We're not saying that the pandemic created a black hole that quite a few movies were sucked into, but it might explain why you (probably) haven't heard of Hugh Jackman's 2021 movie Reminiscence – people weren't exactly flooding to cinemas when it came out.
Now, though, Jackman is very much back in the limelight thanks to the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, and if you've already been to the multiplex to check out the newest Marvel movie then you might want some more Wolverine in your life.
The good news is that Reminiscence will start streaming on Netflix from 6 August in the USA, so you can get a great Jackman fix and also check out an ambitious sci-fi mystery that you might never have even heard of before.
The movie was directed by Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy, and it plays around with many of the same questions. It's set in a near-future world – one where the climate emergency has seen sea levels rise sharply – where people have become used to a device that lets them relive their memories.
Jackman plays a detective who becomes obsessed with figuring out what happened to an ex of his who disappeared (played by the terrific Rebecca Ferguson of Dune and Silo fame). Thandie Newton is also present and correct as a Westworld alumnus, playing Jackman's embattled business partner – and it looks like she has a cooler head than him.
Things get pretty wild from there, with a lot of hallucinatory sequences, and it's certainly an ambitious movie – although it didn't exactly do well with critics back when it came out, as its Rotten Tomatoes score demonstrates.
Still, Jackman is on committed form in Reminiscence, and if you're a big fan of his work then this is a part of his back catalogue that you'll probably not be too familiar with, making it well worth scheduling for a movie night sometime soon if you're a Netflix subscriber.
After all, the charts this year have proved beyond a doubt that the best streaming service might just be the one with fun movies, rather than those deemed critically essential.
