Thirteen months ago, it became the poster boy for sacrificial lambs -- to mix metaphors -- among movies caught betwixt and between by the shutting down of the world economy due to COVID. Its March 6th U.S. release date left barely anyone to see it before people stopped going to the movies. Barely anyone also saw it, of course, because it was only released in four U.S. theaters on that date, part of a staggered release not unusual with independent films, but a release that ultimately became more hobbled than staggered.
That theatrical run was of course shot, though there was talk of trying to release it theatrically again later in the year. Of course, it's still "later in the year" as many cinemas in the U.S. are only just now trying to return to regular operations.
Here in Australia, it played at MIFF in August -- which was, of course, also a virtual experience. That's where I watched it, or rather, when I watched it. The MIFF screening, which was an opening night screening, was "sold out" -- yeah, they limit availability even with streaming, in order to create urgency I guess. So instead we just rented it from U.S. iTunes, which was possible starting July 21st, 11 days after it premiered on VOD.
At this point, First Cow seems like ancient history. Although critics fell all over themselves lauding it -- I was more mixed -- it didn't get any Oscar nominations and seems to have been kind of relegated to an unfortunate footnote in pandemic-era cinematic history. (I don't think Oscar nominations would have necessarily been expected, but several of my movie podcasts thought it could be a frontrunner for best picture if the Oscars limited themselves only to what was released theatrically.)
So you can imagine my surprise when I got an email to my ReelGood account this week with the subject "Master filmmaker Kelly Reichardt is back."
My first thought was "Wait, Kelly Reichardt has a new movie already?"
Well, no. I click into the email to find the following:
"First Cow is in cinemas tomorrow."
Yeah we get movies late in Australia sometimes -- I've blogged about some especially egregious examples -- but this seemed ridiculous. Not because 13 months -- actually, closer to 14 months -- after the U.S. release date would be the longest delay I've ever witnessed between a U.S. and an Australian release, but because it seems impossible that they are still trying to make First Cow happen.
And yet because First Cow did never have that Australian theatrical release, it also isn't available for rental yet here -- something I tend not to pay much attention to because I do most of my renting through the aforementioned U.S. iTunes.
I mean, it's great that people get to see this on the big screen. Reichardt composes her shots thoughtfully and even is fond of using a square aspect ratio, as she's done here. The movie should be seen on a big screen even if she does not use the full rectangular capacity of that screen.
It just seems weird that after all this has been through, it's only still just trying to claw its way into existence here in the Australian film market.
And presumably it will get a fair number of eyeballs in local arthouse cinemas. After a brief boom at the start of March when a handful of high-profile releases came out, things have dried up again, such that it's been two weeks now since I've been to a movie theater. That's extremely rare for me in times when my access to movie theaters is not being limited by a pandemic. In fact, I don't know how far back I'd have to go to find an occurrence of this in "normal" times.
It may not be a cash cow -- ha ha -- but perhaps it will at last find an adoring audience that can actually watch it in a cinema.
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