The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) Starring: Yahya
Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Daniel Flaherty, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael
Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Noah Robbins, Mark
Rylance, Alex Sharp, Jeremy Strong. Directed by Aaron Sorkin. Screenplay by
Aaron Sorkin. Produced by Stuart M. Besser, Matt Jackson, Marc Platt, Tyler
Thompson. Run Time: 130 minutes. Color. USA Political, Historical, Drama.
This has been a year like no other when it comes to films in
theaters. The bottom line is that there hasn’t been any worth risking one’s
life to see. Not that there haven’t been good movies released but 2020 will be
remembered as the year when a big release would go straight to streaming more
often than not. Case in point, The Trial of the Chicago 7. Originally
conceived as a theatrical release with none other than Steven Spielberg at the
helm, Paramount Pictures would sell all distribution rights to Netflix when a profitable theatrical release seemed out of the question (it did get a short theatrical release before disappearing behind Netflix's paywall). Say what you will but putting a
film on a streaming service does limit who can see the film, especially since
downstream release windows are pretty much broken.
