Dear friends,
In recent years many documentaries like Icarus, Surviving R. Kelly, or Leaving Neverland have transcended the genre to become worldwide events.
Athlete A feels like the latest addition to that list, a shocking account of the abuse endured by USA Gymnastics Olympians. And beyond, it’s a commentary on a system so rotten that it allowed this abuse to happen at the highest level and go undetected for so long.
THE TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Athlete A
New on Netflix this week.
This groundbreaking documentary follows the USA Olympics sexual abuse case that made headlines in 2015. Through interviews with Olympians, their families, and investigative reporters, it’s also a documentary on the overall culture of abuse in gymnastics: sexual, physical, and emotional.
In one scene from the 1996 Olympics, gold medalist Kerri Strug has to run, vault, and land - all with a severe foot injury that was covered up by her coaches. She does this twice, limping between attempts and crawling off the mat on the second, crying. Meanwhile, her family, her coaches, the spectators - the World - is celebrating.
When she’s carried off, it’s Larry Nassar, the pedophile at the center of the documentary, who carries her.
Athlete A is groundbreaking exactly because it illustrates that the problem is not only with one doctor, or the 54 coaches who were also found guilty of sexual abuse, or the morally bankrupt leadership of USA Gymastics; it’s also about what went so wrong with society to see the abuse of young girls as cause for celebration.
📰 Indiewire: “Through even-handed reporting and a series of emotional first-person accounts, "Athlete A" excavates one of modern sports' most horrific abusers and systems.”
📺 on Netflix everywhere; 🍅 rating: 100%
THE TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK
Unforgotten
On Amazon Prime.
This six-part BBC crime drama is about two detectives who try to solve cold murder cases. In the first season (out of three, all on Amazon Prime), they try to solve the murder of a young man from the 70s who left a diary full of seemingly unconnected names.
Like most BBC mysteries, it’s grounded, believable, and consistent. Still, the second and third seasons of Unforgotten are better than the first, offering a reward for sticking with the show.
📰 NPR: “In Unforgotten, you get a more measured look at people -- one that's more balanced and more varied. Its bleakness is tempered by hope.”
📺 on Amazon Prime U.S; 🍅 rating: 96%
Readers’ top picks
Western on Amazon Prime is our readers’ favorite movie this week. It’s about a group of German workers who get sent to the border between Bulgaria and Greece and who find themselves in a big conflict with the locals.
Lenox Hill on Netflix is our readers’ favorite TV show. It’s a docuseries set in a New York emergency room.
New titles worth your time
A new Coronavirus episode of Lenox Hill, readers’ favorite TV show this week, is now available on Netflix.
For truly brainless entertainment, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga premieres today on Netflix. It stars Rachel McAdams and Will Ferrell as an Icelandic music duo who unexpectedly get chosen for the Eurovision competition.
No noteworthy new titles on Amazon Prime this week.
Great titles that will soon expire
The excellent coming-of-age drama King Jack leaves Netflix this Tuesday, June 30th. A top pick on the newsletter a few months ago, it’s about a bullied kid in rural America who all of a sudden has to take care of a younger, more vulnerable cousin.
Also leaving the same day are: the excellent thriller Hell or High Water with Jeff Bridges, Malcolm X, Inception, Chasing Amy, Julie & Julia, The Matrix, Minority Report, and the Tom Hanks / Denzel Washington 1993 movie Philadelphia.
Reminder: the 2018 sci-fi Annhilation with Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac leaves Amazon Prime this Sunday, June 28th.
Capote with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and Lars and the Real Girl with Ryan Gosling leave the next day, Monday, June 29th.
The Newsflash: Filmmaking in the pandemic
This week I talked to a friend who works for a post-production company about his work after the pandemic. He talked about the pressure that Netflix is putting on teams to keep schedules untouched, and the difficulty of collaborating while social distancing.
At the same time, he noted, post-production teams are much luckier than their filming counterparts. Crazy measures have been taking place, such as quarantining a whole crew for 14 days separately before the shoot starts, filming, and then quarantining again for 14 days until they can rejoin public life. This includes extras, who don’t have lines and who are on minor scenes, but who have to quarantine for a month for possibly one hour of work.
Many of these difficulties were also confirmed in a Financial Times report this week titled The shows must go on: inside Netflix’s race to restart filming:
It paints a picture of more complexities and new techniques developed to go around the problem: in Iceland, a country where filming didn’t stop, studios developed color-bracelet techniques that ensure people don’t always mix. And in the case of some shows, the pandemic was simply written into an edited script.
And in a less serious angle of this ordeal, the article talks about a major feat by a Swedish filming crew, who were so happy to achieve something that would be impossible in most other countries: a kiss. “Touching lips are a true screen miracle these days.” the report reads.
That’s it for today, I hope there is something in there for you.
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The next edition will be in your inbox on Friday, July 3rd.
Until then,
Bilal Zou, founder [bilal@agoodmovietowatch.com]
Carried with the support of the Creative Europe Program – MEDIA.