#1 Leftover: Mad, Sad & Bad [1 January 2010, ‘Watch Now’ Lovefilm]

Mad, Sad & Bad is a dysfunctional family comedy that received little distribution in late July 2009 (on 3 screens grossing about £3,000), and it wasn’t shown at any of the cinemas in the Leicester area. It was released on DVD on 9 November 2009 and has been available to watch online at Lovefilm immediately from theatrical release (31 July 2009). That is where I watched it recently  on New Year’s Day as my first ‘catch up’ in 2010 of British fiction films released in 2009. There were 90 British fiction  feature films released in 2009, and I have another 36 to watch after trying to see as many of them as possible in the cinema (I saw 40).

I have only just become aware of the ‘watch now’ facility on Lovefilm where there are films that can be watched as steaming video files for free as part of your subscription or for additional payment. In the last week I  have seen three other British films for free in this way – Summer Scars, WMD, and The Last Thakur. For me this is a novel way of watching films, and for Lovefilm a ‘BETA’. Does the availability of some films for free and others for payment say something about the relative commercial value of certain films or the kind of deals that are made? I don’t know what payment is received by the film-makers when I watch their film online in this way.

Mad, Sad & Bad should perhaps be called Mad, Sad & Average, because it is and also it is a terrible title – you are bound to get the words in the wrong order. Watching it on my netbook didn’t make it a special experience and it very much felt like watching television. One could easily imagine this story of mid-thirty year old siblings being shown as an ITV drama at 9pm and thus why it didn’t get a wider cinema release. It would appeal precisely to the 30-40 year old demographic that don’t go to the cinema much. But now that I can watch films for free on the netbook, how am I going to get anything done?

Living life is fun and we’ve just begun
To get our share of the world’s delights

(‘We Are Family’, Sister Sledge)

Tags: british cinema, new british cinema releases, new british films of 2009