Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! This week, it’s a pretty small slate hitting shelves, but one of the indie options truly stands out. Yes, today you can finally see Stop and Go (formerly known as Recovery), nearly a year after its festival debut. The lineup also features Antlers, for those who are fans of that one. Read on for more…
Stop and Go
I saw Stop and Go at SXSW when it was called Recovery, and perhaps surprisingly, I really liked it. Pandemic related movies at the time tended to leave me annoyed and cold, but not this one. It’s charming and really funny. This week, it’s a no-brainer for the top pick. Our interview with the filmmakers is here, so definitely give that a look. This is some of what I had to say in my SXSW review of the film, back when it was still going by its former title:
On the surface, the premise of this film could easily make you turn up your nose. A comedy set during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic? I know I wasn’t initially interested, but lo and behold, this movie is a lot of fun. Recovery manages to make us laugh at some of our most extreme behaviors back in early 2020, but never makes fun of the actual tragedy. That’s what sets things apart for this SXSW title. Especially now that we’re seeing the start of the light at the end of the tunnel, looking back for laughs makes a bit of sense. It’s far from a perfect flick, but in making you giggle, it does more than enough to justify its existence.
Recovery is a road trip comedy, with the hook being that it requires our main characters to leave the protection of home during a pandemic. In normal times, it would be a simple premise that many an independent film would take up. Here, we still have an indie production, but one with the added oomph of the Coronavirus. Yet, somehow the movie never becomes a downer, which it all too easily could have been, or something where the jokes fall flat. That’s not the case here.
The Djinn
The L Word Generation Q: Season Two (TV)
Zeros and Ones
No Criterion releases today. Sorry! Stay tuned for more next week when the Collection returns…
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