Dear friends,
Today’s top movie pick is a star-packed yet little-known family drama. The TV show is an original take on the courtroom drama genre from Belgium.
You’ll hear from me again on Wednesday with a mid-week pick. Until then, I hope you stay safe and well.
THE TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Rabbit Hole
New this month on Amazon Prime.
Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, and Miles Teller star in this subtle drama about the state of a couple eight months into dealing with the sudden loss of their son.
The movie is based on a David Lindsay-Abaire play by the same name which won a Pulitzer Prize. It deals with the timeline of grief, and whether such a thing even exists: can the couple attempt to move on after 8 months? What about 8 years, like another couple they meet in a counseling group?
It’s also about how the differences in grief create tensions: the mother wants to donate the clothes and sell the house because she doesn’t want to be reminded of the event. The father wants to hold on the memory instead.
Rabbit Hole, like its source material, is sad, but its realistic approach and excellent performances make it nothing more than a perfect reflection of how complicated life can be.
📰 Rolling Stone: “Kidman, doing her best work in years, just comes at you. Her final scene with the splendid Wiest, who builds her character with uncommon feeling, is devastating. So is the movie. It takes a piece out of you.”
📺 on Amazon Prime U.S. and select other countries; 🍅 rating: 86%
THE TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK
The Twelve
New on Netflix this week. In Flemish-Dutch and French.
In this compelling new Belgian legal drama, the story is as much about the jurors who are chosen to decide on the crime, as it is about the crime itself.
Usually, the jurors are quiet characters whose job is to be unmoved by hotshot lawyers. The Twelve, somehow the first TV show to do this, digs into how their personal pasts influence their decisions.
In a recent interview, the creators talked about how their interactions with real-life jurors shaped the show: “What really struck us was when a woman told us she had a really dominant, jealous husband and, while on the jury, she started to see traits of her husband in the defendant. She was thinking that if she stayed with her husband, she might end up in the same position [as the victim in the case],”
📰 Not yet reviewed.
📺 on Netflix everywhere; 🍅 rating: - not yet available.
Readers’ top picks
Athelete A on Netflix is back as our readers’ favorite movie. It’s a documentary on USA Olympics’ history of sexual abuse.
Unforgotten on Amazon Prime is our readers’ favorite show. It’s a great BBC detective drama of which three seasons are now streaming.
New titles worth your time
Our top TV pick, The Twelve, is the only noteworthy new title on Netflix this week.
No noteworthy arrivals on Amazon Prime this week either.
Great titles that will soon expire
Reminder: tomorrow Saturday, July 18th A Most Violent Year, Obvious Child, and Room leave Netflix.
And Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is set to expire this Tuesday, July 21st.
Russell Crowe’s predictable but entertaining action-thriller The Next Three Days leaves Amazon Prime on the same day, Tuesday, July 21st.
The Newsflash: What Netflix’s new co-CEO means for the platform
This week Netflix’s Ted Sarandos was promoted to a function I had never heard of before: co-CEO.
Previously responsible for the platform’s content, he is known for his use of algorithms in content acquisition. Specifically, he started the model of ordering many seasons of a TV show without a pilot, which was unheard of at the time.
He believed in this model so much that he signed the $100 million no-pilot deal that started House of Cards without telling his boss (mono-?)CEO Reed Hastings about it. If House of Cards didn’t work out, say we knew about Kevin Spacey earlier, it would have bankrupt the company.
Back in 2015, The New Yorker ran a feature on Ted (can I call him Ted?), and quoted him on the algorithmic formula he used to make Netflix what it is today: 70% data and 30% human input.
The same article goes on to explain what drives Sarandos: a belief in creating TV shows not to attract viewers but to attract obsessive fans. In other words, “people who will get excited enough to spread the word”.
What this nomination means for Netflix is definitely more of the same. More use of algorithmic acquisitions and more of a drive for obsessive fans rather than for quality.
Sarandos is famous for once saying that his company’s goal was “to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.” (GQ). And they achieved it. Netflix has become something that HBO is now trying to become with HBO Max. It’s just unclear if that’s necessarily a good thing.
That’s it for today, I hope there is something in there for you.
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The next edition will be in your inbox on Friday, July 24th.
Until then,
Bilal Zou, founder [bilal@agoodmovietowatch.com]
Carried with the support of the Creative Europe Program – MEDIA.