I want YOU to go to the movies!

'SUP, NERDS?!

You know what I'm sick of? Bad movies. And yes! In order to stop the madness of shit-movies, I want YOU to go to the movie theatre! Not only should you go to the theatre, but you should buy tickets to something that isn't the blockbuster of the month.

Why I'm Annoyed

If ya'll can't tell. I go see lots of unusual films, which you may have read in past entries. You'll typically see me mention, "There's just myself and *fewer than 10 people* in the theatre." Perhaps you can call me a hipster movie-goer?? However, I rarely see a film I really dislike. If I'm going to spend $13 to see an evening show (unfortunately my work schedule is never conductive to seeing a matinee...), I'm making sure it's something I know I'll enjoy or have an appreciation for even if it lacks in certain areas of filmmaking.

So my rage begins with Fathom Events. I guess this isn't anyone's fault, it's just a matter of demographics and theatre traffic. The other day I had my heart completely set on seeing Masaaki Yuasa's recent anime movie, The Night is Short, Walk On Girl. This movie was frequently advertised to me whilst browsing the internet and I frequently check for new Fathom Events anyway.

Yuasa is a phenomenal director and artist. I'm a huge fan of a bunch of anime he's worked on: Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong: The Animation and most recently the Netflix exclusive Devilman Crybaby. These are all awesome anime, I highly recommend checking any of them out! For being a grossly underrated director, I was shocked to see that his movie made to American theatres for a specialty showing. That struck me odd, but it all started to add up in my head...

After finishing my 11 hour work day, I open the Regal Cinemas app to double check the time-- I should've had a half hour to get my butt from work to the theatre and catch the movie in good time. But the show wasn't listed. Confused, I checked the Fathom Events website to only find that the closest theatre playing The Night is Short, Walk On Girl is 90 minutes from me. I lost my shit. Absolutely furious.

The Remedy

After having my fit, I felt upon the principle of supporting movies deserving of good money, I went to a showing of Generation Wealth. Generation Wealth is a documentary by Lauren Greenfield who created one of my favorite documentaries of all time, The Queen of Versailles. If you haven't seen The Queen of Versailles, I highly recommend it, the family you will watch had waaaaay too much money and everything they did hurts. Whenever it goes on Netflix, I watch it ten times over.

I'm glad I saw Generation Wealth because that would have been the only opportunity for me to see it on the silver screen because that too had a very limited run. To my demise, I was the only person in the theatre. How depressing.

Just Stop Picking Dumb Movies

I noticed a lot of buzz around The Meg, which I kind of get "movie of the month" vibes from. I don't want to knock on "dumb" movies because I LOVE so many silly films, but you have to know what you're getting into before seeing a "dumb" movie. The number of complaints I saw on social media about the movie was immaculate! I was surprised to see so much discussion around it.

I'm one of those people frantically swimming away from
this film.

I saw so many tweets along the lines of, "There's no good movies this August, may as well go see The Meg." HELL NO! You don't know how many people I've refuted the importance of seeing good v. "dumb" movies, shouting to them, "GO SUPPORT THE FIRST FULL ASIAN-CAST MOVIE IN 25 YEARS, Crazy Rich Asians!!"

Special gems like Crazy Rich Asians are so incredibly rare and I'm so glad Kevin Kwan's novel was adapted into a movie. I've been a fan of the novel for years now and was joyed when I heard it was going to be made into a film. Heck, I even went to a special early showing of it before the official release, I was that excited!

I am as in love with this movie as Nick and Rachel are in
love with each other...

Most importantly, it is actually a well-crafted romantic comedy. Romcoms have a reputation for being extremely cheesy and reinforce the ideals of the male gaze. Of course there was some cheese in Crazy Rich Asians, but I think the various stories all came to fruition and you really fall in love with the characters and their problems.

IN CONCLUSION,

Please choose wisely which movies you see in the theatre. Just know that where your money goes influences Hollywood and if we continue to feed stupid movies, they'll cling onto a trend and beat it into your soul until your soul itself extinguishes. All I really want out of this is greater recognition for smaller gems and for them to be more available because all films, no matter how good or bad, are truly meant to be seen on the big screen.

"Liz, I don't go to the theatre because it will eventually be up on Netflix!" Dude. Support the film industry more directly for the genres and creators you want to make more of what you love. Netflix is a wonderful way to sample new things, but occasionally go out when you can afford it and give your dollars to a theatre.

LATER, DWEEBS!

Loverly Liz