weekly (and beyond) digest: reviews! and some site news
weekly (and beyond) digest: reviews! and some site news
everything that happened at Flick Filosopher from Monday, April 29, to Sunday, May 19
This week sees the one-year anniversary of my hip-replacement surgery. My recovery seems complete, but — as I’ve mentioned before — at some point in the past year my “bad leg” switched over from the one that now has the new hip to the one that needs a new knee. 🙄 (I’m on the NHS list for a knee replacement, but my consult with the surgeon isn’t until August, and then it’ll likely be several months, at least, beyond that, before I can get the operation.) My health issues continue to plague me, and are responsible for my near absence recently, but I’ll write more about that soon. I think, I hope — *fingers crossed* — that I’ve finally gotten a handle on them. (Though I’ve thought that before…)
Right now I want to highlight something you’ll see listed in the recent posts below: that I have made the hard but necessary decision to open up FlickFilosopher.com to sponsored content.
I stress that this will be on an extremely limited and highly selective basis. I despair of how cluttered the web has gotten with advertising, and worse, disguised advertising. I vow to you that I will never run more than one sponsored post per week, and that these posts will always be clearly and obviously labeled as sponsored. These posts will be discrete from my film (and occasional TV) reviews — my reviews will never be sponsored — and they will never feature anything scummy or scammy, like cryptocurrency or “AI.”
For years now, I’ve been getting multiple emails every day from marketers hoping to place sponsored posts at FlickFilosopher.com. They come in more frequently all the time, because with each passing year, FlickFilosopher.com becomes more and more valuable as digital real estate. You won’t find many domains that are older, and even fewer that are still active and still pursuing their original missions. FlickFilosopher.com is considered high-quality not just because of how frankly awesome my film criticism is, but because of its age. A link at my site — from any domain with a deep history — to somewhere else online is incredibly authoritative to Google and Bing and other search engines, which is precious to the business the link points to. (Flick Filosopher is actually a year older than Google.)
As film criticism seems to be losing its value, I don’t have much other choice but to take advantage of this desirability of the site I’ve built over nearly three decades. (Not that I’m going to stop writing film criticism!) I promise that I will minimize the impact of any sponsored content to you, my dear readers, as much as possible. And, honestly, I may not even have many takers: I have priced access to my incredibly valuable digital real estate appropriately high, and it might be too rich for most.
We’ll see how it goes. I welcome your feedback on this now or at any point once — if — it takes off.
—MaryAnn
PS: For those wondering how Mister Moo is doing since I wrote about his elderly-cat problems in the most recent previous Weekly Digest, his wobbly back legs have not improved, but he otherwise seems okay. He’s eating and drinking and pooping normally, and he goes out into the back garden to enjoy the spring air; he’d definitely rather wait for someone to open the door for him to avoid using his flap, though he clearly manages on his own when no one else is around. He doesn’t seem to be distressed or in any pain — he’s still on a painkiller and an anti-inflammatory — so we’re kinda in wait-and-see mode with him. Except for the wobbling, he is back to his old self.
new at flick filosopher, Apr 29–May 19
FlickFilosopher.com now accepting sponsored posts
On an extremely limited and highly selective basis. I have worked long and diligently to earn and keep the respect of my readers, and I am not willing to lose that. [read more]
IF movie review: a fantastical vibe in search of a story
Writer-director John Krasinski’s absolute desperation to whip up magical whimsy utterly fails. No matter how he tries to force enchantment into existence, this is more fever dream than flight of fancy. [read the review | cinemas US/UK]
Back to Black movie review: no justice for Amy Winehouse
Marisa Abela is very good as Amy Winehouse, the one saving grace of this cowardly biopic of the wild and wise musician, which hangs its subject out to dry just as the people closest to her did, too. [read the review | cinemas US/UK]
The Fall Guy movie review: stunt dribble [pictured]
This mess isn’t as clever as it thinks it is, and wastes the small charms of the delicious chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Feels like they shot a dashed-off first draft of the script. [read the review | cinemas US/UK]
curated cinema: disruptive protest *works* (here’s the documentary proof)
2021 documentary Mothers of the Revolution is on Prime and Apple TV on both sides of the Atlantic. [read more]
what I’m watching and bingeing
The Good Place [Netflix US/UK]: still very my enjoying my rewatch…
Star Trek: Discovery S5 [Paramount+ globally; via Prime US, Prime UK]: I’m not sure the whole treasure-hunt-across-the-galaxy is all that exciting, but I adored the galactic archive that showed up this week; it deserves a series of its own
The X-Files [Hulu US/Disney+ UK]: it’s remarkable how well this 30-year-old show has held up; such fun to revisit
Doctor Who [Disney+ US/BBC iPlayer UK]: I don’t hate it, but it feels like a retread of the 2005 reboot; getting big Rose vibes from Ruby; feels very geared toward hooking new folks in from D+ in the US; I suspect this show has moved beyond me.... *sob*
Slow Horses S2 [Apple TV+ globally]: still haven’t gotten back to this…
coming up at Flick Filosopher…
romantic crime comedy Hit Man
pregnancy comedy Babes
tennis triangle Challengers
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
animated retro sci-fi Robot Dreams
road trip drama Bleeding Love, starring father and daughter Ewan and Clara McGregor
queer parody The People’s Joker
Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man
lesbian crime romance Love Lies Bleeding
And I have not forgotten about these:
Ava DuVernay’s Origin
Paleolithic thriller Out of Darkness
Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers
the absolutely brutal The Zone of Interest
Paul Giamatti in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers
Wonka, finally
Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction
based-on-fact family wrestling drama The Iron Claw
Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon
Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn
Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in May December
Priscilla’s problematic romance with Elvis
teen comedy Bottoms
Barbie, finally, for real, promise
murder mystery Anatomy of a Fall
tween classic onscreen Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.
And more!
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