This entry actually doesn’t have anything to do with Back to the Future, other than the analogy of the past and the future seemingly mixing together…and I thought it was catchy.
As noted in my prior entry, which was Part I in which I detailed the thrill of seeing Aliens in the theater (remember this is that whole author repeating what you already know happened and possibly just read so as not to lose the interest of someone that didn’t read that prior novel, or in this case kind of sloppy BLAWWWWG entry, and just happened to stumble upon this one), in 1986 you didn’t have many options to experience a blockbuster film other than in the theater. However, now you kind of do, I mean my home set up is decent enough, fairly large screen with surround sound and subwoofer, not too bad (other than the fact that there is no way I can even watch a film there and turn up the volume because my wife will tell me it’s too loud and that the booming from that stupid box is dumb, and if we can turn that thing off then why haven’t we). My point is, there’s more options, and the inevitable death of the movie house has been sped up due to the impact of the pandemic.
However, last week my wife and I got a late afternoon babysitter and then snuck out to a movie theater that, most importantly, serves alcohol and food…to your seat…and has a happy hour. For those folks that said movie theaters are dead (oh yeah, that’s right, I was one of them, in fact I referenced it two sentences ago) this concept absolutely quashes that. We didn’t even care what movie we were going to see, we just wanted one that started at a time convenient with our babysitter awarded parental reprieve. What we came up with was A Quiet Place Part II starting at 4:00 PM at Silverspot Cinema, we liked the first film and thought, eh, what the hell this could be good.
Given the quality of the first film I think my wife and I were both interested in the sequel and I think my wife was asking a couple of weeks ago, as we sat our stationary asses on our stationary couch, if the film was streaming. She was thinking we could get it and watch it like we had done with other films since the pandemic hit and the world of film distribution has had to find a way to evolve. My response was always, “I don’t know (that’s actually my response to a lot of things she asks me), I haven’t seen it pop up so I don’t think so”, I’m perceptive. Turns out the film is only in theatres, a gutsy move, and the damn right thing to do in this instance.
The theater was nice, but also a bit of a shit hole as it was clearly not being regularly cleaned. I’m guessing that this has more to do with the fact that workers have essentially disappeared from the work force than the fact that this glorious recently built movie house is already heading downhill. That being said, it also gave it that nice old school movie theater feel, you know with Jujyfruits stuck to the floor and your shoes sticky on the bottom for a few days.
All that aside, we settled in, late of course, and ordered up some food and a lovely bottle of wine…once again to our seats!!! The movie starts and eventually the food and bev (that’s what the kids say, or that’s what they should say) gets delivered and everything is marvelous.
So on to the actual movie experience. If you haven’t seen it I can tell you that the trailer for A Quiet Place Part II promotes the film by stating, “This Is The Experience Theatres Were Made For”…
…and they’re absolutely correct! The film even goes so far as John Krasinski (writer, director, actor and Jim Halpert) welcoming you into the theater (we were late but not that late) and thanking you for being there and acknowledging that you understand that sometimes films should be viewed in an auditorium with other people, etc. (I didn’t catch it all as I was perusing the list of fine wines at the theater). Anyhow, it was pretty damn cool.
As I’ve stated, and I’ll state again, I Love film, and in my opinion no one did it better than Alfred Hitchcock, and while they didn’t close the doors and say that you couldn’t enter the auditorium like they did when Psycho came out (which is good because we would’ve been out in the cold drinking at the bar, not that there’s anything wrong with that but we came to see a movie) this was still pretty damn cool. This was making it a bit of an event and John was grateful you were there. I always loved the fact that Hitchcock would do whatever he could to add to the suspense, the thrill, the nervous tension in his filmmaking and storytelling, turning the action of going to see a film into an event, and I think John Krasinski was doing a bit of the same thing. At a minimum he was acknowledging that this was, and is, an event, and an event that is well needed after the year plus and well appreciated that we were embracing it. He was bringing people back out into the light and into the world, which ironically enough would be the opposite of what you would want to do in his film.
From the fantastic start of the film, which I won’t spoil other than to say that everyone dies…
…ah just kidding, so the film starts with a bit of a look back which I liked because it allowed John Krasinski to be on screen for this outstanding film of his. From that start to the tumultuous end I was on the edge of my seat. I’m so glad we didn’t watch this movie at home. The crazy thing about it was that after our food and drink came we realized that this was either the best or the absolute worst movie to eat and drink during in the theater. This is because there are whole swaths of the film in which there is absolutely no sound because in this movie when the characters make sound bad things happen, so it is very quiet, as indicated by the descriptive title of the film. As a result you have to painstakingly go out of your way to not make any sound, which can be seen as the best scenario in that the film becomes very immersive, however not the best as I slowly try to remove the bottle of white wine from the clutches of the ice and the bucket that have their hold on it while trying not to make a sound and unrolling my silverware from it’s napkin cocoon so as not to be a distraction to the other movie viewing brethren.
Needless to say the movie was intense from many angles. At the end of the film my wife and I just sat in our seats for a little while. I think we were both winded, sitting there shaking, clutching our remaining wine in our hands (I’m just kidding the wine was long gone) having felt like we had been on a ride, surrounded by plates containing remnants of delicious (no kidding the food was also really outstanding) chicken fingers, sweet potato fries, quesadillas and some amazing cauliflower chicken wing substitute thingies that I thought were going to totally suck but then didn’t. The scene actually reminded me a bit of our “honeymoon”. Anyhow, we were in it! We were out in the world, doing the shit, watching a movie that should only be watched out in the world, and it was awesome! I wanted the whole thing to start again. Even just the experience of it while it was taking place seemed to be “new”. I’m familiar with surround sound, as noted in the opening paragraph, but the surround sound in this place was amazing, it was as if the speakers were embedded inside my ears, somehow traveling right through my wife who was sitting next to me.
Similar to the Aliens experience I’m likely to remember seeing this film with my wife for a long time, and I’ll forecast that the reason for that is that this was an event of us getting back out into the world again, on top of the fact that the movie was awesomely intense. I believe it is this combination that makes the whole event stick, which I suppose is not that shocking of a thing. Sadly, despite my love for Hitchcock I never got to see one of his films in the theater, but I’m betting it was a communal suspenseful event. However, I would guess, and I know for a fact as it pertains to my most recent experience, that the expectation isn’t to be blown away while sitting in a dark room with a boatload, or handful, of strangers when you walk in. Movies can grab you that way.
It’s awesome, and unique, that my brother and his girlfriend took me to see Aliens and I still link it all together, but the thing that really sticks in my mind about that event is the adventure that I went on with Ripley, her crew and the auditorium full of people. The edge of my seat intensity, Hicks opening up that ceiling and seeing impossible odds raining down on them, me realizing that horror and excitement is something that can be so effectively achieved through the visual story telling. Also, I was a bit of a wuss, and so all of this coming at me really tested my mettle in a way I think. It was pretty damn cool and as a result it stuck, in my brain, big time.
It strikes me as funny that the event that is representative of getting back out into the world is one in which we got off of our couch and went and sat on someone else’s couch, ate their food, drank their wine and watched a movie, and it was a big event. It’s obvious to me, and probably anyone that talks to me, that movies have a big impact on me, but I’m not so sure I would’ve so easily and readily acknowledged that actually going to the theater would add such a major crescendo to the thing. It sounds dumb I know, maybe I just forgot, but the right film at the right time in the theater can be a life remembering experience. I guess it doesn’t hurt, and it’s not lost on me, that these were two films about alien creatures in a suspenseful setting in which, it could be argued, the sequel outdid the amazing initial film. Outstanding decision to release this film in theaters only (back to the future if you will) and I’m glad we didn’t just wait to watch it at home, because it’s all too easy to do. I’m glad, despite not having seen Alien, that my brother took me along to check out Aliens with him in the theater. As a result these great movies turned into experiences. I have this to remember the next time I want to just catch a film at home I suppose. Instead I’m gonna go get dressed up and experience the film at the movie house, in all of it’s glory, which really means I’m gonna go experience it out in the shit. It harkens the days of a $.10 ticket and a free gravy boat when you attend, at least that way you got something out of the film. No one’s giving you a gravy boat on your couch.
