I'll open with a decidedly non-streaming entertainment note: Saturday has been set as the first annual National Cinema Day. For this inaugural event, some 3000 theater locations (it's a mix of AMC, Regal, Cinemark - all the major movie theater chains) will be offering $3 movie tickets for any showing in any format for the day. It won't matter even if it's the newest release, and/or in Imax, though I suspect those tickets will quickly become scarce.
The general thrust of it is to close the summer out with a nudge they're hoping will get a broader variety of movie-goers back in those seats. They're hoping it'll press a reset button such that they'll go back to pre-pandemic habits. While the industry is generally touting a very profitable summer, they're still aware that many people are continuing to regard the idea of shutting one's self in with large groups of strangers for two to three hours during an ongoing pandemic as a less than swift notion.
While there was perhaps a momentary tug from knowing this - that any movie out there could be seen for $3 plus tax a pop - it was minor and fleeting lure. Part of me is almost taking impish glee in the notion of orchestrating such a viral super-spreader event on the final, holiday weekend of the summer, with all those kids and teachers headed back into the classroom to begin the school year proper next Tuesday. Why, saving on ticket prices might help cover some of the costs (testing, etc.) that are about to
A budget-driven, close-quarters, marathon-viewing-encouraging, cinema viral exchange, I've extemporaneously tagged it as Steerage Cinema Day, though I suspect you'll come up with something so much more clever that it'll seem obvious in hindsight.
Okay, now on with the (far more hygienic) show!
While I've read both The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I freely confess that I've never been a Tolkien fan. Particularly with respect to the latter, larger work, I often had the sense while slogging through it that Tolkien would have been much more well-suited to compile a "bible" - a combined atlas and history - for Middle Earth, and leave it to others to tell the tales. I read them so many years ago, though, that I likely owe them an attempted re-read, as I'm in so many ways not the person I was in my teens. Exaggeration in memory could only work in their favor, as the tedium's likely swollen to mythic scale, festering there all these years, and the reality can almost certainly only be better.
My standing view has been that the spirit of Tolkien's work was best taken in through the channel of an enthusiastic fan, often naturally filtering out unnecessary elements and concentrating both characters and action.
Therein lies the hope that the new Amazon Prime series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - a prequel tale set millennia before the tales of Bilbo and Frodo, among other things it's meant to flesh out the details of the Second Age of Middle Earth, including the rise of Sauron, the forging of the Rings of Power, and cover the details of the final alliance between Elves and Men. Visually and with respect to the main musical score, the series is meant to feel as if it's simply an earlier part of the Middle Earth we saw in the two, big-screen trilogies, albeit with recastings for the particularly long-lived characters who manage to bridge the tales.
The eight-episode first season (the rights were purchased with a five-season production commitment, with season two scheduled to begin filming next month, so viewers should feel reasonably protected against it being cancelled) has just begun to drop. The first two episodes arrived today, with the remaining six set to appear weekly through October 14th.
Today on Netflix, Emily ("Bones") Deschanel stars in an eight-part limited series, which seems to be of the Let no good deed go unpunished variety. In it she plays a hospital psychiatrist who shelters a mysterious young woman who's escaped from a cult. The young mystery woman soon threatens to tear the doctor's family apart. It's Devil In Ohio.
On a more practical front, sticking with Netflix, next Tuesday (the 6th) sees the arrival of an anecdotal tutorial on money management skills. The general mindset behind it seems to be the very valid commentary that our primary schooling does not, in general, produce citizens with basic budgeting and finance skill sets. (Part of me can't help but wonder if our economy would survive financially-savvy consumers.) It's Get Smart With Money.
Arriving today on HBO & HBO Max is something of little initial interest to me, but my mom would've been all over it: The Elvis Presley biopic from earlier this year: Elvis (2022 PG-13 2h 39min) I know from experience how often biographies - well-written and performed ones - can turn me around even when I had little to no interest in their subject. The human story, origins, aspirations, relationships, and conflicts often prove to be compelling. It may be that the talent and skill set that made them famous remains of little to no interest to me - as with a sports star, or, in this case, a singer and performer whose body of work has not been to my tastes - so those parts largely become filler. Still, that human story can reach and connect.
Beyond that, it can come down to the details of whether what we're being handed are the facts or simply someone's self-serving legend. Still, even with the latter, we each must make our own choice as to what's the priority. If we were touched, moved, even inspired, how important is it to each of us whether it was purely by sincere historical fact or by conveniently-tailored and manipulated legend? Those are questions to be decided by each of us.
Anyway, the above all came to mind to remind me that I may decide to watch this, even though I've never folded an Elvis performance into a personal playlist, and have never been drawn to the things that made him famous.
Saturday (the 3rd) Paramount+ will see the arrival of a live-streamed (and then, of course, available on a whim) tribute concert for late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. It'll also air as an encore performance on CBS at 10pm Eastern that night. Plainly enough, it's the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert. Presumably your excitement with it will largely depend upon how many of the names listed significantly pop! for you.
Sunday night on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, we'll have the season six kick-off for the genre-blending and reality-hopping Rick & Morty.
Next Thursday, the 8th, is Disney Day -- which will be mainly significant to Disney+ subscribers, and likely to those who aren't yet subscribers but have been considering it. Part of the general expectation is that they'll announce some special discount option(s) on the day itself, so if that's of possible interest look for some notice of it in general media, likely on the day itself.
Among the new arrivals that day will be a new live action & CGI, Robert Zemeckis directed & Tom Hanks-starring direct-to-streaming version of Pinocchio. Hanks plays Gepetto. (This, it strikes me, in contrast to his role as Colonel Tom Parker in Elvis, where he's playing a part much more akin to this film's Stromboli.)
(Oh,
while I'm mentioning Pinocchio, off in December we'll have a
stop-motion version by Guiellermo del Toro arriving on Netflix. More on
that as it draws near.)
Another arrival for Disney Day is the latest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, big screen releases, Thor: Love & Thunder.
Entertaining in parts, and with several good performances, but it
struck me as lacking in story weight, deferring instead to jokes --
which would have been a touch more forgivable if more of the jokes
really landed.
I'll
be curious to see if it plays better for me in a second viewing, both
because I'll be more aware of what's coming (and what isn't), and will
be able to pause it at will, and not have my attentions repeatedly torn
between the film and my aging bladder, the latter super-charged on
diuretics. Here's that trailer again:
That won't be my go-to Disney+ item on Thursday, though, as that's also when the latest episode of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
arrives. Abysmal title (which the show more or less makes a running
commentary on), but very entertaining show. That'll be the fourth
episode, out of the season's nine.
There'll also be Making of/Behind the Scenes specials covering both the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and Thor: Love & Thunder, which I may take a look at.
Recently
I came across a film on Amazon Prime I'd been unaware of. From just
four years ago, it stars Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning. It's a
post-apocalyptic scenario set in a small town. The source and specifics
of the apocalypse - why nearly everyone suddenly died where they stood
or sat on a Tuesday afternoon - is never addressed, ultimately being
unimportant to the story we're being told, and, really, to the
characters themselves. Knowing will not restore the dead and bring back
the world that was, nor is it likely to be significantly knowable and
useful knowledge for these characters. That could very well be a driving
force for some other survivor, elsewhere, but that would be a different
film. I think it's best to rip that band-aid off ahead of time, because
most of the negative reviews this little film received were from people
who were looking for a different movie, and so were disappointed at
what was largely just a little, human story.
The
title remains an odd, potentially distracting choice, especially as it
calls to mind for at least some swath of the potential audience, a pop
song of some vintage. It's going to be a function of age whether they
remember it as Del Shannon or Tiffany. Either way, it's no part of this
film. I now imagine some misguided soul watching it, waiting for it to
show up as a title track. Heh. Now I'm wondering if there was anyone who
went to see M. Night Shyamalan's 2008 The Happening (a film I still like much more than the vocal Most) waiting for
Diana Ross and the Supremes' 1967 hit to start playing. (This as
opposed to the 1967 Anthony Quinn/George Maharis picture of the same
name, where the song did appear -- for little reason beyond marketing.)
Dinklage
plays Del, a man who had worked at the local library, but largely due
to his physical condition had been an outsider all his life. While he'd
interacted with many of the people, in a fundamental way he'd been alone. A quiet, orderly man, he's made a mission of methodically
clearing each house of their dead, burying them, and generally tidying
things up. Part of that's library-centered, too, as he gives special
attention to retrieving library books that were on loan to the people
who died, including the occasional scofflaw who'd been seriously overdue prior to having the excuse of death.
There's a moment in the film when Del's
talking with Grace (Fanning), the young woman who suddenly wandered into
town, where she asks him if he's lonely. He tells her he used to be
lonely -- when all of the people were still alive.
As
mentioned, I came across this by accident, and so with no
preconceptions. It must have gotten some press when it was new, as in
2018 Dinklage was still a core player in the then immensely popular Game of Thrones,
so even a little film like this that debuted at Sundance had to have
gotten a spotlight. For whatever combination of reasons, though, it went
past me unnoticed then.
I've checked, and it's
still there as a free-to-subscribers item -- always have to check with
Prime, where things can suddenly move back behind paywalls. It's I Think We're Alone Now (2018 R 99m)
Aside from Prime, it's available to buy or rent online, though it's not something I'd go out of my way to get. But, hey, I'm cheap that way.
Funny note: I checked Tubi to see if it was there so I could pass along a free option - it wasn't - but I did find a 2008 documentary there with the same name, focused on two self-described, obsessive "superfans" of '80s pop star Tiffany. I marked it as something to check out sometime, as a matter of smug and morbid amusement. Wotta prick I am.
Well, that's it for another week, though I'm sure I'm overlooking a couple things I'd meant to include. There's always something.
The big summer-closing holiday weekend of 2022 is upon us, and I find myself contemplating more changes than usual this year. My best to you all. Knowing how many areas are being hammered by sustained heat, some being drowned in rain (locally we're in a drought zone) I hope this finds you managing personal bubbles of sustainable comfort. See you back here -- well, we may be in our Year 4 digs by then, I'm not 100% certain, but the links will get you wherever "here" is -- next week. - Mike
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