Small films (but not Smallfilms)

• 23.03.2021 22:44 UTC+01:00
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Now that Disney has announced the release of Black Widow and Cruella to its streaming service, on the same day that they open in cinemas, YellowFlash 2 asks whether this release model represents the final nail in the coffin for the cinemas. After all, why go to the cinema, when you can watch the same film, at the time of release, and in the comfort of your own home?

He concludes that the move towards home release over, or in line with, cinema release will inevitably lead to films having to be made cheaper, particularly if the cinemas chains collapse. But is that a bad thing? Smaller budgets, not cinema closures, that is.

Admittedly, I'm on the wrong side of 50, and have been to the cinema only once in the twenty years since I immigrated to Switzerland. I do buy discs; I have a Netflix account; and I would consider changing or adding services if the titles on offer were compelling. But very few films over those years have been that compelling; and I bought the ones that were on disc. Plus a few others, but the less said about those, the better.

I guess I have a nostalgic view of the golden age of Hollywood, although it was before my time, and most of what passes as today's CGI-laden blockbuster is fairly superficial. Would it matter if it died, in favour of smaller, more intimate films? Not to me, it wouldn't.

Can you imagine a remake of The Lone Ranger, done properly; without the excesses of a Bruckheimer budget, and with an indigenous North American actor playing Tonto? Now, that would be worth seeing!