In the latest example of information overload, you can now learn what your neighbors are renting the most from Netflix.
Thanks to Netflix's new "Local Favorites" feature (www.netflix.com/localfavorites), the subscription-based DVD rental website lets you identify what people in your ZIP code or city are renting more of for the week. Do you really want to be the only Portlander who hasn't seen the latest Cirque du Soleil?
After the Los Angeles Times ran a story Sept. 22 on what its readers were renting from Netflix, WW cribbed the idea to learn what Portland-area Netflix members chose last week. Here's the "top three" list for Portland and some suburbs:
PORTLAND: No strangers to self-deprecation, Portlanders most want to see Film Geek, a 2005 film about movie junkies and hipsters. A movie by Portland's own Gus Van Sant—we're oh-so-proud—rounds out the list.
1)Film Geek
2)Cirque du Soleil: Varekai
3)Drugstore Cowboy
BEAVERTON: Our 'burb to the west has an identity crisis. Topping its list is the 1998 hostage flick The Negotiator, followed by a classic musical and a David E. Kelley show. What gives?
1)The Negotiator
2)Singin' in the Rain
3)Boston Legal: Season 1
GRESHAM: Our 'burb to the east seems to have an affinity for new releases, whatever the genre. However, The Boys of Baraka (a 2005 documentary about at-risk teens from Baltimore who are sent to Kenya) may be a surprise.
1)The Boys of Baraka
2)The Big White
3)Tristan & Isolde
HILLSBORO: Perhaps the city's numerous Silicon Forest workers just need a little scare. All the options here could up your heart rate. Try to connect Stir of Echoes, a Kevin Bacon thriller, to the other movies in six degrees or less!
1)Stir of Echoes
2)To Catch a Thief
3)Lost: Season 1
LAKE OSWEGO: Oswegans get in touch with their artistic side—the director's cut of a foreign film and a Neil Young concert. Deep. But then there's their top pick, Larry David's semi-autobiographical HBO series. Huh?
1)Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 5
2)Cinema Paradiso: Director's Cut
3)Neil Young: Heart of Gold
VANCOUVER, WA.: Residents are renting...uh...Hilary Duff movies? The films atop this list are no Sundance fare. That is, excepting the top pick, the season finale of the popular Canadian TV show Degrassi.
1)Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi
2)U-571
3)The Perfect Man
WWeek 2015