Pandemic Moviegoing According to Richard Roeper Makes Me Want to Return to the Movies! | Chaz's Jour

Even the studios and theaters have been participating in these Virtual Cinema Events. Magnolia Pictures had a successful run of what they called "A Few of our Favorite Docs" including "Life Itself," about my late husband Roger; "RBG" about the highly esteemed and very much alive Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; as well as "Blackfish" and "Hail Satan." Universal Studios got into a big dust-up with the movie theaters by previewing "Trolls The World Tour," on premium VOD. Its video on demand tour was so successful that some worried it would spell the end of movie theaters. But I don't think so. Just as "Talkies" didn't end the movies, and television didn't end radio (or audibles or podcasts as they are now called), home VOD won't end movie theaters. 

Outdoor drive-in theaters across the country have been providing moviegoers with another communal option by screening releases both new and nostalgic, such as "The Wizard of Oz."  I eagerly devour the experiences of the critics who go to the drive-in. I want to know such things as do they still have the big speakers that you hang on your windows? (No, you tune in through your cellphone or car radio.) Can you buy popcorn and other eats? (Yes, and they are carefully packaged and handled.) Can you get as many people in the car or SUV as you can comfortably tolerate. (Yes, just limit it to your intimate family or friends in your non-CORONA bubble). What about the loo? (They have "nice" porta-potties with someone there to clean and disinfect them after every use.) And I hear if you go to outdoor music events you can sit on top on the roof of your car! Wow! On days when you have been stuck inside all day, that sounds like fun. As they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention."

In closing, I'd like to share the final paragraphs of Roeper's article, in which he quotes a moving line from "Interstellar" that proves to be quite resonant...

“'Interstellar' is a complex and sometimes dizzying film that embraces science but also indulges in mind-bending science fiction," he writes. "It’s also shamelessly romantic at times, most notably when Anne Hathaway’s Brand admits to her fellow space explorer Cooper that yes, she wants their ship to chart a particular course because it would lead them to an astronaut she’s in love with, who embarked on an exploratory mission some 10 years earlier. Coop says they have to listen to the science when making such a huge decision. Brand responds: 'The tiniest possibility of seeing [him] excites me. That doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Love isn’t something we invented, it’s observable, it’s powerful. It has to mean something. … I’m drawn across the universe to someone I haven’t seen in a decade who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that even if we can’t understand it.'"

"Call that corny if you will, but I kinda loved that speech," Roeper admits. "We DO have to listen to the science — it’s a matter of life and death — but as we’re fighting an invisible enemy, there’s room believing in other things we can’t see. Things like love. Maybe a little bit more now than ever."

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