New York
April 8, 2011

Friday!

Tonight I’m going out with Gail Dennison, one of my oldest friends and one of the first friends I made when I moved to New York in 1979. 

Gail is a riotously funny actress and comic performer.  She also teaches at the American Musical and Drama Academy here in New York.

We’re trying to figure out a movie to go see.  I’m not having much luck selling her on Hanna.  Evidently Your Highness and the remake of Arthur are both awful, so I’ve just sent her a raft of suggestions.  The problem with being my movie buddy is that I go to the movies four times more often than most people.  This causes a real problem when you want to go to a movie with me.

The problem?  It’s this: Normal movie lovers — I’m talking about those increasingly rare weirdos who, like me, like to see films in the traditional way, that is, in a public movie theater —  have a short list of movies in their heads that they’d  really like to see.  As time passes, and their chance to see these films pass by when the titles leave the first-run theaters, newer titles take their place.  It’s a constantly readjusting short list that they almost unconsciously maintain.

I’m the same way, except I’m the on-steroids version.  I have twenty titles in my list, and – here’s the kicker – I actually go see the movies on my list.  I know, crazy, right?  Most of the time, movies leave my list not because it’s too late to see them in a theater, but because I’ve seen them and crosses them off the list.

So say you’re my friend, and you like movies and you want to make a movie playdate with me.  It’s a drag, because you’re almost guaranteed to have this problem:  Any possible title on your list is a movie I’ve crossed off mine weeks ago.  I’ve already worked my way down to that hilarious Pakistani soccer comedy and the documentary on the bed bug plague.  And you still want to see Inception.  It’s a problem.  Unless you want to go to a specialty screening, the only way our movie lists can intersect and find a happy match is if we go see a movie that just opened this week.  Or, preferably, just opened today. 

Sorry about that, everyone.  It’s just part of the price you pay for being my friend.

Now:  What time shall we meet to see the six-hour director’s cut of Heaven’s Gate?

Great Places in Los Angeles and New York to See A Cool Movie That’s Not Brand-New or Utterly Mainstream

• The NuArt
• The New Beverly
• Film Forum
• Cinema Village
• The American Cinemateque at the Egyptian and the Aero
• The Museum of Modern Art
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Silent Movie