The Netflix Experiment.

R and I are GOLD members at Blockbuster. This means that we get rent-one-get-one free Sunday through Thursday. They don't even offer this level in the Rewards Program anymore.

We paid $10 for a Rewards membership back when we used it for renting Barney VHS videos when Beebie was a lil bitty thing. I can't imagine how many freebies we've gotten over the years, and I'm not even counting the five free rentals we got every week when R worked there, many years ago.

Suffice it to say, we watch a TON of movies at Chez Karma.

We also had the 3-out-at-a-time plus unlimited in-store trade-ins thing through Blockbuster Online, until they raised the prices and quit giving a free movie OR game rental every month, which we liked to use on games. We paid maybe $30 a month for this plan, and we ended it on principle more than anything, because we felt like they were screwing some of their most loyal customers. And, ironically, we probably spend at least that much renting only in-store now.

Even while we had Blockbuster Online, we also had Netflix. We've decided to keep Netflix because we can watch movies on our big ass tv through the Xbox 360. We used to have the one-at-a-time plan for $8.95, but then I upgraded it to BlueRay and I think we pay $12.95 a month now.

So this month we're hoarding our pennies in anticipation of the potential strike of the Rebellion against the Evil Empire. So we're cutting back to JUST Netflix for our movie watching needs. Can I do it? I don't know. It's making me kinda antsy, because there's just something kinda thrilling about picking up a movie on the day its released.

For example, Doubt comes out today, and I'm DYING to see it. I love Philip Seymour Hoffman. I'm incredibly tempted to just sneak over to Blockbuster and pick it up right now, watch it and take it back before anyone gets home. But I still have Slumdog Millionaire to watch.


Anyway, here's what I thought of some of the movies I've seen recently:

MILK

I was so into this movie I forgot to take pictures of the handknits! Sean Penn was absolutely brilliant. He can beat the shit out of as many photographers as he wants, as far as I'm concerned.

I especially felt that the gay sex scenes depicted a beautiful tenderness between the characters that conveyed more love than lust. This, in my opinion, allowed a much more powerful emotional connection with the audience than I'm used to seeing in mainstream movies about gay men.

The portrayal of the evolution of love between Harvey and Scott stood out to me, and I thought it was very well done, both in terms of writing and acting. I think some hetero people might be surprised to see same-sex couples dealing with the same relationship issues that a "normal" couple would.

I love Love. I love to see people genuinely in love. Seeing elderly couples walking hand-in-hand is the sweetest thing in the world. Male, female, who cares, short of fetishes which aren't really so much about love anyway, it's all good. I support gay marriage. Why not? Lust is lust, and that's more animalistic and instinctual, but Love makes us human.

Even when we know love will take us through the full spectrum of emotion, even when we know we shouldn't, we give in to it. We can't help ourselves. Love is such a powerful and beautiful thing.

While I was watching the movie, Pie came downstairs and saw what I was watching. I told him it wasn't a kid movie. He asked what it was about, and I asked if he knew what the word "gay" means. He said he did, and just to be sure, I said it's when a man loves another man or when a woman loves another woman. He was insulted that I felt I had to explain it.

I told Pie that a long time ago (which the movie reminded me really wasn't that long ago) people could get arrested for being gay. He said "That's just totally stupid". Yup, it sure is.

I remembered Anita Bryant hockin' orange juice on tv, back in the day, but I had no idea she was such a twat.


Happy Go Lucky

This one got off to a bit of a slow start, but the message of it was really delightful.

Poppy lives in London and rides a bike. There's something inherently free-spirited about riding a bike - powering it yourself, deciding how fast or how slow you want to go - it's leisurely without being lazy.

So when Poppy's bike gets ripped off, she suddenly has to learn how to drive, and the guy who teaches her seems, on the surface, repulsed by her lackidasical attitude about life in general, but later it becomes clear that he secretly has feelings for her.

Meanwhile, everyone in Poppy's life tells her she needs to grow up, be more serious and deal with reality the way everyone else does. But the underlying message is - if the people who deal with reality always seem to be unhappy with their lives, why would anyone want to be like that? Does being a grownup mean I have to be miserable all the time?

I need to learn to ride a bike uphill. And I didn't mean for it to sound like a metaphor, but I guess it works that way too.


Twilight

Ah, who hasn't been hopelessly attracted to someone they KNOW is bad news? I started reading the book, and I just couldn't get into it, so I don't know how the movie compares, or if important parts were left out that added to the mystery of Edward Cullen.

I watched the movie on BlueRay with Beebie and Pie, and we all liked it. Wouldn't say I loved it. Two societal outcasts find each other; we've seen it before. Robert Pattinson sure makes Vampires look sexy, though, I will say that.

Plus, there were quite a few knit hats featured prominently. :)


Next in my Queue, after I return Slumdog, are Doubt, The Reader, Frost/Nixon, Rachel Getting Married, and The Wrestler.

Tomorrow I'm watching Jesus of Montreal after lunch.