4 Duds and 1 Winner

Ok, it's one of those nights when I can't sleep and, very reminiscent of my Netflix trial, I start going over my list of films that I want to try, but this time from Amazon Prime, with free streaming for members.  I started to watch 5 different movies.  Only 1 of 5 was not a dud.  But one good result emerged...it made me sleepy.

So here goes, the 4 duds, and quickly why they dudded me, and the one that I finished.

American Meth: Documentary where people's faces were way too close, they were colored greenish, possibly to go with the subject matter, and no one with recognizable authority was in evidence.  I shut it off because I got the gist 10 minutes into the thing: "Meth: It's Bad".

7 Days In May: Albeit an award winner in its time, it's time has past.  Talkative "tell all" including your personal thoughts.  Slow.  Straight narrative.  Not even good acting really.

YES Acoustic: Fan of the band big time.  YES was the group in the late 60's early 70's labeled "smart rock", or rock for smart people.  Their album work was fantastic, and their album art made great posters.  This was a recording of their live event in 2007 which was broadcast nationwide to special theaters for attendees. They are still adroit and brilliant in their older age.  One of the more fantastic guitarists alive and all around perfect musicians.  But attempting to re-create the original music with a slightly different format just didn't cut it.  Great musicianship, wrong format.  Please go back to the studio.  They're still good, mind you, but not without some electronic backup and SFX.  Stopped after 3rd song.

High Tension: Right.  That was it.  You just got the summary of the movie in the title.  Sexy girls travel to French countryside where homicidal maniac with a straight razor beheads people for no apparent reason while calmly stomping through their house while no one can put up any reasonable resistance and also do not get awakened despite the tumultuous racket until it's their turn to die .  One sexy girl fights back.  Cecile de France was incredible in Hereafter, with Matt Damon, but this was 7 years before that.  You've come a long way baby.  Quit watching after small boy gets shot in corn field by same big thug guy with a shotgun.  No taste.  Essence: "boo!  ssssslit".

And the winner is: Two Lovers, with fantastic performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Vinessa Shaw, and Gwyneth Paltrow.  Great stuff.  Very personal and up close look at disappointment and wrong decisions, people not knowing themselves very well, values misplaced, and picking on the one guy that should be the hero.  Great screenplay and execution.  Oh, and Isabella Rosellini with that fantastic accent and her cutting eyes.