many-weekly digest: I really am back now, for realsies
links to new Flick Filosopher stuff from last week, and stragglers going back to *gulp* mid May
New month — my birthday month, too! New me: I’m a cyborg now, what with my shiny new partly titanium hip. So it’s past damn time to get my ass into gear and get down to business once again.
I am so behind on reviews. I have sections to the site I want to add, and previously added sections I need to get to work on. Lots to do!
Here goes…
—MaryAnn
PS: Reviews of Barbie and Oppenheimer are in progress. They’re both great. Go see them… and wear a mask! Cinemas are supercrowded again.
new at flick filosopher, Jul 24–30, and then some…
Sympathy for the Devil movie review: schtick the landing
Rote cat-and-mouse thriller spins its wheels getting somewhere obvious, just so wild-eyed Nic Cage can cartoonishly Rage again. Look, the actor has found his schtick, and he’s sticking with it, okay? [read the review | cinemas/VOD US]
Mavka: The Forest Song movie review: the dark of the woods comes too late
Traditional folk music and beautifully animated mythic motifs may be rightfully validating for homegrown Ukrainian audiences, but there’s little else beyond that novelty to capture others’ imagination. [read the review | cinemas UK]
daily stream: a portrait of the incomparable Sinéad O’Connor
The 2022 documentary Nothing Compares is on Showtime in the US, Prime in the UK. [read more]
behind the scenes: I am unmoored and paralyzed by polycrisis
tl;dr: Finally able to step back from my year of hell and take a deep breath, all I see is pandemic denial, the world on fire, and fascists getting bolder and bolder. I feel so hopeless, and so helpless. [read more]
daily stream: Gerard Butler goes a’haunting
2007’s P.S. I Love You is on iPlayer in the UK for a few more weeks; on Prime and Apple TV in the US. [read more]
daily stream: snappy cinematic junk food to distract from terrible reality
2001’s Ocean’s Eleven leaves UK Prime soon; on Prime and Apple TV in the US. [read more]
daily stream: the global-warming truth gets more inconvenient by the day
2006’s An Inconvenient Truth is on Kanopy in the US, Paramount+ in the UK. [read more]
loaded question: what are the best (and worse) ways characters have unexpectedly reappeared in a story? [pictured]
I have chosen the absolute nonsense of “Somehow, Palpatine returned,” which is so ridiculous that poor Oscar Isaac seems unable to muster enough enthusiasm to even pretend it makes sense… [reply at Flick Filosopher | reply at Substack | reply at Patreon]
loaded question: what are some good movies about resilience and bouncing back from adversity?
I’m having a tougher time getting back into the swing of things after my recent surgery than I was expecting, so help me out here… [reply at Flick Filosopher | reply at Substack | reply at Patreon]
my long nightmare may be coming to a middle (update)
I didn’t mean to take so long to update everyone here on how my hip-replacement surgery, two weeks ago today, went — sorry! [read more]
daily stream: a darkly funny, deliciously feminist revisionist Western
1995’s The Quick and the Dead is on Netflix on both sides of the Atlantic (but leaves the US service soon). [read more]
loaded question: what movies depict introverts well?
My pick is 2018’s The Bookshop, in which star Emily Mortimer and director Isabel Coixet do a beautiful job of capturing the introverted essence of its bookstore-owner protagonist. [reply at Flick Filosopher | reply at Substack | reply at Patreon]
daily stream: spirituality without the supernatural
2011’s The Way is on Prime in the UK; not streaming in the US, but screening in cinemas via Fathom Events for one night only tonight. [read more]
what I’m watching and bingeing
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S2 [Paramount+ globally; via Prime US/Prime UK]: absolutely classic Trek, but new too! every single member of the cast is *chef’s kiss* perfect
Resident Alien [various services including Prime US/Prime UK ]: finished through S2! (S3 coming very soon) hilarious and occasionally unexpectedly dark sci-fi dramedy about an alien — played by the amazing Alan Tudyk — stuck on Earth and forced to blend in
Silo [Apple TV+ globally]: finished S1! (S2 coming soon) incredibly tense dystopian series based on the brilliant sci-fi book series by Hugh Howey; no Rebecca Ferguson fan should miss this (she plays the kickass protagonist)
For All Mankind [Apple TV+ globally]: finished through S3! (S4 is coming at some point) totally gripping alt-history of the US/USSR space race; terrific writing that beautifully melds the personal and the political, the scientific and the social
The Power [Prime US/Prime UK/and globally]: finished S1! (no S2 has been announced yet) the gender dynamics were fun to see, but I’m not sure the series ever found a solid footing; hopefully it’ll get a chance to figure that out
coming up at Flick Filosopher…
Barbie
Oppenheimer
Meg 2: The Trench
Joy Ride
tween classic onscreen Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.
And reviews of many of the other films I’ve been promising since forever, I’m sorry. :-(
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