moviegoing Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Every time SXSW and Texas come up in conversation, I keep hearing about the a-mazing merging of movies and food at the Alamo Drafthouse, and the chatter never ceases to inspire huge green waves of jealousy. The idea that moviegoers could revel in Hollywood while chowing down on quality menu items -- it's been my dream for years, and sounds like a perfect taste of heaven.

For me, it started as a matter of convenience. I grew up in a town where the only close theater was in an almost-abandoned mall, which then moved to an actually-abandoned K-Mart. Since it wasn't really the backdrop for excellent movie viewing, I'd drive for 40 minutes every week to pick up new CDs and see a movie at a better theater. I'd usually get to the theater quite early, so I would smuggle in Wendy's and have dinner while watching the on-screen trivia -- a much more appealing option than sitting in a food court, eating, then getting to the theater late.

These days, I live in Toronto and don't have to worry about huge movie travel. Nevertheless, the urge remains, and now it might actually come close to becoming legit! The Canadian Press reports that T-dot's Varsity Cinema has gotten a new liquor license to serve alcohol in their smaller VIP theaters, and other areas may soon follow. First step booze, next step: big juicy burgers and fries?

When I learned that the Fairfax 5 Theatres, in Fairfax, California, was to be installed with a solar photovoltaic system, I immediately thought of that old joke (unfortunately directed towards a certain nationality) about the idiotic invention of a solar-powered flashlight. Movie projectors running on solar-powered electricity? Absurd. Especially since most people go to the movies at night! But, of course, my initial thoughts were just as stupid as the flashlight idea, even if I was merely trying to think of a corresponding joke and all the time actually knew, obviously, that solar energy isn't only useful during the hours that the sun is out.

The second thing I thought of, though, all joking aside, was the possibility of a lowered electricity bill. One of the costliest parts of running a movie theater is all the electricity used for lighting, projection, air conditioning, etc. It's these costs that primarily keep concession prices up, as they're a major part of a cinema's constant overhead. Certainly Cinema West, the company that owns Fairfax 5 Theatres, is thinking about the environmental benefits of solar energy, and their new system is indeed reportedly expected to offset nearly 1,000 tons of greenhouse gases. But surely the cost cutting was a big incentive, too. Over the 30-year life of the system, Cinema West is looking to save more than $627,000.

This week, I don't want to talk about anything new. I don't want to discuss the good news about studios and European exhibitors finally agreeing on a virtual print fee. I don't want to comment on Nielsen's research showing the strong consumer appetite for 3-D films (I'll be talking enough about 3-D next week in anticipation of Journey to the Center of the Earth). I don't want to even get people's hopes up about Microsoft's supposed "manners device" that silences cell phones instead of blocking them (signal blocking was recently found to be illegal in the U.S.). I really don't want to comment on Mark Gill's "The Sky is Falling" speech from the L.A. Film Festival loosely concerning the state of art house cinema (the speech is more related to film making and financing, plus I already played Chicken Little last week).

Kids rule the multiplex. That's why they're the most targeted audience and the most targeted consumers as far as Hollywood and concession suppliers are respectively concerned. But where would the kids be without their parents? Perhaps they'd still be watching movies, but maybe not at the cinema. To see a movie at the multiplex, they need a ride from their mom, or they require the companionship of their blockbuster-loving dad. Sure, things may be a little different today, but my experience of being a moviegoing child entailed a lot of assistance and encouragement from my mom and dad.

It's hard to decide which parent had greater influence on my cinephilia, especially since I only recently recognized my mother's contributions. My father was the one who usually took my brothers and me to the movies every other weekend, and each time we stayed with him we seemed to rent more videos than could be watched in a 48-hour period. Meanwhile my mother let us watch cable, including as much R-rated fare as HBO would broadcast. At a very, very young age I was already familiar with a lot of horror, violence, swearing, nudity and other "restricted" content that the MPAA was only OK with me seeing if it was OK with my "accompanying parent or adult guardian."

In the Sun Times, Roger Ebert talks about the changing (or, more accurately, changed) crop of movie theaters in his beloved Chicago: "Just for the sake of nostalgia," he writes, "Let me name the theaters I remember: the Chicago, State-Lake, Oriental, Roosevelt, United Artists, Woods, McVickers, Clark, Monroe, Michael Todd, Cinestage, World Playhouse, Loop, Bismarck Palace and, oh, a place called the Shangri-La that materialized out of a Chinese restaurant, showed some porn and disappeared." Those were all in the downtown loop alone; as he points out, the only place to currently see movies in the Loop is at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's newish Gene Siskel Film Center. The movie theaters have been largely replaced by "legit" theaters, and moviegoing has moved uptown.

It may not be what it once was, but I have great memories of seeing movies in Chicago. In fact, I often think of moving back there just for the movie theaters alone. I guess I should stop that sort of dreaming, because it looks like most of what I loved as recently as five years ago no longer exists.