Available on Leeds Film Player during May

All being well it shouldn’t be too long until we can start seeing films on the big screen again. The City Varieties’ Movie Nights are set to resume on the 17th and there are plans for more On The Road screenings over the summer. Until then there are still great films available to watch online. The latest addition to Leeds Film Player is Black Bear and is presented in partnership with Hyde Park Picture House.

Black Bear stars Aubrey Plaza, perhaps best known for her role in TV’s Parks and Recreation but also in great films such as An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018), Ingrid Goes West (2017) and Safety Not Guaranteed (2012). This is a more dramatic role but one that still manages to be darkly funny. I knew very little about the film and that may the best way to experience it because part of what makes the film so engaging is how it unravels and it’s never clear exactly where it is going to end up.

I’ve missed seeing films in the cinema for a number of reasons. The visual delights of Wolfwalkers (2020) would have been more mesmerising on a big screen. The wonderful sound design of Sound Of Metal (2019 apparently) could be appreciated more if heard over a good sound system. David Byrne’s American Utopia (2020) would look and sound great but would also be a much better experience watching it with an appreciative audience. Watching Black Bear I found myself missing the audience for a completely different reason. It’s a film I really liked but one that I think is likely to be divisive; it’s intense, the characters are mostly unlikeable and it often ends up in awkwardly uncomfortable places. Much like in the second part of the film I wanted to know what other people would be feeling, was it okay to be enjoying this so much? Is ‘enjoying’ the right word or emotion? Would other people be laughing at the audacity of it all like I was? Hopefully, like all interesting things, there would be a mixture of reactions but I hope everybody would be able to find something to appreciate. Or maybe the lack of human interaction over the last 14 months means I’ve just forgotten how to react appropriately.

Black Bear is available to rent for £5 on Leeds Film Player until the end of May.