It has now been more than two months since I last saw a film in the theater. It was Nine Days, Edson Oda's interesting existential experiment about souls jockeying for a chance to be born, which is a lot better than that description might sound. I watched it on August 4th without any knowledge, according to my recollection, that cinemas were about to enter a lengthy shutdown. We'd had a number of little week-long lockdowns which arrived and ended with equal suddenness. The one we're in now arrived that suddenly, but hasn't entered nearly so quickly.
The goal is no longer to get down to zero cases, which was actually something we've been able to do here in Victoria for the majority of this pandemic. The goal is now to reach a certain vaccination rate, 80% for those eligible to receive them, which I believe we've already done. Nonetheless, retail stores and cinemas are still set to remain closed for the rest of this month, if I'm understanding the current timeline correctly.
Honestly, I've kind of given up paying attention to the little changes at this point. When my kids start to go back to school maybe I'll snap back to it. Until then, I know that catching the cavalcade of new releases in the U.S. is just a pipe dream.
This wasn't a problem last year. Last year, movies weren't coming out anywhere. In fact, our cinemas were open here a lot of the time that they weren't open in the U.S. That didn't necessarily mean we were getting new releases -- if they weren't coming out in the U.S., they certainly weren't coming out here -- but there were things trickling in that qualified as "new to us." That was enough.
This year, it's completely different.
Here is a list of things that I haven't had any access to seeing, but really feel like I would/should see before the year comes to a close:
No Time to Die
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
The Suicide Squad
The Many Saints of Newark
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Candyman
Reminiscence
The Card Counter
Dear Evan Hansen
and less essential but still
The Addams Family 2
It's not uncommon for there to be a delay between the U.S. release of more independent films and awards contenders and their Australian release, but the blockbusters are usually within a day of each other -- and that day usually favors Australia as movies actually release on Thursdays here.
One film that's maybe already gone from cinemas in the U.S., but still hasn't been available here, is Free Guy, the film whose advanced screening I was scheduled to attend the following week when the last lockdown started. As an indication of how long it's been since we've been able to go to the movies, Free Guy is already available for streaming on Disney+. The family and I are likely to watch it this weekend, at which point I can finally review something that's not just another new mediocre Netflix or Amazon movie.
It's probably no coincidence that I'm now just feeling kind of deflated about movies in general. At the end of each month, I take stock of the best and worst movie I saw that month, something I record for posterity in a special area of my Microsoft Word document in which I record my new viewings. The best movie I saw in September was a documentary called Tim's Vermeer, which I finally watched after being unable to get it in time for the end of my 2014 movie year (as discussed in this post). It was one of only two September movies I gave four stars on Letterboxd, the other also part of my Documentary Alternate Tuesdays series, that being Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary. To give you some sense of how this feels like a reduction in my normal level of enthusiasm, usually I'm choosing between at least two movies I gave 4.5 stars. Of course, it could also just be a mediocre month, which does happen as well.
The choices for worst? They were plentiful, but none better than Sweet Girl, a truly awful and truly idiotic Netflix thriller with a super dumb twist.
It's not that I think the latest MCU movie, the latest Bond movie or a Sopranos prequel is likely to provide better candidates, and in fact, if the first Venom is any indication, a Venom sequel would be a better bet for my monthly worst. But The Card Counter is directed by Paul Schrader, the guy who made my #1 movie of 2018 (First Reformed).
More generally, without this interplay of new theatrical releases and new streamer releases, the experience of consuming new movies has just left me feeling lethargic and indifferent. At a time of year when I have usually long since shifted to prioritizing new releases over older films, this October I'm doing a deep dive into the horror movies of the 1970s. Which has its own sort of excitement associated with it, but not the type I'm accustomed to as I get within three months of finalizing my year-end list.
The good news, I suppose, is that I do appear to be getting out of this movie jail in about three weeks, and at that point, it may never return. Reaching the desired vaccination percentage means that lockdowns will be a thing of the past, in theory, since we acknowledge we can no longer contain COVID. If people choose not to protect themselves from it, that's on them.
In the meantime, I do have some options for not falling completely off the map in terms of new releases. Candyman, for example, is available for $19.99 rental on iTunes, and as it makes a perfect movie for the month of October, I will probably avail myself of that option at some point. The latest Saw movie and a new Netflix movie called There's Someone Inside Your House will both help me celebrate the month of Halloween and move me closer to my usual total number of films seen before I close off my list.
But I can't deny there's been something lost in this whole experience. Not only am I behind on the movies, I'm behind on the conversation about the movies. The inability to see the new releases has also made me less likely to listen to my movie podcasts, which are essential in situating me within the movie zeitgeist. I don't feel like I'm able to live in the moment of the end of the 2021 movie year. We'll see if I have enough time to find my way back to that.
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