in which my heart is broken by ‘Nowhere Special’...
everything that happened at Flick Filosopher from Monday, July 12th, to Sunday, July 18th
Not sure, but the brief return to a pandemic comfort level that has let me attend a few press screenings and outings to cinemas for the past two months may be over. Because all restrictions on social distancing and masking have come to an end in the UK today. (I live in London.) Which means that unmasked people are going to be packed into indoor public spaces again.
I have two press screenings coming up this week. These are in cinemas, and I expect that publicists will fill them up as much as they are legally allowed to do so. I will be using these experiences to recalibrate my comfort level and decide it I can still tolerate this.
I love movies, and I miss cinemas, and seeing new films early is vital for my work. But none of that is worth risking my health for, and even though I’m fully vaccinated, I know that doesn’t provide 100 percent protection.
Ugh. I hate this pandemic.
I hope you are keeping well, mentally and physically, lovely readers, in our awful times.
—MaryAnn
new at flick filosopher, Jul 12–18
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, US/Can, Jul 13–16
Horror A Quiet Place: Part II; shark thriller Great White; more… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing cinema releases, US/Can, Jul 16
Fantasy action comedy Space Jam: A New Legacy; Nicolas Cage drama Pig; and that’s it… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, UK/Ire, Jul 12–16
French romantic drama Two of Us; Australian social-justice western High Ground; more… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing cinema releases, UK/Ire, Jul 16
Heartbreaking father-son drama Nowhere Special; bizarro French black comedy Deerskin; more… [get the full rundown]
curated: “The Movies Are Back. But What Are Movies Now?“
AO Scott in The New York Times goes long on what I was trying to get at with my Question of the Weekend from July 3rd, when I asked, “What are movies for anymore?” (He doesn’t seem to know, either.) [read more]
question of the weekend: have you ever attended a film festival? (and if not, would you like to?)
Do you have any particularly good — or bad — memories of the experience, perhaps of certain films you got to see that you wouldn’t otherwise have been able to, or of the overall vibe? Would you attend again, or have you? [post a comment at Flick Filosopher | post a comment at Substack]
Nowhere Special movie review: a father’s final bittersweet task [pictured]
Beautiful and heartbreaking. A beguiling portrait of love, grief, and the pragmatism that unites them, built up via tender moments of the most ordinary sort. James Norton’s performance is revelatory. [read the review | cinemas UK]
A Perfect Enemy movie review: terminal rage
Ridiculous excuse for a thriller — obvious, preposterous, ultimately banal — piles on psychological absurdities as it builds from a maddening middle to an enraging crescendo of misogynist nonsense. [read the review | VOD US/UK]
I’m on two panels at the BFI’s Woman with a Movie Camera fest (now available globally!)
In addition to my two prerecorded panels, I will pop into the live Zoom socials on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. You must buy your ticket by 5pm UK time on Friday. Please join us! [read more]
Tweet of the week…
I’ve been making a point of highlighting the tweets of others here, rather than my own, but this feels really important. Yesterday I retweeted this, from exactly a year ago:
coming up at Flick Filosopher…
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
Peter Rabbit 2, for my sins
Riders of Justice, starring Mads Mikkelsen
(oh my god, there are just too many movies…)
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