When I was 11 and in the sixth grade, my friends and I would go
to the movies right after school. After the final bell rang on
Friday, we’d grab our backpacks, travel the four blocks or so
to the local theater, and see the early afternoon screenings of
movies like “Goldeneye” or “Beavis and Butthead
Do America.” We weren’t very cool.
When I was 14 and in the ninth grade, my friends and I went to
the movies right after sundown. After we finished eating dinner
with our families on Friday, we’d grab our parents, make them
travel the three miles or so to the local theater to drop us off,
and then see evening screenings of movies like “The
Matrix” or “There’s Something About Mary.”
We snuck into R-rated movies we weren’t old enough to see. We
were kind of cool.
When I was 17 and in the 12th grade, my friends and I went to
the movies as late as possible. After we finished waiting for the
last screening of the night to start, we’d grab our keys,
travel to smaller movie theaters and see movies like “Sexy
Beast” or “Talk to Her.” We saw movies that
weren’t blockbusters. We were approaching cool.
As we got older, the movies we watched got more interesting. And
we watched them later.
Now, I am a college student, and I want to go to the movies as
late as possible, after eating dinner out and getting coffee. The
concept of the midnight screening, never understandable to me
before, is now utterly appealing. Because my life no longer
revolves around going to the movies at all hours of the day,
midnight movies allow me to include going to the movies without
making them the centerpiece of my life. In short, they’re
cool.
And last weekend, the Crest movie theater (on Westwood just
south of Wilshire Boulevard) started its sequence of midnight movie
screenings, showing “2001: A Space Odyssey” on both
Friday and Saturday nights, and is planning to screen a different
movie every weekend in the future.
As trends in current releases become, well, boring, midnight
movies allow theaters to screen films that couldn’t draw
crowds enough to play for a week, but can be wonderful for a Friday
or Saturday night. Upcoming movies on the Crest’s midnight
schedule include films like “A Clockwork Orange” (March
19-20), “Reservoir Dogs” (April 16-17) and “Fast
Times at Ridgemont High” (May 7-8).
The best midnight movies are always the ones that people know
they like, but usually haven’t seen recently enough to
immediately remember. The screening not only serves as a chance to
see the film on a big screen, but helps you remember why you liked
the film in the first place.
Westwood deserves a venue for midnight movie screenings. The
Mann Festival Theater (on Lindbrook Drive) held
Friday-night-at-midnight screenings of “Moulin Rouge!”
last year, but the screenings were eventually moved to Santa
Monica. And although the local Nuart Theater offers midnight
screenings every weekend, the theater isn’t walking distance
from Westwood. With so many students living in Westwood, midnight
movies also provide a nighttime activity for students without
cars.
And because people see screenings as special events, the
atmosphere at midnight movies is always far more energetic than
that of regular movie screenings. People who go to the screenings
feel devoted to the film. Films like “The Lord of the
Rings” trilogy consistently hold midnight screenings on
opening night for exactly this reason. Because people anticipate a
midnight screening all day, they’re more excited for the
movie to start than at other screenings, and that added energy
carries over throughout the film.
As I get older, I’m sure my taste in film and screening
time will change again and again, but now is the age of midnight
movies. And they’re cool.
Tracer hopes the Crest screens “High Fidelity”
at midnight sometime in the near future. E-mail him your choice at
jtracer@media.ucla.edu.