moving goalposts
Remember when I said I was going to start easing back into movie reviewing? Well, that still hasn't happened. A big part of it is just how easy it is not to care that much, when I am at home the vast majority of the time and am not beholden to any movie showing schedules, or even release schedules. Combine that with the great TV there is to watch, and it gets hard to be motivated about home-viewing of movies, especially when so much of my love of cinema is actually being in movie theaters. It would sure make a huge difference if I could come up with some way to view some of these movies in our Braeburn Condos movie theater, but, of course, that is closed until further notice. Sometimes I fantasize about coming up with some sort of system that projects movies against the wall of my condo, or even buying a far larger flat screen TV. But, I am—and especially Shobhit is—too cheap for that. I mean, shit. The TV we're watching now has a black dot in the screen that allowed us to buy it on clearance for fifty bucks right when the Puyallup Sears was going out of business last year. (Side note: that dot is rarely even noticeable. Your brain basically just tricks you into thinking it's not even there after just a few minutes.)
Anyway! Believe it or not, I actually had Bill and Ted Face the Music tentatively on my calendar for this past weekend, to consider watching and reviewing. Not to see in a theatre (I wouldn't be able to do that in King County even if I wanted to, and I will likely wait even longer to want to after they finally reopen at limited capacity), but on demand, if it were available at a reasonable price. Well? It was only available on demand for twenty bucks. For a movie with mixed reviews at best? (Metascore 66.) In what universe is that a worthwhile investment?
Amazingly, Gabriel actually watched it. He didn't pay for it, apparently; Lea had access to it through a friend and he just watched it with her. He told me that "without hyperbole" (uh huh, sure) it was the worst movie he had ever seen. I guarantee you I would never think that of this movie (okay, slight possibility, but chances are extremely slim), but that doesn't make it worth paying twenty bucks for. Now keep in mind, Gabriel previously felt that Death to Smoochy was the worst movie ever produced (Metascore 38), and while that movie is not great, or even necessarily good, it is certainly far from the worst movie ever made. I have seen many, many worse movies. So there's only partial accounting for taste here.
The movie that was supposed to be in theatres and is available on demand for a reasonable price, and which I have long really wanted to see, is called First Cow. I can rent that on demand for like six bucks, and that's a rate I can handle. Now it's just a matter of getting around to it.
But, what of Oscar-qualifying films that are much more mainstream, blockbusters even? Christopher Nolan's Tenet has finally gotten some theatrical release, but only in theaters outside the U.S. I am certain that after a few months that one will be available on demand, and just to get the chance to review it, I may be tempted to pay a higher price. Twenty bucks? That will almost certainly be the price, and it's hard to say whether I would consider it worth it. Mulan will be available soon on Disney+, but only for an additional $20 even for Disney+ subscribers, which to me is insanity. I have a feeling most of the movies I review will be limited either to independent titles or mainstream ones that simply got scrapped for theatrical release and put on streaming services like Netflix instead, but remain qualified for Oscar nominations. Whatever the case, navigating this for the next several months is going to be weird.
You know, like navigating every part of our lives for the past six months.
As for last night, I made angel hair pasta for dinner just before Shobhit got home from work, and it was yummy. It yielded four portions for leftover lunches as well, so that's what I just ate again. I also made us chai.
And then we just spent the evening watching TV. This week's episode of Lovecraft Country, then this week's excellent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, then just one episode of The Boys on Amazon Prime. Shobhit is so immediately into The Boys that he would have favored more episodes of that over catching up on the other two shows, but I don't want to fall behind.
And that still accounted for two and a half hours of TV, starting at close to 7 pm, so after that it was already time to start getting ready for bed.
At least this afternoon after work I need to go to the office to exchange receiving paperwork, and I think I'm going to ride my bike. I'm actually looking forward to that just as a change of pace. There's only so much TV you can watch before you start to want something else to do for at least a little bit. I do have my library books, and I have at least been reading mine during lunch breaks not taken up by Zoom meetups or FaceTime hangs.
Otherwise, Guru won't shut the fuck up. It's just incessant: "Meow. Meow. Meow." And although this often happens when he's about to throw up, today it seems like it's just a desire for attention. He keeps jumping into my lap and then settling down, for at least a few minutes, until I have to stand up for some reason.
[posted 12:29 pm]