On the Beach

While the world is arguing over whether to see movies in 70mm or wait for them to turn up on Netflix, at NOW we pay attention to the movies themselves. Well, shut up, world! Here’s what’s opening!

The Black Prince: Kavi Raz’ historical drama tells an epic tale of a kingdom shaken and a throne deferred. Rad is not in the least on board with it.

Dawson City: Frozen Time: Bill Morrison’s latest archival mix tape — created almost entirely from hundreds of reels of nitrate film discovered in the Yukon — is a sizzling, sputtering dream. Give in to it. 

Dunkirk: Christopher Nolan’s WWII picture is a stunning technical accomplishment — like all of Nolan’s films,  I suppose — and also the leanest, sharpest thing he’s made since Memento, an experience that puts you on the beach, in the air and under the water and pulls you out breathless and rattled. And yes, see it in 70mm.

A Ghost Story: This might be the quietest, saddest film we see all year. At least, I hope it is. David Lowery, Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara — who last collaborated on Ain’t Them Bodies Saints — reunite for a metaphysical drama that only wants break your heart. 

Girls Trip: “Not into Dunkirk? Come see Queen Latifah and Regina Hall go wild in New Orleans!” I mean, as counterprogramming goes it’s not the worst idea. Susan liked it.

Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan: Kathleen finds much to admire in this documentary about the eponymous dancer. I hope to get to it eventually.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Luc Besson is back in Fifth Element mode for a dazzling, 3D tale of space nonsense that Rad found reeeeeeally annoying, and which I did not realize was two and a quarter hours long.

The War Show: Susan is entirely on board with Obaidah Zytoon’s ground-level look at Syria’s civil war, following Zytoon’s activist friends from 2011 and 2013 as the country tears itself apart around them. I really want to see this, too.

Phew. Okay, now I have to go talk to Al Gore and Jenny Slate. Hope you all have interesting days planned too!

2 thoughts on “On the Beach”

  1. Sounds as if we should go and see the movie ‘Dunkirk’. Hope it doesn’t upset me too much! Are there some harrowing scenes in it?

    I remember my parents and their friends discussing this in our home in Northern England, as the story unfolded. How proud we were of all the ‘small sailors’ taking their little boats out to rescue the stranded men off the beaches!

    I wonder why its taken so long to make a movie about it?

  2. So glad Dunkirk is worth seeing! This is one of the few movies I pegged as wanting to see on the big screen as soon as I saw the trailer. My Brit half is ready to cheer. (Next up for the big screen, Thor: Ragnarok. Since you don’t watch trailers, you’ve missed a couple of awesome moments to anticipate in that one.)

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