"Virtual" Moviegoing - What's New?
Friday, April 3, 2020 at 7:15PM by Nathaniel R
Tired of aimlessly scanning choices on Netflix? Treat yourself to a newish movie tonight that you might have been seeing in a theater in a better world! Increasingly the small indie distributors like Kino Lorber and Music Box Films are releasing their movies to pay per view streaming systems which share the ticket purchase price with the movie theater of your choice! So this weekend make some popcorn and pretend you're going to your local arthouse with one of these gems...
Kino Now Virtual Cinema
Kleber Mendonça Filho is arguably Brazil's most exciting director at the moment. His follow up to the universally acclaimed Aquarius is a genre mashup called Bacurau. It stars the always great Sonia Braga and the always weird Udo Kier (among others) and Jason reviewed it here.
Music Box Films Virtual Cinema
Listen, I'm still angry that Sweden's And Then We Danced, which was shot entirely in Georgia in the Georgian language, wasn't at least a finalist for the Oscar nomination last year. Sadly though it was slowly gaining a new fanbase in theaters theaters all up and closed. The film about gay dancers in an extremely homophobic country is so special, sensual, and moving. Claudio reviewed it for us here.
Film Movement Virtual Cinema
Oh hey, look, it's the least discussed member of 2019's Best International Film Nominee Group, Poland's Corpus Christi. We haven't seen this one so we can't vouch for it but we've heard repeatedly that the lead performance by 27 year-old Bartosz Bielenia is electric.
Alamo Drafthouse Virtual Cinema
The popular chain of drink and eat while you watch cool movies theaters has some of the above titles as well as the Romanian comic noir The Whistlers, previously reviewed here, and the Chinese noir The Wild Goose Lake which we've reviewed and Jason's review was even blurbed on the poster. Check it out.
Regular VOD/Rental Options
The Hunt, Invisible Man, Emma., and what's widely considered to be one of the best movies of 2020 thus far, the Eliza Hittman drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always all had their theatrical runs cut short or cancelled. Finally, *BRAND NEW TODAY*, you can check out the cult drama The Other Lamb.
Reader Comments (19)
The only time this wonderful site really depresses me is when I get notice of all the great films available for streaming in USA, use the local (Australian) version of justwatch.com to find out if they are available here, and cry into my breakfast...
CORPUS CHRISTI was lined up for a cinema release before this all happened, so there's hope it still may happen further down the track.
I really admired Corpus Christi!
I finally saw Clemency just have to say Alfre Wow!
It's such a great way to support your favorite local indie movie theater so they will hopefully still be around after this is all over. These are movies I wanted to see anyway and had been looking forward to since Cannes 2019:
Bacurau
The Wild Goose Lake
both were very strong and I recommend. especially Goose if you like neon-wet neo-noir. Just fantastic. Would have really killed on the big screen!
Our film society is doing ZOMBI CHILD via Film Movement's Virtual Cinema for the next two weeks. We'll start layering in THE WILD GOOSE LAKE next Friday. I'll be watching it tomorrow. It sounds terrific. This is a great idea as the distributors are splitting the revenue with the local theatres and film societies they usually deal with, so if you normally go to films at, say, The Austin Film Society, you can click on a link that will make sure they get 50% of the streaming fee you pay. This may actually help keep these organizations and businesses going at this tough time.
And Then We Danced made me feel alive. It was a nice feeling.
And Then We Danced is really good stuff. Highly recommended.
Travis, get yourself a VPN! It's truly been a lifesaver.
I watched BACARUA and it's brilliant. Loved it loved it loved it. Watched it through a VPN and was able to support the film AND a cinema in the process I also watched THE PERFECT CANDIDATE, the new film by Haifa Al-Mansour the director of WADJDA. I saw it through the UK's Curzon theatre chain's digital service (again through a VPN). I have the Hittman film, the new Pedro Costa movie, and CORPUS CHRISTI on the list, too, to watch.
Oh, I'd already seen them, but I wholly recommend WILD GOOSE LAKE and AND THEN WE DANCED. The former is maybe my #1 of the year so far?
what is a VPN?
Thank you for this. All the big titles are getting moved, but theres this glut of smaller movies that I want to make sure I dont miss, knowing they'll never get to "open". Saw Wild Goose Lake and Bacurau last week. Both amazing.
And Then We Danced is something I can add to my queue.
If anyone knows if First Cow plans to hold out or will stream instead, let me know.
Nathaniel, VPN stands for "virtual private network", is a type of program that you can install in your computer . There are many uses to it but one of the most common is to change the location of your connection so you can access websites or content that are blocked in your current region. So let's say i am living in Italy but I want to access to content BBC Iplayer that only works domestically, so i change my location to UK and voila! I also use VPN to access different NetfliX and Amazon prime catalogues (which vary a lot from country to country).
Some nonprofit theatres are also doing their own "virtual screening rooms," so you can support your local nonprofit while the doors are close (and watch a great new film, to boot). I know that AFI in Silver Spring (just outside DC) and Lincoln Center in New York are doing this. Does anyone know of any others?
Ani di -- interesting, thanks.
An option for spanish language speakers is https://www.filminlatino.mx/ in wich are many latinamerican titles.
Yes, for people in Australia VPNs are almost essential because so much stuff doesn't come down here in any timely fashion. BACARAU's local distributor (if it even has one) certainly won't be digitally releasing it. Glad I was able to see it this way.
It seems to me that everyone missed the cool posters and video ads that we see when we come to an offline cinema after covid. I also think that digital signage can be a great option to show some kind of commercials, digital installations. In addition, there are excellent signage companies that provide installation and further maintenance services, for example, Digital Panel Services. I advise you to contact these specialists from Australia to get quality DPS Services if you want to catch the attention of people who are already used to online advertising but always pay attention to outdoor advertising.
Everything has already been thought of for you! There is such a special program - VPN, with which you can access your favorite sites, social networks, even if they are blocked. If you are interested, read this for more details. I installed VeePN on my iPhone. There may be internet speed issues. If you have such a problem, then manually select another server. In all other respects, this program suits me!
Six films have collectively grossed over two billion dollars, with Avatar ranking as the most popular. junk removal utah county The most watched primetime programs (not related to the Super Bowl) are the finale of M*A*S*H in 1983, Roots, The Day After, and Leon Spinks vs. Muhammad Ali.