Streaming Sunday (2/24/2013)
Welcome to GFBRobot’s Streaming Sunday! Below you’ll find a selection of movies and TV shows recently added to streaming services that we here at GFBR think you’ll love.
Undefeated (2011)
Netflix Instant
image via ngpopgun.wordpress.com
Description: “Cinéma vérité tackles football in this inspirational profile of an inner-city Memphis high school football team, whose downtrodden players combine with a dedicated volunteer coach in a valiant effort to reach the school’s first-ever playoff game.”–Netflix
Reason to Watch: Undefeated was the winner of the 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Personally, I find that well-made sports movies, scripted or documentary, can hit me harder than a lot of other kinds of films. There is something about the story of teams coming together and triumph over adversity that sports films seem to get right more often than not. If you’re a sports fan, like me, this documentary is a must watch.
The Imposter (2012)
Netflix Instant
image via maguiresmovies.blogspot.com
Description: “A 13-year-old boy who vanished in Texas and shows up three years later in Spain now has the same tattoos, but looks different and speaks with an accent. An investigator sets out to unravel the mystery in this riveting documentary.”–Netflix
Reason to Watch: When I saw that The Imposter was newly added to the Netflix Instant library, I was surprised and elated. There are few documentaries from last year that were spoken of as highly as this film was. It seems like nearly every critic I respect saw this movie and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, for a movie that did not end up with a Best Documentary Feature nomination this year, it sure came up on a lot of personal lists for critics that I came across.
Side by Side (2012)
Netflix Instant
Keanu Reeves and Martin Scorsese (image via movies.nytimes.com)
Description: “Keanu Reeves produced and narrates this engaging documentary about the history of digital cinema technology and its vast impact on the movie industry. Despite the digital takeover, many fans still embrace the unique qualities of celluloid film.”–Netflix
Reason to Watch: For film buffs and film fans interested in the medium as a whole, one of the leading topics of discussion has been the dominance of digital film making and the death of film itself as a method of making movies. In Side by Side we are able to see what some of today’s leading filmmakers think about the issue. Keanu Reeves sits down with filmmakers such as James Cameron, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, George Lucas, and many others to get at the differences in the methods as well as what the change means for the future of the art form. If you, like me, are a fan of films as an art form, and I take it you are, then this is definitely a film you need to see.
Thanks for doing this. I really enjoyed your recommendations from last week. Bravo!
Thanks a lot for the feedback! I actually just watched Side by Side on Netflix and thought that it worked as a really good History 101 class for film.