Movie News
The Movie Committee has announced that movies are now showing every Saturday evening at 7 p.m In the Auditorium and on Tuesdays twice a month.
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Saturday, March 14: The Left-Handed Girl
A single mother and her two daughters move back to Taipei to open a noodle stand at a night market. Directed by Shih-Ching Tsou and co-written with Sean Baker. In Mandarin with subtitles.
2025 Family drama R 1 hr 48 min (Netflix)
Saturday, March 21: Blue Moon
The film depicts Lorenz Hart at a New York bar in 1943, on the opening night of the musical “Oklahoma,” for which Oscar Hammerstein, and not Hart, wrote the lyrics. Directed by Richard Linklater; with Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott.
2025 Biographical drama 1 hr 40 min (Amazon rental)
Tuesday, March 24: Sentimental Value
The film follows sisters Nora and Agnes in their reunion with their estranged father, Gustav. Directed by Joachim Trier; with Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning. In various Scandinavian languages and English with subtitles.
2025 Drama R 2hr 13 min (Amazon rental)
Saturday, March 28: Wake Up, Dead Man
The third installment of the “Knives Out” series. Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back on the scene. Father Jud (Josh O’Connor), a newly arrived priest, becomes a murder suspect.
2025 Mystery/Comedy PG-13 2 hr 24 min (Netflix)
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Saturday, April 4: The Apostle
Looking to reinvent himself, an evangelical preacher finds a new congregation in a small town in Louisiana, but he has a secret about his past. Directed by and starring Robert Duvall, with Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Miranda Richardson.
1997 Drama PG-13 2 hr 14 min (Amazon rental)
Saturday, April 11: Hamnet
The early years of the marriage of Agnes and William Shakespeare, colored later by the death of their son during the bubonic plague. Based on the book by Maggie O’Farrell. Directed by Chloé Zhao; with Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal.
2025 PG-13 2 hr 6 min (Amazon rental)
Tuesday, April 14: The Librarians
The efforts of librarians to combat book banning and censorship in Texas, Florida, and elsewhere. An Independent Lens documentary.
2025 1 hr 32 min (PBS)
Saturday, April 18: Rental Family
Philip is a struggling American actor who lives alone in Tokyo. He is hired by a rental agency to play different roles in people’s lives. The film explores themes of loneliness and connection. With Brendan Fraser.
2025 PG-13 1 hr 43 min (Amazon rental, Hulu)
Saturday, April 25: The Sixth Sense
Bruce Willis plays a child psychologist whose patient (Haley Joel Osment) claims he can see and talk to the dead. With Toni Collette. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
1999 Psychological thriller PG-13 1 h 47 min (Amazon rental)
Tuesday, April 28: The Secret Agent
In the midst of a military dictatorship, Marcelo, a former technology teacher, is on the run across Brazil trying to find his son. He relocates to Recife to begin his life again. Embedding himself in the resistance movement, Marcelo is being hunted by assassins. Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho; with Wagner Moura.
2025 R 2 hr 40 min (Portuguese with subtitles; Amazon rental, Hulu)
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The Movie Committee always appreciates feedback. Thank you to all the residents who have suggested movies for future showings. These suggestions are always welcome.
Streaming Movies
Many residents prefer to watch movies at home for a variety of reasons, or they miss a particular movie because they have other plans for that night.
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Almost all the movies now shown at Broadmead are available from streaming services. (See the end of this post for the services used for this month’s movies.)
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For most services you sign up on your computer or phone. Newer TVs have the apps for Amazon and Netflix already on them and may have others as well. Of course you can also use Roku and similar devices.
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Amazon rentals are the major source of our movies. You need an Amazon account but you don’t need Prime to rent movies. The Prime service includes a number of new movies; they are available free for a limited period of time and then they move to rentals. Oppenheimer, for example, is now free on Amazon Prime, and costs $6 as a rental. At the end of January, Amazon is raising the cost of a Prime subscription if you want to see movies without ads.
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Most Amazon rentals are $4 to $6, except when the movies are brand new and popular. (They can be as much as $20 at first, but after a while the price drops.) You have 48 hours to watch a rented movie once you start to stream it.
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Kanopy is a free service sponsored by libraries and has increased the number and depth of its offerings. You sign up online using your Baltimore County library card. Kanopy has always regulated the number of movies you can watch each month. It used to be 15 movies; they have now moved to a different method. You get 45 “tickets” a month, and each movie “costs” 2 to 4 tickets. Again, once you start streaming, you have a limited time to complete the movie.
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Netflix is a subscription service with various levels: ads, no ads, etc. There are no restrictions on the number of movies you watch or a limited time in which to complete them. But Netflix doesn’t carry many older movies and its focus is shifting to series.
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An excellent source for locating movies is the website www.JustWatch.com.
JustWatch - The Streaming Guide All your streaming services in one app.
It tells you which streaming services are carrying the movie and the cost (not always accurate, but close). I use JustWatch to track movies that are still playing in theaters. I’m then notified when they become available for streaming.
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The Voice movie listings will now indicate the streaming source (if available) for each movie.
Movie Reviews
For those looking for movie reviews, most major movies are reviewed on the Roger Ebert site, which has a rotating group of reviewers. The reviews give a detailed plot summary. Four stars is the highest rating.
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Wikipedia has entries for most movies. In addition to a very detailed plot summary (including spoilers), the entries give the production history, cast, summary of critical reviews, and awards for which the movie was nominated or won.
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The Guardian, one of the few major newspapers without a pay wall, also has reviews.
If you have access to the New York Times, their reviewers are excellent, and their recommendations are noted as “Critics’ Choice.”
Movie History
For those interested in movie history, MIT, in its Open Courseware program, has a series of recorded lectures by David Thorburn, with an associated list of suggested films. The lectures include some movie clips. Thorburn has a very animated style of lecturing. His approach is particularly interesting because he places cinema in the context of society and points to connections with the other arts. His lectures are carried on YouTube, so you can view them on your TV, but you have to search for them. You can find information about the lectures at https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/21l-011-the-film-experience-fall-2013/video_galleries/lecture-videos-notes/
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