San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Would you go back to seeing movies in a theater?
Hi Mick: Movie theaters will be opening up soon. Are you planning on going back right away? If not, when?
Rick Popko, San Francisco
Hi Rick: In early March, I was the first film critic in the Bay Area to say I wouldn’t attend any public movie screenings. That seemed an extreme and hysterical reaction for about five days. Then, suddenly, movies were postponed and all screenings were canceled.
As for the future, I don’t see a scenario where I’d be willing to go to any theater to watch a movie with the general public — not until there’s either a vaccine or an effective early treatment, some antiviral equivalent of an antibiotic.
As for private critics’ screenings, it’s conceivable that I might be willing to attend one of those, so long as there were no more than a halfdozen people there and we were all spread out. I’d sit in the back, with Lysol, gloves, alcohol wipes and an N95 mask and try not to touch anything — which is not the best way to forget yourself in a movie theater. But the truth is, film distributors can make their movies available to critics by other means, without anyone having to risk their health. So, I’d be a little impatient with phony excuses. Seriously, would you want your tombstone to say, “He Couldn’t Wait to see ‘Tenet’?” Me, neither. If I wanted to take risks every time I wrote a story, I’d have become a war correspondent.
Dear Mr. LaSalle: People fervently support the values of a culture addicted to a pathological level of consumerism, to get all bent out of shape over some movie or a statue. Well, to me that’s like complaining about an overcooked egg in a hurricane.
Michael Biehl, San Francisco
Dear Mr. Biehl: Good point. But think of it this way: You are in a hurricane. Finally, you get a chance to have one bit of pleasure. You sit down to eat. And the egg is overcooked. That would be annoying. Plus, you can’t control a hurricane. At least you can get the egg right.
Dear Mr. TV Snob Mick: Have you seen a French television show called “Call My Agent”? Three seasons are on Netflix. Wellwritten, wellacted and very entertaining.
Dave Sironen, San Francisco
Dear Mr. TV Snob Dave: Yes, I love it. The show takes place at a highend talent agency, representing the biggest stars in the French film business. The fictional characters, which repeat from episode to episode, are the agents. But every week, they have a problem with a different movie star, and these are played by the actual French stars.
Actually, this could be a great way for people to get into French movies: You watch the first episode of the first season, with Cecile de France, and then you see a movie with her in it. Then do the same with the next star, etc.
Dear Mr. Mick “the Predictor”
LaSalle: Six years ago, you suggested that these 10 films would be worth seeing in 75 years: “Inglourious Basterds,” “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” “Before Sunset,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Birdman,” “25th Hour,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Drinking Buddies,” “The Best of Youth” and “Boyhood.” Any changes?
Ted J. “Curious” Rucker, Castro Valley
Dear Mr. Ted J. “Curious” Rucker:
Yes, two changes: Now they only have to last 69 years, and I’d drop “Birdman.” It hasn’t aged well in memory. The rest can stay.
“Drinking Buddies” is a movie that few people know, but it stands in for the entire mumblecore genre, which captures the way people actually speak and act today. Other examples include “Baghead” and “Cyrus.”