Our Friday Film Roundup is an attempt to share what we are reading, watching, and listening to as we head into the weekend. We plan on sharing major film news, interesting film essays/videos, good reads and recommended films you might want to check out.

Hello again friends. We haven’t exactly lived up to the “Friday” portion of Friday Film Roundup, have we? Sorry about that. These are strange times and we’d be lying if we said that Covid-19 hadn’t impact our personal lives to some degree. Even so, we’re going to try and deliver a more consistent product. Thanks for hanging in there with us.

So join me on the very first Sunday edition of our Friday Roundup.

Reading

Last week I gave some recommendations that didn’t exactly consist of uplifting material. Let’s go the opposite way this week. I haven’t really been reading much in terms of film news lately, mainly because most of it is regarding delays of upcoming releases, but there is ample time right now for film analysis. One of my favorite reads is Roger Ebert’s first entry in his Great Movies collection. It will remind of you of two things: 1) Ebert understood the medium so well and was a hell of a writer, and 2) There a lot of great films just waiting for you to discover them, regardless of your age or preferences.

Recommendation to Watch

*61 – I mentioned last week that I’m going through a bit of a sports withdrawal. The Colorado Rockies aired a live stream of past Opening Day games on Friday and I absolutely had it on for a bit. Not the same, but I always look forward to baseball this time of year and you make do with what you have.

Which is why I recommend you check out *61. The retelling of Roger Maris’ and Mickey Mantle’s historic 1961 season was an HBO original film and I don’t believe ever saw the inside of a movie theater. For that reason, it doesn’t receive nearly as much love or attention as it deserves. And I suppose that’s fitting, considering the same could have been said of Maris at the time. *61 does come off as a little hokey, but director Billy Crystal deftly guides us through his personal recollection as a fan of the Yankees.

Let’s just say that sports fans and reporters didn’t need social media to make Maris’ life miserable back then.

What I’m Watching

Love is Blind – I can’t in good conscience recommend this to anyone. It’s arguably the most ridiculous thing I’ve watched on Netflix recently, and that’s saying something considering I sat through Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. Single romantic hopefuls interact with the opposite sex and go on dates without ever leaving these “pods” that they stay in or seeing the person they’re dating. Yes, there’s literally a wall between them. They then have to decide whether they want to propose to that person and they don’t actually meet until after they agreed to get married. The kicker is that there’s then only FOUR weeks until their wedding, and that’s if their relationship doesn’t totally go off the rails in the meantime.

To an introvert like me, the mere idea of any of this is completely terrifying. It’s an insane concept and makes for some cringeworthy viewing. I guess in that way it’s like a car wreck: you just can’t look away.

Upcoming Flimsy Film Posts

Welcome to New York: Mystery Film

I asked Kevin about this last week and he seemed to imply that this was going to centered around I Am Legend. If that turns out to be the case, you guys saw it here first in my roundup last week. Totally my idea.

Let’s Talk About: 100 Movies Bucket List

Yes, this is still coming. I wouldn’t share my neat movie poster with the world unless we were committed to writing about all of the movies on it. Stay tuned.