It's another edition of Midday at the Movies, our monthly conversation about films and filmmaking.
Tom is once again joined by Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday, author of the bestselling film-lovers' guide, Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies, and by Maryland Film Festival founder Jed Dietz. Today, we spotlight a trend Ann noted in her recent piece in the Post: the year's remarkable run of new films by pioneering directors such as Steve McQueen (Small Axe) and George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) that affirmatively chronicle and celebrate the Black experience, at a time when the pandemic and persistent racial injustice are exacting an especially deadly toll on Black Americans.
Ann and Jed also size up some of the best new streaming flicks. And they discuss the news that Warner Brothers studio -- predicting that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to depress US move-theater operations until at least next fall -- has decided that all of its 2021 movie releases will arrive simultaneously in movie theaters and on the HBO Max streaming service. Will other big studios follow suit? Could streaming become the dominant new movie platform? And what will this mean for the future of America's movie theaters?
