in which I woke up that morning, got myself a ‘Sopranos’ prequel...
everything that happened at Flick Filosopher from Monday, September 20th, to Sunday, September 26th
London Film Festival press screenings started last week. I didn’t attend a single one, because while a thousand people a week are still dying from COVID-19 in the UK, and 40,000 people are still testing positive for the virus every day — and, of course, those are only the ones who get tested — the festival decided that all the pre-fest screenings would be in person. At full capacity. With masks only “encouraged,” not required.
This is madness. I’ve attended LFF as press every year since 2011, when I first moved to London, and every year, there’s always some bug that runs rampant through the press corps, because we’re all cramming into the same underventilated, overcrowded venues over and over and over again. (The public festival is a week and a half. The press gets a full month of nonstop new movies. A full month to exchange airborne bugs.) We joke about “the LFF lurge” as we sniffle and cough while chewing over the films as we run between screenings. But this new virus is no joking matter.
I’ve been told that “at least 50” movies will be available digitally for press during the public festival. I already have digital screeners of some directly from publicists. And I will chance a few in-person screenings… fully masked up, naturally.
But I’m so sad about missing out on the sheer, exhausting fun of LFF again. (Last year’s fest was wholly virtual. It was not at all the same experience.)
Maybe next year will be better…
—MaryAnn
PS: Sorry for the lateness of this week’s roundup! I have no good excuse, just my new-normal COVID mental lurge…
new at flick filosopher, Sep 20–26
new and ongoing cinema releases, US/Can, Sep 24
German sci-fi romance I’m Your Man; documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World; more… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing cinema releases, UK/Ire, Sep 22–25
Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark and historical fantasy drama The Green Knight… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, US/Can, Sep 21–24
Russian historical drama Chernobyl 1986; Intrusion and The Starling on Netflix; more… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, UK/Ire, Sep 20–24
This year’s Best International Feature Film Oscar winner Another Round; sci-fi thriller Reminiscence; more… [get the full rundown]
question of the weekend: do you listen to a film’s score or soundtrack before you’ve seen the film?
I suppose it’s not out of the question, but I can’t imagine getting really caught up in a movie’s music until I actually see the movie. [reply at Flick Filosopher | reply at Substack | reply at Patreon]
The Many Saints of Newark movie review: far from heaven (#HBOMax)
The performances are terrific, the evocation of the period striking, but it feels redundant, more GoodFellas-lite than The Sopranos, and with several TV seasons’ worth of story crammed in. [read the review | UK cinemas; US cinemas + HBO Max Oct 1]
Tweet of the week…
coming up at Flick Filosopher…
No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond
biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye
crime thriller Copshop
video nasty Censor
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
crime comedy Queenpins, starring Kristen Bell
The Green Knight
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
Netflix’s animated musical Vivo
Space Jam: A New Legacy
Mark Wahlberg as Joe Bell
Old, the latest from M. Night Shyamalan
Summer of Soul
The Forever Purge
Gunpowder Milkshake
Fast & Furious 9
Luca, the new Pixar animated feature
The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt
Oscar’s Best Animated Feature Soul and Best International Feature Another Round
Disney origin story Cruella
(I swear, I still really do plan to get to all of these…)
follow me…
Twitter | Letterboxd | Rotten Tomatoes | Pinterest