On Double Features

As the auto-insert welcome post of my new blog says, “Hello, world!”  How are you doing?  I’m not sure that I have a review in me tonight, but I wanted to get my own initial post up there.  I thought I would write a brief note on double features instead.

Yesterday I went and saw 2 movies in a row, and yes, I mean the kind of experience where you only pay for one… and it was awesome!  When was the last time you did that?  I kept thinking it’s been a while since I have, but looking back, I don’t think I ever have.  I think this might have been a new experience for me; the maiden voyage of my screwing AMC.  And I highly highly recommend it.  Damn the man.

(Cue: Save the Empire!)

(Okay, I promise there won’t be too many of those references.  Maybe.)

My boyfriend and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire followed very closely by Milk.  We managed to arrange just about ten minutes in between – enough time for a bathroom run and a quick jaunt around the various floors of the movie theatre trying not to look too shady or to be shunted out onto the street by taking the wrong escalator.  We checked in advance for a theatre that had both movies, checked on the kiosk thingie where you buy tickets to avoid waiting in line which theatre our second movie would be in so we’d know where to go (this was key), and then just nonchalantly snuck from one straight to the other.  And it was great!  It was a lot of movie in one day, I will admit, but they were both very good, it was a bit of a rush and, most importantly, movies are so over-priced here in NYC that it made the seeing two movies much more worth it since we got one for free.

Some drawbacks: It does mean you get out a lot later than expected.  Be prepared for that.  And it screws a little with any sort of processing of the story afterwards.  After the whole thing was done, I kept jumbling both movies together, which has been strange.  I don’t mean that I was uncertain whether Harvey was killed in India by a Fagan-like gang of evil fake-orphanage goons, or whether Jamal had insanely curly hair and gigantic 70s glasses and a small awkward mustache, but rather that an idea about one followed closely on the heels of something almost completely unrelated from the other.  It was a little confusing, though I suppose could also make for some interesting parallels or comparisons if you chose to get all Comp Lit about it.

What with the Oscars coming up, not that I really care, it was cool to see 2 Best Picture contenders in a row.  Plus, my boyfriend wanted to see Milk more, I wanted to see Slumdog more, and this way neither of us was disappointed or even had to wait more than 2 hours.

I kept thinking about this story my parents always told me (okay, not “always” like it was common at bedtime or anything, but I liked it a lot) about their experience when Indiana Jones first came out.  They went to see Raiders and they loved it so much that they just stayed in their seats for a second show and watched the whole thing over again.  Admittedly, this was when they didn’t clean the theatre til the end of the day (imagine the stickiness) and so this was more feasible, but even so.  It’s getting off of a roller coaster and running straight back into line because you loved it so, had such a rush of joyful adrenaline.  Can you remember enjoying something that much?  If you’ve never run straight back into line, you haven’t lived, my friend.

Moral of the story, I guess: Find something in your life that warrants a double feature.  It’s a great way to spend the day.