I cut my Netflix cord (so to speak)

There. I did it. I pulled the plug on Netflix. After spending $16.94 per month, month in and month out, on a subscription for years, I finally got fed up with not getting my money’s worth. Fact is, when it comes to movie watching, Netflix for me is an afterthought. It’s only after I’ve surveyed Turner Classic Movies (TCM) schedule and Criterion Channel’s excellent programming, and for want of something different, do I think “Oh yeah, I have a Netflix subscription!” But nine times out of 10 Netflix’s offerings have left me disappointed. (I’m not a TV series fan.) So, I’ve cut the virtual cord so to speak. Over the past year, at $16.94 a month, I’ve probably watched four Netflix films. That works out to $50.82 per film. A little more expensive than the bricks and mortar cinema! Will I come back with tail between my legs? Possibly. But given my constant disappointment with the website’s mediocre and narrow offerings, I can’t see the point.

Meanwhile, I’ve been watching lots of movies that Criterion Channel films the website will be dropping at the end of the month. As well, TCM devoted a day this week to the films of Gloria Grahame. My new discoveries (and many film buffs will laugh because they know so much more about films than I do and be surprisied at my discoveries come lately) are two female stars of the 1950s. They’re Jane Russell and, yes, Gloria Grahame. They add to my also recently discovered Barbara Stanwyck, as a group as dynamic a standout of women you’ll find in the movies…. Jane Russell has it all – siren looks (with fabulous Brick Girl hair), and a tough-as-nails demeanor matched by her awesome sense of self. And, of course, always a pointed quip. Accused of money-

grubbing in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (Raoul Walsh 1956) she replies, “When you talk about money you’re slumming, when I talk about money I’m scared.” … Gloria Grahame is at once slight in build, demure, yet cool and calculating. In Human Desire (Fritz Lang 1954), her character, Vicki, plays all the men for fools. “Most of the men I know can see much better than they can think,” she says, a classic response to men’s telescopic desire for attractive looks. 

As the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) (Sept. 9 -18) warms up for another year – this time with some in-theatre screenings and some virtual – you can at least thank Covid for one thing. The masses who live outside Toronto can now watch festival films on their computer screens/TVs, thanks to the “democratization” (my words) of festival content. It was always a pain lining up for those TIFF films among the hordes in downtown Toronto anyway. 

And don’t forget, Windsor International Film Festival’s WIFF Under the Stars opens tonight to drive-in movie lovers at Windsor’s downtown Festival Plaza. It’s the second year for the highly successful event, which focusses on Hollywood modern nostalgia and family-focused fare. Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade kick things off at 7.45 pm. 

Two bad movies

What makes for a bad film? It’s all a matter of opinion of course. And mine obviously differs with the world’s elite cineastes. Take for example Bruno Dumont’s 1999 film L'humanité, which won the top prize at Cannes and awards for best actor (Emmanuel Schotté) and actress (Séverine Caneele). The Criterion Channel describes the movie as probing “the wonder and horror of the human condition.” The opening is unsettling and exploitive, showing the close-up of the vagina of a murdered young girl, flies alight on the corpse. I had to cover my eyes.   The film tracks the movements of Pharaon, a police detective who’s seemingly dimwitted as he is alienated. The back story is he lost his lover and child in an accident. The film is exceedingly quiet (as in hardly anyone says much) and languid as we follow Pharoah on his daily rounds, leading to, well, not much of anything. This is interspersed with graphic depictions of sex by neighbor Domino (Canelo) and her boyfriend Joe (Philippe Tulear).

Again, unnecessary and voyeuristic. These elements, folks, are basically the entire content of this almost two-and-a-half-hour flick. The thought occurred to me: I could make a better picture…...The second movie was Alan Rudolph’s 1985 Trouble in Mind (also on Criterion). I’ve always enjoyed the films of Rudolph, a protégé of Robert Altman, for their hilarious insights into the absurdities of modern relationships. But here he concocts a very staged crime story that descends stupidly into cartoon.  He’s got an interesting cast - Kris Kristofferson as Hawk, Keith Carradine as Coop, Geneviève Bujold as Wanda, even Eighties drag queen Divine as a straight Hilly Blue crime boss. The plot is about Hawk returning to Rain City aka Seattle but immediately getting into trouble with a cast of nefarious characters frequenting Wanda’s Café. The stultifying interior shots are matched by roll-your-eyes cops-and-robbers action sequences. And Carradine’s character devolves into a villain worthy of Batman. So, a wasted cast and soundtrack featuring the iconic Marianne Faithfull. All I could think of was why would someone (i.e., Rudolph) expend so much energy making such a senseless empty movie.