What to Watch Instantly on Netflix? (and now all streaming services)

[AlexB]

Just watched the second half of the Storyville documentary ‘Lance’.

The parallels with the great orange one are striking, and it surprised me that I hadn’t noticed this before (On my mother’s life I WhatsApped my brother with a similar thought prior to the references about ‘Drain The Swamp’ or ‘Make It Great’ !)

I’m a big cycling fan, got into it just before the Lance era (just prior to the Festina affair if that means anything to anyone) and knew the story well, but never drew lines between Lance/Trump until tonight

Similar to the 30 for 30 series, I would highly recommend the documentary regardless of whether you like cycling or even know much about it

[korme]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

And I found it a slog to get through. Had to force my way to finish. Was the one misstep in my PS5 playthrough of PS4 hits - God of War and Ghost of Tsushima were fantastic. TLOU was a thud. It actually made me change my plans and play Rachet & Clank next because I wanted something just pure fun. And it was. Now playing Nier Automata and enjoying it.

I'll be skipping TLOU show...

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

This seems to be an experience unique to you

[Edward64]

Flipping through Netflix and found an Indian movie called "Sir". Great movie, well worth watching if you are interested in learning about other cultures and class differences . Essentially the relationship between a live-in, domestic helper and her single boss.

Not sure how I would classify this. Somewhat of a "love" story but not a typical love story. Check it out.

Sir Movie Review: A soul-stirring tale of emotional intimacy, dreams and belonging

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Flipping through Netflix and found an Indian movie called "Sir". Great movie, well worth watching if you are interested in learning about other cultures and class differences.

If you enjoy movies about cultural issues in India, you should watch Monsoon Wedding (not sure where it is streaming).

It got released in the United States soon after My Big Fat Greek Wedding, so it got treated here as "another foreign wedding movie." But it is a much deeper movie than My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It goes into class/race differences in India. And it is still a fun wedding drama/comedy. Highly recommended.

[Atocep]

This is my favorite bot so far. Can we keep him?

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by coconut00

I’m watching “the Crown”. The series is very beautiful and well-shot. When you look, you get colossal aesthetic pleasure. But the feeling of chewing gum does not leave, as if the director is afraid to overload the viewer's brain. Instead of showing historical action (what is happening in the world, behind-the-scenes wars, etc.) - one clear chewed line. Long scenes with kisses, silence of the main characters, etc. Therefore, the impression is very ambiguous. It would be cool if the entire series showed world history through the prism of the life of Elizabeth Il. But alas, no. Everything is provided for this story to last 10 seasons. Otherwise I liked Churchill and the scenery very much.

With the series slated for 6 seasons and each season covering @10 years, that's a pretty optimistic take on Elizabeth's lifespan.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Atocep

This is my favorite bot so far. Can we keep him?

Seconded.

[Kodos]

Watched Murder On Middle Beach on HBO Max. It was of special interest to me because it occurred in Madison, CT, the next town over from where I live. Lots of shots of places I've been to, including the courthouse across the street from where I work.

It's a 4-part documentary spanning 8 years or so which chronicles a son's efforts to find out who murdered his mother on March 3, 2010. Over the course of 5 hours or so, he interviews and goes through a number of suspects, including close family members. His family is filled with alcoholics and drug abusers, and there is a lot of shady stuff that goes on in his town. The police botched the case, and now seem more interested in keeping their secrets rather than bringing the killer to justice. By the end, you have a pretty good idea who the killer was, but to date, no charges have been made against anyone.

[Ksyrup]

This isn't on a streaming service but tonight is a documentary/retrospective on Patrice O'Neal on Comedy Channel at 10pm ET. I had never heard of the guy until the Charlie Sheen roast, and then he died shortly after. Since then, I've heard a ton of his stand-up and he was amazingly funny.

[sabotai]

I absolutely hate most sitcoms, and Wandavision does such a great job parodying them that I actually have a really hard time getting through an episode of it.

[tarcone]

Watched I Care A Lot last night on netflix.

It was a good movie. It made me feel very uncomfortable watching it and I hated the protagonist. I kept waiting for her to die.

But it is a really well done movie and is a great story.

[cthomer5000]

Not a specific viewing recommendation, but a recommendation for the JustWatch app.

You can configure all the services you have and maintain a watchlist. You can then filter your own stuff by genre, quality (HD, 4K etc), or service platform, etc.

If you got to a single title it will list every service its currently on. This has helped me ID a lot of stuff where i wouldn't have had the patience to navigate through like 6+ services to see if its available.

I've found it very useful for maintaining a list of things i want to watch even if they're not currently available to me at that moment. It helps keep it on my radar and then i can sort of easily notice later when it pops onto a service I have.

I've been using it for about 3 months and have found it extremely useful. I rarely feel the need to evangelize on behalf of a service or product, but i think a lot of people would find it useful.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Not a specific viewing recommendation, but a recommendation for the JustWatch app.

You can configure all the services you have and maintain a watchlist. You can then filter your own stuff by genre, quality (HD, 4K etc), or service platform, etc.

If you got to a single title it will list every service its currently on. This has helped me ID a lot of stuff where i wouldn't have had the patience to navigate through like 6+ services to see if its available.

I've found it very useful for maintaining a list of things i want to watch even if they're not currently available to me at that moment. It helps keep it on my radar and then i can sort of easily notice later when it pops onto a service I have.

I've been using it for about 3 months and have found it extremely useful. I rarely feel the need to evangelize on behalf of a service or product, but i think a lot of people would find it useful.

Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll take a look.

[bob]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Watched I Care A Lot last night on netflix.

It was a good movie. It made me feel very uncomfortable watching it and I hated the protagonist. I kept waiting for her to die.

But it is a really well done movie and is a great story.

Spoiler

I liked the first half of the movie before she suddenly became an action hero much better

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Watched I Care A Lot last night on netflix.

It was a good movie. It made me feel very uncomfortable watching it and I hated the protagonist. I kept waiting for her to die.

But it is a really well done movie and is a great story.

Agree, it was disturbing and outside of what Bob mentioned in the spoiler, something one can totally see happening. The ending, though somewhat predictable to me, was very rewarding.

[Lathum]

Not streaming service related but is there a less believable person to play renegade cop like badass than Queen Latifah?

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Not streaming service related but is there a less believable person to play renegade cop like badass than Queen Latifah?

Richard Simmons?

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Not streaming service related but is there a less believable person to play renegade cop like badass than Queen Latifah?

Peter Dinklage (Fresh on my mind after playing the Russian crime mob boss)

[JPhillips]

I really liked Nomadland. It's part documentary and part narrative film and it's slowly paced, but Francis McDormand is so damned good.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Richard Simmons?

[Lathum]

Dear Ted Lasso, I'm sorry I didn't discover you sooner.

[kingfc22]

So good

[Lathum]

My daughter is sleeping over a friends so wife and I decided tonight we are gonna send our son to his room to play video games and watch a grown up movie. Any suggestions?

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Lathum

My daughter is sleeping over a friends so wife and I decided tonight we are gonna send our son to his room to play video games and watch a grown up movie. Any suggestions?

What's your general genre preference?

[albionmoonlight]

What's funny is that probably my favorite recent movie is Spider Man: Into the Spiderverse, which would be a waste of adult movie night.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

What's your general genre preference?

We are pretty good with whatever except for sci fi or stuff that us really out there.

I'm also not a fan of superhero movies.

[albionmoonlight]

A couple of films I liked of recent vintage from very different ends of the spectrum:

Portrait of a Lady On Fire: The last movie I saw in the theater. Sexy French romance (lesbian). Very well acted. Very well paced. If you want to explore human relationships outside of the typical Rom-Com view, this is a really good film.

Uncut Gems: I really liked this. Fair warning--I had a couple of friends who hated it. Adam Sandler plays a gambling addict with a lot of issues that stem from his addiction. If you like the angry/serious Sandler, this one is for you. Lots of high energy. Fun Kevin Garnett cameo (playing himself).

[Lathum]

I heard Uncut Gems is great, but as a sports bettor I heard there is so many unrealistic things that happen it is hard to enjoy.

[korme]

I don't think that will get in your way. It's only his final vet that's illegal, the rest of the movie is the consequences of gambling, not exactly specific bets. It's great.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Man, was episode 8 of WandaVision a fantastic 45 minutes of television.

[sovereignstar v2]

I'm hardly his biggest fan, but Sandler deserved a Best Actor nomination for Uncut Gems.

[Edward64]

Watched Minari on Prime because daughter came back and wanted to check it out. Steven "Glenn Rhee" Yeun stars in it.

Kinda like Nomadland, more of a biopic without a traditional ending. Not sure I'd watch it again but glad I watched it.

[Lathum]

Ended up watching The Little Things. ehh.

[GrantDawg]

We just finished binging "Better Things" on Hulu. Enjoyed it immensely. I will warn you it is very woman-centric. It is about a woman approaching 50 with three daughters whose husband completely left the picture. If you have an over-sized male ego, it will get bruised.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Ended up watching The Little Things. ehh.

Leto was great. Felt like the protagonists were ok, weren't great characters. I thought they had some good work with Denzell's character, but it wasn't delivered as well as I would have liked. I did appreciate that all characters are fallible, and as soon as that was over I said, 'people won't like the way this ends', and they generally don't, but I can appreciate that style in a movie. I think it can be very effective. I'd watch it again, just for Leto's work.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Leto was great. Felt like the protagonists were ok, weren't great characters. I thought they had some good work with Denzell's character, but it wasn't delivered as well as I would have liked. I did appreciate that all characters are fallible, and as soon as that was over I said, 'people won't like the way this ends', and they generally don't, but I can appreciate that style in a movie. I think it can be very effective. I'd watch it again, just for Leto's work.

I agree Leto was great, TBH I didn't even understand what the hell happened in the end. Was very confusing.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I agree Leto was great, TBH I didn't even understand what the hell happened in the end. Was very confusing.

For real, no shit spoiler in here.

Spoiler

Washington's character had killed a girl that he had been looking for earlier in his career. It was totally an accident, she had been missing and while he was looking she startled him in the woods. He thought he might have been tracking the killer, none of the other victims had been found alive before. The squad covered it up, and he left and went to work at a different force, and it haunts him forever. When the other investigator kills Leto, Washington covers up the murder and sells the story that he's gone to protect the other cop. It's a story that everyone is fallible and that sometimes the good guys aren't the best guys. It leaves the viewer more disturbed that these guys have gotten away with murder, unintentional as it was, and that not going to jail holds more weight than the 'integrity' that we're all expecting them to have. They are more human to us than perfect protagonists.

[GrantDawg]

Good Lord Bird was fantastic.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[CrimsonFox]

I have to watch I Care A Lot now...

incidently I regret turning on the golden globes.

So cringey....

Only funny thing was Ben Stiller

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Watched Minari on Prime because daughter came back and wanted to check it out. Steven "Glenn Rhee" Yeun stars in it.

Kinda like Nomadland, more of a biopic without a traditional ending. Not sure I'd watch it again but glad I watched it.

Minari just won Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes. Shows you how much I know.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Not a specific viewing recommendation, but a recommendation for the JustWatch app.

You can configure all the services you have and maintain a watchlist. You can then filter your own stuff by genre, quality (HD, 4K etc), or service platform, etc.

If you got to a single title it will list every service its currently on. This has helped me ID a lot of stuff where i wouldn't have had the patience to navigate through like 6+ services to see if its available.

I've found it very useful for maintaining a list of things i want to watch even if they're not currently available to me at that moment. It helps keep it on my radar and then i can sort of easily notice later when it pops onto a service I have.

I've been using it for about 3 months and have found it extremely useful. I rarely feel the need to evangelize on behalf of a service or product, but i think a lot of people would find it useful.

NY Times likes JustWatch too. May have to check it out myself.

By Shira Ovide

I have two essential pandemic companions: cheese and a website called JustWatch.

JustWatch isn’t particularly fancy, but it tells me where I can watch a particular show or movie that I’m looking for online. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is.

When I read recently about a decade-old British comedy series, “Miranda,” JustWatch showed me that it was streaming for free on the Roku Channel. It identified which episodes of a fun British home-building show, “Grand Designs,” are on Netflix and which are missing. I wouldn’t have found this out otherwise. Even Google doesn’t spit out this information.

JustWatch isn’t perfect, and it’s not curing the coronavirus. But it (mostly) solves a small annoyance of at-home life.

The website exists because streaming entertainment is glorious — and an unruly mess. Companies care more about their bottom lines than their customers, so as streaming services scatter entertainment around like confetti, it’s often impossible to figure out how they work together.

Mostly, I want to revel in what works about JustWatch.

David Croyé, the company’s chief executive, told me that JustWatch computers constantly probe under the hood of more than 1,000 streaming video services and digital download catalogs from companies like Apple and Amazon. There are tens of thousands of entertainment options that constantly change and vary by country.

Croyé said that JustWatch made it “easier for people to navigate the jungle of content and streaming services.”

Lots of companies say they do this. Very few do.

Apple touts its online video app called TV as a hub for people to watch anything on their streaming services. Nope. Apple doesn’t catalog options from Netflix, for example. You’ll encounter similar gaps or confusion hunting for stuff on streaming gadgets like Amazon’s Fire TV. It just doesn’t work.

Why? Money.

Netflix doesn’t want to let competitors like Apple or Amazon peer into its entertainment roster — or it wants to get paid for it. No streaming company wants to point you to “Love & Basketball” on a rival service. Google searches for streaming shows can return unreliable junk.

JustWatch is an island of reprieve, partly because it’s not powerful enough for anyone to fear.

It won’t tell you what’s on regular TV tonight, and it makes mistakes. Margaret Lyons, my colleague who writes the Watching newsletter, uses JustWatch “constantly,” she said, but finds it sometimes says shows are available places they’re not. (Margaret also uses Flixable, a searchable database for several streaming services.)

Other companies like Roku started out promising to be neutral streaming helpers and didn’t stay that way. JustWatch could have that problem.

It makes money by harnessing data on what people watch to tailor entertainment companies’ strategies. Sony’s movie studio might use JustWatch’s information to target online movie trailers to horror film fans.

It can be a red flag when companies make money from data rather than people using their products. You could imagine that JustWatch might steer us to watch “Paddington” on Hulu because the company pays for the recommendation. Croyé said that it would be counterproductive if JustWatch betrayed our trust that way.

There is still no universal guide to the new TV, because streaming entertainment is a mess. (Have I mentioned this?) But for now, JustWatch feels like the next best thing.

[molson]

I pay $20/year for the pro version of Letterbox - one of the features of that is that Justwatch is integrated into your watchlist - you can filter your watchlisted films by which ones are available on Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc. You can also customize a filter to include all of the services you have, so you can see in one click from your list what you have access to right now.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by molson

I pay $20/year for the pro version of Letterbox - one of the features of that is that Justwatch is integrated into your watchlist - you can filter your watchlisted films by which ones are available on Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc. You can also customize a filter to include all of the services you have, so you can see in one click from your list what you have access to right now.

Yes, I love this feature. I have 1,299 films in my Watchlist and regularly check it against the streaming options to see what's available at any given moment.

[molson]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Yes, I love this feature. I have 1,299 films in my Watchlist and regularly check it against the streaming options to see what's available at any given moment.

Do you ever find yourself watching one movie instead of another just to manipulate your stats - like bumping up an actor you really like in your top-20 star rankings, or watching a movie from a certain year that looks sadly under-represented in your movie timeline graph?

I might do that sometimes.

[larrymcg421]

The other feature I love with Letterboxd pro is the stats. Among other things, it tallies your most watched actors and directors. My top 10...

Actors

1. Samuel L. Jackson (40)
2. Matt Damon (34)
3. Tom Hanks (32)
4. Tom Cruise (30)
5. Morgan Freeman (28)
t6. Phillip Seymour Hoffman (27)
t6. Bruce Willis (27)
t8. Michael J. Fox (26)
t8. Paul Rudd (26)
t10. Bill Murray (25)
t10. Robert Downey Jr. (25)
t10. John C. Reilly (25)
t10. Woody Harrelson (25)

Directors

1. Steven Spielberg (26)
2. Martin Scorsese (16)
t3. Woody Allen (14)
t3. Billy Wilder (14)
t3. Steven Soderberg (14)
t3. Alfred Hitchcock (14)
t7. Tim Burton (12)
t7. Robert Zemeckis (12)
t7. Peter Jackson (12)
t10. Clint Eastwood (11)
t10. Josef von Sternberg (11)
t10. Ron Howard (11)
t10. Joel Coen (11)

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by molson

Do you ever find yourself watching one movie instead of another just to manipulate your stats - like bumping up an actor you really like in your top-20 star rankings, or watching a movie from a certain year that looks sadly under-represented in your movie timeline graph?

I might do that sometimes.

I haven't actually done that yet, although now I'd like to bump Woody Allen out of my top 10. That'll be a lot of movie watching, though.

I do go year by year to find the biggest movie(s) that aren't greyed out. That's largely how my Watchlist got so big.

[Kodos]

Maybe that would help with the situation I frequently run into where I want to see something at the movie theater, but end up not seeing it, and then later forget what it was when my wife and I are looking for a halfway decent movie to stream.

[sabotai]

Recently upgraded to the letterboxd pro. I didn't even know about the "stats" sections. So far it's just my journey dynasty + 1. No real surprise, the 1920s is beating out the 1930s so far in highest ratings by decade. Best year, 1924 with an average of 3.5 with 8 movies seen. It's helped by half of them being Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd movies.

Top 5 Actors (Most Seen)

1. Buster Keaton (11)
2. Adolphe Menjou (8)
t3. Harold Lloyd (7)
t3. Sakamoto Takeshi (7)
t3. Aoki Tomio (7)


Top 5 Actor (Highest Rating)

1. Charlie Chaplin (4.0)
2. Jobyna Ralston (3.8) <- Harold Lloyd's co-star is 4 films
3. Harold Lloyd (3.5)
t4. Aoki Tomio (3.4)
t4. Iida Chouko (3.4)
t4. Buster Keaton (3.4)

Top 5 Directors (Most Seen)

1. Buster Keaton (10)
2. Edwin S. Porter (9)
3. D.W. Griffith (8)
t4. Ozu Yasujirou (7)
t4. Sam Taylor (7)

Top 5 Directors (Highest Rated)
1. William A. Wellman (4.0) <- Wings (1927) and The Public Enemy (1931)
2. Charlie Chaplin (3.9)
t3. Fred C. Newmeyer (3.8) -< Harold Lloyd's director
t3. Sergei Eisenstein (3.8)
t3. Mervyn LeRoy (3.8) <- I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang and Gold Diggers of 1933

One of these weekends I'll need to do what larry did and just go through year by year and enter in every movie I've seen (that I remember seeing, anyway).

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Maybe that would help with the situation I frequently run into where I want to see something at the movie theater, but end up not seeing it, and then later forget what it was when my wife and I are looking for a halfway decent movie to stream.

I have a spreadsheet for this (sadly, no lie)

SI

[tarcone]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Age of Samurai

This is a fantastic historical look at the history of Japan