I recently discovered uNoGS.com, a terrific third-party Netflix search tool; it will tell you in which of 24 countries you can stream a given film on Netflix. It also has a "last chance to watch" list of films expiring soon on Netflix in Canada (or any of the 24 countries).

Another good search tool is JustWatch, which covers numerous digital services including Netflix, iTunes, and TMNoD, and tells you on which services you can stream, rent, or buy a given film.

Here are a few recent feature films streamable on Netflix Canada, which I loved and can strongly recommend:

→ Their Finest — Of the three British films released last year relating to the Dunkirk evacuation, this is my favourite. Set in 1940, this comedy-drama stars Gemma Arterton as a writer in London hired by the government to script the women's dialogue in propaganda films.

→ Experimenter — Compelling and provocative biopic starring Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram, focusing on his "obedience to authority" experiments.

→ In Order of Disappearance — Witty thriller starring Stellan Skarsgård as a senior citizen who takes on an international drug gang.

→ White God — Part of the fun of this movie is imagining how it was made, knowing that all the canine sequences were done without any CGI effects; but the story is so compelling that it's easy to forget you are watching a movie.

→ Amanda Knox — Stylish but serious documentary looking at the murder of Meredith Kercher from various angles, with some fascinating interviews and wiretap evidence that had not previously been reported.

→ A Man Called Ove — An engaging Swedish comedy about a curmudgeon and how he got that way, nominated for two Oscars.

→ Divines — Highly energetic drama / crime-thriller about two teenage girls looking for opportunities to escape a dead-end life in the banlieue of Paris. Incredible acting by the two leads, who both won César Awards.

→ The Stanford Prison Experiment — I watched this three times and still found it rivetting; I'm not sure why, because you'd think it would be hemmed in by its close fidelity to the real-life events. Part of the reason it works is the hypernatural acting, by the whole cast but particularly Michael Angarano.

→ On Body and Soul — I was blown away when I saw this last year at TIFF; it went on to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. A subtle, funny, and surprising love story set in a slaughterhouse.

→ Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer — The English-language debut of Joseph Cedar (who directed Footnote); I've seen this twice and could watch it over and over. A suspenseful political drama, with smart, sharp dialogue and unconventional visuals. As you can tell from the subtitle, the film has an epic scope but gently satirical tone. The plot, though it may bring to mind a certain episode of M*A*S*H, is wholly original and touches on broad themes of loyalty and integrity, with terrific acting by Steve Buscemi, Lior Ashkenazi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Michael Sheen, and particularly Richard Gere.

And two TV shows:

→ Travelers — This is now my favourite science-fiction TV series ever; it has twisty, engrossing plots, sharply written dialogue, great acting and cinematography. I was hooked from the first episode, maybe even from the first minute of the first episode.

→ Revolting Rhymes — Ostensibly for children, this two-episode animated British show (based on the book by Roald Dahl) is clever enough to entertain adults; I have watched it more than once. The first episode was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Animated Short category. The voice actors are all excellent, particularly Tamsin Greig (from the series Episodes) and Gemma Chan (from Humans and Crazy Rich Asians).

I sometimes hear Canadians complain that Netflix has a paltry selection here compared to in the US, but that is no longer true. According to a HuffPo article last month the number of titles on Netflix Canada is only about 4% less than Netflix USA.

• 57 documentaries
  
• 2 “docufiction”
  
• 307 narrative features

• 1920s: 2
  
• 1930s: 4
  
• 1940s: 15
  
• 1950s: 14
  
• 1960s: 20
  
• 1970s: 22
  
• 1980s: 17
  
• 1990s: 18
  
• 2000s: 30
  
• 2010: 1
  
• 2011: 8
  
• 2012: 8
  
• 2013: 17
  
• 2014: 69
  
• 2015: 121

Introduction

Introduction

     ...it turned out that the judge, whose name was Philip Forman, was the very one who had administered the oath of citizenship to Einstein some years before and he ushered the three men into his chambers immediately.
     Einstein and Forman chatted for a while and Gödel, sitting quietly and biding his time, seemed all but forgotten. Eventually, though, Forman got on with the business of the day.
     “Up to now you have held German citizenship.”
     Immediately, Gödel corrected the judicial error: Austrian citizenship.
     Duly corrected, the judge continued.
     “In any case, it was under an evil dictatorship. Fortunately, that is not possible in America.”
     This was just the opening the logician had been waiting for.
     “On the contrary,” he objected, “I know precisely how it can happen here,” and he began to launch into his account of the flawed Constitution. Forman, Morgenstern, and Einstein exchanged meaningful glances and the judge called a halt to Gödel’s exposition, with a hasty, “You needn’t go into all that,” and steered the conversation round to less dangerous subjects.

This week, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear a reference case about the procedures necessary to effect Senate reform. This is the first time the SCC will take an in-depth look at the meaning of Part V of the Constitution Act, 1982, which sets out the procedure for amending the Constitution of Canada.

What follows is a chart of the position taken on each question, by each participant in the reference case, based on the written arguments (factums) filed with the Court. The Court retained John Hunter, Q.C., and Daniel Jutras as amici curiae (friends of the court); they submitted a joint factum but, as noted below, took different positions on one of the points in issue. The other participants are: the attorneys general of all provinces and all territories except Yukon; Senator Serge Joyal; Senator Anne Cools; the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFA); and the Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick Inc. (SANB).

The reference case was initiated by the federal government, which submitted six questions to the Supreme Court of Canada for its opinion. In the chart below, I have put my own abbreviated paraphrase of each question; the complete questions can be found here (or if you prefer a PDF: English / French).

The oral argument will be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (November 12 to 14, 2013) and the live webcast should be available here.

In a later post I will have further explanation and commentary.

Note: I have AG NWT and Senator Serge Joyal listed together under the heading “No on Q5; Yes on Q6 with a proviso” but the two participants do not have the same proviso in the answer to Question 6. The Northwest Territories AG gives this answer to Question 6: “YES, with the added condition that the federal government must consider and represent the best interests of the Northwest Territories.” Senator Joyal gives this answer: “yes, but only after accommodating the interests of the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada.”

• Ain’t Misbehavin’ [Un voyageur] (dir. Marcel Ophüls). Film-lovers in particular will like this autobiographical documentary about Marcel Ophüls (known in particular for The Sorrow and the Pity) and his father, Max Ophüls (known for La Ronde and many other classic European and American movies).


• Blue Is the Warmest Colour [La Vie d’Adèle chapitres 1 & 2] (dir. Abdellatif Kechiche). Although not nearly as good as Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain [La Graine et le Mulet], his latest film, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, which won the Palme d’Or and attracted some controversy because of explicit lesbian sex scenes and some public sniping between the director and actors (clarified today), is worth seeing primarily for Adèle Exarchopoulos’s great performance. The plot is engaging enough but not memorable; the sex scenes are mostly boring.


• The Dinner [Het Diner] (dir. Menno Meyjes). I tried to finish the novel before seeing the movie, but didn’t quite make it and finished the book afterward. The movie is okay, but the novel is much better. The movie falls back on using voice-over to read some of the best lines in the book, and omits some of the subplots that make the book so interesting.


• Exit Marrakech (dir. Caroline Link).


• Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story (dir. Barry Avrich). The only Canadian film I saw at TIFF this year, this documentary about the publisher of Penthouse was pretty interesting for a while, especially in its characterization of Penthouse as Pepsi (in relation to Playboy as Coke).


• Friends From France [Les Interdits] (dirs. Anne Weil and Philippe Kotlarski).


• Night Moves (dir. Kelly Reichardt). I thought that Peter Sarsgaard had finally broken out of his typecasting in Blue Jasmine, where he played a character that doesn’t turn out to be evil, but he sort of returns to it in Night Moves where he plays a domestic terrorist along with Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning.


• October November [Oktober November] (dir. Götz Spielmann).


• Of Good Report (dir. Jahmil X.T. Qubeka). A highly successful experimental thriller, Of Good Report was originally banned in its native South Africa for sex, but in fact it is more notable for its violence. I’m not saying the violence is gratuitous; just avoid this if you have a weak stomach for gore. Otherwise I strongly recommend it for the originality of its filmmaking style.


• Sex, Drugs & Taxation [Spies & Glistrup] (dir. Christoffer Boe).


• This Is Sanlitun (dir. Róbert I. Douglas). Mockumentary that takes place in Beijing but is mostly in English. The premise basically is, what if Ricky Gervais's character from The Office went to China to sell a hair-growth product. Watch the trailers.

• Abuse of Weakness [Abus de faiblesse] (dir. Catherine Breillat).


• Borgman (dir. Alex van Warmerdam). I loved the first 15 minutes of this film, but it just didn’t deliver on that promise.


• Child's Pose [Poziţia copilului] (dir. Calin Peter Netzer).


• Hotell (dir. Lisa Langseth). Really wanted to like this, and Alicia Vikander is easy to watch, but the film got lost in its own ridiculousness.


• The Immoral [De Umoralske] (dir. Lars Daniel Krutzkoff Jacobsen).


• Miss Violence (dir. Alexandros Avranas).


• R100 (dir. Hitoshi Matsumoto).


• The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears [L'Étrange Couleur des larmes de ton corps] (dirs. Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani). Inspired in part by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, this is the sort of movie you will love if you loved Berberian Sound Studio, but not if you didn’t.


• The Strange Little Cat [Das merkwürdige Kätzchen] (dir. Ramon Zürcher). The Q&A with the director and his identical twin (the producer) was more interesting than the movie.


• Trap Street [Shuiyin jie] (dir. Vivian Qu). An interesting idea, with a few flaws in the execution.