we come to this place for magic
what i love about moviegoing
i’ve recently become obsessed with the 11am saturday newsletter, which consists of “weekly interviews with people who like to see movies at the movie theater.” i self-identify as someone who loves the movie theater, maybe more than i enjoy the movies themselves, and being selected for this newsletter is up there with securing a spot on hot ones on my bucket list. however, given that this is a written questionnaire and doesn’t require ten hot sauces, i didn’t see any reason why i couldn’t just conduct this interview with myself. humor me.
what’s your favorite day & time to go to the movies?
as an amc a-lister with an untraditional work schedule, there are no limits as to when you’ll find me at the movie theater. i love a weekday afternoon (parking is easiest, and theaters are sparsely populated). if i’m going with a friend who doesn’t have a-list i’m cognizant of the reduced prices on tuesdays, so i’ll typically opt for that. if i’m seeing a solo movie, i love a lunchtime showing.
what’s your favorite movie theater?
my most-frequented one is certainly the amc at the grove, since it’s super convenient for my two most recurring moviegoing companions, gage and claire. i’m familiar with the layout, and pretty much everything shows there.
i also recently saw a movie at the amc montebello for the first time, and while it’s quite a hike from where i live in LA, i really liked the internal layout of the specific theater i was in (number seven, i believe), with the entrance positioned in the back-middle of the seats. bonus points for parking being free.
what’s your go-to movie theater snack & drink combo?
i usually don’t buy a snack, since they’re ten billion dollars, but i do look forward to my free birthday popcorn.
drink, however, is very important to me. i bring my 40-oz yeti tumbler and fill it with the beautiful gorgeous coke freestyle ice and cherry-vanilla caffeine-free diet coke. it’s the best soda in the world, and yes, no matter what time of day i go i’m getting the caffeine-free. it tastes different. this always results in me needing to use the bathroom in the middle of the movie, and it’s always worth it.
what’s your dream movie theater snack and drink combo (if noise and sound weren’t an issue)?
i’d hate to see the day where i’m denied a cherry-vanilla caffeine-free diet coke in the theater. if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
i will say, last month claire and i tried to smuggle chamberlain coffee lattes into the amc in century city for a 9 am showing of mickey 17 and were denied at the door. we had to chug our drinks before the movie, and all i’ll say is what happened digestively during that movie can never happen again. i’d love the chance to actually bring a coffee drink into a morning movie and sip on it.
in terms of food, i do love bringing a full meal into a solo lunchtime showing, especially if the theater isn’t very crowded and there’s nobody judging from the seat next to me. i brought a caesar salad to the bob dylan biopic, and i still render that as one of my favorite moviegoing experiences.
first movie you remember seeing in a theater?
i know i went to the movies plenty of times before i was in sixth grade, but the earliest theater memory i can muster up is seeing frozen with my at-the-time bestie and her family. i don’t remember any of the movie, but i remember being incredibly perturbed when my friend and her family refused to use the movie theater bathroom sinks after using the restroom, opting only for hand-sanitizer. this was the first and only movie we saw together.
last movie you saw in a theater?
last week, i saw death of a unicorn, the new a24 film with jenna ortega and paul rudd. i think march was a pretty dry month for movies (post-oscars, i can’t be surprised), and although i saw five (mickey 17, the monkey, opus, snow white, and death of a unicorn), none of them got more than three stars from me.
the last good movie i saw in a theater was companion, which was a perfect little 90-minute thriller starring sophie thatcher.
movie you wish you could’ve seen in a theater?
my all-time favorite movie is d.e.b.s. (2004), and i’d give anything to see it on the big screen. it showed at the hollywood forever cemetery last summer mere weeks before i moved to LA, and honestly, i’m still resentful.
please describe your ideal movie theater seat!
this is controversial in my household (my roommate is an audio snob), but i’m always going to prefer an aisle seat. without a doubt, i’m going to have to go to the bathroom, and i’d rather not step over anyone! sorry!
i like being in the middle-back of the theater, as do most people, i presume. i want my seat to recline, but as long as it’s comfortable, that’s not a deal-breaker. oh, and i need a cup holder that can accommodate my yeti. some of them are weirdly-shaped or too small, which throws a wrench in things.
one thing you would change to make movie theaters better?
the ticket prices, the concession prices, the parking prices… seeing a movie is so expensive these days! i know everyone’s always going on about a-list paying for itself, but when movie tickets are $23, it really does! bring back $5 tickets, or even $12 tickets. bring back popcorn and drinks that cost less than those reasonably-priced tickets. and, for the love of god, please don’t charge me $5 to park on top of this!
where do you stand on intermissions?
i’ve never seen a movie long enough to warrant one, but i generally like them in the context of live theater. as a chronic needs-to-use-the-bathroomer, they’d probably benefit me a lot.
is there a trailer you’ve seen before a movie recently that stuck with you?
i know this one’s already come out, but i recently watched the trailer for heretic and can’t wait to watch the full feature. i’ve also seen the trailer for drop a handful of times, and, yeah, i don’t think it’ll be very good, but i love meghann fahy and i can usually enjoy a blumhouse film for what it is.
what’s a movie you’re looking forward to seeing?
i’m actually really looking forward to seeing hell of a summer this coming week. i’m kind of a finn wolfhard anti (not for any particular reason, but he, similarly to timothee chalamet, bothers me inherently), but i think it’ll be a fun watch. it seems like a parallel film to fear street 1978, which was an instant classic.
what’s your dream combination of director and lead(s)?
i really want to see tig notaro on the white lotus, so directed by mike white. i think that would do numbers for me.
if you could live in a movie, which one would it be?
when i left the theater after seeing my old ass, my body viscerally yearned to be in that small-town canadian cranberry bog. i want to drive a boat to the general store and lesbianly make out with the cashier in the stockroom and hallucinate my future self in the lush, green acres of forest surrounding my gorgeous childhood home. seeing that film made me nostalgic for a life i haven’t even lived.
why do you think people should continue seeing movies at the movie theater?
the reason i find myself enjoying seeing a movie at the theater far more than watching one from my bed or couch is because the setting forces me to give one-hundred percent of my focus to the story on the screen. in an age of trashed attention spans and three-screen setups and overstimulation up the wazoo, it’s lovely to put my phone on do-not-disturb and catch every little line or gesture in a multi-hour feature. i’m incredibly aware of the precision and thought put into every frame of a film, as someone who attended film school myself, and although i find it challenging to sit still and let a movie wash over me entirely, i find it incredibly rewarding. the theater makes it impossible not to get lost in the narrative. if that isn’t reason enough for you, consider the coke freestyle machine in the amc lobby.
wow, i should interview myself more often (reading that line back, it’s one of the most gemini thoughts i’ve ever had). i’ve been consuming more and more content recently, and although my substack isn’t really about entertainment and media, it’s a big part of my cultural diet, so forgive me for an influx of film-and-tv newsletters right now.
i’m coming up on a year since graduating from film school, and one of the most important and useful tools i gained there was the ability to watch media from all genres and budgets and find things to criticize and to applaud in all of them. maybe i’m just missing the importance of cinema in my life post-grad, but i’m happy to be spending more time in the theater and talking to friends who are just as movie-pilled as i am, and if i am only using my bfa in film to appreciate and enjoy watching movies, that is still a worthwhile use of obtaining it.