Film Queue

Most of these films Eric intends to rent.  "Mainstream" theatrical releases get enough hype for Eric to plot them on the dry-erase board in his kitchen, where he and his wife can arrange to attend their showings (or not).  Occasionally, Eric will read about a film yet to be theatrically released in the Seattle area (usually in festival reports), and so as not to forget about them (or, often as not, so as to catch them on video release when the theatrical run is fleetingly short) he tosses them on this queue.  The balance of the titles consist of films Eric has somehow missed, usually by being born too late.  This queue resides in his wallet so as to be on his person whenever he drops by Scarecrow Video.

MARCH 2005:  So, thanks to a well-timed offer of an introductory free month courtesy of his sister, Eric has finally succumbed to the Netflix business model.  Eric used to take his movie viewing very seriously, such that he wanted complete control over which titles to rent and when.  The notion that a fixed number of titles from an undifferentiated queue would arrive in his mailbox and thrummingly insist upon being viewed was an affront to his cineastic autonomy.  Then, Oscar and, later, a return to school came along, and the number of videos rented plummeted (to say nothing of theatrical viewings).  Eric nevertheless resisted Netflix out of loyalty to Scarecrow Video and respect for Scarecrow’s superior inventory.  What finally sold Eric on Netflix was the relief from justification of a particular title selection afforded by the undifferentiated, metronomic queue.  With relatively lesser amounts of time and energy available for home video viewing, it had become much more difficult for Eric to justify selecting admittedly "difficult" films for both himself and his wife.  With the burden of selection transferred to the mindless queue, however, Eric could finally enjoy such dubious films as The Designated Mourner and Krapp’s Last Tape without first having to gin up persuasively positive summaries thereof.

Last addition: Saturday 31 May 2008