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I love sports documentaries, and earlier this week I wrote this review for one of my favorites from last year, Diego Maradona (on HBO and Kanopy). Diego Maradona was a great soccer player but he was also affiliated with the Mafia and was loved and hated by entire countries. He has so much more to his person than just soccer.
Today’s top movie pick is exactly the same. It’s about a racer, but it’s about so much more than just racing.
THE TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story (2020)
New this month on Netflix.
“They called me uppity. Uppity n*****. And I loved it”. That’s how this excellent documentary, about the first professional black racing driver Willy T. Ribbs, starts. It summarizes the strong personality of a champion who excelled in tracks that were filled with confederate flags.
The documentary explains the details of the difficulties that Ribbs went through in the 70s and 80s, but also the people who supported him and recognized his talent. It’s by no way a sad movie, on the contrary, even when Ribbs is talking about people spitting wherever he walks or about the death threats escalating, his determination is unharmed.
This is an inspiring documentary about a character who never got his worth in the history books. I was full of shivers by the first half-hour mark.
📰 Just like Ribbs not getting his worth, this movie still hasn’t been reviewed by any serious publication.
📺 on Netflix U.S., Canada, France, UK, and select other countries; 🍅 rating: - (not yet available)
THE TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK
Informer
Now on Amazon Prime.
This visually stunning thriller is about a young man called Raza who is hired by a counter-terrorism officer as his informer. If you liked Netflix’s Bodyguard, you will love this, which in my opinion is has much more substance.
Originally a photographer with no link to the world of crime or terrorism, the color of Raza’s skin and his accent make the authorities believe he would be a valuable asset. And quickly, he falls into a web of crime, giving this show the appeal of the fantastic HBO series The Night Of.
📰 The Atlantic: “What makes Informer is Raza. The series marks Rizwan's screen-acting debut, which is hard to believe since he brings such varying levels to his part.”
📺 on Amazon Prime U.S. and select other countries; 🍅 rating: 79%
Readers’ top picks
Dolemite Is My Name on Netflix is back as our readers’ favorite movie. It stars Eddie Murphy in a comedy based on a true story.
Counterpart on Amazon Prime is our readers’ favorite TV show. It’s about a world that’s parallel to us where J.K. Simmons plays two characters: a dedicated working man and a sharp secret agent.
New titles worth your time
Netflix premiered I Am Not Okay With This, a new 20-minute-per-episode show that’s a mix of Stranger Things and Sex Education. It’s about an awkward teenager who realizes she has superpowers, and it’s not exactly as easy of a sell as you’d think — even if a plot like this is so Netflix that it sounds like a parody. Still, it’s an enjoyable show with one or two very well-written characters.
Amazon Prime added the fourth season of Grantchester this week. It’s a British detective drama starring James Norton (Little Women, Happy Valley).
Great titles that will soon expire
Many great popular movies are leaving Netflix tomorrow, February 29th: 50/50, the excellent emotional comedy with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gorden-Levitt; American Beauty, The Fighter, Hustle & Flow, Layer Cake, The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded.
Black Panther leaves Netflix this Tuesday, March 3rd. *wakanda*.
The fantastic Andy Garcia comedy City Island leaves this Sunday, March 1st. It’s about a prison guard who lies to his wife to attend an acting class, only to meet his long-lost 24-year-old love child. I highly recommend City Island if you haven’t seen it yet.
The Newsflash: don’t trust Netflix’s “top 10” list
You might have noticed that a “top 10” appeared on your Netflix account. Please, whatever you do, don’t take this into consideration when choosing what to watch.
Netflix used to calculate the viewing metrics of a movie or show in a way that made sense: the viewer watched 70% or more of a title.
Now, in a marketing move, they’ve brought that down to users watching 2 minutes of a title. Two minutes.
According to this calculation, the Alfa-Romeo-sponsored pile of garbage 6 Underground was one of the most-watched movies last year.
You might have also noticed that Netflix Originals show up more in this list. That’s likely because Netflix highlights them more on the homepage, so users are more inclined to give them a try — to watch 2 minutes and possibly turn them off, like I did with 6 Underground.
Netflix gives you the illusion that their Originals are more popular on the platform, and they are, but only according to this ridiculous 2-minute rule. Should this mean anything to you, a viewer trying to find something worthwhile, or even something that is actually popular? God no.
As long as viewers trust Netflix’s algorithms and trust their corporate-biased recommendations, manipulations like these are bound to happen. I can’t repeat this enough: Netflix wants you to watch stuff that Netflix spent money on, not what is actually good.
More on this on a shareholder letter shared by EW:
As we’ve expanded our original content, we’ve been working on how to best share content highlights that demonstrate popularity. Given that we now have titles with widely varying lengths — from short episodes (e.g. Special at around 15 minutes) to long films (e.g. The Highwaymen at 132 minutes) — we believe that reporting households viewing a title based on 70 percent of a single episode of a series or of an entire film, which we have been doing, makes less sense. We are now reporting on households (accounts) that chose to watch a given title.
And this CinemaBlend article: Netflix's New Metric For Recording Viewers Is Absolutely Ridiculous.
That’s it for this week, I hope there is something in there for you.
The next edition will be in your inbox on Friday, March 6th.
Until then,
Bilal Zou, founder [bilal@agoodmovietowatch.com]
Carried with the support of the Creative Europe Program – MEDIA.