netflix best picks

The Secret of NIMH

2011-09-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

The most awesome thing about The Secret of Nimh -- one awesome thing in a sea of awesomes -- is that, while watching, it never actually crosses your mind that it's animated. Dark as hell, creepily straddling the divide between The Rescuers and The Ninth Gate, it's about a widowed field mouse who has to find the cure for her son's sickness. Made by renegade Disney animators who resented the degenerating "quality of the artwork, a deteriorating production process, and management's declining respect for the artists" (great article, btw). Whatever got it made, it's an unsettling, unhinged, adrenalized cartoon. Go watch it.

Mad Men

2011-09-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

Oh, it's on. I was scrolling through Netflix last night, debating on life's eternaler questions (Dollhouse or Twin Peaks?), and this popped up. Mad Men is Polaroid snapshots of an ad agency in the '60s, trying to define the traditional American family is sometimes so cardboard and cliche that it's glorious, and then they'll pull the rug out from under your feet.

I know you've seen this show already, and posting it here is the world's biggest duh, but Mad Men itself is like Joan Holloway's office-manager character, ice-queenish and predictable but it does what it does so perfectly that you can't help but watch to see it do what it does best. (Did that make sense?) Go watch it.

Sherlock

2011-09-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

There are so many ways this show could've gone wrong. Setting Sherlock Holmes in the present day. Using text messages as a vital plot device. But it's dangerous and funny and geeky and awesome. It gets both the armchair-detective thing (quick, clever character bits) and the action sequences. You'd think it was stepping on the toes of that other Holmes movie from last year, but it's not. If all Holmes-related movies were this good, everyone should be allowed to make one.

It helps that this Sherlock was created by Steven Moffat, who made Coupling, also on NI, and is currently head writer on Doctor Who. There are only three episodes so far, but they're making more, and those last two links should keep you busy for a while. Or till tomorrow's post, at least. Go watch it.

Iron Man 2

2011-08-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

You already know what to expect from Iron Man 2. It's clever but not too clever, there's a plot that you can't expect too much from, but it moves fast, and that's all we really need. Iron Man was never my favorite Avenger (Ant-Man, duh), but for two hours, you watch him kick ass and you want him to kick ass. You're on his side. Go watch it.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

2011-02-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

A tricky, sad, brilliant movie. You won't understand everything, but you'll be cool with that. You could seriously watch this movie with the sound off and it would be just as good. Not because the plot isn't good or the actors aren't sensational (it's cheesy and un-get-out-of-able to say Heath Ledger is awesome in this, but he is), but because it's just FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. Terry Gilliam. The guy from Monty Python who made all the animations. Which is to say, the guy from Monty Python who had a career after Monty Python ended. It's film-geeky, but it doesn't matter. It's great. Go watch it.