I have the cheapest Netflix plan you can buy. For $4.99, I get two movies per month, one at a time. I like this plan because I don't have time to watch too many more, and watching fewer movies makes me think a lot more about each one.

I hope I'm not jinxing my luck by writing this, but lately I've been lucky with my flick choices. The last three movies I got from Netflix were excellent. Two of them might even be in my top 10 of all time. Interestingly, all three are love stories (of sorts), but not one of them is a conventional romance.

"The Devil and Daniel Johnston." Inspired by Johnston's recent visit to Turner Hall Ballroom, I watched this documentary that chronicles the life of a manic-depressive outsider artist and musician based in Austin, Tex. Despite his madness, Johnston has a relentless and enviable drive to make art and music on his own terms. Johnston is passionate and quirky -- at times downright scary -- but the documentary is genius and shows his multi-faceted personality with the utmost respect.

"Secretary." By sheer coincidence, my husband and I watched this on Valentine's Day, and now it's one of my all-time favorite love stories. ("Harold and Maude" remains my favorite.) This black comedy stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as a "cutter" who falls in love with her boss, an offbeat attorney -- played by James Spader -- with a socially questionable fetish for spanking. It's funny, freaky and fascinating to watch on many levels, most of all to see how two extraordinarily unconventional people handle true love and manage to eke out a life together.

"Year of the Dog." Molly Shannon ditched Mary Katherine Gallagher for good with this one. Shannon plays a lonely, 40-year-old office worker who finds companionship almost exclusively with dogs. This film, produced by Jack Black and written by Mike White, who wrote "School of Rock" and "The Good Girl," is filled with dry wit and smart dialogue. When Shannon's character ends up a PETA-supporting vegan with 15 dogs, the film makes intense commentary about what it means to reserve true love for someone or something other than people.