Some hidden gems on Netflix Streaming.

[skizzerflake]

I don't think it's exactly HIDDEN, but Winter's Bone is on Netflix. Jennifer Lawrence is the most hard-*** Ozark teen whoever had to raise her younger siblings and harvest her dead father's hand. This movie is so grimly realistic that it's hard to watch.

 

[shadyJ]

I just watched a movie I had never heard of on Netflix, called The Last Days. It is about an epidemic sickness that breaks out which prevents people from going outdoors or else they experience a fatal, panic-induced aneurysm, so humanity must remain indoors. It takes place in Barcelona. It reminded me of that Julianne Moore movie 'Blindness'. I was surprised at how well it was done. This is definitely a hidden gem.

 

[shadyJ]

I watched another surprisingly good movie this morning on Netflix that I had not even heard of, it is called Ironclad, made in 2011, starring James Purefoy, Paul Giamatti, Kate Mara, Brian Cox, Charles Dance, Derek Jacobi, and others. I am surprised I had not heard of it given the cast and high production values. It is basically a castle siege movie, with King John trying to kill all the barons who forced him to sign the Magna Carta. He hires an army of mercenaries to attack a castle as he attempts to reclaim England. The castle is held by a Templar Knight and a handful of other warriors. This movie was very gory, but any movie involving 13th century warfare really should be. This movie must have the best depiction of medieval battle I have seen. It's definitely worth giving a try if you don't mind the sight of blood.

 

[j_garcia]

I don't think it's exactly HIDDEN, but Winter's Bone is on Netflix. Jennifer Lawrence is the most hard-*** Ozark teen whoever had to raise her younger siblings and harvest her dead father's hand. This movie is so grimly realistic that it's hard to watch.

Certainly not hidden and been discussed here before, but yes, an excellent film. Gritty, realistic and not exactly uplifting, but very well done and worth watching.

I watched all of Netflix's new original Anime series Knights of Sidonia and thought it was pretty good. Not the best animation (3D CGI) and a pretty standard story as Anime goes (based on an existing Manga), but still held up well and was entertaining. Worth a watch for anime fans.

Finishing up Hemlock Grove S2 tonight. It improved from the early episodes and is now about as good as S1, but with just one episode left, it is opening up a LOT of questions; clearly setting up another season.

 

[skizzerflake]

OK, here goes, film school time - You can view DW Griffith's Birth of a Nation and his attempt at personal redemption, Intolerance, on Netflix. BOAN was arguably the first real, full size movie, and used every cinematic trick available in 1915 to create a vast, sweeping epic unlike anything ever seen by an audience. It also was arguably the most racist movie ever made, even by 1915 standards, so much so that it's downright laughable now, especially the white actors in blackface. After the film was banned in many places, Griffith, who feigned ignorance of his racism, tried to rehabilitate his reputation with the equally epic film Intolerance, which preached that intolerance was the downfall of many cultures. One of the strange ironies of those movies was that the huge, ancient world sets built for Intolerance on a Hollywood back lot were reconfigured, repainted and re-used in many other movies for a number of decades. As difficult as these two silents are, they are a foundation of movies as we know them, even today.