After last week’s dalliance with Oscar contenders, we are back to more humdrum matters this week with a sweep through what is new on Netflix.
Do we need yet another drama about a young dancer triumphing against the odds? Based on the cliché ridden Into the Beat, I think not. Katya (Alexandra Pfeifer) is the daughter of a famous ballet dancer and is an up and coming star herself. But when she discovers hip hop, she is faced with a choice that will change her life. This is bland stuff that may appeal to teen dance fans but not many other people.
A much more ambitious film, Madame Claude is set in Paris in the 1960s. Fernande Grudet dite Madame Claude runs a brothel that is frequented by movie stars, politicians and high level criminals. Inevitably, having such a heady mix of clients leads to the downfall of her business. This film does have a decent sense of time and place but the story completely lacks any focus and the seedy setting becomes a bit depressing.
Japanese road movie Ride or Die similarly has a rambling story that ultimately is its undoing. Nanae Shinoda (Honami Satô) is in an abusive marriage. When her lover Rei Nagasawa (Kiko Mizuhara) kills her husband, the pair go on the run together. This premise is certainly an interesting one and both leads are pretty good. However, the constant moving backwards and forwards in time and the excessive 142 minute run time results in the film running out of steam.
Korean crime drama Night in Paradise has a similar running time but feels like it has a bit more substance to sustain it. This otherwise routine tale of warring gangsters and corrupt cops is elevated by a relationship drama at its centre. Tae-goo Eom and Yeo-bin Joen have a real chemistry and give the film heart.
Idris Elba lends his considerable star quality to the based on a true story drama Concrete Cowboy. He plays Harp who has his estranged and rebellious teen son, Cole (Caleb McLaughlin) move in with him. Harp is a leading light in Philadelphia’s urban cowboy scene, something that brings the pair together. This certainly depicts a little seen subculture but it does it in an obvious and eventually sentimental way.
Dutch romantic comedy Just Say Yes is very predictable with its formulaic story and pop songs on the soundtrack to signal how we we should feel at any given time. Yolanthe Cabau stars as a woman who is constantly wronged by men. In fact all of the men in this film are loathsome and most of the women are not much better. But after a lot of heavy dramas this week, it does have a certain lightweight appeal.
Netflix seems to have a lot of Mexican films on its service, and the standard is generally poor. Tell Me When is no exception. A man, grieving for his grandfather, goes back to Mexico to discover his roots. Lacking any dramatic heft, this overly sentimental affair is a bit of a drag.
Easily the pick of the crop is Joe Penna’s Stowaway. A spaceship bound for Mars has a three man crew. Shortly after take off, the crew discover that there is a fourth person who inadvertently remained on board. This causes a problem as there is insufficient oxygen to keep four people alive even if they turn back. The group have to find a way to survive. This is a simple idea but an effective one. Penna and his co-writer Ryan Morrison ramp up the tension with a script that seems convincing enough without overburdening it with scientific jargon.
Marco Bittner Rosser’s production design is excellent. The craft feels cold and clinical in juxtaposition to the very human drama that unfolds. The three original crew members are played by the versatile Toni Collette, the excellent Anna Kendrick and Daniel Dae Kim, an actor better known for his TV roles, but he more than holds his own here. Some of the audience may find this a bit too wordy, but I think it had the right level of action compared to dialogue.
Into the Beat: 3 out of 10
Madame Claude: 4 out of 10
Ride or Die: 5 out of 10
Night in Paradise: 6 out of 10
Concrete Cowboy: 4 out of 10
Just Say Yes: 5.5 out of 10
Tell Me When: 3 out of 10
Stowaway: 7.5 out of 10