No laughter. No tears. No fright. Not even hushed whispers. 😢

Apr 29, 2020

GUESS THE QUOTE

"Avoid the clap.
Jimmy Dugan.
Wow!"

Do you remember how Universal decided to release Glitterfest 2020, aka Trolls: World Tour, on VOD as a $19.99 rental a few weeks back (all you with young kids are like 🙋 , everyone else be like 🤷‍♀️)? Well Universal has been touting its success and they finally released some numbers - along with this little quote from Jeff Shell, who oversees NBC Universal, "The results for ‘Trolls World Tour’ have exceeded our expectations and demonstrated the viability of PVOD,” Mr. Shell said. “As soon as theaters reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats."

The last line is key here. It set off a shit storm with NATO (not that one), the National Association of Theater Owners, who responded, as did AMC, the largest theater chain in the US (and as I've mentioned, reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy). And then Universal responded claiming they were being tag teamed, and then AMC responded back again! All in "public letters." I'd say who cares about such silly fighting between rich people, but there have been 71 seasons of Real Housewives across 9 series, so clearly (and sadly?), people do.

In one of these tit for tat responses, AMC said they won't run Universal movies if they end up implementing a "day and date" strategy (theaters and VOD rental same day). Which is not explicitly what the Shell quote says they'll do, but yeah, let's go ahead and assume that and write public letters with obligatory and can't come across as anything but passive aggressive "Dear" & "hope you're well" messaging.

All that to say, things may be sucky, but at least you're not a theater owner? 🙃

Does It Hold Up? Week 6 - Bullitt

I'll break down my assessment as follows...

Steve McQueen and his tough guy attitude - holds up (even if it does purvey unfortunate gender stereotypes) .

The car chase scene - holds up (but not nearly as aw inducing as it may have been back in the day).

The lack of dialogue and music not portending and hammering every action beat - holds up (if because media now overdoes the hell out of it).

The plot - does not hold up. At all. Without Wikipedia you'd be hard pressed to explain a good deal of that movie.

Overall, I'd say it holds up mostly in the context of history, but without that? Probably not. 😕But hey, that's me, and the Zoovie crew (Zoom + Movie - it's gonna be a thing, you wait) I watched with.

What did you think?

Addendums!

The SXSW festival, supposed to take place in March, was cancelled due to what I'll refer to as "the bullshit" from now on; but that hasn't stopped them from trying to get some of the films out. They partnered with Amazon to host a select number of features, docs and shorts - you just need a free account, no Prime necessary.

The most talked about seems to be My Darling Vivian. It's a documentary about Johnny Cash's first wife, who seems to be often left out of the singer's narrative.

Last thing, all the movies for next week's Does It Hold Up? were directed by women. That shouldn't be a thing to note, but it is, and so I will. Enjoy.

Cutoff? Go here, click "most recent edition."

FASTER, PUSSYCAT!
KILL! KILL!
(1965)

R / 1 hr 23 mins
Eve Productions / RT: 74% (27 reviews)

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to violence."

I mean, that's a pretty damn good way to start a movie. And one auspicious start for what is certainly going to be a strange trip, but not a long one (we'll leave that to the Dead). Because Faster, Pussycat! is only 83 mins, our shortest entry yet. But you can bet a movie that begins with three women abducting another woman after assaulting her boyfriend is going to pack in a lot in a short run time. A lot of punches, a lot of kitschy outfits, a lot of bad taste. A lot. So put on your best "fuck it" attitude, take the ride and see if it's one still worth taking.

A note on how to watch - it's not on any streaming service or VOD rental service like iTunes, but it IS on YouTube. So it's free, but you'll have to copy the link (also below) or just search for "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill 1966" on YouTube and click on the one that's from Michael Santiago (so bootleg). Every "smart device" should have a YouTube app, or maybe just cast from that object in your pocket that has access to much of the world's knowledge 📱!

A reminder: in case you wanted to delight yourself with one of the other options, they were: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Eraserhead, & The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

LOVE & BASKETBALL
(2000)

Having never seen it, I can't comment in detail, but doing some reading you can see the movie holds a special spot for lots of people. It makes sense. Beyond being regarded as a good movie, it was a romance movie starring black leads (rare then, still is) that was also a part of a set of movies expanding expectations about who could star in traditional Hollywood type movies (The Wood, also starring Epps and Lathaan, The Best Man and others). Plus, it was a sports movie dealing with a woman's athletic aspirations, not just a man's (also rare). According to The Ringer, the director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, said "her inspiration was When Harry Met Sally... but with brown faces." So yeah, it's an important film for lots of people, but was it only for an era or... does it hold?

THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
(1999)

Maybe a bit too on point considering the movie deals with people stuck being sequestered, but then again, do you have teen boys obsessing for you outside your window? No you do... oh wait, you do? That's uh, that's really weird. Moving on. This is Sofia Coppola's first movie and I just remember it having such a vibe (although I forgot it was set in the 70's...😬). Something most of Coppola's movies seem to have. But I still gotta ask... does the vibe hold up? (unlike the Josh Hartnett heartthrob status, cuz that clearly does - see above).

WINTER'S BONE
(2010)

You could say this is too recent, but I'll come back and ask if you can remember what you had for dinner last Tuesday. Exactly. (what even is time anymore - apparently, nothing at all). So yeah, a decade can be a good long while for our limited brain mush. Plus, you'll see Jennifer Lawrence before she was Jennifer Lawrence. A movie that can catapult an actor into becoming the highest paid female actor in the world has to hold up... right?

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
(2006)

One of the biggest balls of whimsy to ever hit the indie scene (and that's sayin something); which translated into a big fat ball of dough at the box office. But movies with a very specific tone (like this one), can often feel dated in a short period of time. So... does the big yellow van hold up?

What's In Theaters +

Discussion about this post