We watch tv most evening. We bought a Roku streamer five or six years ago and very rarely watch broadcast tv. We have tended to have a favorite series, like Foyle's War and Dr. Martin. Lately, we have felt the need for something new and different. There are enough full length movies on Netflix and Prime Video (Amazon) to keep us busy for the rest of our lives and for that very reason, are a bit daunting. I usually feel that a sentence or two of description and the art or photo are enough to give me a clue as to the worth of watching. Still, it is not easy for two critical people to use their intuition and decide on something to watch.
We did agree on these and they seem worthy of mention. All but "Boy" were on Amazon Prime Video. The Roku streamer lets us link up to various services and we have 60 "channels" but mostly use Netflix, Prime Video, Acorn, PBS/WPT and Kanopy.
"The Bookshop" is the story of a recently widowed woman opening a bookshop in a small British town. It has the usual up and down of a story and was fun to watch.
"The Park Bench" is entirely filmed with two characters sitting on a park bench, a grad student tutor (quite pretty and quite intellectual) and her undergrad student tutee. Well done and memorable.
"Cas and Dylan" stars Richard Dreyfus as a physician recently diagnosed with inoperable deadly cancer and Tatiana Maslany as a young 20's woman who gets entangled in the physician's plan to drive across the country.
"Boy" was chosen from the offerings on "Kanopy", a service I learned about from two filmophile friends. I had been told by them that I need to open an account and have my library card handy but when I went to add Kanopy to our other 59 Roku choices, it just came up without further fuss or identification.
"Boy" is a New Zealand film and features Maori actors. It is a peek at a boy's life at about age 10, set in more or less current times. It is clear that the boy is experiencing tough times, with a recently deceased mother, a father who comes and goes while avoiding responsibility and entertaining too many daydreams. It is not especially upbeat or down but gave me plenty to think about in the way of children's resiliency and hopes.
