Covid-Cinema: Part V, "Social Distance"

We’re still in it. Can perception be clear enough to produce a story or stories that reflects the immediacy of what is happening? Or do we need to have it finished and behind us in order to really make the story work? 

Love in the Time of Corona showed no, especially when trying to keep the subject matter light. Staged showed yes but only with a clear singular objective.

And then from watching Social Distance, I stand corrected and grateful. This show is proof that diverse stories with diverse people showing the spectrum of experiences, and that an anthology’s each episode with its own singular objective can come together and really nail it! (As a whole even if some episodes were not as strong as others.) 

Maybe it also has something to do with the level of talent involved. 

Jenji Kohan’s producer credits go back to the mid-1990s, including all kinds of television genre titles such as Mad About You and Gilmore Girls, to the exciting world of Netflix with Orange is the New Black and GLOW. 

With her experience and talent at the helm making critical and audience hits, Social Distance achieved its attempt at strong storylines, attracting respected performers, and being able to make the self-taping, Zoom filming, and even Nest security camera footage look just as likely to be utilized even before Covid. 

As time moves on, and Covid-Cinema moves along with it, we’ll see even more films and shows but Social Distance will likely hold a top-tier place for more screenings and further study. 

Covid-Cinema: Part IV, “Staged” and “Love in the Time of Corona”

Creatives find a way. Even under the most unprecedented circumstances with in-person acting mostly shutdown, a handful of television producers adapted – rather quickly – to creating wholly original shows to air within a few months of their filming by relying on self-taping with minimal but safe contact, and video conferencing programs. 

Staged was put together by British artists, released first on BBC-One in June and then available on Hulu last month, while Love in the Time of Corona was put together in Los Angeles, initially released on the cable channel Freeform and then also available on Hulu back in August. 

Both incorporate the then current events and sense of experiencing the pandemic from March through May 2020, featuring adults in their homes separated in distance but coming together over the video conferencing program Zoom, and video phone apps like FaceTime. 

Taking inspiration from social media trends and whatever other sources showed what people were doing, thinking, and feeling while in quarantine, Staged and Love in the Time of Corona are the most immediately reflective of the pandemic, providing the first fictionalized window of core Covid-Cinema titles. 

Covid-Cinema: Part III, “Palm Springs” and “Vivarium”

Today is October 10, 2020 or rather, 10/10/2020.

And it is Mental Health Day.

Quite the coincidence.

(At least it was at the time of composing this post.)

Psychological therapy has been one of the fastest-growing essential services and campaigns for national awareness during this pandemic. Whether stay-at-home orders were carried out alone, with roommates, with immediate families, or with extended families, the cultural news stories featured the collective experience of peoples’ emotions as if being on a roller-coaster. You can be okay and then not okay moment-to-moment. The uncertainty, the monotony, the fear, the loneliness, the overwhelming togetherness - finding balance has felt impossible and extremes quickly became the norm. 

There are two perspectives that define covid-quarantine:

Side A - that you can finally step out of the rat-race of daily life to instead focus on yourself, your relationships, and those special projects you’ve been meaning to get to. It’s a time to reevaluate what matters, and reaffirm a new set of priorities for moving forward.

Side B – that instead of having your routine of separated responsibilities, separated spaces of work from home, professional separate from personal, everything and everyone are instead all under one roof and there is no spare moment of quiet time for introspective reflection. 

Though Vivarium filmed in 2018 in Belgium and Palm Springs filmed in 2019 in California, both films released to streaming platforms in Spring and Summer 2020, respectively. Both stories feature a romantic couple finding themselves trapped in a seemingly inescapable enclosed space. They unintentionally represent two sides of the same quarantine coin:

On side A, for Nyles and Sarah in Palm Springs their time loop is at a literal party which gives them a million ways to have fun, to wreck, and to learn from. They eventually realize their mutual priorities, the only way out, and return to the ‘normal’ timeline. In one word, hope.

On side B, for Tom and Gemma in Vivarium, they find themselves abandoned to an indefinite expanse of identical housing with looping streets and a counterfeit sky. Their only escape is death. In one word, a nightmare. 

Together, these films are the epitome of 2020, expressing the seemingly endless possibilities for and see-saw experiences of joy and torment. 

Covid-Cinema: Part II, “Tales from the Loop” Episode 4

March and April were mostly chilly and gray here in New York. Staying home in quarantine meant not having to go outside in the cold winds, rain, and snow except for the essential food shopping and take-out meals. It meant crawling into bed early with a hearty soup or Thai food, and a few glasses of wine. It felt like life just came to a halt. All plans to go out and do things with other people were immediately cancelled, indefinitely. 

What better way pass the time than to watch all the movies and television shows available, with new releases still being rolled-out on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, On-Demand, CBS All Access, Disney+, Roku, and the newly launched services of HBO Max, Peacock, Quibi, etc.. 

In those late winter / early spring weathered months, I barely saw any comedies. I was mourning my routine, not seeing family and friends’ faces in-person, scared of contracting the virus myself or if anyone I cared about would. Dramatic stories of the human experience best fit my mood. 

Tales from the Loop was released on Amazon Prime Video, April 3^rd. Even though all eight episodes were available on that single day, its quiet contemplative tone created calmness and can only be absorbed one-at-a-time; like a lullaby in visual form that can put you to sleep each night. The show is an allegorical anthology taking inspiration from the retro-futurist paintings of Simon Stalenhag, whose characters live in a bubble-like town effected by whatever possible physics experiments may be going on in the under-ground scientific facility. Rather than making The Loop a villainous organization shrouded in secrecy to be cracked-open by vigilantes wanting answers and revenge, its mysteriousness is built into the townsfolk’s every-day lives, accepted without loathing even when its unexplained existence gives them heart-breaking losses. 

Covid-Cinema: Part I, an Overview

I have been thinking about what I call Covid-Cinema, a term to define all that the entertainment industry has faced for the last eight months or so: postponed releases, production shutdowns, theater closings, the new safety protocol before starting/resuming, and of course what movies and shows that have been released – whether completed prior to covid or inspired by covid.

To best comprehend the bigger picture, I’d like to first share my story. It’s only one example out of the millions of others who have also experienced transitioning from the before normality to the current strangeness, and I won’t usually be this personal in future posts, but hoping this can serve as a starting point.

Intro to AJS Entertainment Appreciation Blog

Hi, I'm "AJ" Amanda Joy Shapiro, and welcome!

Growing up, watching movies (and television shows) was not my only hobby. But it was my favorite. They are tied to so many memories, and for my young introverted self, asking someone "Have you seen...?" was always the best ice-breaker. (Still is.)

Towards the end of my senior year of high school to cure boredom during free periods, I started a Word doc list of all the movies I've seen. It did not keep any particular order. It would have initially been a short list, probably in the 300 to 500 range. 

In 2005, I took the college courses Understanding Mass Media and Film Appreciation just as electives towards graduating; but they were so incredibly fascinating, that I pursued this academic discipline further. 

Now with 15+ years of combined education & entertainment industry experience, and especially 7 months into the Covid-19 pandemic, I am taking this timely opportunity to start a new blog that resumes my original love for writing about all that I watch, instead of just binging. 

Posts will feature new reviews and ruminations as well as edited/updated versions of prior blog articles. AJS Entertainment Appreciation will cover movies, television shows, new media content and the business, in a structure like other websites but with the style of a mini-film studies course. It's a companion venture to starting my own consulting company AJS Entertainment Services that (continues) helping filmmakers with their union paperwork and script notes.

Oh, and the movie list is currently up to 2,680 titles; on an Excel sheet, alphabetically...with notes. (I have not even attempted logging all of the television shows yet.)