This gangster opera was like a hug from an old friend when I rewatched it at what was probably the halfway mark of lockdown. The need to see it again came off the back of reading a book about the making of the 1983 Brian De Palma epic, and after learning about what a labour of love it had been, I thought it deserved some more of my attention. This time around, I allowed my eyes to wander further than the huge characters and really took in the fantastic set designs. Everything that makes it’s way on-screen is larger than life, and very fitting of the themes of greed and excess that are very apparent throughout.

It might not be considered high art, but I had a great time with Anaconda. I’d never seen it before, but my guess is that we’re perhaps not going to get a blockbuster monster movie this year, so I had to make do with a different kind of offering, and I found this on Netflix on what turned out to be bit of a Jon Voigt day following an earlier viewing of Midnight Cowboy. It’s essentially an hour and half of a giant snake picking a National Geographic team off one by one. Personally, I don’t see what’s not to like. We had alligators in basements last year and a megalodon the year before that. Back in 1997, it was all about anacondas apparently. If I’d have been born, I’d have been eating this stuff for breakfast, so I might as well fill 2020’s monster-shaped gap with it.

This rewatch was perhaps wishful thinking when I started it just before cinemas closed, the country shutdown and any film that was set to be a major winner this summer had it’s release rescheduled. Spiral, like many other highly anticipated titles, didn’t escape this trap. Definitely one of the greatest superficial tragedies of this pandemic is the fact that we are being made to wait an extra 12 months to hear the full context in which Samuel L. Jackson shouts, ‘You wanna play games, motherf****r?’ Nevertheless, I persisted with the rewatch because it was something to do, and I enjoyed every second of it, ironically or otherwise. Although I must admit that watching these films just before bed wasn’t the smartest move during this period. They made for quite a cocktail when mixed with the lockdown dreams quite a few people have experienced, myself included. I could’ve done without waking up in the middle of the night convinced my skin was falling off, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes I guess.

Speaking of Prime, this little gem is one that I found tucked away in the darkest depths of the platform. Cold In July caught my eye because of the cast, but I was truly blown away when I watched it. It’s a film that reminded me a lot of Out Of The Furnace because of how far under the radar it seemed to fly despite how good the story was. Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard and Don Johnson head up the cast that pulled me in, and they all do wonderful jobs. I felt very accomplished having found it because it was like I’d dug up a hidden treasure! It also helped me, in a round-about way, realise that lockdown is very much about the small wins.

And that just about wraps up my favourite lockdown watches. It’s definitely been a mixed bag, and I’ve watched a number of titles over the last few months that I usually wouldn’t even have considered. This is perhaps the longest time I’ve had to indulge in films since the last of my long summer holidays in school, and I’ve certainly made the most of it. Thank god for streaming, that’s all I’ll say.