Lockdown Links #2

New on the streaming services:

Today's should have been a theatrical is director Kleber Mendonça Filho's all too timely Bacurau, about a titular village whose water supply has been cut off, disappears from satellite maps completely and under threat from an unknown enemy, braces itself for a brutal fight for survival (so basically Asda Smithdown Road right now).  It would have been a MUBI release so they've added it to their catalogue for a month but it's also available for £10 on Curzon Home Cinema.

The Post has turned up on Netflix, the impeccably directed story of the Pentagon Papers starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep [via]. If you want to chronologically double bill and puzzle on how Hanx grew up to look like Jason Robards, All The President's Men is available to rent at all the usual stockists.

The big upload to Amazon Prime UK is the pretty good Patriots Day, Peter Berg's account of the 2013 Boston bombing with Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan typically under-utilised in her usual role as medical practitioner wife who spends most of the film at the other end a phone call [via].

Today's oddball choice is Wise Girls (also on Amazon Prime UK) about three waitresses who work at a bar whose exclusive clientele are the mob, with Mira Sorvino, Melora Walters and her majesty Queen Maria Carey (note I haven't seen this but as god is my witness I shall) [via].




A Dose of Doctor Who:

Living Legend is a short Big Finish audio adventure featuring the Eighth Doctor and Charley which originally appeared on a Doctor Who Magazine cover CD back in 2003.

Big Finish have made it available for download for free on their website.

The TARDIS team stumbles into one of the saddest alien invasions ever recorded and simply seem to have some fun with it, like Mickey Bricks and the team from Hustle when they've spotted a really easy mark. With just half an hour to play about with there's never really a sense of jeopardy but that really this is about epic bantz and the bantz are indeed epic.


The Links:

Star Trek’s Most Totally Awkward Moments:
"or those not in the know, March 18 is National Awkward Moments Day, a chance to recognize and celebrate those awkward and embarrassing moments we all experience from time to time. In honor of the day, we at TrekMovie thought we’d remind you of some of our favorite awkward moments — as experienced by Star Trek characters, not by us personally."

The things that early adopters of the DVD format had to put up with:
"From widescreen issues to turning the disc over, 9 problems that early adopters of DVD did battle with."

Conservation Stories: Henri Rousseau’s The Sleeping Gypsy:
"Removing a century of treatments reveals the iconic painting anew."

17 Absolutely Heartbreaking Pictures Of Celebrities In Quarantine:
"I'm tearing up."

Film Academy Evaluating "All Aspects" of Coronavirus Impact For Oscars:
"The Academy faces a dilemma over Oscars eligibility as studios push back release dates or opt to debut theatrical films on VOD as cinemas go dark."

The Moviegoer: Our Critic Misses Sitting in the Dark With You:
"On the pleasures, now suspended, of going to the movies, even in the age of streaming."

Culture In Quarantine: bringing arts and culture into the home (BBC):
"In almost every aspect of our lives, the past week has been amongst the most testing in modern history. We are concerned for the health of our communities, and the businesses and services that makes our society so vibrant."

Virtual gallery-going via the BBC:
"... I thought I would explore how galleries and museums in Britain started to collaborate with the BBC, initially on radio and then, as early as November 1936, on television too."

7 Things To Do If You Can’t Leave The House:
"“Quarantine,” “isolation,” “social distancing”—there are a lot of names for the same problem. Millions of people are being forced to alter their schedules and stay indoors due to the spread of COVID 19 (coronavirus). If you’re stuck at home, you may be asking yourself exactly what you’re going to do all day… and the Internet Archive is here to help!"

The Stay At Home Festival:
"It is stating the obvious to say that strange days have got a hell of a lot stranger with many people facing confusion and anxiety during this COVID-19 pandemic. Artists have nowhere to play and audiences have nowhere to go to to be distracted. Venues are having to close, gigs are having to be cancelled and festivals abandoned. And so we, at The Cosmic Shambles Network, proudly present The Stay at Home Festival."


Some Shakespeare:

Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness:
"A brief introduction to all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, in which each is reduced to a single couplet of iambic tetrameter. A great way to ruin Shakespeare for a young English major and an excellent passive-aggressive anniversary gift."


Today's Album: