Streaming Channel of the Day : KANOPY and 3 Movies to Try!

 

So I have been a Kanopy viewer for a few months now, and I really like the service. It is free as long as you have a participating Library, and you get a huge range of films to choose from. Tons of stuff that you will not find on Netflix or Disney or Hulu.

I’m a huge fan of classic and silent films, and this channel is a home run, if you are such a fan. Now if you do not like classic films, or black and white films, or foreign films, this channel may not be for you. While it does offer some recent films, such as the recent Dafoe/Pattinson LIGHTHOUSE, the strength of this channel is its huge catalog of classic and world cinema films, that you otherwise would have to pay for to view.

Great classic films from FLICKER ALLEY to KINO to CRITERION to the BFI, is the draw of the KANOPY channel.

Now there are some drawbacks to the service. You get to watch 15 items per month – yay! But you only get to watch 15 items per month – Boo!

But generally I have other demands on my time in a month so while I think offering 20 or 25 titles a month is more reasonable,  15 titles viewed, I can generally stretch it out and make it work.

However, what really  bugs me with KANOPY is, if you start a film but do not finish it, and come back later in the month to view it, that finishing the same film—gets counted again, as a new viewing. IT IS INFURIATING!!

It is not always consistent with this double dipping, but it does it enough to be annoying. I do not think I have had a single month of KANOPY usage that I actually got to watch 15 distinct films. The most I think I have managed is 12 or 13 films, before they cut you off telling you you have reached your 15 viewing limit. GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

So while I like the service, there are definite bugs in it that make it infuriating.

That said, even when you get cut off after ‘reaching’ the 15 title limit, you are however able to watch a small library of their credit free films, all documentaries as far as I’ve seen.

Okay so July has just started, here are the titles I  have so far tried this month:

Guy Maddin’s 1990 film ARCHANGEL. I wanted to start with his first feature TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL, which was on KANOPY’s service last month, however it is no longer on KANOPY this month. So another note regarding KANOPY, movies can disappear anytime, so watch the ones you are most excited for first. As far as ARCHANGEL, I have tried a previous Maddin film, so I was aware he would be an acquired taste. 15 minutes into this film, and it is clear, it is not going to happen with this film. I understand being strange for strange sake, I’ve watched TETSUO and the works of Lynch, but I think above all you have to be interesting and good. And the first 15 minutes of this film do not strike me as either. I may try and finish this film later, but it won’t be this month. Don’t want to risk losing another KANOPY viewing on this film. I’m thinking I am going to give his 1992 film, CAREFUL, a try, and hopefully that works better for me than his films to-date.

L’INHUMAINE- this silent film is living up to its description. The score is fantastic, and story-line pretty riveting. With the slight exception, the titular star hardly seems the great beauty that giants of industry and kings, would be moved to throw themselves at. But that casting curiosity aside, a very good film. Wonderful set design and visuals. At its making it was a monumental undertaking and it shows. It is an art deco masterpiece in more ways than one. This one I’m going to pick up the Blu-ray for. I am that impressed by it.

 

CONFUSION NA WA(2013)- I just discovered this film and it is my movie of the day. See my separate review on it. It is that good!

 

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GREAT DEALS OF THE DAY!

 

Best and Worst Police Procedural’s on Amazon Prime! Under Construction

THE SHIELD- Shawn Ryan’s THE SHIELD is a show glorifying a racist bunch of dirty cops, and the un-redeeming stereotypes they beat on. It’s a dire, depressing, largely detestable show, that is not dissimilar to a slog through the sewers.

I watched a couple episodes in season #1 and then an episode in season #7, and there is absolutely no growth in the show, what a waste. Three episodes more than enough of this show. A classic example of Black faces, White messages. It’s a modern day minstrel show.

How it made it seven seasons, says something about the acceptance of great doses of bigotry. Not my thing. Pass on this and see either HOMICIDE or NYPD BLUE Season 1 instead.

NYPD BLUE- I’ve never been a fan of police procedurals, but the first season of NYPD BLUE was something else, a game changer in terms of dramatic intensity for television, and a clinic in style and the acting prowess of David Caruso. He was effectively the show. Which left later seasons… uninteresting. Get season 1, forget the rest.

JUSTIFIED- I found this modern cowboy drama incredibly uninteresting in the first season with largely unlikeable characters. Pass on this and see LONGMIRE or DEADWOOD instead.

LIFE- Both seasons are fantastic. Transcends a simple police procedural, by its protagonists quirky pursuit of Zen and Justice.

COPPER- Police work late 19th century style. Not really interested.

LUTHER- First few episodes are magnificent, though it loses its way toward the end, but still season 1 is a recommended view. Season 2 however is utter garbage.

HOMICIDE- Clearly the best police procedural ever, and largely because it is not about the procedure. A rich, ethnically strong cast of powerhouse actors, especially Andre Braugher in a star making performance, creates that rarest of television shows… a smart one. Highest recommendation.

DVD REVIEW: BAND OF BROTHERS?!!— You’re kidding me right?

What I’m Watching:

BAND OF BROTHERS- They call this BAND OF BROTHERS, and there ain’t no Brothers in the movie? WTF? 🙂

I’m only half joking though.

Film kinda ignores the heavy colored presence, to include such decorated veterans as Walter Morris, of the nationality: American, of the ethnicity: Black, of the occupation: Bad Ass, who was a paratrooper and spearheaded the 555th during the same 1944 period this series covers.

Don’t get me wrong BAND OF BROTHERS is not a bad show from the bit I watched of it, it just seems a bit… opaque. I mean even if your central story is of this certain company… fine, that’s fine, but then I look at the major massings, the troop movements with the group transports when they get on the boats, there’s like two Black faces in a crowd, that if you blink you missed it.

It just seems the filmmakers went out of their way to portray an entire war fought sans persons of color, and that if I might say, in my best British accent, is… bollocks!

Ahhh feel better now. But my feeling better aside, that… shortsightedness, that tendency to ignore, is increasingly the cinema of 21st century America, a cinema of turning back the clock.

It’s pretty much a big eff you to the people of color who lost their lives in yet another War for liberty, a liberty that, at V days end, again failed to extend to them and their families. Yet fight they did. So to paint an entire war as absent of that perspective, even that awareness, (hell RED TAILS had white people in it :)) well that just strikes me from every angle as whitewashed bs.

Because if you can’t acknowledge that inexplicable fact of every American War, from the revolution down,,, that people denied equality fought for it, fought for the dream that lives behind the lie, the promise of America… then you make a lie of the sacrifice, not just of those of color who fought and bled and gave their last best measure, but a lie of all who fought, of all who served, of all who gave, of all who lost.

Because the war, was about the very rights of man… and to forget that, to not acknowledge that, with every generation, with every nation, with every breath… is to savior the axis philosophy… rather than to slay it.

Ohhh… deep.

So to be less deep… Goddamn producer Tom Hanks! Even damn racist John Wayne put a couple people of color in his films. WTF? And to think I liked you in FOREST GUMP! :).

Yeah I can’t watch anymore of this BAND OF WHITE BROTHERS :). Grade: I’ll pass. Nicely acted, from what I can see, just have no interest in finishing it. Damn I ain’t saying make Billy D. Williams the star, but would it have killed you to acknowledge the war was fought by more than CW stars?! :).

‘CW stars’, that’s a good one. I slay me. 🙂