This may turn out to be a very broad topic, but I figure broadening one’s horizons is probably a good thing.
I’ve been going through a lot of the On Demand movies on Netflix lately. With their suggestion system, I’ve discovered many movies that originally passed under my radar but ended up being phenomenal. Fido, SuperSize Me, Pineapple Express, My Name is Bruce, these are all movies I definitely wouldn’t have rented since they are out of my usual genres, but have discovered to be great works of modern art.
What movies are On Demand on Netflix that I simply HAVE to watch?
To expand this a bit, what other movies can I watch for free elsewhere (Hulu, etc) that are a must-see?
The Unrequited Love Indie Movie genre:
Brick
Cashback
Good Dick
Cashback and Good Dick seem like bad, teenage sex romp titles based just on their names. They’re certainly not high art, but they were very good, semi-thoughtful movies. Good Dick was about an emotionally damaged young woman being courted by an emotionally damaged video clerk. Some very surprising cameos by Tom Arnold and Bryce Dallas Howard suggest someone involved in this movie knew what they were doing. Slightly half-baked, but satisfying.
I Haven’t Been Mentally Abused In a While genre:
Primer
This hit my radar a year or so ago, which was stoked a few months ago with both an xkcd.com and SDMB reference. It’s a quick 70 minute movie that’s going to mess with your head. Made on $7000, it follows a couple guys developing some sort of tech in their garage. They discover that it’s actually a time travel device, wherein confusion begins to run rampant. Excellent.
I recently watched Man On Wire, a documentary about Philippe Petit, the man who walked on a high wire between the towers of the World Trade Center. It was really good, particularly if you’re into documentaries.
The Man from Earth. It concerns a college professor that is moving and his learned colleague’s reactions to the the revelation that he’s an immortal Cro-Magnon man. Aside from a stupid twist at the end, it’s probably the best movie I’ve seen in years.
OP here again. I’m only halfway through it, but I’m dying from laughing at The Gamer: Dorkness Rising. It’s impossible to not laugh at this movie if you have ever played any table top games, specifically Dungeons & Dragons.
If you like foreign films, you might like 12. It’s a remake of 12 Angry Men, but with a Russian jury.
Another foreign film (but saw relatively wide release in the US), Pan’s Labyrinth. Foreign, cerebral, visually striking.
Another cerebral one, Synecdoche, New York if you like Charlie Kaufman flics.
Vanishing Point is a classic car chase movie, which is really understating things. If you’re into spotting movie allusions at all, see this movie and you’ll see how many other movies have alluded to this one.
This a thousand times. It had been on the radar for awhile but when I saw it pop up on streaming I finally took the chance to watch it a few weeks ago and it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in a awhile. It’s basically an hour and a half long debate but it’s incredibly engrossing. I don’t know who played the lead but his likable and plain spoken demeanor makes the movie far more believable than it had any right to be. Also, it has Tony Todd and Dr. Phlox from ‘Enterprise’ in the cast which caught me completely off guard. Todd is one of my personal favorites actors so it was a pleasant surprise.
A bunch of Kurosawa films have been added lately including Rashomon (already mentioned of course), Yojimbo, Sanjuro and of course Seven Samurai. All are highly recommended.
Bergman has also had a bunch added with Seventh Seal, Virgin Spring, and Wild Strawberries hitting in the last few weeks. Anything from Bergman also comes highly recommended.
I must say that Netflix’s instant streaming used to be full of garbage and C level films but they have really redeemed themselves over the last few months.
Also, two childhood favs are up in the two Ghostbusters movies. The first one especially is one of the best blockbuster action/comedy movies ever made with Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd at the top of their careers. Watch them if you haven’t yet.
I’ve had Netflix for a couple months now and these are the titles I’ve streamed: Quest for Fire
Who’s Who
Underworld U.S.A.
Experiment in Terror
The Anderson Tapes
Dirty Harry
Louis C.K.: Chewed Up
To Sleep With Anger
House of Voices
Feed
Wichita
College
The Fighting Rats of Tobruk
The Desert Rats
Lifeboat
The Blue Planet: Open Oceans
Pin
The House on 92nd Street
The Vanguard
The Thin Blue Line
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Interpreter
Day of the Dead
Requiem
Sherlock Holmes: Dressed to Kill
Brother’s Keeper: 10th Anniversary Edition
Sherlock Holmes: The Last Vampyre
The Replacement Killers
La Bete Humaine
Seance
Mandabi
Black Girl
The Legend of Billie Jean
The Thief of Bagdad
Zontar: Thing from Venus
FernGully: The Last Rainforest
The Son
The Virgin Spring
The Cheat
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde: 1941
A Doll’s House
I Wake Up Screaming
Twentieth Century
Lost in America
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
The Dead Zone
The General
Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries: Carcase: Ep 4
Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries: Carcase: Ep 3
Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries: Carcase: Ep 2
Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries: Carcase: Ep 1
Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries: Strong Poison
Sherlock Holmes: The Priory School
Sherlock Holmes: Man with the Twisted Lip
Sherlock Holmes: The Second Stain
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Darkness Falls
Romeo + Juliet
Man with the Movie Camera
Sherlock Holmes: The Musgrave Ritual
Groundhog Day
All the King’s Men
Deadline
Sherlock Holmes: The Abbey Grange
Sherlock Holmes: The Empty House
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Problem
Sherlock Holmes: The Red-Headed League
Sherlock Holmes: The Resident Patient
Sherlock Holmes: The Norwood Builder
Sherlock Holmes: The Greek Interpreter
Sherlock Holmes: The Copper Beeches
Nosferatu
Clear and Present Danger
Hopscotch
Alfred Hitchcock: The Lodger
Sherlock Holmes: The Blue Carbuncle
Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band
Sherlock Holmes: The Crooked Man
Sherlock Holmes: The Solitary Cyclist
Sherlock Holmes: The Naval Treaty
Sherlock Holmes: The Dancing Men
Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia
Trash
Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries: Gaudy Night
Angel on My Shoulder
The Big Trail
Island in the Sun
I Want to Live!
Cover Girl
House of Wax
The Scavengers
The Accused
A Letter to Three Wives
Time Barbarians
Jason Goes to Hell
The Hunger
The Time Machine
Wire in the Blood: Ssn 3: Redemption
Wire in the Blood: Ssn 2: Still She Cries
Scream
Nuts in May
Odd Man Out
WALL-E
Fallen
Carrie
The Craft
The Innocents
Audition
Shadowboxer
1984
13 Rue Madeleine
Looking at lissener’s list reminds me that it appears the entirety of Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes’ series is available as well. Loved the show and I believe it’s the highest regarded portrayal of the character to date. Just an all around high quality production.
Yessssss! It was especially meaningful to me since I worked in NYC on the day he did the walk and then years later I worked in each of the buildings of the WTC–different companies, different time periods. Thankfully, not for the bomb nor for 9/11. But I have special memories for those buildings and neighborhood. It was an amazing feat for Petit to have done the walk. Until the film I never realized that it took him about 45 minutes and that he danced and even laid down on the wire… Absolutely amazing.
This is just a brilliant movie, and for a low-budget indie movie it’s amazingly well-acted and well-scripted. If you have any familiarity at all with D&D or even tabletop games in general it’s very, very worth watching.
The downside of streaming through Netflix is you don’t get the DVD special features. The blooper reel is just as awesome as the movie.
I highly recommend “Birthday Girl” - not necessarily a must-see, but a genuinely amusing dark comedy. Nicole Kidman stars as the mail-order Russian bride of a nebbishy British banker - but cons, violence, and kink ensue.
Sheez I’m sorry, in all my copy pasting and formatting I forgot the OP was asking for MUST SEE movies. Too late to edit, but I’ll post a shorter list tomorrow.
FYI, Roger Ebert declared this the Best Movie of the past decade. Got a :dubious: from me (Rog’s pick, not the movie - I haven’t seen it, though I’ve heard mixed things and it was by no means universally praised by critics), but that was enough for me to put it in the ol’ queue.