Cinema Chat: 12/24/20 2020 IN REVIEW: NEW YORK WRITERS (EDITED & ADDED TO BY RUSS REFLECT ON THE YEAR'S HIGHS AND LOWS Since March, the year in cinema has been defined by a near-total absence of significant theatrical releases—first, because theatres across the country were shut down in response to the coronavirus pandemic and, subsequently, because even after they reopened people largely stayed away. The new 007 film and the new Wes Anderson film, among dozens of others, were bumped to next year’s schedule; “Soul” [“Hamilton”] and “Wonder Woman 1984” are being released on streaming sites rather than in theatres; the Cannes Film Festival was cancelled, and many others, such as the New York Film Festival, were held online. In spite of this, 2020 has been, against the odds, a wonderful year for new movies. … [However,] even the best new independent films were being met with a muted response, stemming in part from … a collective sense of numbness … and the disastrous political response to it. … Considering the changed state of movies in the face of the pandemic is impossible, and immoral, without also considering the governmental failures—rooted in indifference, incompetence, malevolence, and greed—that have made the pandemic an ongoing medical and social catastrophe.