there's only one reason i hate multiplexes. some people hate them because of the impersonal nature or the prices of a soft drink or how the particular movies they are showing are ruining society. understand these arguements are all relative to the 'art house'.
the only reason i hate multiplexes is because people talk during the movies. i try and go during the week for this reason but occassionally i make it out on a weekend. it's usally an awful an experience and i don't know why i punish myself but everytime i keep on thinking, 'please lord, let this time be different'. my experience with wolf creek was awful. i remember seeing hannibal and the experience was worse than that. i think people get nervous and uncomfortable with horror movies and they feel like they have to act like they're cool and collected when probably the opposite is true.
when people laugh at an art house, it's especially depressing. like, if you go to mcdonald's and you hear someone burp, you kind of expect it. you take a nice deep breath before you go into the bathrooms because, hey, it's mcdonalds. but at a five star restaurant, you take your time, check yourself in the mirror, straighten out the tie. you have a better experience at least partially because the people eating there are more considerate.
i had a really terrible experience last night during brokeback mountain. but it wasn't at a multi-plex, it was at the rialto in raleigh. some moron acting like they're the only person in the movie theater. i'm guessing they act like this for the same reason people act like they do during horror films. i'm not trying to say films with gay characters are equivalent to horror films or anything...just bear with me.
this jackass would laugh at everything in the movie like it was jim carrey and charlie chaplin all alone for the summer, rounding up sheep and not heath and jake.
heath kicks over a can of beans BWHA HA. jake pees in the woods HARDY HAR. this was all stuff to try and give a lightheartedness to the flick, it's not supposed to be 'meet the parents' or 'there's something about mary'. but there's this idiot laughing away.
i asked a friend of mine if they saw anything recently and he said he saw brokeback and thought it was good but the experince was terrible because of people laughing.
this tends to happen with british comedies too. i had a similar experience with 'love actually' at the chelsea in chapel hill. i think it happens with british comedies because some things are more hilarious to british people than americans. it's not that big of a deal, just a cultural thing. but these 'refined' pricks come to watch 'love actually' and to prove that they really get british humor they laugh loud and they laugh often just to make sure something doesn't fall through the cracks, making sure to let the rest of us know they get it. they get british humor. they're smart. they can appreciate different cultures. they're hoping you come up to them afterwards and ask them about certain parts and why they were funny and they'll point out they lived in J.O.E. for a summer (that's what they call it! get it! jolly old england!) when the reality is, everyone wants to flush their head down a toilet while wondering if it's so goddamn funny over there, why didn't you stay? i know of at least fifty people who will gladly pitch in a few bucks for airfare to get you back to the Queen Mum.
i think that's what happened last night at the rialto. it wasn't someone who was laughing because they are ignorant, it was someone laughing because they were trying to prove they aren't.
and that's even worse.
j
