January is always a strange month. After the hectic season of
holiday parties and year-end celebrations (where I'm usually the
entertainment), I spend the first two to three weeks of every year with an empty calendar. The upside is I'm able to give myself over completely to creativity. It's the perfect month to start new projects and fully realize bizarre songs dreamed up in a caffeine haze (see this week's B-Side). But most importantly, it's the ultimate month for watching movies. Believe it or not, my last half of 2011 was so busy, I haven't been to a theater since The Debt... no wait I saw that Ryan Gosling flick about driving. Sorry girls, even he couldn't save that piece of hipster fluff. That said, film freaks like me have to get their fix. Thank God for Netflix streaming.

I have the fondest memories of my high schools years working at my neighborhood video store. I still remember the feeling of wandering the isles for hours, scanning the spines of VHS Boxes, trying to choose which movie to take home...The scrolling menu on my XBox doesn't have the same finality. I watch 10 minutes of a film, then click on something else if I'm bored. There's no commitment. In addition, a lot of the films on Netflix never had theatrical releases. Which means most of them suck (Ninjas vs. Vampires...anybody?). The selection is so empty and overwhelming, I usually opt for a film I've already seen. At The Video Connection, renting something for a second time was sacrilege.

Every now and then, the website's knowledge of my taste (akin to the iTunes Genius function) comes in handy. Just like the Terminator, Netflix is a learning computer. That's how I came upon this lost Gene Wilder actor/writer/director effort....The story is about Rudy Valentine, a Milwaukee baker in the 1920's who's fed up with his life and dreams of being in pictures. His prayers are answered when fictional Rainbow Studios, inan attempt to rival to Paramount's Rudolph Valentino,holds a contest to star in their latest film. Rudy moves to Hollywood with his space cadet wife, Annie (Carol Kane). Annie is in secretly in love with Valentino, and ends up leaving Rudy when she receives a fan letter she mistakes for a love letter. Rudy proceeds to lose it in typical Wilder fashion, violently bombing his screen test when the actress he's paired with is also named Annie. A variety of unbelievable events ensue, including Rudy getting chosen as a finalist in the contest by the over-the-top studio head played by the always annoying...Dom Deluise (can anyone name a movie they liked Dom in aside from Cannonball Run? Just standing next to Burt Reynolds in 1981 made you cool).

Really this movie isn't technically good. I imagine the only reason it got made was that Gene Wilder was at the height of his powers in 1978. He must have used his clout, as he appears to be the sole creative force. That said, I found it completely unpredictable in the way that only vanity projects can be. It tackles the falseness of fame while maintaining a playful, comedic tone. By setting the film in the 20's, Wilder is able to lampoon the concept of stardom at it's most naive. Back then, Movie Stars acted with their eyes, the rest of their face completely covered by a Keffiyeh. Today's celebrity has more trappings, but the Kardashian cult is evidence of the low bar we set for our icons.

It saddens me to think I'll never feel the joy of discovery again, crouched in the Sci-Fi section upstairs at The Video Connection. But if Netflix keeps suggestions of this caliber coming, I could get used to my grown up life. If they ever stop making Jiffy Pop: THAT'S WHERE I DRAW THE LINE!

Watch The World's Greatest Lover on Netflix here