weekly digest: I check out a classic for the first time (ahead of the release of its long-time-coming sequel)
everything that happened at Flick Filosopher from Monday, May 16th, to Sunday, May 22nd
Happy Monday! Monkeypox is in the news, which brings 12 Monkeys to my mind and makes me want to watch it again. And last week Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the opening ceremony of Cannes Film Festival and told the collected cinema grandees that we need more movies like Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator… which is a film I’ve been meaning to get to for my Movies for the Resistance series. (Wish I’d done that before Zelensky mentioned it!)
Also last week, Hollywood Reporter journalist Rebecca Keegan tweeted:
If you’re at #Cannes2022, are you flipping the bird at Putin and COVID, or are you just Sally Bowles in Cabaret, insisting on keeping the party going even as the sound of boots outside the Kit Kat Club gets louder?
This resonated with me: I’m struggling more and more lately with juggling reality and escapism. I hope the fact that I instinctively react to current events by connecting them to movies that wrestle with similar difficult truths means that I’m flipping the bird. But I would think that, wouldn’t I? :-)
—MaryAnn
new at flick filosopher, May 16–22
new and ongoing cinema releases, US/Can, May 20
Aristocrat dramedy Downton Abbey: A New Era and horror Men are new and exclusively in cinemas; more… [read more]
new and ongoing cinema releases, UK/Ire, May 20
Historical drama Benediction is new and exclusively in cinemas; Prime drama Emergency previews on big screens ahead of its VOD debut next week; more… [read more]
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, US/Can, May 17–20
Indie sci-fi Dual and foreign horror Hatching are available on demand; more… [read more]
new and ongoing dvd/blu/vod releases, UK/Ire, May 16–20
World War II mystery drama Operation Mincemeat and Viking revenge thriller The Northman land on premium VOD; more… [read more]
weekend watchlist: the unbearable wait for massive success
Plus a subtle dystopia and a subtle nervous breakdown. (First published April 22nd, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.) [read more]
classic film virgin: Top Gun (1986) [pictured]
Cold War propaganda that is weirdly apolitical. Sunny, breezy homoeroticism that is surely unintentional. What a hoot this is! Mostly not in a good way, but its impact on pop culture cannot be denied. [read the review | streaming in all the usual places]
weekend watchlists now free for everyone 30 days after they’re published
Though getting them a month later means you might miss out on last-chance recommended movies that are expiring from the streaming services… [read more]
weekend watchlist: a prophetic dystopia (that is also rather comforting)
Plus iconic performances from Jessica Chastain and Bruce Willis. (First published April 15th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.) [read more]
loaded question: what episodic stuff are you bingeing, and why should we watch it?
There is simply too much stuff to watch these days! So tell us what you’re watching, and why it’s worth our time (or not). [reply at Flick Filosopher | reply at Substack | reply at Patreon]
what I’m bingeing
Call My Agent! Season 4 [Netflix globally except in Austria, Spain, Germany, and Portugal, for some reason]: Finished Season 3 and all of Season 4 this week, which means I’m done with the entire series. Loved it! You can feel the steam going out of it in the final season, but it still made me weepy to see how it ends. Now, on to the new English-language version, Ten Percent…
Bridgerton Season 2 [Netflix globally]: no time for this in the past week, alas…
Tweets of the week…
You get two, cuz I couldn’t decide which was better.
coming up at Flick Filosopher…
I swear I’m actually gonna get to some of these sometime this week!
Top Gun: Maverick
Memory, the latest Liam Neeson action thingy
trips through multiverses with Everything Everywhere All at Once and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Oscar Best Picture CODA
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, for my sins
adventure comedy The Lost City
historical revenge drama The Northman
the Oscar-nominated short films
Moonfall
time-traveling ghost story Last Night in Soho
Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical Belfast
based-on-a-videogame action-adventure Uncharted
And more!
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