Love for Loners is our weekly feature promoting awesome work that is currently streaming on Netflix. It is written by resident misanthrope Jon Smith.

Happy Friday to you! As you read this, Brandon and I are filming a conference on nuclear disarmament in Washington DC, while Cameron is holding down the fort in San Francisco drinking way too much coffee. This means that although I have wished you a happy Friday, it is in fact NOT Friday. How am I accomplishing such a feat? Right now I am passing through the sixth dimension and forcing myself to write the article before I leave. Did it work? If you’re reading this, it totally did!

This is Spinal Tap
Christopher Guest and crew are known for popularizing the mockumentary style over the past thirty years. If you enjoy British accents, rock & roll and bumcakes, then you will love this film. I first watched this movie during Spanish class Senior year of high school. Why? Because our teacher was a surfer who learned Spanish by traveling the coasts of Central and South America. At least once a week we used the entire period to walk to the burrito shop and order in Spanish. “Megustaria un burrito de california con sour cream.”

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
I grew up witnessing Jack Nicholson’s later career, wherein he pours his heart out to Helen Hunt & Diane Keaton. It wasn’t until I started exploring the history of cinema that his name kept popping up in incredible films. This was one of the first movies I found on my own and asked my dad to rent. I got super jammed when I realized the Joker, the Penguin and Doc Brown were all in a movie together.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
When you say, “anime is lame” without really trying it, essentially what you’re saying is “these here cultural differences are too vast for my brain to comprehend”. Just as there’s good work and utter shit on American television, there’s good anime and superlames as well. Good anime usually comes from good manga (comics). Unlike film adaptations of books, where massive story lines are condensed into two bite-size hours, the adaptation of a recurring comic into a television show allows for the entire story to be told. This means a better story with more rounded characters. I promise that if you give this show time, you’ll come to understand its awesomeness.