The Friday 5 - Netflix picks

What I’ve been watching on Netflix!

1.

Sierra Burgess is a Loser

I was really looking forward to this one. The unpopular, nerdy, average looking girl gets the jock. Yes please!

Unfortunately, Sierra Burgess is a loser. But it’s not because of her looks, or her nerdiness, or awkwardness around guys. It’s because she’s ugly on the inside. She’s a bad friend and a liar.

She, accidentally, gets herself in a catfishing situation and relies on hot cheerleader, Veronica, to do the talking for her in person after she misleads cute jock, Jamey, while texting.

The problem is – that she goes far beyond duping Jamey and takes away his consent and choices. It’s gross.

Veronica, who is supposed to be the stuck up, shallow cheerleader is a wonderful person with a lot of problems at home. She’s a good friend to Sierra. She has a MUCH better character arc that Sierra does.

Sierra may feel awkward and ugly but there is nothing in this movie to indicate that is true. She has great friends, Jamey actually does show interest in the *real* her when he meets her, her family is wonderful…

I’m fine with flawed characters and their journey to redemption but that story was Veronica’s – Sierra was just a horrible person who didn’t deserve to get the guy and win her friend back in the end.

Take a hard pass on this one!

2.

Ghoul – subtitled

Ghoul is an Indian horror mini series ( 3 episodes) – set in a dystopian future India is based on the Arab folklore monster ghoul.

Nida, played by the wonderful Radhika Apte, is a new military officer serving under an authoritarian government.  In order to prove her loyalty to the regime she turns in her own father for sedition and is recruited by a covert military installation to interrogate the high profile resistance fighter, Ali Saeed.

She starts to realize there’s more going on as the ghoul gets into the interrogators heads (& flesh!) as all hell breaks lose at the detention center.

3 episodes of psychological torture and gore are the perfect length to tell this story. The first episode is a tad slow with all the setup required before it kicks into gear but well worth your time if you love horror and want something a touch different.

3.

The Wailing – subtitled

This is a South Korean horror film about a police officer who investigates a series of murders and zombie like illnesses in small villages.

Ghosts, shamans, and plenty of gore with a very cool ending mixed with some lighter slapstick moments make for an odd combo that doesn't always work but I really enjoyed this one.

4.

Set It Up

This had a lot of mixed reviews so I almost didn’t watch it. But I did and I loved it!

I’m curious why some people didn’t like it. Was it because they were expecting Lucy Lu and Taye Diggs to have bigger roles? If so, I get that. That’s what I thought it was about too.

However, Set It Up is more about their beleaguered assistants. It follows all the romcom rules starting with the meet cute but had a fresh, modern spin on it, IMO.

I loved how Harper found her backbone without compromising her ethics.

Charlie does cross those lines in his quest for a promotion but he gets his shit together and I enjoyed his redemption/grovel arc.

5.

Crazy Rich Asians

This isn’t on Netflix but worth going to see in theaters.

I was avoiding it because I’m not a big fan of the lifestyles of the rich and famous, shopping, glamorous parties…etc and the previews make it seem like this is the focus – but this was an incredibly sweet film about families, generational and class differences.

The romance was probably the least interesting thing to me, even though Rachel and Nick are cute enough.

Rachel, played by Constance Wu, is the breakout star and Michelle Yeoh managed to give a pretty cruel mother a lot of nuance. And I thought I was going to hate Awkwafina’s over-the-top performance based on the previews and yes, she gets most of the one liners and laughs but she’s an amazing friend and added more to the roll than funny bff sidekick.

Do you have any Netflix rec's for me?

I've had Netflix for a long time but have used it more int he last month than I have in the last decade! lol Personally, I love the original programming = especially the foreign offerings. I get really bored with how predictable US entertainment can be.