THE PANDEMIC STREAMING WORLD: Oscilloscope, Kino Lorber, Music Box Films

[Chris Knipp]

JEANNE FINLEY: SEAHORSE (2019)



Director Jeanie Finlay charts a transgender man's path to parenthood after he decides to carry his child himself. The pregnancy prompts an unexpected and profound reckoning with conventions of masculinity, self-definition and biology.

AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL AND ON-DEMAND FROM JUNE 16, 2020. WATCH THE FILM HERE

This sounded like something that would, frankly, make me very uneasy. But Freddy McConnell, the person in question, who narrates, is an engaging young British man who gained my confidence quite quickly.

Freddy is 30 and yearns to start a family but this poses unique challenges. He is a gay transgender man. He is unprepared for the physical and emotional realities of pregnancy. To him what feels pragmatic, to others feels confrontational; this was not part of his plan. Against a backdrop of hostility towards trans people, he is forced to confront his naivety. Made with unprecedented access & collaboration, Seahorse is an audacious and lyrical story about family, gender and love. FILMLEAF REVIEW HERE.

Rent or buy using Vimeo - in all countries except USA, Canada and Denmark.
USA - Virtual Cinema exclusively at Museum of Moving Image, NYC. RENT HERE
USA - Prebuy on Itunes / Apple TV (available June 16)
Canada - Available on CBC Gem June 21.

[Chris Knipp]

CRISTINA COSTANTINI, KAREEEM TABSCH: MUCHO, MUCHO AMORE

Once the world's most famous astrologer, Walter Mercado seeks to resurrect a forgotten legacy. Raised in the sugar cane fields of Puerto Rico, Walter grew up to become a gender non-conforming, cape-wearing psychic whose televised horoscopes reached 120 million Latinx viewers a day for 30 years before he mysteriously disappeared.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the star and co-creator of Hamilton, regards him as almost a god. Walter Mercado, whose story and celebration this is, is a legend in the Spanish-speaking world and far beyond. For fifty years he was the asexual, feminine, big-haired, magnificently caped shaman on Spaish language TV (though in the film he speaks good English) whose horoscopes could fill an hour-long show, or be the first thing people wanted to hear and see every morning. The most famous astrologer in the world. The documentary comes to Netflix July 8, 2020. In it, you find out Walter seemed to bring a bird back to life with his breath as a young boy in Porto Rico and became a local healer visited by many. Then he studied dance and acting and did ballet and drama (we see how handsome he looked), settling into telenovela - until he did a horoscope and the producer said: More of that, Walter! and it became all he did. His effeminate grandiosity - big hair, big rings, fabulous, weighty and costly costumes - is reminiscent of Liberace. But he represents something warmer, more directly, intimately appealing to the audience. With its extensive interviews, many voices, magnificent inter-titles, and coverage of a grand celebratory apotheosis and love-fest at the opening of a Walter Mercado museum in Miami three months before his passing at the age of 87, this is a fitting portrait. The cape outfits and their richness and variety are worthy of the fashion collection of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Walter Mercado leaves a warm impression of someone who brought magic to people.

[Chris Knipp]

ROD LURIE WITH PHOTO OF LOST SON AND CAST MEMBERS OF THE OUTPOST

Eleven coming reviews on Filmleaf.
Mostly online releases now except for THE OUTPOST - part of a Fourth of July weekend reopening plan.

June 26
HOUSE OF HUMMINGBIRD
A sensitive Korean coming-of-age film. Feature debut.
July 3
THE OUTPOST Intense Afghan war thriller by Rod Lurie. This will also be a theatrical release.
JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE Documentary about the veteran congressman and pioneer civil rights fighter
July 7
THE MEDICINE (doc about ayahuasca)
July 8
MUCHO MUCHO AMOR
A bio doc - already thumbnail reviewed in this thread above.
July 10
RELIC
Classy horror flick with Emily Mortimer.
WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES ( Makoto Nagahisa)
Busy, clever Japanese youth film
July 17
THE CLIMB
Smart, inventive, funny feature debut by Michael Angelo Covino.
THE PAINTED BIRD
Black and white adaptation pf the famous Jerzy Kozinski novel of the sixties by Václav Marhoul.
July 21
THE GRAND UNIFIED THEORY OF HOWARD BLOOM (Charlie HOxie 2019)
Quirky thinking from Park Slope, Brooklyn. (Documentary.)
July 29
NOSE TO TAIL
Short drama by Jesse Zigelstein about a stressed high end Toronto chef played by Aaron Abrams.

[Chris Knipp]

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LENNIE BURMEISTER, TRINE DYRHOLM AND DEVID STRIESOW IN BUNGALOW

July 4
Grasshopper Films releases Ulrich Köhler's auspicious and original 2002 debut feature Bungalow today in their virtual theater. This is an exciting opportunity to see the beginning of one of the leaders of the Berlin School.

Filmleaf review

[Chris Knipp]

Mucho Mucho Amor

The film celebrating the colorful Latin American astrologer goes on Netflix today.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/enter...iew/index.html

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER

See also Film at Lincoln Center's new offerings. They have a weekly newsletter announcing their new offerings.

[Chris Knipp]

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We Are Little Zombies, the inventive Japanese celebration of youth, courage, and gloom from Oscilloscope, is out now and receiving good reviews; a New York Times Critics Pick accompanies a glowing description from the paper's Jeannette Catsoulis. To watch it in pay-for-view benefitting a selected theater, go H E R E.

[Chris Knipp]

THE CLIMB opened in MK2 theaters in Paris today.

Creator Michael Angelo Covino and his co-author and co-star Kyle Marvin can be happy that they've gotten that opportunity in the country to which it's partly a love letter. But when can it come out in US theaters? The current July 31 date seems unlikely. In March, Covino told Eric Kohn of Indiewire:

“We really want a theatrical opening, and feel it’s important that independent comedies do well in theaters. Whether or not that happens, I want to support that possibility.”

Who doesn't fervently agree?

[Chris Knipp]

A return treat for Bob Marley fans.

On the occasion of what would have been his seventy-fifth birthday, a special rerelease of a documentary has opened in both virtual and some traditional cinemas today, July 31, 2020. Directed by: Kevin Macdonald (in 2012) - who made Touching the Void and [I]The Last King of Scotland[/I. Produced by: Ziggy Marley, Steve Bing, Charles Steel. Metascore: 82%.

I've watched this film and it pulsates with Bob Marley's charisma and the catchy rhythm and positive, unifying spirit of his songs. It digs deep into his impoverished origins in the ghetto of ghettos in a remote Jamaica town, his pivotal conversion to Rastafarianism, his hard fought fame in America and Europe. It's hard to watch the end, his possibly unnecessary death from a melanoma that started at his big toe, and carried him away at the age of 36 - though he left many songs, a permanent global fame, and 11 children from 7 mothers. Rolling Stone ranked him No. 11 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. In him, the spirit of the seventies lives on.

[PR release.]
Born into poverty in rural Jamaica, Bob Marley became a prophet for the world’s oppressed, preaching peace, love, and understanding with a universal language - song. Now in 2020, the Marley family has rolled out a yearlong MARLEY75 commemorative series of events across all forms of media in celebration of the legendary cultural icon, on what would have been Marley’s seventy-fifth birthday. As part of this series of special events, audiences can see in virtual and traditional theaters a special re-release of MARLEY, in which Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald combines unheard tracks, unseen footage, and intimate interviews to paint a definitive portrait of the legendary artist.

With each ticket purchase, recipients will receive an exclusive Ziggy Marley song download pack. Additionally, all ticket purchases will be entered to win a grand prize package, including a yet to be released Bob Marley photo book, Marley vinyl and select other Marley merchandise.