In Praise of the Amateur Film Archivists

Plus: a saintly assignment!

Carrie Coon in ‘The Leftovers’ (MovieStillsDB)

There was a fun little viral clip this week when actress Carrie Coon—star of the brilliant and mildly under-seen The Leftovers, The Gilded Age, the new Ghostbusters films, Gone Girl, and a bunch of other stuff—told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show that she and her husband own 10,000 Blu-rays. (Skip to the 44-second mark.)

It is perhaps worth noting that Coon is married to Tracy Letts, the playwright of August: Osage County, Killer Joe, and Bug (all of which he also wrote the screenplays for when they were adapted into movies), and an accomplished actor in his own right (folks will likely remember his screen-stealing performance as Henry Ford II in Ford v Ferrari). That Letts finds streaming objectionable on its face brings me great joy (even though, look, you know, I use streaming as much or more than the next guy), as does Coon’s argument that their obsessive collecting allows them instant access to lots of stuff that has never and might never make its way to streaming.

And that’s really why collections like this matter. Not so much because these archives will keep the films from being lost forever or that they’ll serve as repositories of enlightenment in a Fahrenheit 451-style dystopia, though you never really know what the future holds. But because it’s important to own a movie you love because you never know when it’s going to blink out of existence.

Consider the Kevin Smith movie Dogma, a movie that engendered no small amount of controversy upon its release. It is out of print now and unavailable to legally stream. But not because the Catholic Church and its followers have protested the film out of existence, as one might have thought if they rolled up to an opening weekend showing only to find parishioners with placards circling the cinema or if they listened to the director’s commentary. No, it’s simply tied up in a rights battle involving Harvey Weinstein: he has the rights; he wants to sell them for more than they’re worth to cover his legal bills; and no one wants to be seen as bailing him out. Aside from an illicit stream that is definitely not findable via simple Google search, the film is more or less unwatchable. Unless, that is, you happened to hold on to the out-of-print DVD (available used for relatively reasonable prices) or Blu-ray (available used for relatively unreasonable prices).

Set aside the cost of such a collection: just in terms of logistics, 10,000 Blu-rays is a lot of movies taking up a lot of space. I own a fair number of discs compared to the general population, but The Coons-Letts Collection is probably ten times the size of mine. Simply housing a collection of this size requires a dedicated room, and lots of people don’t have a room to dedicate to their discs.¹ I get it. This sort of #PhysicalMediaLifestyle isn’t for everyone; most of us don’t need a handy stock of giallo 4Ks. But if there’s a movie you love, do yourself a favor and grab a copy of it. You never know when it might disappear forever.

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The Across the Movie Aisle live show is selling out fast; make sure to get your tickets before they’re gone. Remember: the closer you sit to the stage, the closer you’ll be to Peter, Alyssa, and me! And make sure to listen to today’s episode on the great Robert Downey Jr., who won what felt like a lifetime achievement award for his work in Oppenheimer at the Oscars last weekend.

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Links!

Speaking of the Oscars, it was a great show and almost every category was correctly decided. Best. Oscars. Ever!

This week I reviewed Love Lies Bleeding, the second lesbian neo-noir to be released in recent weeks. It is truly a golden age for lesbian neo-noirs. I enjoyed both this film and Drive-Away Dolls because, as I mentioned a couple of weeks back, I am deeply invested in the lives of onscreen women. (Sorry, Sarah, you know it’s true!)

You have got to listen to my interview with Abe Goldfarb, who was on the stage performing when Lauren Boebert got tossed out of Beetlejuice: The Musical. It’s great stuff, and quite funny. And his movie, First Time Caller, is good too! I hope you check it out.

Indiewire’s Tom Brueggemann highlights an interesting facet of the success of Godzilla Minus One, namely that it doesn’t have a VOD or physical media release date yet, potentially because of the deal between Japanese studio Toho and American production company Legendary, which owns the rights to the Monsterverse iteration of the character seen in the forthcoming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

I am counting the days until someone writes a reported, gossipy story about the botched release/awards campaign of Ava DuVernay’s Origin. There’s going to be so much shade thrown by so many people. It’s going to be wonderful to read.

A24 is releasing Ex Machina, Hereditary, and Uncut Gems in IMAX starting March 27, which will be interestingly stressful for folks who decide to go see, say, Adam Sandler’s feature-length panic attack of a movie in full-blown IMAX.

A progressive literary mag published a thoughtful essay about the difficulty of being a liberal Jew in Israel who drives Palestinians to Israeli hospitals in the midst of war and terror, and a bunch of progressives quit the magazine in protest. Anyone who has paid any attention to the literary world over the last few years won’t be surprised by such a deranged response. But it’s nice to see organizations like PEN America stick up for freedom of expression and thought.

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Assigned Viewing: Saint Maud (Prime Video)

‘Saint Maud’ (MovieStillsDB)

I missed this when it came out back in 2019, but watched it in anticipation of director Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding … it’s a pretty great flick, one that uses the subjectivity of cinematic POV to allow viewers to decide whether or not Maud’s visions are true religious revelation or her own psychosis manifesting itself. Right down to the very last horrifying shot! (It’s a doozy, and earned.) Expertly crafted, really well done. And beautifully acted by Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle. Hard recommend.

1. When we remodeled the basement of our townhouse in Virginia, the one thing I asked for was built-in shelving in one of the rooms to store my movies/books/CDs. I not only had enough space for all of them, I had room to grow. Giving that up was a real blow, not gonna lie.