Harris which seems like a sure-fire DVD release given his popularity and the rarity known as "Black Moon" from the early 70's, which by all accounts, sounds like a pretty bat-shit science fiction film from the Frenchman. "God's Country" is another documentary by Malle about six years in the life of a small Midwestern farming community and the economic toll they take during the mid-80's. Sounds pretty prescient, huh?
3. Save the Tiger- Early 70's Jack Lemmon film in which he won an Oscar. Always heard raves about this downer film, and it just made it to DVD recently.
4. Battle of Okinawa- From the Netflix description: "It became known as the "Typhoon of Steel." Told from the Japanese perspective, this war drama captures the events of World War II's Battle of Okinawa -- a massive amphibious assault by U.S. troops that left more than 150,000 Japanese civilians dead. With the Allies wanting to capture Okinawa to stage a full-scale invasion of Japan, the battle raged from March through June 1945 with a ferocity unlike any other".
5. Bad Boys- Yes, the 80's Sean Penn film. I'm grasping at straws here, but I admire the guy's 80's stuff, especially when he goes all bug eyed and intense. Think "At Close Range". This one pits Sean Penn in jail fighting against his rival.
6. The Night They Raided Minsky's- With this and the upcoming "The Boys in the Band", William Friedkin is decently represented on DVD. This film charts the escapades of a young girl in a burlesque club in New York City. From all the descriptions I've read, it sounds like it was major influence on Abel Ferrera's recent "Go Go Tales".
7. Where the Sidewalk Ends- 50's noir starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney, directed by Otto Preminger.
8. Brubaker- More 80's jailhouse cinema! Not that I intended for that, but this could serve as a nice double feature with "Bad Boys". Robert Redford film about a new prison warden who goes undercover to assess a state penitentiary.
9. Quintet- Yes, THAT Altman film that's been thoroughly ripped to shreds by critics and audiences alike. I believe star Paul Newman even disowned the final product. One of the very few Altman I've never seen.... and I've seen his very worst.
10. Before the Rain- Criterion film release. It's hard to deny the quality of Criterion, even when I know very little about the film: "Director Milcho Manchevski explores the circle of violence that pervades the Balkans and the way ethnic bloodshed can spill over into more "civilized" countries. Photographer Aleksandar (Rade Serbedzija) is wracked with guilt for having caused a man's death while covering the war in Bosnia. Now, he intends to leave England and his lover (Katrin Cartlidge) for Macedonia in hopes of making amends in the violently unstable country of his birth."

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