“Watching a movie in the dark with strangers is half the cinematic adventure”

He’s not wrong. We must do everything we can to preserve the communal experience of cinema. And it’s not just the electricity of the packed house. I can recall seeing a quiet mid-week matinée of my pal Eli’s shocker Hostel: Part II on 42nd Street in New York. Quiet, in that I was the only person in attendance. But then, more than an hour into the film, another man came and sat next to me in the large auditorium. He took one look at the gory cannibal carnage on screen and exclaimed to me, “Beautiful!” Even though I politely moved one seat over, a little unnerved, I miss these moments. Watching a movie in the dark with strangers is half the cinematic adventure. So, to that peculiar man at the Hostel II matinée, I’ll see you on the other side of this intermission.