How much I post while I'm gone will depend on how busy I am and how much my experiences inspire me to write. It might end up seeming like a relatively normal flow of content -- like one every three days on average -- or I might write nothing at all. I think I'll post at least once because I have one post almost in the can, and I plan to put it up at some point after the calendar flips to August. (No need for secrecy here: It's my monthly post on my old film rankings, this time for the year 2000.)
The last time I made the 14-hour flight to the United States was three years ago. Twice, actually -- once in August and then again in November.
It was a different world then. Streaming was already a formidable player, but not nearly what it has become since 2019. Perhaps more significantly, the whole release strategy for movies has since been reconsidered in light of the pandemic.
Now I'm wondering: What movies are actually going to be available to watch on this flight?
The Qantas catalogue has always been a good one, always containing more new releases than I can fit in, even when I'm working overtime to squeeze them in. Then there are older movies I've already seen, which I have watched on occasion, though typically only for a specific reason. Like, in 2019 I was rewatching movies to consider them for my best of the 2010s, and my fourth viewing of Creed came in this setting.
It seems like the older movies are likely to play a bigger role this time around.
Given how much of a person's annual viewing has shifted to movies released exclusively on Netflix or Amazon or AppleTV+, I'm wondering if I will detect a noticeable deficit in the offerings. Fewer movies have snuck by me at the cinemas as a result of this big shift to day-and-date availability on a streaming service, and most of the big streaming movies don't sneak by me either because I subscribe to those services.
However, I also don't think the total numbers of movies are decreasing. I just don't know if Netflix or Amazon or AppleTV+ would have a deal with the airlines to show their content. I don't remember noticing that Netflix movies were available on the plane, in any case -- and it may just be that my mind skipped over them because I'd already watched them.
Usually when I get on a plane for the next 14 hours, I'm licking my lips at what the options will be, already having some idea of the movies I'd missed that year and surmising that this would be a great opportunity to catch up with them.
But this time? Few titles are leaping to mind.
I didn't see the Scream remake, and it will probably be available, but will it be a sanitized version to avoid the collateral damage of children walking down the aisle and seeing what I'm watching? I tend to avoid R-rated movies on the plane because I want to get the "real" version of them.
Alex Garland's Men would be a prime choice, since I did miss that one as well, due to two other reviewers on my site doing a joint review of it. But I've heard the ending is really gross, which also suggests it also is probably NSFP (not suitable for plane).
Weirdly those are the only two that jump to mind.
Obviously there are other movies I missed this year. Clearly there were. I'm not on some sort of heroic or historic movie-watching pace in 2022. In fact, if anything, I may be a little behind where I've been in previous years.
But as we've pointed out, the world is no longer like what it was in previous years.
I guess I will just wait and see -- and maybe be happily surprised, though who knows. Maybe it will be worth a post after the fact to let you know how things have changed ... in case you are also contemplating your first international trip since the pandemic began.
And if I don't have the time to write that post ... well, I'll be sure to pop in and say hello sometime else before August 20th, in any case.
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