Watch List Weekly Recap 4/21/23
Why you can't hear your TV, Boston's best film festival turns 20, and a round-up of new movies in theaters and on demand.
This is the Friday recap of Ty Burr’s Watch List postings for the week. If you’d like to cut down on in-box clutter and receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “Weekly Digest.” If you’d prefer to not receive it at all, uncheck just “Weekly Digest.”
Do you turn on the subtitles when you watch TV all the time now? I thought so. Paid subscribers got an in-depth discussion of why this is so, why it’s not your ears that are the problem, and what you can do about it.
Must-Read TV?
Ty Burr • Apr 18, 2023
All right, hands up: How many of you turn on the subtitles when you watch TV these days? Oof. That’s a lot of hands. Do you do it because you want to or do you do it because you have to? I thought so; same here. My wife and I try with every new show or movie we dial up on demand to do the right thing and process a filmed entertainment with our ears as well as our eyes, the way the Good Lord and decades of sound editors intended. And nine times out of ten, we cave after ten minutes and toggle the subtitles on.
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For my New England readers, a reminder that the best little film festival in Boston starts next week, allowing you an early look at some of the year’s best movies.
Festival Reports
Support Your Local Film Festival
Ty Burr • Apr 20, 2023
One for my hometown readers: When I arrived back in Boston after a 20-year hiatus, the city’s film festival scene was a mess. There were a lot of mini-fests targeted to a lot of niches – underground movies, French films, science fiction – a fair amount of pay-to-play events, and one official “Boston Film Festival” that by 2002 was on its last legs as a …
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And for the Friday round-up of new releases, a talented young filmmaker swings big and just misses, two great documentaries available on demand, and more.
Good Movies 📽
What To Watch: Oedipus Wrecked
Ty Burr • Apr 21, 2023
There’s a certain kind of movie director – invariably male – who will reach a level of cultural fame or profitability or industry clout and decide that it’s time to make a film that really means something. This often ends in a face-plant of sizable, sometimes titanic, proportions – Michael Cimino came out of “The Deer …
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