So I have joined Nexflix. It seems every year there are many movies I think I’d like to see, but I never do. I see probably 3 or 4 movies a year in a theatre. I prefer seeing movies in a theatre but my habits in this case are not likely to change. When I saw the Netflix free trial offer, I figured why not? It’s not expensive and I have more time to watch movies (though not always at times when I might be able to go to the movies) now that I am a dull fitness-conscious puritan. So I signed up for the free trial. I quickly discovered that Netflix takes great advantage of the proclivities of my character. You get to make a list. Danger! Danger! You get to edit that list often. You get to do consumer-level research (shopping for people who think they're too smart to enjoy shopping) looking for rare and obscure stuff by this director or in that genre. You get to evaluate. You get to review the recommendations they offer you based on your evaluations. Then you get to rework your list. Then you get stuff you want in the mail. And, they have pretty much everything in terms of selection. Needless to say, I went from the bare bones one movie at a time membership to the two movies at a time membership. And I’m enjoying it.
Here’s what I’ve seen so far in 2006:
The Fog of War
Junebug
Oldboy
Sideways
Murderball
A Very Long Engagement
I enjoyed all of them with the exception of Oldboy, which seemed as though it might have been written by a teenage boy with writer's block. An interesting and sometimes thoughtful teenage boy, mind you, who might have something worth saying once he learns to edit himself.
I understand that Netflix has a sneaky policy of moving those who rent the least to the front of the line for popular movies and this practice has caused quite a stink among those who can't wait to get their hands on the feel-good romantic comedy of the year. Oh well. I'm guessing that won't be a problem for those who rent mostly weird documentary, foreign, indy, artfag films. Like moi.
