For the last several months, I’ve been looking for places in the household budget where we can trim expenses. Considering how little time we normally have to watch movies, I thought of canceling our Netflix subscription. I’ve been sitting on the fence about this issue for a few months, but today I decided to keep it a while longer. Why? Because of movies like “Bella”.
We watched “Bella” this weekend and were so very moved by the story, the writing, the character development, and the acting. It was a great reminder to me of how good cinema can be. Sure, I still enjoy a good action movie now and then, but this is in a different league with a different audience and a different goal. And, my tastes have changed; in the last few years, the movies which have been most impactful and have given us the most valuable experiences have come from somewhere other than Hollywood, and are not typically found at our neighborhood video store.
Over the years that we’ve had Netflix, we’ve struck and mined several veins of gold. As an example, there is a set of Chinese films that were deeply moving: “King of Masks”, “Not One Less”, “To Live”, “The Road Home”, “Together”, and “Shadow Magic” — beautiful stories! We chanced upon one of them, and were led to the others through trailers on that and subsequent movies. Recently we saw “Peck on the Cheek” (to which we also give high marks) which had a trailer for “Bella”.
To be fair, Netlix isn’t the only way to gain access to such movies. There are competing postal-based movie programs, and direct download now is on the rise (and “Bella” is available through iTunes). Right now, the cost and convenience of Netflix is still holding the sweet spot for me, so I think we’ll continue with this program for a while longer.
If you find yourself disenfranchised by what’s coming out of Hollywood and what’s available at your local video rental store, take heart — there’s a lot more out there that’s worth watching.
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