With the growing popularity of Netflix instant streaming in the U.S. and its most recent arrival into Canada, we at Row Three would like to highlight some of the great choices available at the press of a button.
Annie (John Huston)
One of the very first films I remember my parents taking me too. And wow does it still hold up! Great song and dance numbers, anti-communism subtexts, the political divide, the great depression, cute kids, a stellar Broadway cast and the 7-UP guy using the force. If Burnett and Finney weren’t nominated for an Oscar that year, they damn well should’ve! Sheer brilliance. Family films just aren’t made this way anymore perhaps most certified by an extended sequence with the joy of going to the movies. It’s exciting, funny and if nothing else the thirties had style. Relive this near masterpiece now while it’s available at the click of a button.
-ANDREW
it! (USA)
Community – Season 1 (Dan Harmon)
Enough people had told me to watch Community that I finally caved and took a look. Within the first five minutes of the first episode I laughed so hard I had to pause for fear of missing the next joke. The show follows a motley crew of characters trying to perpetually study for Spanish class in an undignified community college. As ensembles go, this has got to be the best, with the stand-outs for me being Joe McHale as Jeff, the so-called leader of the group (who is as close to Adam Scott in acting style as you can get), Chevy Chase as Pierce, the elderly student trying desperately to seem cool, and of course, Danny Pudi as Abed, the insanely meta oddball who insists they are all in a sitcom. Meshing a lot of the great aspects of Party Down and Freaks and Geeks, Community is relentlessly funny (sometimes veering a bit too far into non-sequitur comedy for my taste but usually tempered with a meta-understanding that apparently builds upon the Abed character in future episodes). As someone who has attended community college I see a lot of truth in this otherwise go-for-broke oneupmanship of half-hour sitcom comedies. I have only seen the first 15 episodes so far, but of these, the consistency of quality remains incredibly high. Try the first episode, this is quality straight out of the gate.
-MIKE
it! (CANADA)
Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson)
I am curious to know if any of our regular Row Three readers have not seen Wes Anderson’s first feature film. I am guessing there are at least a few, perhaps even among the writers, and because of this suspicion I feel the pressing need to promote in BIG CAPITAL LETTERS the magnificence that is Bottle Rocket. Usually a filmmaker’s first film tends to be the weakest, one which he/she builds off of with greater confidence in future projects, but with Bottle Rocket Wes Anderson eclipsed himself right out of the gate, only The Fantastic Mr Fox fully captures the sheer joy of this concentrated dose of the Anderson aesthetic. Bottle Rocket is easily the most quotable of all of his movies, owing largely to the cosmic force that galvanizes the crime caper at the center of this comedy: Owen Wilson’s utterly clueless slacker gangster, Dignan. The story follows a group of witless suburbanites trying to live out the criminal high-life known only to them through the movies, and touches upon the same themes of surrogate fathers and male bonding that carries through Wes Anderson’s oeuvre. I don’t think he ever gets it better than in this movie, and Owen Wilson in his career, though he tries many permutations of his character here, never achieves anything as wholly great as Dignan, the man with the plan and the yellow jump suit. “On the run from Johnny Law, ain’t no trip to Cleveland”. Gold.
-MIKE
it! (CANADA)
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (CARL FRANKLIN)
Chinatown re-envisioned as both an ode to and lament for the Central Avenue back-room booze and jazz clubs in the 1940s, Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress has Denzel Washington getting his Raymond Chandler on. His working-man turned private sleuth, Easy Rawlins, gets embroiled in a brewing election scandal and the eponymous femme fatale (played surprisingly well by Jennifer Beals) and an oily thug (Tom Sizemore, natch.) There is great attention to period detail, and a very smart and engaging racial angle in every frame, but the real reason to watch this film is Don Cheadle who perfects his “Snoopy” act in Out of Sight three years before Soderbergh cast him as a villain (And here, he is sort of a ‘good guy.’ Sort of.) Want to see why The Big Lebowski is such a perfect send up of noir tropes? Watch as Easy hits just about every setback as The Dude over the course of the film, only without the White Russians.
-KURT
it! (CANADA)
CENTURION (Neil Marshall)
While maybe not quite as ambitious or exciting as Doomsday, Neil Marshall takes his love of bloody, savage chaos and chase sequences and furthers his filmography in that department terrifically with this sword and sandal actioner of near ridiculous proportions. Tongueless she-warriors, death squadrons, gorgeous scenery/cinematography, impalings, wolves, witches and Michael Fassbender. It’s safe to say that popcorn movies don’t get much more fun. And with a cast of British character actors like this, you really can’t go wrong.
-ANDREW
it! (USA)
Wuthering Heights (Coky Giedroyc)
Like “Jane Eyre”, “Wuthering Heights” has seen it’s share of adaptation and this most recent, a two part BBC miniseries is one of my favourite adapataions of the story. Starring Tom Hardy as Heathcliff and Charlotte Riley as Cathy, this version directed by Giedroyc is very dark and a little more distrubing than some of the other versions I’ve seen. Both actors are excellent, especially considering how unlikable they both are, but Hardy is truly spectacular as a dark, angry hero. We’ve seen Hardy pop up quite a bit over the last few years and this role is just further proof that the guy has great range.
-MARINA
it! (CANADA)
Swimming With Sharks (George Huang)
I’m assuming that this is a bit like The Devil Wears Prada of its time except rather than the asshole being the editor of a magazine, he’s an executive at a film studio. I’m not sure just how accurate Buddy Ackerman is but I could see him being a real guy who takes over your entire life. Spacey’s performance here is big, does he have any others?, but it’s entertaining as heck and when gullible assistant Guy takes matters into his own hands, the movie turns violent. As for the ending… it’s not exactly what I expected.
-MARINA
it! (CANADA)
THE John Huston made Annie, or just some guy with the name of the famous director?
THE John Huston, Mike. I think it was his last film.
huh, kind of Like Robert Altman making Popeye
Does Los Angeles get to play itself a lot in Devil in a Blue Dress? I could be sold on it if this were the case.
I think Centurion is pretty underrated. Fun movie, plus it has Fassbender.
I really enjoyed Centurion. One of the more fun times I had a the theatre last year, probably.
Bottle Rocket I don’t get into as much as some of Anderson’s later films – probably because I have severe distaste for Owen Wilson, and even though he’s in other Anderson films, he’s not as central as he is here. I dunno. I should probably rewatch sometime, but I didn’t like it half as much as Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums.
Community is GOLD all the way through. Almost certainly my favorite show on TV right now – kind of painful when it goes on hiatus like it just did for a few weeks.
Andrew, Annie is also one of the first movies I remember seeing, though not in theatres – we taped it off TV when I was about five. I still have commercials memorized from that tape, I watched it so much (and apparently didn’t know how to fast-forward).
Cool. They must have just added Bottle Rocket in CA recently.
The official Wes Anderson ranking:
1. Bottle Rocket
1a. The Fantastic Mr Fox
3. Rushmore
4. The Royal Tenenbaums
5. The Darjeeling Limited
6. Life Aquatic
The thing I find incredible about Community is how consistently funny it is… within an episode and extended for at least the 15 eps I have watched. I never watched Arrested Development, but I have seen clips and I get the feeling that show is kind of on the same level, it too is on Netflix. Also when do you ever get an ensemble where everyone is awesome? As much as I like Party Down, not all of the characters are great, and it is certainly nowhere near as funny as Community.
The criterion of Bottle Rocket is particularly awesome because there is a doc where they talk about the reception of the film in test screenings and how poorly it did, repeatedly. And aside from Jandy’s comment I have never heard anyone bad mouth this film. To me it is perfect, and insanely rewatchable.
Arrested Development is very much in the same ballpark as Community. If you want to check it out on Netflix, do it quickly – as of now, it’s set to expire on April 1. I’d also recommend Parks and Recreation, which was a bit too awkwardly Office-y in the first (half)-season, but got extremely good in the second, the humor somewhere between Office-awkward and Community-absurd.
If Bottle Rocket had anyone besides Owen Wilson in it, I’d probably like it at least 57% more.
Well, unless the “anyone” were Matthew McConaughey.
As much as I like Party Down, not all of the characters are great, and it is certainly nowhere near as funny as Community.
I can’t disagree with this more. Community is solid, but its not doing anything all that special and certainly not anywhere near the degree of meta-absurdity that Arressted Development lived in.
I’d also second the Parks and Rec recommendation. Season 1 is so-so but Season 2 was the best comedy on TV that year. Just a quantum leap forward in quality and consistency.
I watched the D&D episode of COMMUNITY and it was pretty funny but the bits of other episodes I’ve seen haven’t been nearly as funny. Maybe I need to watch from the beginning.
We might, just as soon as we finish up with THE IT CROWD and MISFITS.
Since we are talking about awesome comedy TV programs, aside from the IT Crowd which I cannot stomach at all, has anyone watched Children’s Hospital? It has a few of the people from Party Down (which I loved) but it’s more absurd and has very short, mini-episodes. It may not be for everyone, but I find it absolutely hilarious.
Community is the only netwrok show I wacth anymore. It’s fantastic and, surprisingly, seems to be getting better.
What Community is doing that is special is being consistently funny. I watched the pilot of Arrested Development last night, it was pretty good, definitely the same absurdity. Don’t get me wrong, Matt, I actually love Party Down, but I am just saying, first, quality of laughs, Community is funnier, and regarding the ensembles, the surfer guy in Party Down wasn’t that great, and when they lost Jane Lynch, her replacement wasn’t that great… but the entire cast of Community is awesome. 15 episodes into Community, I would say Party Down has better developed characters, but is not aiming for the same absurdity quotient so they are kind of apples and oranges.
I am definitely going to track down Parks and Recreation after this.
Keith, who from Party Down is in Children’s Hospital?
I didn’t realize until I marathoned Party Down a few weeks ago that it was the same creator as Veronica Mars. I spent the first season constantly going “OMG, that person was on Veronica Mars!” He brought most of the cast with him at least for guest spots. I actually quite liked Kyle (surfer dude) and as great as Jane Lynch is, I also love Megan Mullally to pieces. Party Down was every bit as strong as Community for me – there’s just not as much of it, unfortunately. But you’re right, it’s not nearly as self-reflexive/absurd as Community.
Marina, did you see the paintball episode of Community? That’s the one where it went from really funny show to gorramed brilliant. The thing that gets me about Community is it has all this absurd humor and self-aware pop culture referentiality, and builds a lot of its characters based on relatively obvious and stable stereotypes, but it somehow manages to have pretty deep emotional resonance, too, as you watch them throughout a season. I find that combination unusual in a sitcom.
Adam Scott needs to guest spot on Community as Jeff Winger’s brother.
I think he’s on Parks & Rec right now, isn’t he? Started end of last season, and continuing through now. I haven’t watched this season yet – I should do that, it’s piling up on my DVR.
Oy, I really need to just take an evening and power through Parks & Recreation’s first season. I keep hearing how great the second season is, but I’m not really in the mood for The Office aspect of it. As to Community, I’m in 100% agreement with Jandy. That paintball episode is uber-brilliant and it’s perhaps their best mesh of character work and pop culture reference to date. And while I don’t always laugh out loud at parts of Community, it never falls below amusing for me. I’ve also learned to not be sipping on any beverages while watching the teaser at the beginning.
is the paintball in season 1? and the D&D?
With Parks & Recreation I am going to jump straight to season 2, life is too short to watch something mediocre.
Paintball episode is in Season 1, maybe 3/4 the way through. D&D is in S2, aired here maybe two months ago (but only a couple of episodes back; they’ve been on hiatus).
@Rot: Ken Marino and Megan Mullally are the two main ones. It’s created/written by Rob Cordry and has a lot of other funny people in it. It’s really short, so you can watch an episode and see whether you like it or not without much investment, but if you enjoy the absurd as I do, then you’ll enjoy the show.
Community: Paintball episode is far superior to the D&D episode in my opinion. The D&D episode is very good, but that paintball episodes one of the best comedic 1/2 hours of television I’ve ever seen. Sublime.
For me, so far the best Community moment is the Spanish presentation by Jeff and Pierce to the accompaniment of Aimee Mann… I had tears.
Comedy is subjective, and context probably matters, but I didn’t find that scene in Community all that funny. And the Aimee Mann is such an easy crutch considering how it was used in Magnolia….not sure I see the genius…
it would have been an easy crutch if the song was used the same way as Magnolia (i.e. the characters mouthing the words), this scene repurposes it, hitting its stride on the lyric “it’s not going to stop” playing off of the absurd length of the presentation. and sure, some context would help, if you only saw the presentation… Jeff and Pierce have a scene about how ridiculously long and anti-semitic the presentation is prior in the ep, I guess it helps to know how desperate Pierce is to be liked and the best at everything… but not getting the humor just on the surface of that… ok… subjective it is.
I finally hit a merely OK episode of Community with the Valentine ep… not nearly as assaultively funny as the rest of the show, but still, man, this consistency is unlike anything I have known. I have been watching some Arrested Development and it is pretty good but it seems easier than Community with how it sets up its jokes – it is a series of non-sequiturs, and Community has that but not over and over and over, Community is more a self-reflexive play on the sitcom formula.
apparently the paintball episode (Modern Warfare) is ranked as best episode overall… so looking forward to it.
also heard through tweets that the latest episode had a bit on My Dinner with Andre… is this confirmed? quality?
Finally watched the paintball episode on Community… it was funny, and the John Woo nod was awesome but I still think the first couple episodes are better. Quality of the show is weaker in the last half of the season I find. Still thoroughly enjoyable to watch, but I would say the first five or six episodes of Season 1 was Dan Harmon’s grade A material.
Also started watching Season 1 of Parks and Recreation. Probably has something to do with expectations, but it is not that bad. And only six episodes (!) so will be to season 2 in no time.
I hadn’t watched the latest episode when you asked the question and then I forgot to come back – yes, it relied heavily on My Dinner with Andre. Also Pulp Fiction. It wasn’t as strong an episode as I was hoping (a bit uneven, and didn’t use the Pulp Fiction bits that well), but the My Dinner with Andre section was actually quite good.