How to enjoy a movie without distractions
There are few things in life more satisfying than watching a good movie.
The ritual of gathering in the dark with other people to see the magic of moving pictures never gets old, even if cinema itself dates back to the 1890s.
The essential experience has remained the same all these years, apart from the addition of sound and colour early in the 20th century and occasional fiddling with screen sizes.
We watch the lives of others as respite from our own. When the stories we’re shown move or amuse us, the joy remains long after the lights go up. It’s a perfectly wonderful pastime — and also an occupation, in my case.
Which is why I’m puzzled that studios and exhibitors keep trying to reinvent the reel, so to speak, by turning movie-watching into a funhouse ride.
It’s bad enough that we too-often have 3D foisted upon on us, even though very few films are improved by the hassle of watching them through smeary plastic lenses on screens darkened by dull bulbs.
Director Ang Lee is anxious to have everybody watching his films not just in 3D, but also the high frame rate of 120 FPS (frames per second), a huge jump from the traditional 24 FPS. Lee claims it makes images more “immersive.”
His new drama, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, uses this process, but so-so early reviews and high conversion costs prompted TriStar Pictures to limit availability to just six screens globally, none of them in Canada. The film opens in Toronto and elsewhere next week in conventional 2D and 24 FPS.
Similarly seeking to shake multiplexes, literally, is Cineplex’s new 4DX auditorium at its Yonge-Dundas venue. There, for $25, viewers feel artificial wind, rain and snow while holding on for dear life in a chair that rocks along to action scenes. I haven’t tried it yet, but I have tried — and not enjoyed — the cheaper D-Box seats, which bounce around without the fake weather.
Do we really need the distraction? All this emphasis on the act of participating in a movie makes me think we’re forgetting how to simply take pleasure in it. This inspires me to offer a few suggestions on how to enjoy a movie, rather than merely watching it — and I’m also writing this as a reminder to myself: Consider a little advance research: Unless you’re the type of moviegoer who wants to be completely surprised — and there’s nothing wrong with that — it can help to know a bit about the story you’re about to see. Filmmakers often dispense with back story and pull viewers straight into the main narrative, as Jeff Nichols does with his new drama Loving, which is based on a true story of the fight for interracial marriage rights in America. Reading a critic’s review (ahem) or some other backgrounder can increase your movie-going pleasure, especially with complicated stories. Silence all digital devices: The world will wait for those two hours and change you’re watching a movie. It will still be there when you get out, just as it was in cinema’s first 100 or so years, when we didn’t have smartphones to carry around. You shouldn’t derail either your train of thought or your neighbour’s by constantly checking email and texts. There are rare emergency exceptions, but it’s amazing how a great movie can hold you in your seat. My wife, Maggie,, nine months pregnant at the time, went into early labour with our son Joe in 1986 while watching The Color Purple in a theatre, but she stayed until the credits because she loved the film so much. Allow the film to speak to you: Keep your eyes, ears and mind open to what the movie is trying to do. Don’t go to a mainstream comedy expecting Citizen Kane or to Citizen Kane expecting a mainstream comedy. Accept that the filmmakers and actors may be trying something with camera or narrative techniques that is outside your experience or comfort zone — “different” shouldn’t be used as a synonym for “bad.” This is hard advice even for critics to follow, perhaps even more so than regular moviegoers. Critics tend to think they’ve seen it all and there’s nothing really new up on the screen, but sometimes there is. Be ready for it. Talk about the movie afterwards: Along with the great pleasure of watching movies is the associated joy of sharing them with others. Team up with a movie-loving friend or relation so you’ll have someone to have a coffee with afterwards and discuss what you’ve just seen. Often, people will have had an entirely different experience than you and will be eager to explain why.
It makes for a more interesting time than just throwing your empty popcorn bucket in the trash and declaring a movie “good” or “bad.”
Maybe these suggestions can’t top the experience of spending $25 to have water sprayed in your face and your hair blown back.
But they work for me. See you at the movies! Peter Howell is the Star’s movie critic. His column usually runs Fridays.