The earliest months of the film year are brutally hard to get through. The problem is lessened by the quality offerings from the prior calendar year that dribble into smaller markets in fits and starts, but most films that get their initial, often widespread release in the months January and February (and even into the spring) are largely the weaker material that studios felt couldn’t compete in Oscar season or weren’t worth holding back for the highly charged summer season. That’s still the case, but it was even more pronounced back in the early nineteen-nineties, before the release schedule started … Continue reading From the Archive: Once Around