15 Great Moments Inside Movie Theaters in '15
Friday, January 1, 2016 at 9:12PM Confession: I am extremely terrible about keeping a calendar, or even a letterboxd list which I update sporadically from time to time before forgetting again. In short the only "diary" of any sort I have is this ode to movies you're visiting now... The Film Experience. Nevertheless in reviewing the film year I realized that I haven't been frequenting NYC's wonderful repertory theaters as much as in past years. Must fix. And I really have to do a better of keeping track of what I'm seeing in general lest I actually forget I saw something and it's missing from LISTS. *gasp*
But I ♥ going to the movies. And if you're reading this it's safe to assume that you do too. So it's list time. Please share your favorite moments of moviegoing this year in the comments.
15 Favorite Moments Inside Movie Theaters in '15
because it's the best place to be!
15 The Incredible Hulk (2008)
April 29th: That moment when my best friend and I suddenly realized that we could leave anytime during the Marvel Movie Marathon (preceding the premiere of The Age of Ultron) and still get the same seat. What a relief. I mean... nobody should have to sit through Iron Man 2 ever again!
14 Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)
April 6th: Sitting down for a special invite-only screening of Clouds of Sils Maria and seeing so many actors I loved in the audience (Diane Lane, Parker Posey, Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin). Turner was surprisingly willing to make conversation afterwards, her voice miraculously even lower than onscreen in person; she kindly ignored my fairly obvious terror at finally meeting one of my all time favorite goddesses.
13 Hateful Eight (2015) - INTERMISSION ONLY!
Dec: Though I've admired Teo Bugbee as a writer for over a year (and she's written for the site on rare occasion) we finally met recently and every time we managed to sync up our schedules (lunch, drinks at a bar, a screening of Hateful Eight) it somehow become an extra imaginary screening of Carol we talked about the movie so much. Basically Teo is the only way I made it through Hateful Eight.
Carol, Chi-Raq, two older classics and more after the jump...
12 Demolition (2015)
Sept 10th: Because opening nights of film festivals are always so exciting whatever one thinks of the movie and the conversations afterwards with friends you only see at festivals (Hi Kyle!) are wonderful
11 Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)
May 16th: Because friends were in town for a week and comedies are so much more fun with a big group of friends. Plus yummy noisy laugh-filled brunch thereafter
10 Animals (2015)
May 15th: Because I was able to host a Q&A afterwards with David Dastmalchian, who guest-starred here, to tell us about the movie and his career, and it was great to see a character actor I've admired for several years get the rare chance to carry a whole movie. And he pulled it off beautifully! (The film is now available on Showtime on Demand if you have a Showtime subscription.)
09 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Dec 15th: Because waiting for the movie to start at the all media screening I heard a mom ask her little son how excited he was on a scale of 1-10. His response "ten million two hundred thousand seven billion ten!" I wasn't that excited but it sure did pay off to refuse to watch any clips or read any of the ten million two hundred thousand seven billion ten articles about the movie before seeing it. [Review | Podcast]
08 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
May 15th: Because it was so unremittingly awesome for two hours and feeling such a constant rush of adrenaline coursing through a huge crowd during stupendous action filmmaking will always be a special (and sadly rare) thrill. Last time I could feel this much energy from the nuts and bolts of action sequence ingenuity and bravura craftsmanship was Avatar in 2009 and the Return of the King in 2003 before that. [Review | Best Shot Episode]
07 Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
July 1st: Now technically this shouldn't be eligible as it was a live performance but seeing Ellen Greene recreating her classic "Audrey" role, which has been embedded in my brain all my life from loving the movie, was like reliving decades of movie obsession in one night while also seeing a live performance with every line reading and sung phrase. HEAVEN double-exposed.
06 Chi-Raq (2015)
December 28th: A group of three 70somethings in front of me suddenly panicking near the beginning of Spike Lee's aggressively foul-mouthed politically-charged musical comedy. "This isn't Trumbo!"
No shit!
This photo I snapped outside the movie theater basically illustrates everything that's wrong with awards season in this and, really, every year. All the awards honors listed are actually referring to the relatively okay movie about an important social political message from the past that's long since resolved and safe and not the vital good movie about an important social political message from the now that's immediate and dangerous.
05 Carol (2015)
December: The Boyfriend turning towards me at the end of Carol (third viewing for me, his first) and doing Babs The Way We Were gesture across my face "Your girl is lovely, Hubble" "Your movie is lovely, Nathaniel"
04 Tangerine (2015)
July: Hearing my group of friends laughing hysterically all around me during Tangerine (second time for me, first for them).
03 Paris is Burning (1990)
January: 25th anniversary screening at Sundance in January with Jennie Livingston speaking afterwards. This movie is still EVERYTHING. And holds up like you couldn't possibly imagine despite influencing so much LGBT culture afterwards that all of its best lines feel as carved in stone timeless as "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn." or "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night" only sassier and cruder. [Best Shot Episode]
02 and 01 Carol (2015) then Written on the Wind (1956)
December 4th & 26th: Looking over at my best friend at the end of Carol and seeing tears streaming down his face. He's been "over" the movies for years, will generally only go to superhero movies, and turns to me whispering during the credits. "I love the cinema again" The very next week I have to ask him like 4 times to go to a Douglas Sirk revival which he keeps saying "I dunno" about until I tell him that Todd Haynes loves Douglas Sirk. He says yes and he loves that movie too. And multiple members of Team Experience were there as was The Boyfriend and the other best friend. And you could feel the entire crowd silently drooling on Rock, revering Lauren Bacall's style, marvelling at Douglas Sirk's genius, and silently 'yas queening' every moment of Dorothy Malone's Oscar winning Mambo-riffic performance.
The moral of three of these stories: TODD HAYNES 4EVER. He makes life and movies and friendships and the intersection of all three better.
Reader Comments (25)
Wow based on this I bet Carol is gonna get a million film bitch award wins, noms and honerable mentions. Not really fair to the competition lol.
I like imagining the Todd Haynes love force of Carol guiding us through the Dark Side of Tarantino together. (What are we going to do when it becomes socially inappropriate to talk about Carol anymore? I'm going to have to fall in love with another movie or god forbid, a human!)
If my husband would do something like #5 to me when we see Carol next week, I would lose my facilities. Did you just melt?
What a weird movie year 2015 was. I'm just not all that excited about the year's output on the whole, but there were a lot of highlights. My favorite moments in theaters mostly took place at Q&As after screenings of Oscar-hungry films:
9. The outifts worn by Mulligan, Mara and Vikander. To die for.
8. Gosling and Bale on stage sitting next to each other right in front of me. Drool. (And I liked the movie, too, so no pain.)
7. Avoiding the Q&A for Straight Outta Compton because I wanted to hold onto the illusion those performances created.
6. How articulate and charming László Nemes and Géza Röhrig (Son of Saul) were. No moderator inanities that evening.
5. Julianne Nicholson's Depp fangirl moment.
4. Mya Taylor being herself.
3. Marion Cotillard elevating Greg Elwood to the level of serious journalist with her Actressness. (This happened, and he tweeted as much himself.)
2. Sir Ian McKellen.
and pure movie magic:
1. Tod Browning's DRACULA on the night before Halloween, with Philip Glass conducting a live performance of his score by the Kronos Quartet, at the modern Spanish Gothic United Artists Theater (now inside the Ace Hotel) in downtown Los Angeles.
I'm finally seeing Carol tomorrow! It's got a lot of hype to live up to. And hopefully seeing it at the Esquire (Cincinnati's only classic/old school theater) will make for a memorable movie-going experience.
Anonny -- i'm pretty good about spreading the wealth each but we'll see. there are years when a particular film dominates. funny thing is i've never done any stats for myself to see what my "trends" are. ;) i.e. oscar's best picture usually wins their best editing/best actor... and i know that is not true at all for my prizes even without looking :)
I loved Carol when I saw it in October (at a members only screening for SIFF cinema), but the friends I went with didn't like it; one of them said 'I don't like movies where the plot is driven by people not saying what they are really thinking', which I felt was so odd, because 1. that movie isn't even really about the plot, 2. he's an actor!
I just watched 'Written on the Wind' the other night, I love Malone's performance in it so much, and her character also has a lot of great touches in execution other than in performance; there's this jazzy rhythm that always pops up when it's a scene centered around here, in contrast to Bacall's gentle strings, plus the scene at the end where she cradles the obvious phallic symbol of an oil derrick as Rock drives off with Bacall.
I don't think Rock was a particularly versatile actor, but oh man is he perfect in Sirk's movies. I'm so glad Haynes is making movies in a similar vein.
LOVE the Star Wars story and the insane Trumbo/Chi-Raq juxtaposition in the lobby display. Taught Paris Is Burning for the millionth time this fall and agree there is still so much to savor and debate.
2015 in movies was considerable better than 2014 in movies by some distance.
So Oscars ought to be better; and Trumbo (which I finally saw) has no business in ANY category considering the wealth of this year. So, let's prepare the torches, Tarantino-style, if Trumbo actually happens. Still haven't seen BIG SHORT.
TB -- don't think about it. it's TOO AWFUL.
Chris - basically, yes
Paul -- i'm glad someone likes Q&As. i often have to exit quick to preserve the magics. #1 sounds so awesome.
Olivia -- i pray we haven't overhyped but fair warning. it is one of those movies whose cumulative after effect is strong so I don't know that people expecting a wow from the first frames will always get it :)
Rebecca -- actors are so weird, right?
Nick -- Trumbo/Chi-Raq were literally next door to each other and starting at roughly the same time.
I saw Carol for the second time at NYFF. Even though I had tickets to the Saturday afternoon showing I braved the standby line on Friday night in the rain. I got chatting to the guy next to me in line. He had never seen a Cate Blanchett film. Yep not even LOTR. Needless to say he got a fast education. I believe he's a big fan now.
I saw Carol for the first time yesterday and before it started my friend asked, "What's the best 2015 movie you've seen so far?" And I was like, "Uh, Carol."
Murtada -- how is this even possible in 2015? She's made so many movies. Hardly an elusive actor.
Hayden -- hilarious. I hope it lived up to your statement.
I just thought "Why let that tired business of *seeing* a movie delay the inevitable when I've known the answer for months?"
Nat - I actually usually hate Q&As because a) most moderators (present company excepted) are sycophantic, narcissistic and ignorant and b) most SAG members are even worse (so I run out as soon as/if they open the floor to audience questions). But this year's batch of Q&As has been unusually intelligent and informative.
RE: Carol. I thought it was great when I saw it in October, but I wasn't totally blown away. (It would not have made my Top 3 Haynes.) But it has been growing on me (over me? inside me?) as the weeks pass, partially due to this blog, and I am looking forward to my second viewing sometime in the next couple of weeks.
My best moment in theaters? Watching a packed theater of people have an Oh, Shit reaction to that failed attempt to stop the thing in It Follows. You know the one. Haven't seen horror fans that worked up since the mechanical cross at a midnight screening of Saw III.
I find "The Boyfriend" references self-indulgent, unnecessary and irksome.
I find the opposite, Samantha.
The Boyfriend is always hilarious and great and I love Nathaniel's references.
My own favorite from 2015 has to be Mad Max, wherein I went with a bunch of girlfriends, none of whom were particularly huge movie-goers or action movie lovers, and they all came out looking like they had been punched in the face. Then we had a two-hour discussion about the movie's themes and eco feminism and patriarchy and blood and Furiosa over burgers.
Paul's #1 is my dream. Where the hell was I when this happened?! I'm just two stops away from DTLA, for Christ's sake!
The many great suspenseful scenes in Sicario. No one in that theater dared to breath. Such a thrilling experience!!!
UPDATE: Carol was great! Hype totally met and surpassed in wondrous ways! I'd totally forgotten that it was filmed here in my city and that added an additional level of enjoyment - and there was always a nice crowd murmur whenever a recognizable Cinci spot was featured =)
Going to the Egyptian Theatre to see THE LOBSTER at AFI FEST in LA and having my faith in film restored. In only one viewing I knew I had seen something special and perhaps even a Classic. So what happened? Where is that film? When does it open?
Sissy -- i'm not sure exactly when but for inexplicable reasons despite lots of 2015 hoopla (and some awardage) it got shoved to 2016. This is almost never good news for a movie. Generally speaking the conversation is not revived the following year (see Maps to the Stars for recent example)
Love that I get to be a part of this list - and LOVE the Ellen Green inclusion - I think it fits within the technical perameters and I'm so jealous you got to be there. I sing 'Feed Me, Seymour' to Arlo every meal. And I hope they do a remake and I can play Orin. Happy New Year!