This year, I’ve listed my favorite movies on my newsletter. You can read the post here. If you’d like to subscribe to receive monthly movie recommendations, you can do that here.
Category: miscellany
Everyone I Know is Confused About Where to Find and Watch New Movies
While Hollywood fights the streaming wars, almost everyone I know is completely and utterly confused about what is available to watch online and where to find it. Even I have trouble finding things, and while I would never argue that I’m particularly in-the-know, I do follow industry news, and I’m in touch with a variety of publicists about new releases. I also keep a running list of upcoming movies directed by women, which requires some research and digging. And yet, it took me ten minutes to figure out where I can watch Julie Delpy’s new movie, My Zoe, which releases in theaters February 26. I’m still confused about whether or not I can see it at home. It doesn’t look like it’s playing in virtual cinemas, and there’s no information about when and where it might be available for rental or streaming. I’m interested in reviewing this movie, but I’m not sure what the point is, if no one will be able to watch it. It would make more sense to wait until the movie has a streaming date, but what is the streaming date? Why doesn’t it say on the movie’s website? Is it that they don’t yet have a streaming date and/or platform? Or are they holding back the information because they feel it would be inhibiting to someone who is considering seeing it in theaters?
Continue reading “Everyone I Know is Confused About Where to Find and Watch New Movies”Holiday Movie Diary
It’s A Wonderful Life is my favorite Christmas movie and possibly my favorite movie of all time. I never get tired of watching it. I love its weird structure, which has a big chunk of backstory at the beginning. I love the angel narrators, who are proxies for both the audience and the director. I love Jimmy Stewart. Once I went back and watched a bunch of Frank Capra movies and it was interesting to see elements of It’s A Wonderful Life in the other films –including Jimmy Stewart. It was as if he had all the ingredients but didn’t combine them in the right way until he made It’s A Wonderful Life.
I haven’t watched It’s A Wonderful Life yet this year, but earlier this month I checked out a few new Christmas movies and one old favorite . . .
Continue reading “Holiday Movie Diary”Mini-review: Between the Lines
Between the Lines (1977) ★★★1/2
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
I came across this movie on the Criterion Channel and was drawn in by the ensemble cast, which includes a very young Jeff Goldblum, John Heard, and Bruno Kirby. I also had fond memories of Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly of Scenes of Winter, which I saw a couple of years ago at BAM. So, I decided to give it a try and I’m so glad I did — it was like a time capsule of the mid 1970s and also of a certain period in journalism, when small alternative weekly newspapers were still a training ground for ambitious young reporters and writers.
Between the Lines follows the scrappy staff of a Boston alternative weekly as they chase assignments, jump in and out of each other’s beds, and adjust to a new management structure after their newspaper is bought out by a corporation. Everyone is young, with their lives still in flux. It’s a movie about transition: career transition, relationship transition, and ultimately the transition that the culture is undergoing…you can feel the 1980s on the horizon, and you just know some of these characters are going to be yuppies in no time. I was especially amused to see Bruno Kirby as a cub reporter, because I know him best from When Harry Met Sally, where he plays an established journalist who writes for New York Magazine. It’s almost as if he’s the same character, and we’re seeing him at the beginning of his career. Now that I think about it, this would be a great double feature with When Harry Met Sally, because they are both so much about negotiating ambition and romance.
When Will You Go Back to the Movies?
I miss going to the movies. But I didn’t think seriously about returning to theaters until last week when I watched Da 5 Bloods at home. It was the first movie I’ve seen since quarantine started that seemed to be crying out for the big screen.
It was also a movie that I watched over the course of two evenings because I got tired halfway through. I wish that hadn’t been option and I would have been forced to sit through the whole thing, despite my sleepiness. More than that, I wish I’d had to leave the house and to view it at a particular time, rather than firing up Netflix after the kids were in bed and the kitchen was cleaned up and the toys were picked up off of the living room carpet.
R.I.P. Lynn Shelton
Director Lynn Shelton died on Saturday and it hit home for me, for a lot of reasons. First: I really liked her movies, and reviewed two of them on this blog: Sword of Trust and Outside In. They were mellow, lived-in, gentle, kind, and deeply humane. Her characters felt real and her stories always had an interesting shape. She also directed a lot of TV shows I watched, including GLOW, Love, The Good Place, The Mindy Project, New Girl — to name just a few. She came to directing late in life, at age 39, but then she was prolific, directing eight feature films and numerous television shows. She was one of those directors I watched out for; I felt like her best work was ahead of her. I can’t believe she’s dead. She was only 54.
R.I.P. Irrfan Khan
I was just finishing up a different post when I saw the news that Irrfan Khan had passed away. So, so sad. Today is for Irrfan Khan, an extraordinary actor. When I was looking at his IMDB profile, I realized I’ve only seen a handful of his performances, but he brings so much to every role that I feel I know him well.
I first noticed him in The Namesake, Mira Nair’s wonderful adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s 2003 novel by the same name. I loved the novel and worried that the movie would oversimplify it, but the moment Irrfan Khan came on screen, he not only lived up to the character in the book, he made it deeper. He was an actor who expressed himself in the way he moved and breathed, the dialogue was just icing on the cake. Every ounce of him was revealing of character and story. I am so sad that he has left this world. He was only 53. I wanted to see him in more roles as he got older. He was one of those actors who shows you how to live.
The New Reality of Movie(not)going
I’m having a lot of trouble adjusting to this new reality of Coronavirus. It feels both like I just had my first baby and also, like I’m a teenager, stuck in the house and beholden to my parents. Except I have none of the transformative and energy-giving hormones of new motherhood or the teen years. So I’m just like WHAT IS HAPPENING over and over again. My son’s school and extra-curricular clubs keep sending links to “learning platforms,” and every wellness service I have ever subscribed to, whether it’s the Y (which is now closed) or the mushroom coffee I occasionally splurge on, is inviting me to view videos or join informational zoom hang-outs and I’m like, is this for you, or is it for me? Be honest!
Coronavirus Cancellations
A couple of weeks ago, when I updated my 2020 movie list, I included selections from the SXSW Film Festival, but now the festival has been cancelled to help stop the spread of Coronavirus. My husband thinks the Tribeca Film Festival, which is about a month from now, will also be cancelled, but I’m not sure — although maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part, because I was hoping to attend a few screenings.
I feel bad for the independent filmmakers who were going to showcase their work at the SXSW. It must be so disappointing to lose that potential career boost. I’m going to continue to track these films and also, the films slated for Tribeca, in case they show up somewhere else.
Your Perfect Valentine’s Day Movie
Are you looking for a stunning love story to watch tonight? This is it. I reviewed it for The Common last year when it was in limited release. It goes into wide release this weekend. See it on the big screen with surround sound! You need to hear the waves crashing, the fires crackling, and the music in the final scene.
Thelma and Alice 