Hey! I Want to See These 'Top Ten' Movies Too!
These limited releases really chap my hide!
Oh The Wrestler is that good, eh? Life isn't complete without seeing Slumdog Millionaire? Synecdoche, New York will blow my mind with its mighty Kaufman awesomeness? Hey thanks for rubbing it in. Please continue on how Let the Right One In is a masterpiece of masterpieceosity. No no, don't stop. I want to feel like That Guy. You know. That one guy at your college roommate's sexy art student girlfriend's party who hasn't illegally downloaded the latest Bright Eyes album that everyone around him is raving about. Every December through January, I'm him, That Guy.
I've never completed a best movie of the year list before February. In fact, when people are proclaiming their already-failed New Year's resolutions at 12:01 AM, I haven't even seen half the films that'll end up on my list. You see, I live in a small Iowan city called Cedar Rapids (metropolitan population: 180,000; movie screens: 33, or 56 if you include nearby Iowa City). And when it comes to the year-end indies and limited-opening prestige flicks, Santa brings us jackshit.
We get these films eventually…usually. Yet just to torture us Cedar Rapid movie lovers, the state capital and slightly larger city of Des Moines (two hours away) almost always gets the big-buzz films weeks/months ahead of us. So, I'm regularly a couple of months or more behind the big-city folk movie fiends when it comes to being in the end-of-the-year know. This makes reading the Internet, even the site I write for, frustrating. Depression sets in, as does paranoia. Am I being mocked? And yeah, I stomp my feet and shake my fists at the clouds over this slight from the film Gods (A.K.A. film distributors and theater management). Yet, I enjoy where I live, and that's the way it is.
You can't open something like The Class here without a few months of critical buzz to boost awareness. There's no money in it for either the movie theater or distributor. Why give an auditorium to a movie that sells 5 tickets a day when you can cram it full of old people who must see Marley and Me per their bucket lists? A month ago I was dumbfounded to see Happy-Go-Lucky find its way here. Guess what? It lasted one week (and I missed it, wah wah wah). But if you would bring it here now since the film has received some top-ten love, it just may last two weeks. So I get it. All about the money. Okay. Yet, that doesn't make it go down any easier. Nor does it really explain why the oh-so-cosmopolitan, but not that much larger, Des Moines, sees these movies long before we do. And it definitely doesn't excuse the local absence of Frost/Nixon (c'mon it's a Ron Howard movie, and small-city folk love Opie) or Revolutionary Road (what, you need a bigger star than Leonardo DiCaprio to open your film?).
There's only one reasonable solution to this madness. And to some, that's even more madness. I'm talking movie road tripping. Yes, if I really want to see a film–even if I know it'll open near me within a few weeks–I'll hop into the Honda and journey a few hours to where it's showing. Make a day of it. Maybe catch another movie that isn't screening in my area. Last year I traveled three and half hours to Chicago to catch the re-release of Blade Runner, two hours to see There Will Be Blood, and an hour and a half for No Country For Old Men. And this year, I'll take a trip if it means seeing The Wrestler earlier. And next year, almost no distance will stop me from catching The Road as soon as possible (assuming those bastards at Dimension Films release it in 2009). Sure it sounds insane. But years ago, people actually used to do this regularly (as much as I whine about my city not obtaining smaller movies in a timely fashion, people had to wait weeks for films like Jaws and Star Wars).
To me, the movie road trip is how you earn your stripes in the film fiend brigade. You can say you love fine cinema and blah blah blah. But save it for Flowery Film Theory 101. The physical, monetary, time-consuming act of seeking out one small, great film in a far away land (like Des Moines) says a lot more about your dedication to movies than wordy adoration. If you happen to fall into a similar situation as me, I suggest proving your worth by grabbing a few friends for an odyssey to some city playing a movie you all want to see immediately. Or go existential style and brave the roads alone. Who knows? It may be an adventure. Or at the very least you'll probably get a good movie out of it.
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So you're suggesting that if I don't catch a flight from Holland to the US to see The Wrestler or whatever indie flick, I'm not a dedicated film lover?
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.
@Ric: Yes yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. If you don't hop across the Atlantic, then you're not a reeeal movie fan.
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 can relate completely. I live on the panhandle of FL and we don't get anything limited, anywhere near me. Everytime I'm in a big city for whatever reason, I'm watching movies. I was able to catch "Tell No One" (one of my favorites this year) when I was in Nashville for work, "Man on Wire" while visiting my sister in Dallas, and lost of great films while visiting grandparents in Atlanta or business trips at different times this year (Let the Right One In, Synecdoche, NY, Rachel Getting Married, The Visitor, The Fall, Mongol). Sometimes I'll drive an hour to Pensacola because their 18 screen Rave will get something a little more rare than our little 14 screen Rave in Destin. Any ways, I appreciate your frustration and also cannot freaking wait to see the Wrestler, Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, etc.!!!
I'm in the same boat except up north a bit in Duluth, MN. We travel to the Twin Cities about once a month to check out stuff. Last trip we saw Let the Right One In and Synechdoche. Next trip in Jan we are planning The Wrestler and Revolutionary Road. hehe. Good Stuff. It's fun to road trip too.
That actually sounds pretty fun, but it's wholly unnecessary for me, since I live forty five minutes east of Los Angeles. But I guess that's still a pretty long drive just to see a movie. I might do that this weekend, I'm dying to see Let The Right One In after my sister bought a bootleg copy of Twlight and made me watch it with her. Slumdog Millionaire s playing in my local theater and I can wait on the Wrestler and Synecdoche.
I'm in a similar boat, Sheboygan, WI. Our theater here, well, sucks. If you don't like what's playing, the next two closest theaters are a half hour away, one of them being a matinee theater. I've gone to Milwaukee, 50 miles away, or Madison, 120 miles, for movies. If a flick has good reviews and looks like something I want to see, I'm there. Half the time I go alone. I think if you have 13 screens for 50,000 people, you should maybe try to get a limited movie but that's me. It's nice to know that I'm not the only person that goes through something like this, but I wish it was a little easier for us to catch some movies.
The Wrestler is showing in Milwaukee January 16th. Like I said, I'm there.
I am in a similar situation when at school. The only theater there is two screens and is most of the time showing stuff like High School Musical 3 or Beverly Hills Chihuahua. While on break I try to see as many films as I can being close to Chicago.
I live in a small town in Germany, so not only do we get the good ones months later than you guys in the USA (if at all), but they are normally also dubbed/synchronized which means they get rid of all the different accents etc in the German version. The next cinemas are only about half an hour away though, so it's not that bad as far as distance goes…
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?
@davidfrank: I was kind of in a sarcastic mood when I wrote that, so yeah, I got the meaning of your column. I never knew that watching a limited release in a metropolitan area in the US was also such a hassle though. Movie road tripping sounds like a hell of an idea.
I don't wanna here any complaints about living in a town of 100k+ that contains over 30 screens – I live in Oxford, Mississippi (pop. 10,000) and we don't have movie "screens," we have 7 screens at "1" theater. You can imagine the amount of limited releases that we get: NONE.
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.
@davidfrank – you are a lucky one. When I first started my movie obsession we only had 2 screens, which went to 4, but they were terrible mono theatres. Then recently we were lucky to get a 7-screen theatre, which put the others out of business, but I rarely get to see anything I'd like see.
I also live in Iowa, in a small ghost town a few miles from yours named Iowa City. By January 1st I had seen a majority of the films being hailed this year. Happy-Go-Lucky, Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler, Milk, Gran Torino, Chop Shop, Shotgun Stories, etc, etc. The only two that I have yet to see that are roundly making the lists are Doubt and Synecdoche, New York. I don't think it matters where you are. It matters how interested you are in seeing them. I have a top 20 of the year (less wherever those 2 I mentioned may fall), and I would put it up against the best of all great lists. Don't blame Iowa, blame yourself. And may the guilt fall swiftly and mercilessly.
Thank you for expressing the frustration I feel so intensely this time of year. I currently live in the northwest part of New Jersey, so unless I'm willing to road trip to NYC or Philadelphia, there's no chance I'll see some of these films before DVD. I don't mind the road tripping now that gas is cheap again, but going to NYC means an $8 toll for the tunnel, minimum $20 for parking, the $12 or so for the movie ticket (more for the IMAX theater) plus food. Fortunately I lived in NYC from 1990-96 so I generally know which theaters are movie palaces worth the trip (like the Ziegfeld for Defiance) and which are dumpy shoeboxes not worth the effort (like Lincoln Plaza for Che). I guess the good fortune I had living for a time in Boston, NYC, and San Francisco has spoiled me. I drove an hour to the AMC in Hamilton, NJ last week to catch Frost/Nixon (and Australia), and I'll be back there soon to see The Reader. Even just 4 years ago I went into NYC to catch the director's cut of Donnie Darko (which was not worth it). And I drove to King of Prussia, PA to see Superman Returns in IMAX. But as I get older, there really has to be good reason to make the effort of a road trip (digital projection, IMAX, 3-D, at least digital sound). Otherwise I'm better off waiting for DVD.
This time last year, I was you man. And I know it sucks. I live in South Africa, we get Milk in April, fyi. How's that for lame? Thank god for press screenings I guess.