Netflix has made movies before, but not many, and none of them all that great. Last Thursday, however, with characteristic low-level fanfare, a new film appeared on the streaming service, centred on an odd CGI creature called a "super pig", and it's a giant, a landmark, a film that may change the nature of film itself.
The movie, Okja, is adorable, quirky, full of odd little moments. It's heartwarming, distressing, thoughtful, sometimes preachy, quite dark and very funny. In other words, it's a bit all over the place, and as a result, it's joyful to watch, a total one-of-a-kind experience.
It premiered at Cannes this year, in competition, where it was booed before it started and was given a standing ovation after it finished, but its first public screening is not in theatres at times of theatres' choosing, but in your living room any time you want.
It was booed at Cannes because the film establishment hates the fact that Netflix has made a world-class film that isn't having its first screenings in theatres, and then it was applauded because genius South Korean director Bong Joon-ho has created an exceptional, all over the place film, and the audience either didn't care that Netflix was the one that paid for it, or maybe they had even come to appreciate that fact.
Bong has said Netflix gave him complete creative freedom to make the film - zero interference - which even the world's biggest film-makers struggle to get from major film studios. At one point, Tilda Swinton, who plays both a horrific corporate chieftain painted over with faux-loveliness, and her purely horrific twin, delivers the killer line: "We all love the face and the anus - as American as apple pie". It's hard to imagine that getting through many other giant global gatekeepers of creative commercial interests.
