This year, it's quite a different story, as exemplified by having just purchased a $3.99 rental of The Banshees of Inisherin from U.S. iTunes.
Banshees is one of a number of movies that became available in Australian theaters on Monday, also including the likes of Triangle of Sadness, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, The Lost King and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. Well, I already watched Triangle last week through an iTunes rental, The Lost King I saw at an advanced screening more than a month ago, and we happened to go to Lyle yesterday to escape from the hottest day of the year -- though we needn't have, as this is available on iTunes for me as well. The only one of those titles I can't get my hands on without going to the theater is the Whitney Houston movie, and I'm not even sure I'm prioritizing a viewing of it before my list closes.
Shift forward ten days to our next regularly scheduled Thursday and The Fabelmans comes out on January 5th. I'll probably choose to see this one in the theater, but not because I have to. It's also available on U.S. iTunes, though it would be the premium rental price.
Aftersun also becomes available for rental on January 17th, a week before my list closes, and two days later is when Babylon hits Australian theaters. I'll probably see that in the theater but by that point it may have been nearly two weeks since my last visit to the theater to see The Fabelmans -- totally unheard of in the January sprint to the finish line.
There are some movies that don't actually hit Australian theaters before the list closes, like Tar and The Whale, but I've already seen both of them -- thanks again to iTunes (paid the premium rental for Tar) and the good old advanced screening.
There may be some titles I'm not considering that could actually slip by me, but if I'm not considering them it means they are totally devoid of the year-end anxiety I always feel, when I push against every last fiber of my wife's good humor in trying to get out to the theater no less frequently than every fourth night.
It definitely feels strange. And since my friend and I who do our year-end lists decided to go with the day the Oscars chose to release their nominations, January 24th, we already have a week longer than we used to have to see whatever movies we haven't seen yet. I'm already close to 150 for the year with 27 days still remaining, and he's already (gasp) around 330. Actually I think he was around 330 a week ago, so he's probably far eclipsed that by now.
Should I pump the brakes? Should I star watching dumb Netflix movies like Mr. Harrigan's Phone that I had never intended to watch? (Note: Mr. Harrigan's Phone may be a perfectly fine film.)
You probably know that I actually don't like setting personal records for movies seen in a given year. When I hit 170 last year, which bested my previous high by nearly 20, I didn't view it as a new benchmark I'd try to beat this year. I viewed it as a sign of many misspent hours I could have been doing other things. Not that I don't love spending time on movies, mind you -- you know I do -- but I likely could have gotten a perfectly good representation of the year's movies with around 140 or 150. That's especially the case when you compare notes with the average person, who, if they even bother to identify their favorite movies of the year, might be choosing from 40 titles at most.
Well, this is who I am, and at least this year, who I am won't be involving any additional stress. Due to the changes in the cinematic business model in recent years, everything I want is there for the taking -- and take it I will.
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