I have lamented numerous times in these pages about how my young daughter has kept me from seeing a great many movies. For years it was inappropriate to take her to the theatre and babysitters were hard to come by. Many movies that I want to watch at home should surely not be viewed with toddlers by my side. Thing is she’s five and a half now. She loves going to the movies. She has a greater attention span so she can watch longer and more complicated plot lines with at least some comprehension. I’m also pretty liberal in what I allow her to watch so those days of complaining are (mostly) over.
She’s not ready to share my love of horror movies just yet, and it will be awhile still before she’s willing to sit through something by Kubrick or Terrence Malick, but we enjoy watching The Flash together and we’ve gone through the Star Wars films a couple of times over.
I was really looking forward to taking her to Finding Dory when it hit theaters a few months back. We’re all great fans of Pixar and Finding Nemo is one of her favorites (mine too). But alas it was not to be. We made plans to go several times but something always fell through, and then when we finally did get there, the movie had already left our local cineplex. So maybe my lamenting isn’t quite over; it’s just that it’s now turned to being unable to find the time to go together rather than my daughter keeping me from the theater.
Ah but, friends, our time has come for Finding Dory is now out on Blu-ray. Have no doubt that I will be picking my copy up ASAP and that we, as a family, will be watching it. She will love it more than me, but I’ve learned that I don’t care. Sitting with my wife and daughter watching a fun family film together is more than enough to get me by.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season: I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this show, but I’m definitely ready to see it come to an end. This season was not the show’s finest hour, though there were some really nice set pieces and they are finally starting to bring all the disparate characters together. I can’t wait to see the final battle and see who comes out alive.
Better Call Saul: Season Two: It’s ridiculous that I have not yet seen all of season two. I absolutely love it, but somehow in the middle of the season I got put off (if memory serves it was to catch up on Game of Thrones) and I never got back to it. These are the struggles of a cord cutter who has allowed the free streams on AMC slip past and now has to wait for Netflix to catch up.
Macbeth: In 1948, the great Orson Welles took on one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Olive Films has given it a new HD transfer with some new extras including commentaries and an interview with Peter Bogdanovich. I’ve never seen this version, but Welles taking on Shakespeare has got to be worth watching at least once.
Dreams (Criterion Collection): Akira Kurosawa put several of his real-life dreams onto celluloid. Supposed to be one of his more inventive and colorful films.
Punch Drunk Love (Criterion Collection): After releasing two terrific, but quite sprawling films (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) Paul Thomas Anderson released this much shorter and tightly edited oddity of a film that shows Adam Sandler actually has some real chops. I’m a big fan and am delighted to see Criterion giving it its due.
The Buster Keaton Collection: Nice-looking set featuring 13 of the silent-film master’s movies including: College, The Saphead, Our Hospitality, Sherlock, Jr, Three Ages, The Navigator, Seven Chances, Battling Butler, The General, and a short-film collection.
