Films That I Saw: July 2021

 

Less than half of the people in this country have been fully vaccinated and yet, the idea of another pandemic happening all over again really added to the growing sense of despair that I’ve been dealing. Much of it is my own fault as nearly 20 years of downloading illegally through torrents have finally caught up as my mother got into some trouble but we were fortunate to at least settle things though I’m the one that is paying. Yet, I was forced to delete a lot of things I had over the years as I’m upset about it but I’m kind of over it but I’m still angry. Notably at my sister and her husband for being not just vague of what not to download but also never being clear with me and often keeping me in the dark on what should I delete or not delete as I just don’t want to talk them for the moment. They tend to be know-it-alls and often maintain an act of superiority yet my mother and I are the ones taking care of their kids while they’re working or sometimes going out unexpectedly.

The other thing that really pisses me off is how my sister treat our mother for not catching up with technology as we got these 2 new fireTVs last month as she doesn’t know how they work. She’s in her 60s and usually watches YouTube on her iPad as I’m trying to be patient with her on how to watch YouTube on the fireTV as we’re still waiting on a new couch. It is an end of an era to download films and music illegally though I haven’t been doing much on the latter because there hasn’t been a lot of interesting music at the moment. The sad part is that there’s a bunch of movies that are unavailable at streaming services or in physical form that I’m not going to have access to as one of the films I deleted was one of my Blind Spot assignments as I tried to find it on DVD/Blu-Ray but only available on different regions and are fucking expensive. They’re not available at streaming services in the U.S. but I was able to find it on YouTube this month and watched it but they changed the music score to avoid legal issues and that kind of ruined the film for me.

Still, the best way to watch a film in my opinion has always been in the theaters but my most recent theatrical experience in seeing Black Widow, which I had been waiting to see for more than a year, was a terrible one. I enjoyed the film but when you go to a screening and the projector gets fucked up not once but three times. It definitely kills whatever enjoyment you had and that sucked even though I was able to get a free ticket as I will use it for the next movie I see. With the chaos of that and the events that happened at this year’s Euro Cup in which England football fans got upset over three young black men missing their penalty kicks at the finals against Italy. Well, I’m glad Italy won and they deserved it as they been respectful including their own fans but the English football fans are atrocious. Calling an adolescent German girl a slut as she cries over Germany’s loss is obscene while attacking Italian footballs fans after the finals is just horrendous. Then to say racist thing about those three young men for missing penalties just said it all about what is going on and yeah, England is racist.

For all of those years of them wanting football to come home to England based on a shitty song that was made as a joke back in 1996 has me wanting to say this. Football is never coming home to England and here’s another thing I want to say to every vile English football fan and I am going to take this to my grave when I kick the bucket:

USA will win the World Cup before England wins a second one.

With the Olympics already happening as I could barely give a fuck about it at this point as less than half of this country has been vaccinated including myself and my family but there’s still a bunch of dumb-fucks out there. One of them now is Eric Clapton and honestly, Clapton can go fuck himself. He’s not God and he never was. I don’t put him in my top 25-40 favorite guitar players of all-time right now. He won’t play to a discriminated audience. OK, Eric. Don’t play to vaccinated people, go play to your dumbfuck audience and get a bottle of moonshine where we can you do racist rants again like you did in the 70s and how you stole George Harrison’s wife with a song and yet cheated on her more than George you aging has-been. OK, rant over.

In the month of July, I saw a total of 22 films in 15 first-timers and 7 re-watches with five of those films/TV shows directed by women as part of the 52 Films by Women pledge as it was a decent month but the plans for my Cannes Marathon didn’t go as planned. Then again, when you spend time watching a hyperactive two-year-old and a four-month old baby. You don’t have much time to watch films and your energy is already sapped. Still, I saw some good stuff as one of the highlights of the month was my Blind Spot Series choice in Werckmeister Harmonies. Here are the top 10 first-timers that I saw for July 2021:

1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire

2. American Honey

3. Cold War

4. 24 Frames

5. Pain & Glory

6. Death in Venice

7. Mahler

8. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

9. Okja

10. Black Widow

Monthly Mini-Reviews/What Else I’ve Been Watching

The Good, the Bart, and the Loki

Another exclusive from Disney+ that was released on the day the final episode of the first season of Loki was released is another crossover between Marvel and The Simpsons in which Loki is banished to Springfield. Yet, he creates chaos and mischief with Bart at his side and things definitely go wrong. It is a fun episode though it does bear reminder that The Simpsons is still around even though many have stopped watching the series a long time ago.

Loki (episodes 5 & 6)

The last two episodes of the MCU series on Disney+ are definitely high-water marks for not just Marvel but what TV series could be as it does end with a bang. The fifth episode gives audiences a proper introduction to these many Loki variants that include Kid Loki, Boastful Loki, Classic Loki, President Loki, and everyone’s favorite Loki. Alligator Loki. The fifth episode is full of ambition but also a lot of humor with Richard E. Grant’s performance as Classic Loki being a major standout as the one who copes with his own identity and the fallacies of being a Loki where Loki himself starts to get over himself through these variants that never seem to change with the exception of Sylvie, Classic Loki, Kid Loki, and Alligator Loki. The sixth and final episode of the season is filled with major revelations due to the appearance of Jonathan Majors as He Who Remains. Majors’ performance is full of charisma as his character is really someone who controls time but is tired of his role where he holds the key to opening the multi-verse as well as an evil variant of himself known as Kang the Conqueror.

While I think WandaVision is the best of the three MCU series so far, Loki is a close second as its strength in character development, character study, visuals, and music score really make it stand on its own. The performances of Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, and Owen Wilson really make the show unique of its own as its ending does lead to a lot of major events of not just setting up what will happen for the next season but also for the MCU as it’s just entering into its 4th Phase and new saga.

Breakaway

From 30 for 30 is an episode about the career of WNBA star Maya Moore and how she abruptly ended her career in her prime to help out a man in Jonathan Majors who was sent to jail for something he didn’t do as he lived in prison for more than 20 years. It is a compelling story that shows a revered athlete taking the time to not only free the man who would become her husband but also people from her family and people who are friends her family all taking part into the freedom of this man and show the many injustices he was dealing with.

Top 5 Re-Watches

1. Moonlight

2. Beverly Hills Cop

3. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

4. The Devil Wears Prada

5. Ted

Well, that is all for July 2021. Next month, I will be watching new releases like The Green Knight and hopefully Annette as well as whatever else is coming out as well as watch films on various streaming services. I am currently in the midst of changing cable/internet providers again as hopefully this will be the last cable service I will take part in. Along with a few DVD/Blu-Ray releases including the last film of the Cannes Marathon and a post-mortem relating to the Cannes Film Festival. I will continue with the Blind Spot series as I’m now fortunate to have my remaining films on the series on DVD/Blu-Ray.

Before I bid adieu, I want to express my condolences to the families of Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, Joey Jordison of Slipknot/Murderdolls, Biz Markie, Mike Howe of Metalchurch/Heretic, John Hutchinson who played with David Bowie in the late 60s/early 70s, Jeff Labar and Gary Corbett of Cinderella, and Robby Steinhardt of Kansas. That is a great collection of musical talent that is probably diverse and unmatched in terms of talent as the idea of these individuals taking part of some jam session is a cool idea that came from former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnay though he didn’t mention Hutchinson. Until then, this is thevoid99 signing off…

© thevoid99 2021