Looks like a pitched battle was fought this week between those of you who wanted me to see Backrooms and those of you who wanted me to see something other than Backrooms. Which is not to say that the winner, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (which from what I saw was firmly ahead with like 75% of the usual vote in, then got overtaken, then regained the lead as in fact more votes than usual were cast), doesn't have ardent fans. But it's rare to see the film that comes in third get as little as I think it wound up being 9%. That suggests a fair amount of strategic anti-Backrooms voting. In any case, I'm excited to finally watch the Cimino, which is streaming or rentable on Amazon Prime and elsewhere. And it doesn't look as if Backrooms will be leaving theaters anytime soon, so its partisans can try again.
This is kind of grimly funny if you know why it's happening. Like, I get that people want to preserve the film as it was made; I'd feel the same had I not already seen it, or if I liked it enough that I'd want to own it (and actually Criterion's road trilogy box set is on my list, because I love Alice in the Cities, so I may end up with the unexpurgated cut anyway). But it nonetheless looks creepy.
(If you don't know where this is from, you're not supposed to know. But many of you can surely guess. Yes, "snatched" is the verb they use.)