Help me fill my Netflix queue
Archive: Watching
Now that I have a Netflix account I have to figure out what to have them send.
Few people you?ll ever meet know less about contemporary American pop culture. My television only displays what is inserted into the DVD player or VCR. I have no patience for the random noise that comes out of radios. That includes NPR.
It has been many years since I bought a newspaper. The only magazine I read, if even that is, The New York Review of Books.
I couldn?t tell you the name of a single movie that is currently showing in American movie theaters.
So I can use help in figuring out what to put in my Netflix queue. And my interests are stringently narrow.
Gay movies: I?m still getting caught up with the popular gay cinema that emerged some years back. I skipped from age Boys in the Band to the time of Trick. I?ve been diligent in my sampling and have watched movies ranging from Super 8-?, My Beautiful Launderette to Circuit. Gay movies in my queue: Bedrooms and Hallways, Friends and Family and Mambo Italiano. Perhaps you could suggest some queer cinema that Netflix has that my local video rental shops didn?t.
Romantic comedies: I?m an RKO kind of guy and watched every old Warner Bros., RKO and kindred studios offering that showed up on TCM when I had it. Charles and I watch contemporary offerings. I?m not seeking rich emotional or aesthetic experiences. Cheerful junk, happy endings are my aim. I?m too ignorant of most movie stars names to care who is in the film, just that they do an agreeable job of going through the motions. Unsurprisingly I?ve rented a fair slice of movies by directors who didn?t have the gift of making you ignore how implausible it all is.
Horror, slasher movies. I?ve seen almost every American horror movie made from the 1930s until a few years ago. Weird cheap junk that isn?t easy to find. The early Universal Studios movies with Karloff and Carradine, the 1950s drive-in cheapies, most of Hammer, the nutty Mexican horror movies, the 70s golden age of sicko movies, slasher flicks and all that followed. Last time I looked at a display of recent horror movies my mind went blank. They all promise thrills but often wimp out into harmlessness, glossy special effects, or dwindle off into not much of nothing. My appetite for the junk is still alive; your guidance is invited.
2Posted by: Darrell on April 12, 2004 11:46 AM
Definitely put ?Sordid Lives? on your list. Very funny. And a cute guy too.
3Posted by: carrie on April 12, 2004 01:26 PM
I think you may enjoy ?Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter?. It?s a low budget, highly entertaining Canadian film. There?s lesbians, Jesus, and lots of weirdness. You may want to look into ?Girls will be Girls? a campy drag queen film. Good Luck! The recommends that Netflix comes up with once you?ve rented and rated some films can be helpful. They can also be inexplicable.
4Posted by: Richard on April 12, 2004 03:37 PM
We made a point of renting Sordid Lives as soon as it came out. Enjoyed it hugely.
6Posted by: Richard on April 12, 2004 03:45 PM
I may not reply to every suggestion (kind of busy) but any suggestions are really appreciated, whether I rent the movies or not.
7Posted by: Par Boman on April 13, 2004 06:30 AM
A great gay type movie is Nico and Dani aka Krámpack Another is All about my mother and Or The Iron Ladies (2001) a thai movie about a gay handball team.
I prefer foreign movies to american ones as you may see.
8Posted by: Richard on April 13, 2004 06:43 AM
I?ve posted several notes about the Thai movies featuring transgendered people in my sexuality weblog.
I have a biomechanical problem with most movies not originally filmed in English. I have only one fully functional eye and which pretty much means I can read the sub-titles or watch the film but not really both.
Thanks.
9Posted by: Darrell on April 13, 2004 06:01 PM
I don?t write a lot about the movies, but the notes in my AOL Journal might give you some ideas. http://journals.aol.com/darre62286/WhoKnowsDarrell
10Posted by: Atom on April 18, 2004 10:45 AM
Hawzabout Larry Clark?s ?Bully??
It has hot boys killing people in it.
And a scene involving one character being forced into entering an amateur stripper/dance contest too.
Good wholesome family fun.
xx
11Posted by: Richard on April 18, 2004 05:49 PM
I saw Bully made for uncomfortable watching. Not faulting the movie. Though I think our ideas of hot boys are a wee bit different.
Don?t know your were posting in your weblog again - welcome back.
12Posted by: alan on April 20, 2004 12:40 PM
surfed in while googling for Queer As Folk season 4 promos! Great blog!
Gay Movie suggestions:
Paris Is Burning - documentary on the origin of Voguing from the streets of New York
Love! Valour! Compassion! - with Jason Alexander from Seinfeld! about a group of gay men who get together at a cottage house and drama ensues! a good film about gay friendships!
Wigstock - another documentary, on drag queens in New York
Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert - Australian version of To Wong Foo, before To Wong Foo came out. In my opinion, also better than To Wong Foo. Guy Pearce is in it and is the flamiest of them all.
Have u tried looking up John Waters movies? or Andy Warhol flicks? Hope that helps some!
13Posted by: Richard on April 20, 2004 02:05 PM
Thanks, I hadn?t heard of Wigstock. I?ve seen most of the otherrs. Just rewatched a number of the movies released under Warhol?s name last year.
14Posted by: f r a n k on April 22, 2004 02:05 PM
Beautiful Thing
Happy Together (brilliant, but you?d have to deal with the subtitles)
Ma Vie En Rose (more subtitles; sorry)
15Posted by: Richard on April 22, 2004 03:42 PM
That I haven?t watched Beautiful Thing was a fluke that I?ll repair soon. I did watch Happy Together - by accident I?ll admit.
My problem with sub-titles is mostly biomechanical: only one eye works properly. Back when the Italian directors were in vogue I did watch plenty of subtitled movies but it has just become too difficult.
16Posted by: Fritz on April 23, 2004 04:43 PM
I am a Netflix junky. I live near San Jose, so I get new DVDs the next day after I mail them back.
I recently watched Pumpkin starring Christina Ricci as a sorority girl who falls in love with a ?challenged? boy. I really enjoyed itespecially since I went to a So. California university.
National Lampoon?s Mr. Wong is worth renting if you?ve never watched the cartoons on Icebox.
Erasure: Hits! The Videos is a fun bit of nostalgia.
17Posted by: Jack Fritscher on April 29, 2004 02:28 AM
You might really enjoy ?Burnt Money? which is a wonderful buddy movie of homomasculine-love-without-guilt. It?s action, violence, but gorgeously done gore which seems incidental in the beauty of the relationship. The subtext, of course, is that gaymen are always outlaws. We are beyond redemption even by the politically correct.
Other titles on my very catholic hit list: ?Carrington,? ?Different for Girls,? ?Natural Born Killers,? ?Billy Elliot,? and ?The End of the Affair? by Neil Jordan.
18Posted by: Richard on April 29, 2004 04:22 PM
When I first saw your email address I though to myself, it has been a long time since I heard from him. Then I realized I?d never heard from you.
I?d seen your name here and there through the years. You are one of those rare gay men who came out before I did when I figured it out as a young man in 1972. Before Stonewall even.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Warmest regards and esteem, Richard
Feel free to leave a comment on Help me fill my Netflix queue.
Please keep your comment on topic.
I'm a happily gay atheist. Homophobic, racist comments and conversion attempts are deleted.
Disagreement is fine but hate speech won't be tolerated. Even if you share my prejudices I'd rather you not insult other people who leave comments here.
This is a personal hobby and shouldn't be confused with a more general sort of public forum or chatroom. you'd like to know more about me check about page.
Thanks, Richard
1Posted by: dani on April 12, 2004 03:03 AM
hopped on over from versaphile?s lj.
?hedwig and the angry inch? - ?a high-energy rock musical in the tradition of ?the rocky horror picture show??. drag queens and kings abound!
?but i?m a cheerleader? - ?a naive teenager is sent to rehab camp when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being a lesbian.?
?heavenly creatures? - ?two girls have an intense fantasy life; their parents, concerned the fantasy is too intense, separate them, and the girls take revenge.? kate winslet?s first film!
anything ?mystery science theatre 3000? - ?a man and two robots trapped on an earth-orbiting space station are forced to watch the worst movies ever conceived.?