SSS Goes to Belfast

[silverscreenselect]

Mrs. SSS and I just got back from a preview showing of Belfast. This is a terrific movie, well acted, well directed, well written. It's semi-autographical, since writer/director Kenneth Branagh had the same upbringing as the young boy in the movie. In part, it's about the rioting that broke out in Belfast in 1969, but it's also about a young boy trying to get noticed by the cute girl in school and about his parents deciding whether to pull up stakes and move to England because they are in bad financial shape. This is the best movie of the year we've seen so far. A caveat: I'm referring to films that will be eligible for upcoming awards and not 2020 movies that were still around or debuted early in 2021. I don't think this is quite as good as the best of last year's awards crop. On the other hand, it's much better than most of the superhero crap that's hitting the theaters nowadays.

We got tickets from AMC Theaters, which advertised the preview showing on their website. The preview was held at two theaters here in Atlanta, and you had to sign up for tickets online. From my experiences years ago at attending similar previews, I was afraid the theater would be packed (they said on the site that they were going to issue more vouchers that they had seats to make sure they had a full house). 30 years ago, there would be a huge line outside the theater for the preview. So we arrived about 20 minutes early, and I was worried we wouldn't get in. I was also a bit concerned about being too close to people in a crowded theater. I shouldn't have worried. Today, there were fewer than 20 people in the theater, total, for free passes to one of the best movies of the year. The theater seats around 100. This tells me that despite the reviews, Belfast is likely to be a bomb at the box office, which is a big shame.

[Estonut]

I want to know more about the semi-autograph.