I Can't Stop Thinking About First Cow

  Dear A24,

I hope you're doing well in these uncertain times. I hope you and your family are safe and healthy, and just remember that we are all in this together, and we will come out stronger on the other side. Now that all that is over, I have a preposition to make. More of a favor to ask. Honestly, it's more of a demand. Release First Cow on digital. Please.

I've been a fan of yours for a long time, since I realized Ex Machina, Moonlight, and Lady Bird all came from the same studio, and that was followed by the discovery of your entire catalogue of indie darlings and incredible stories. Since then, "it's A24" has served as a justifiable standalone reason to see a movie.

In the week before First Cow was released in a few more select cities, which coincidentally was the same week that the coronavirus pandemic grew far more serious in the United States, I had some stressful things on my plate. I had a variety of assignments and exams for school, and college decisions were growing nearer. On a procrastinative scroll, I found the trailer for First Cow. I watched it, and that became my only goal: to see First Cow, once this was all over. It was coming to a theater near me on Friday, so I made a plan. And I told nearly everyone about my plan. "First Cow?" They scoffed. "Yes!" I answered excitedly. "It's about a cow and friendship!"

So often, when I was doing other far more pressing responsibilities, the only thing I could think of was seeing First Cow. I couldn't get anyone to see it with me; they weren't too impressed with my synopsis, but that was alright. I was still going to see it. Just as soon as everything calmed down.

I saw it on Saturday. That also happened to be the last time I've been out since; it's now been almost two months. I think about First Cow nearly every day. It's such a wonderful movie. It's nice and comfortable but also exciting and dark. It's almost perfect in every way, but I won't go into that much. This isn't a review.

Everything blew up after that. The rest of my senior year of high school was cancelled, lockdown was put in place, and we were all left to deal with the anxiety of a global pandemic. As I said earlier, I haven't been anywhere since. As a movie person, I make plenty of jokes about the entirely bare slate of new releases each week, saying that "Evie the cow will win best supporting actress." Unfortunately, since Evie got so little time on the big screen before theaters shut down, I am alone in this sentiment.

I suppose I'm not sticking to the point, which is this: I want First Cow to be released on digital for a few reasons. 1) I want to see it again. I want to return to the comfort of friendship and a cow and the naivety of thinking that time was simpler. 2) I want other people to see it. I want them to see what I mean when I say that it is clearly the best movie I have seen in a long time, most certainly the best picture of 2020, because my explanations of "two guys that are friends and steal milk from a cow" just aren't cutting it.

I definitely could come with more reasons, but I think those are pretty good. And don't worry, I can serve as your one person marketing team, working from home obviously. I will tell everyone I know to please see this movie about a cow and friendship, and that they will definitely not regret it.

Kindest regards,

Julia

President of the Cookie Figowitz & King Lu Fanclub, My Isolation House Chapter.