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May 31, 2024

How Is May Already Over?

This month's edition covers film reviews, TV reviews, and book reviews, along with personal reflections.

(L-R): Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison in THE BEATLES: LET IT BE.
(L-R): Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison in THE BEATLES: LET IT BE. Photo by Ethan A. Russell. © 2024 Apple Corps Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

It’s hard to believe that May is already at end end. I spent the first half of the month doing my best at catching up on what I’ve missed because of Passover. Unfortunately, I still have a number of series and documentary series left to watch. And of course, I decided to borrow The Beatles Anthology from the library. Not for any special anniversary purposes but simply because I can. It’s been maybe a week or two and I still haven’t watched the DVDs yet.

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In terms of new releases, I feel like I’ve been covering more streaming releases than theatrical films. Even at that, a good amount of them are documentaries. Although to be fair, I did watch both The Blue Angels and The Beach Boys in IMAX. Outside of their film festival screenings, both MoviePass, MovieCrash and Jim Henson Idea Man are being released directly on streaming. Okay, the MoviePass documentary also aired on HBO.

While the Tribeca Film Festical is kicking off next week, I still haven’t planned out my coverage. Much of this has to do with my focus issues that have plagued me since October 7. The continued rise in anti-Jewish hate is not doing any favors for my headspace. It is also continuing to hit close to home with the anti-Jewish boycotts impacting both readership and profitability of Solzy at the Movies. The lower readership is having a direct impact on ad revenue. The fact that I have to end the month on a complete spending freeze once again is frustrating. It’s also not helped by a publisher still being way beyond in paying for freelance work. Nor is it helped by not having ANY freelance work at the moment.

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Unless I attended Jewish events or a press screening, much of my evenings were spent by watching the NBA playoffs. This could be the penultimate year of the NBA Playoffs on TNT and Inside the NBA but we’ll see if WBD holds onto the rights. Nobody expected Disney to double their payments for the rights. NBC made a hefty offer and since WBD has the right to match, we’ll just have to see what happens. NBC does have something that WBD just cannot offer: a broadcast network. WBD no longer has any ownership in the CW but the CW has never really been a network airing sports outside of local markets. In any event, go Celtics!

If I’ve done my math correctly, I’ve read more books in May than I have in the last few months. I’ll get back to a Marx Brothers book soon but it was taking too long to read so I moved onto other books while in Israel in March. The book I started on my Israel trip did not get finished until halfway through Passover—that review will be running soon. What has helped me with reading more books is doing more reading outside of Shabbos. For instance, I did a lot of reading last night where I would have otherwise started reading a new-to-me book today.

My reading pile keeps increasing while review copies are on the way. Anyway, the reviews listed below do not include a few other books that were read in May. I still owe a review for a sketch comedy book that I read last fall. I read Henry Winkler’s memoir over the weekend but I had to wait for the finished copy to arrive so as to double check quotes. ARCs are uncorrected proofs so it’s important to check against the finished copy. It arrived yesterday and I’ll start writing after sending this out, if not on Sunday. Before starting Henry’s memoir, I had just finished reading It Could Happen Here by Jonathan Greenblatt. It’s sad how timely and relevant that the ADL CEO’s book is.

I’ll list what I wrote this month with the exception of news about sporting events that already took place. G-d willing, the June newsletters will be more frequent but this is what happens when more energy is going into fighting anti-Jewish hate.

Film Reviews:

  • The Grey Zone

  • Night Will Fall

  • High Noon

  • The Beatles: Let It Be

  • Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

  • Mother of the Bride

  • The Fall Guy

  • War Game

  • It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl

  • In Search of Peace

  • The Prime Ministers: Pioneers/The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers

  • IF

  • The Blue Angels

  • Three Days of the Condor

  • The Manchurian Candidate

  • The Beach Boys

  • The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story

  • The Bloody Hundredth

  • MoviePass, MovieCrash

  • Young Woman and the Sea

  • Jim Henson Idea Man

TV Reviews:

  • Jurassic World: Chaos Theory

Book Reviews:

  • Look Out for the Little Guy by Scott Lang

  • MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards

  • The Warner Brothers by Chris Yogerst

Home Entertainment Releases:

  • Fletch and Fletch Lives

  • Dune: Part 2

  • Once Upon a Time in the West

Interviews:

  • Blake Neely - Masters of the Air

  • Mark Czyzewski - Masters of the Air

  • Chris Seagers - Masters of the Air

  • Michelle Paradise - Star Trek: Discovery

  • Colleen Atwood - Masters of the Air

News:

  • Kentucky Derby TV Contract Extended

  • Disney, Hulu, Max Streaming Bundle

  • National Memorial Day Concert

Olympics and the Road to Paris 2024

  • NBC Sports Names Daytime Hosts

  • Olympics Hosts Named for USA, CNBC, and E!

  • Olympics Commentators Announced

  • Basketball Commentators Announced

  • 2024 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships

Op-ed:

  • Why Are People Staying Home and Not Going to the Movies?

Streaming—Coming and Leaving:

  • Hulu

  • Netflix

  • Peacock

  • Max

  • Paramount+

  • Prime Video and Amazon Freevee

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