30 Reasons 2021 Didn't Totally Suck - PART TWO

This time, we've got both streaming and theatrical titles in the mix

It’s Tuesday, February 8th, and here’s where we are…

Today’s middle section of the list is part streaming titles, part films, which is pretty much what my entire 2021 felt like.

When I thought back over the year, I realized that there are very few theatrical experiences that I have at this point that are genuinely special because they are in theaters. I have an Alamo Season Pass, which allows me to get two tickets every day to a movie, and the downtown Drafthouse is so close to my apartment that I am back in the habit of seeing one or two films a week. It’s been nice going as a group to see The Matrix Resurrections or Jackass Forever or Licorice Pizza, but we’ve also had amazing experiences with films like What’s Up Doc? and Her and Miller’s Crossing at home, and I wouldn’t say in either case that other people have been the reason those screenings were great. Even when we saw Spider-Man: No Way Home, I’m not sure I’d say the crowd did much for me. I was happy to see how happy the boys were, and I love seeing my buddy Craig or going with my girlfriend, but it’s the movie that made the boys happy, not the audience. The crowd at the AMC that night was sort of low-grade shitty, with several people using their phones all the way through the film and plenty of talking. Honestly, one of the things I’m enjoying about the Alamo screenings is that I’ve gotten very good at avoiding crowds. I can find nearly-empty screenings of almost anything, and I prefer it that way. They’re much better at enforcing the no-talking no-texting policies, but I’d rather not even deal with it in the first place.

I suspect I still see way more things theatrically than most people and figures show that people just aren’t coming back to theaters. The longer they go without returning to the theater, the less likely they are to pick that habit up again. I think for many people, the future is whatever comes piped into your home, and that means it’s all going to get very blurry in terms of the way we absorb it.

Typically, my viewing day is a combination of several episodes of ongoing shows and several movies, and those combinations have made the year what it was. I can’t separate them out anymore, and I can’t imagine trying to write about all this stuff without acknowledging how much the landscape has changed. One problem with this sprawl is that it makes it hard for people to keep up with things, and I suspect there are just as many good things I didn’t see this year as things I did. No one is able to offer you an authoritative list anymore because there just aren’t enough hours for anyone to be able to watch and process everything. Every time you press play on anything right now, you’re doing so in favor of literally thousands of options. Sometimes you pick things because of the hype, sometimes you take a chance on the obscure, and sometimes you just watch for comfort. Here are ten more things that made me feel rewarded for the time I spent with them this year, as our countdown in no particular order continues…