Last Ten Films I've Seen: Mostly Netflix Week

Greetings to our blog readers in Sweden, Brazil and China.

Why do we have images of a map of Italy, the Athens, Ga., indie rock icons REM, and photo of a grizzly bear chasing a salmon in Alaska? They all relate to the last ten films I've seen; it should be pointed out that one of the films "The One I Love" shares its name with a song by REM, hence the reason why we have an image of the band fronted by Michael Stipe that was one of the best during the 1980s.


All of these films, except "The Trip to Italy" and "The One I Love," which were both showing at the local art house cinema, where viewed either through Netflix or Netflix streaming; two of the films, "A Trip to Italy" and "What Maisie Knew" feature English actor Steve Coogan:

1) "Point Blank." France. 2010. Dir: Fred Cavaye (no connection to Lee Marvin film with the same name)

2) The Trip to Italy. 2014. Dir: Michael Winterbottom.

3) "The One I Love" 2014. Dir: Charlie McDowell w/Elisabeth Moss from "Mad Men."

4) Grizzly. 1976. Dir: William Girdler (yes, it is a guilty pleasure film)

5) "Passion" 2012. Dir: Brian De Palma (remake of the French film "Love Crime")

6) Trance. 2013. Dir: Danny Boyle (Films features a very nude Rosario Dawson!)

7) What Maisie Knew. 2012. Dir: Scott McGhee, et al.

8) The King of Thieves. Slovakia (in German). 2004. Dir: Ivan Fila

9) "Paradise: Faith" Austria. 2012. Dir: Ulrich Seidl (first film in a triology)

10) Buddy. Norway. 2003. Dir: Mortem Tyldum

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Status Update_ I've Seen All But One of the Films...

Status Update for 1/25/11: "I've seen all the films nominated for Best Picture Oscar except '127 Hours,' but no one around here is showing it!"

Towards the end of the family trip to Washington, DC, (see the DC Diary blog entries), I had a chance to see "127 Hours," the new Danny Boyle film with James Franco. I chose to see "I Love You, Philip Morris" at the Landmark E-Street Cinema instead on the false assumption that it would be the film less likely to be playing in Greensboro or Winston-Salem, NC. But, amazingly enough, the reverse happened!

In spite of much critical acclaim, "127 Hours" is not playing in a single movie theatre between the Washington, DC, and Charlotte, NC, metro areas. This includes cities like Charlottesville, Roanoke, Richmond and Norfolk in Virginia, as well as zip codes like Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham and Wilmington in North Carolina (in addition to the Greensboro area).

I know it briefly played in Asheville, NC, but for some odd reason, it has yet to come to a cinema here. This simply astonishes me.

My friend Chris Knight expressed similar exasperation when "The Road" wasn't showing anywhere between Atlanta and Washington, DC, in late 2009.

I guess everyone assumes we want to see "Green Hornet" in 3-D. Nothing against that film or its director Michel Gondry, who I have a lot of respect for, but I am puzzled how the movie distribution system works. If anyone knows someone at Fox Searchlight, who is distributing "127 Hours," I would love to find out the reasons for this. The company is also distributing the acclaimed film "The Black Swan" with Natalie Portman.

Assuredly, I am not the only one dismayed by the way they determine which markets get to see which films.

However, I did notice on the film's IMDB page, that is in fact now playing in Kuwait!