Netflix Almanac: July 2007

Nothing. Nada. Not one movie, film, nor flicker. The 39-episode Seven Swordmen box set I rented from the local video store probably had something to do with that, along with the simplicity that, hey, it’s been a cool summer and I could use the air.

But I promised myself to do this report each month, and rather than leave all three of my readers wanting, I culled my many pages historia of Netflix rentals for a selected few titles from previous Julys. So, much sooner than originally planned, I present to you the first issue of Netflix Almanac: Rewind, in disguise:

Savior (1998)
After American military official Joshua Rose (Dennis Quaid) witnesses his wife and son killed in an Islamic terrorist bombing, he storms into a mosque and guns down the Muslims praying there. Several years later, he has found an existence as a mercenary plying his trade for the Serbs in the Bosnian civil war. His partner is killed by a child, leaving him without a mentor at the worst moment--when he is assigned to help escort a Serbian female prisoner named Vera, who was impregnated by a Muslim captor. When Rose’s Serbian cohort beats and threatens to murder her and her “unclean,” unborn child, Rose kills him and winds up delivering the baby. He then takes them under his protection, no matter how much she doesn’t want it. Director Predrag Antonijevic’s film has the subtly of a sledge, but Quaid’s Everyman performance for what is a very difficult character makes the story work. Savior takes a personal approach to war, allowing Rose--the American outsider yet involved--to witness and experience the hatred that destroyed that region’s people. Hating her Muslim baby, Vera refuses to feed or care for it, but then in turn is ostracized by her father. With his own hatred mirrored in Vera, Rose’s compassion is dragged out of his dead heart. Antonijevic was born in the region in which the film takes place, and he presents an uncompromising story of the conflict with no pat answers or fully happy endings. In this post-September 11th era, with the raging rhetoric of radical Muslims drowning out reason and stirring up religious prejudice, Savior is a hard film more important now than it was a decade ago, showing how hatred and cruelty have no boundaries, political or ethnic. (Viewed: July 29, 2001)

Rare Birds (2002)
In a small, quirky Newfoundland seaside town, Dave Purcell (William Hurt) irks out a living with his barely-solvent, fine-dining, seaside restaurant called The Auk. Dave is a quirky perfectionist, which has driven his business to the brink. Then his quirky neighbor, who believes the government is spying on him, suggests creating a hoax in which a rare duck is sighted near The Auk; the customers will flock (groan) to his restaurant for lunch while vainly searching for the non-existent fowl. The quirky plan works, and soon Dave needs a waitress. Enter Alice (Molly Parker), the neighbor’s “bookish” cousin, who is anything but bookish. Dave and Alice begin to fall for each other, but strange (or, quirky) obstacles keep tripping them up. And maybe the government is watching....Suffice to say Sturla Gunnarrson’s film is quirky, too quirky at times, trying too hard and hitting several discordant notes, the loudest of which is the cocaine subplot. Although greatly reduced from the source novel, it still feels out-of-place with the rest and, honestly, prevented me from completely falling for the film. Molly Parker, on the other hand, already had me. Still an enjoyable little movie, with just a few missteps. (Viewed: July 25, 2004)

Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (1996)
The 1990s reinvented the Japanese monster genre. First, Toho brought back Godzilla, unleashing a series of comic book adventures that nonetheless were more serious and mature than the vast majority of the original classic series. Most of all, Godzilla was back to being a bad guy and a threat. But what really changed Japan’s expectations for the kaiju film was the mid-1990s Gamera trilogy. The big turtle was a joke of the genre--the “friend of all children” starred in a desperate series of mostly kiddie movies designed to feed off of the Godzilla phenomenon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Director Shusuke Kaneko and writer Kazunori Ito brought the monster back and completely reworked him into a mythological epic tale that put the Godzilla films to shame. Most fans apparently feel that the second film is the perfect kaiju film and the best of the trilogy, but I don’t. Although the special effects are a startling improvement over this film’s predecessor, released just one year before, the story features far too much “leap-of-faith” exposition, in which characters reach just the right conclusion based on the barest of evidence. Also, those characters simply aren’t as compelling to me as the previous film’s, while Asagi--such an integral part of the first movie--is reduced to a near cameo here. Attack of Legion thrives, however, in the battles, when the aforementioned special effects bolster some excellent visual storytelling on the part of Kaneko. A strong kaiju film and perhaps the best one to watch of the trilogy as a standalone. (Viewed: July 23, 2004--bought it)

Shall We Dance? (1996)
I remembered this movie from its theatrical run, back when Miramax tried to find a foreign film every year to dominate art houses and critics’ best-of-the-year lists. Unfortunately, as Miramax was wont to do, the studio cut nearly 20 minutes out of the original Japanese version. Which only amazes me: The film is still wonderful. A successful Japanese businessman--dutiful husband to a lovely wife, father to a good kid, and a new homeowner--feels completely buried in routine, empty and alone. One night on the train ride home, he sees a beautiful woman standing forlornly at a dance studio window. Taken with her, he spontaneously bolts off the train and stumbles into signing up for dance lessons, only to learn that the woman is not his instructor and also doesn’t date students. But the businessman sticks to his lessons, in secret from his family and coworkers because ballroom dancing is viewed with suspicion. He falls in love not with the dancer but with the dance, awakening from the repression that enveloped his life. Shall We Dance? is a charm of a work, the kind of quiet romance that eschews the cliched ideals of what is a love story. The missing scenes from the movie apparently spend more time with the supporting characters populating the dance studio, which is a shame, because they are all wonderful surprises, sending the story spiraling into unexpected directions. Heh, now I’ve made myself go watch it again. (Viewed: July 22, 2005--bought it)

Project: Valkyrie (2002)
The advent of digital technology in the film industry revitalized the independent scene and helped the old regional movie industry resurface in homemade movies, made by pure amateurs with grandose ideas and miniscule budgets. Jeff Waltrowski’s creation features all of the problems of those films--hideously low production values, hammy acting, in-jokes that overstay their welcome, ill-advised shifts in tone, and a wandering plotline in dire need of an editor. That plot involves a loser inheriting a World War II-era mechanical superhero and the neo-Nazis who become mutated with one of his grandfather’s failed chemistry set experiments. This comedy, though, still manages some legitimate laughs and only really falters at the end when Waltrowski’s overdone gore swamps any hilarity. Far better than it has any right to be. (Viewed: July 26, 2006)