<p>My husband and I get together with three other couples most Friday nights to go out to dinner. Afterwards we tend to go to one other couples home and watch a movie. We’ve watched some really bad movies lately and I need some suggestions. The reason I am asking for new is that one couple REALLY likes to watch movies so they have seen just about anything out that is over a year old. They say they have rated 3,000 movies on Netflix! We are not looking for something currently in theaters, but rather just released to DVD or pay per view.</p>
<p>The latest two bad choices were 7 Psychopaths and The Paperboy. Both were surprisingly gory. YUCK! We actually stopped watching 7 Psychopaths 36 minutes into the show.</p>
<p>So, here’s what we’re looking for:</p>
<p>Newish - We’ve been getting them from Pay per view, but also have Netflix streaming available and perhaps Amazon Prime, Apple TV.</p>
<p>No gore or horror</p>
<p>preferably something that makes you think or feel good - Romantic comedy, courtroom drama, Historical Fiction.</p>
<p>You’ve probably aready seen that thread, but in case you haven’t, you may be able to pick out possible movies from the suggestions. That’s a pretty tough set of criteria, though, especially if the movie buffs are already using Netflix so regularly.</p>
<p>They’ve probably already seen these, but I’d suggest Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (utterly charming) and Bernie (quirly and very funny). I’m going to watch Transsiberian with Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer later today - fairly new to Netflix, great reviews, and supposed to be thought-provoking. But it’s not in the preferred genres. End of Watch has gotten terrific reviews, but probably too violent. How about Arbitrage with Richard Gere? The reviews have been wonderful</p>
<p>Thanks frazzled. I know we’ve all seen the Marigold hotel, but not sure about the rest of your picks. Thanks for the other ones - I’ll check them out! Yes, I’ve been on the Netflix thread and posted there myself and the very good suggestions there made me think to ask for newer ones. We started watching Homeland because of that thread.</p>
<p>As you know the problem with Netflix streaming is that they are not new movies and there’s a very good chance that they’ve been watched before.</p>
<p>7 Psychopaths is Martin McDonagh’s movie about his own writing. He’s a phenomenally successful playwright. This is his second movie. I disliked the first, In Bruges, because it felt like a play poorly moved to screen. This movie is about him - Marty - trying to write a screenplay in which he escapes the idiotic conventions of gore and revenge violence that his own writing contains. He even says - though Colin Farrell - that he wants to set up the first half of the movie as a huge revenge plot and then have the lead characters walk away into the desert to talk. Which is what happens. Except the characters refuse to play along and there is a massive amount of violence, some idiotic and some brilliant. Thing is, if you don’t know The Cripple of Inishmaan, A Skull in Connemara, The Lonesome West, The Beauty Queen of Leenane or The Pillowman then you don’t know what he’s talking about in the context of his own work. </p>
<p>For example, The Pillowman is about a guy who writes mostly gruesome fairy tales. They’re just stories and the writer is a sweet guy but it turns out they exactly match a series of brutal killings. The action is set in a police state and the writer is being tortured and you know he will eventually be executed. Turns out his mentally ill brother was enacting the stories. As with all McDonagh plays and just like in this movie, the storyline keeps turning on itself. Turns out, for example, his parents would torture his brother in the room next door at night to give him inspiration for darker, more complex stories. Just like in the movie, when Billy turns out to be the first psychopath - and the 7th - because he killed to give Marty inspiration. </p>
<p>That play turns on a missing girl and the writer realizes his brother was enacting his most gruesome story The Little Jesus. You see imagined scenes of her being tortured but it turns out the brother was enacting the writer’s only completely silly story, The Little Green Pig, The girl shows up painted green. The connection to the movie is the dog, an attempt at humor compared to the utter horror of the play. The Pillowman is a work of genius, one of the best plays in decades, but it is hard to watch.</p>
<p>Lergnom, Thanks for that insight. Frankly after about the 12th killing in the 7th Psychopath movie, I don’t think a plot would have mattered to me. Gratuitous murder, especially throat slicing is something that infects my dreams.</p>
<p>I thought Safety not Guaranteed rang a bell, so looked it up. Yes, we saw that one last month. Liked it! Win win was also something I saw and enjoyed very much but I don’t think I saw the whole thing. Will suggest. I REALLY appreciate these suggestions! </p>
<p>I think foreign films are fine. We turn on the subtitles as a matter of course anyway.</p>
<p>Try Sleepwalk with Me. It’s on Netflix–was in theaters in August. I saw it at a film festival in June and went to a Q/A with the director Mike Birbigilia (story is autobiographical)–it’s comedic, but also serious. Birbiglia also write the screen play along with Ira Glass (of NPR), who was an executive producer of the film. Birbiglia’s story was on Glass’ show This American Life. Another one, I’d recommend (especially if you’re a baseball fan, but even if you aren’t) is a documentary called Knuckleball. It focuses on knuckleball pitchers (who are a dying breed). Film features the only two (now one) MLB knuckleball pitchers: R.A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield (who retired shortly after the documentary was released).</p>
<p>Your Sister’s Sister is unscripted. I can’t remember the actor’s name but the guy who built the time machine in Safety Not Guaranteed is the male lead in Your Sister’s Sister.</p>
<p>Mark Duplass is the guy in Safety Not Guaranteed and Your Sister’s Sister.</p>
<p>Duplass is great! He is also in Humpday, which was improvised to an even greater extent than Your Sister’s Sister. Humpday is much less racy than it sounds. I recommend it highly to people who like indies, good acting, and something a little different.</p>
<p>Irish) How About You
(Japanese documentary really well done) Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
(Irish) American Women
50/50
The Chorus
Young at Heart (documentary of a singing group of senior citizens that will just warm your heart!)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
Mrs Henderson Presents (with Judi Dench)
Made in Dagenham
A Separation (Iranian)
Ides of March
Nowhere Boy
Before Night Falls
Biutiful
Frozen River
Fair Game
Pirate Radio
Winter’s Bone
The Secret in Their Eyes
The Ghost Writer
Every Little Step
An Education</p>
<p>If you’re up for a good documentary, I would highly recommend Searching for Sugarman, an amazing story about Rodriguez, a singer from Detroit, who became a phenomenon in South Africa (unbeknownst to him), but never caught on in the U.S.</p>
<p>And I second Senna, especially if you’ve read the book The Art of Racing in the Rain.</p>