Netflix Report: Absolute Beginners

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A lot of people do very high-brow and admirable things while they knit, like listen to philosophy books on tape or actually converse with their friends and family members. Not me. I usually watch T.V. while I knit. Sometimes I watch DVDs from Netflix. Because I don't have much interesting to say right now about my knitting, I am going to start a new feature in which I discuss the movies and T.V. shows which I get from Netflix.

For starters, we have a bit of a dud. I don't know why I expected to like Absolute Beginners. The book is supposed to be good, and it (the book, not the movie) is the subject of a Jam song that I like. But the movie kind of sucked. It's a musical that celebrates the youth culture of multicultural London in the 1950s. The hero, a young aspiring photographer, is obsessed with jazz and the new concept of a "teenager" but has to fend off challenges to this awesomeness in the form of racists and people who want him to sell out. It's kind of like Grease with neo-Nazis and no interest in the female characters' points of view. Sadly, it just didn't do anything for me. In fact, I turned it off before it was over, which is not something I usually do. The characters weren't developed at all, and the movie tells you that London's youth culture was super alluring and exciting but doesn't do a very good job of showing you why that would be. And mostly it was kind of boring.

I still might get around to reading the book sometime.

Next up is Derek Jarman's Jubilee. I'm very curious about that one.

If anyone has any good movie or T.V. recommendations for me to get from Netflix, leave 'em in the comments. I am always looking for good new things to get from Netflix.