Movies

I will see even less. For as long as the opportunities will last, I'll probably go see as many older films as I can in theaters, be it the specialty houses in L.A. (although I don't expect The Egyptian to last in that capacity much longer now that it's Netflix's), and the "classic cinema" screenings that some of the chains have been doing over the past decade or so. Hopefully the New Bev will hold out for awhile. 

Because, and I understand that evidently I'm the huge minority here, I'm far, far less interested in watching new  "films" on my TV screen. I couldn't care less for the most part. 

I'd ssay the bell weathers for me so far have been the Scorsese's Irishman film last fall, Roma, and a few others. I can't even begin to express just how less I've cared about seeing these films than I would have if i'd had the opportunity to see them at The Arclight in the Dome, or on an IMAX screen, or basically any of the better theaters that care about presentation. 

Since I didn't really have that solid option presented to me, I simply didn't care nearly as much. 

I eventually saw both of those TV movies. I admit I watched The Irishman twice, because the first time I watched it on my IPHONE. Wow, to describe that as underwhelming isn't really the half of it. I struggled through it. What a mess. It was a considerably better experience on my TV screen. Still, it wasn't anything near the experience of seeing it with an audience in a theater. Not even the same realm. 

Now with Roma, what we did was we tried to create a movie type experience, by setting a date and time to watch and inviting people over that really wanted to watch it. And it just didn't go over very well. We struggled, and then ultimately the "screening" did not make it through to the end without the movie being paused a few different times. It was a bit of a disaster. 

Oh well; I didn't really care nearly as much as I would've if something had gone wrong in the theater. Not even close to that. It was a TV movie, so who cares? the impact those movies had on me was so significantly less than good films by those directors I've seen in the theater that it's almost embarassing to compare.

I've already said I'm not paying 29.99 to watch Mulan on my TV screen. I'd have to be out of my mind to do that. And I wouldn't pay 20 bucks in a million years to see King of Staten Island. Not happening. 

I guess I basically feel at this point that the movies have passed me by. I find myself delving more and more into both my Criterion DVD's (of which i have alot), and my own DVD-R collection of hundreds and hundreds of movies I've recorded over the years, so many of which have been unavailable by the streamers over the years (as we've discussed several times the past several years, the streamers couldn't care less about classic film and it's not their job to care. In fact, I know they don't care and it is what it is. 

Reading all this stuff about theatrical not mattering anymore, it was obviously coming to this. Evidently it's here. 

Ok. It's like any other great thing you had in your that's taken away.  I'm in the last third of my life, I'm getting more used to it. And even watching on my TV screen is so much less appealing than it used to be, it's sickening. 

I can't go down to Tower Video anymore and rent something decent. I used to "hate" returning VHS tapes and later DVD's. It turns out, those were the absolute salad days. At least there were hundreds of decent movies to choose from, and Tower Records was such a huge part of my adult life, I ultimately didn't mind go there every couple of days to return and rent. These days I go look at Netflix and Prime. What an absolute joke. And the home watching has traditionally beee for stories I'm already famliar with mostly. New movies I'd always try to see with an audience. We're not even going to have that option anymore, sooner than later.

Good times.