Another platform, another show

Navigating the not-so-brave new world of streaming vs theaters

It seems only too fitting that I write my first post on the day Scarlett Johansson sued Disney over taking Black Widow to Disney+ simultaneously with a theatrical release. Even the biggest names and companies among us find themselves bobbing in turbulent waters stirred by the big bad Covid.

Fuck you, pay me/Disney

Rather like Johansson, I’ve found myself somewhat at sea in recent times. Why? Most people who know me even a little bit know that I’m an evangelist for the theatrical experience. I’m like John McClane- I die very hard. Yippie-ki-yay and all that. My most recent theatrical outings were a 35-millimeter screening of The Departed and a screening of the stridently sincere but stridently mediocre Joe Bell. I love theaters so much, I seek out Mark Wahlberg twice in one week.

Sgt. Dignam let himself go 15 years on

And yet, more and more often lately, I find myself feeling isolated and alone, sticking to my theatrical guns. Literally alone. Most times when I go to the theater, I’m in the auditorium by myself, with a handful of other people at best. I feel like a ghost.

That’s normally not a problem. I’ve been to movies by myself multiple times over the years. But it shouldn’t be this way in the middle of the summer, when the theater is usually hopping. On social media, people are all like the Mandalorian now and insisting “This is the way,” acting like it’s a good thing that theaters are struggling. For those people, maybe. For me, it feels like an existential crisis.

And then Ty Burr, the very recently retired film critic for The Boston Globe, came along with his Substack and wrote the following.

Why do movie critics cover movies as if it were still twenty years ago? Why don’t people write about movies the way we experience them now?

And that hit me in the heart, but in a good way. For better or for worse, most people have been watching movies away from the theater for years. And while I knew that very well, I didn’t want to engage that reality in any meaningful way. It’s high time I embraced that fact, especially with the delta variant making the pandemic disturbingly regressive.

This doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore theatrical. I write this the evening that three wide releases are hitting theater screens: The Green Knight, Jungle Cruise and Stillwater. I will write about all three. But theatrical movies won’t be all I’ll write about.

I’ll also turn to the streaming services and turn people on to gems that they might otherwise miss. Or I might give a well-known movie a second look with fresh eyes, because opinions should be strong but never set in stone. Bottom line: I aim to make the movie-watching experience better for both myself and you by highlighting the great and/or interesting stuff.

This venture is very much a work in progress, and I haven’t yet worked out any kind of publishing schedule, although Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my days off work, so you can expect posts most often around that time frame. I will post these newsletters to social media, but that will no longer be my primary playground. I invite you all to join this newsletter so you’re not subject to the whims of the Facebook/Instagram/Twitter algorithms. I especially invite you to join the conversation here, because that’s when I have the most fun, having a dialogue with my readers.

So welcome, sign up and have fun. For a sneak preview of my first recommendation, here’s a hint - nay, a giveaway - there’ll be Hellzapoppin to pay.