weekly digest: a noir mystery and an eco-disaster (bit grim for our times, sorry!)
everything that happened at Flick Filosopher from Monday, February 28th, to Sunday, March 6th
When I sent out my Weekend Watchlist yesterday, very late (I like to send this on Fridays), I included this note:
Deepest apologies for the extreme lateness of this weekend’s watchlist. I have been riveted — and horrified — by the beginning of World War III. Movies and stories to distract us and uplift us and examine the human condition remain as necessary as ever, especially now… but even I have to keep reminding myself of that…
I think this is worth repeating, for anyone who might need to hear it. It’s easy to feel as if things like movies are frivolous in moments of intense crisis such as we find ourselves in. They aren’t. We might want to be pickier about the movies we chose to enjoy: lighter films, something to help us escape, might be more welcome than those with heavy themes… or, conversely, such movies might help us navigate what we’re experiencing.
But movies — and books and music and comics and all art — remain vitally necessary for reminding us what it means to be human and alive, and why our world is worth fighting for.
I’m deeply anxious about what the coming weeks and months are going to bring, but I’m going to try to not let whatever comes take away my love of film.
—MaryAnn
PS: My Weekend Watchlist is where I recommend the best new films and hidden gems to stream. Stop endlessly scrolling Netflix, Amazon, and other VOD services! Only for my Patreon patrons and those with a paid Substack subscription.
new at flick filosopher, Feb 28–Mar 6
new and ongoing cinema releases, US/Can, Mar 04
Comic-book noir The Batman is new and exclusively in cinemas; more… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing cinema releases, UK/Ire, Mar 04
Comic-book noir The Batman and romantic drama Ali & Ava are new and exclusively in cinemas… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, US/Can, Mar 01–04
Liam Neeson action thriller Blacklight arrives on premium VOD; sci-fi drama After Yang debuts on Showtime; much more… [get the full rundown]
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, UK/Ire, Feb 28–Mar 04
Sing 2 and West Side Story are new on premium VOD; historical adventure Against the Ice debuts on Netflix; much more… [get the full rundown]
The Batman movie review: to bat, or not to bat [pictured]
No snark, no spandex pantomime spectacle. Just noir mystery, Pattinson’s sad recluse a detective in a cesspit of corruption. Relentlessly grim, all darkness and despair, not escapist but of our time. [read the review | cinemas globally]
The Burning Sea (Nordsjøen) movie review: nightmare (fossil) fuel
Not terribly disastrous… until it is. Then movie-movie melodrama gives way to eco-cataclysm and new realms of planetary existential nightmare. I cannot recall a movie’s ending haunting me this much. [read the review | cinemas + VOD US]
loaded question: have apocalyptic movies lulled us into a false sense of security about climate change?
What would human civilization look like after a billions-dead catastrophe? “End of the world” movies almost universally fail to confront that. Do we need to do better? [reply at Flick Filosopher | reply at Substack | reply at Patreon]
what I’m bingeing
Call My Agent! [Netflix globally except in Austria, Spain, Germany, and Portugal, for some reason]: still enjoying this; one soap-opera-ish plot turned out differently than I was expecting!
Picard Season 2 [Paramount+ US; Amazon Prime UK]: this just debuted, and it’s a one-episode-at-a-time drip-drip, so I’ve only seen the premiere so far. I liked Season 1 and am looking forward to more of Jean-Luc in Space, Again.
Tweet of the week…
As I said when I retweeted this, we really are through some sort of looking glass.
coming up at Flick Filosopher…
Gold, starring Zac Efron
horror romance Fresh
Moonfall (I’ve almost gotten my head around it…)
The Matrix: Resurrections
time-traveling ghost story Last Night in Soho
Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical Belfast
psychological neo-noir Nightmare Alley, from Guillermo del Toro
French freak-show Titane
based-on-a-videogame action-adventure Uncharted
as many more Oscar-nominated films as I can get to
And more!
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