Thank god, I live within an hours drive of Memphis, TN (pop. 700,000); however, with this economy being what it is, I don't always get to watch the great little indie/limited release films until after the Oscar Telecast.

There's a different reason why i really liked this article though – it reminded me of a conversation i had with my late father when we went to watch 'Gladiator' together. It's the 'make it a day' bit… (Skip to the next comment now if you dont want to read a boring memory) He loved films like Spartacus or Hercules and i had persuaded him to go with me, although he hadnt been to a cinema in decades. When the film was over he said he hadn't been able to understand the dialogue for the first 20 minutes or so, because he was constantly distracted by the dolby surround sounds of birds chirping in the left hand corner etc. Then he told me how in the 1950's in his south Italian hometown they would go to the cinema in the morning, pay something like the equivalent of 2 Eurocents and stay there ALL day and watch as many films as possible. It was a social event, they would bring sandwiches along and walk around in between shows and catch up with everyone else. Apparently they would do that every Saturday, especially in winter when it was one of the few warm places and they would discuss the films they had seen for the next 7 days… So yeah, not so much a road trip, but definitely a love for films, right?

The Wrestler is showing in Milwaukee January 16th. Like I said, I'm there.

No of course not. I was writing tongue in cheek about how road tripping officially makes you a film fiend, although I do feel it says something positive about you if you ever gone the extra mile to see a film (and I think your avoidance of screeners says something great about your dedication to the film watching experience).

All in all, the idea of putting the extra effort into seeing a film is all relative, nor is it necessarily focused around American films (I'm sure Holland gets some European films loooong before we do in the states, which makes you a lucky bastard to me). Nor is there any sort of distance that constitutes what a "movie road trip" would be, again it's a relative, loose idea. The majority of the population in the US lives in major metropolitan areas that do get these films shortly after release. However, even if you live in one of these metropolitan areas–like Chicago–the nearest theater playing the film may still be a half an hour, 45 minutes, 1 hour drive, which is probably something that the "average" moviegoer wouldn't undertake for something like "Let the Right One In." Basically it boils down to would you go the extra distance to see a certain film, whether that's road tripping, avoiding screeners in order to view the film as the filmmaker prefers, or leaving work early to catch an opening screening or whatever.

I refuse to watch all those dvdscreeners that are out right now, so I'll just have to wait for the january/february release dates of Milk, The Wrestler, Slumdog Millionaire and all the other great movies that are being released here months after their US release.
At least you can drive for two hours and still see them, I háve to read everything about it and still won't be able to see them. You lucky bastard you.