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Best and Worst of 2020
Last year sucked for movies just as it did for everything else
I will always prefer a big screen in the dark with strangers instead of my living room but we had no choice. 2020 was a sad, bizarre year in which we had to watch movies at home. I missed so many movies that were scheduled to open on theaters and were postponed. The film festivals that could have taken the opportunity to include a global audience didn’t and it’s hard to keep pace with what gets released where, so I feel very bereft of movies this year. Scrolling through the plethora of offerings from Netflix and Amazon Prime became a ritual in frustration. There is so much mostly mediocre stuff, that nothing grabs you. There’s good stuff too, but I have already seen it. The good news is that HBO Max has a fantastic back catalog with great classic movies, including great films by Fellini, Antonioni, Agnes Varda and more. I find that after all the junk movies, watching films like Cleo de 5 a 7 and Blow Up, are a balm. Right now I am mesmerized by the 1965 Russian version of War and Peace.
What worked best for me was to rent new releases that I would have seen in a theater, for less than what a movie ticket in New York City used to cost — almost $20. I would suggest that when movie theaters reopen in NYC, they tone down their prices a notch. Maybe they will have to because streaming sucks but it is convenient and cheap…
