Throughout quarantine, my local theatre, The State Theatre in Woodland, California, bore a cryptic phrase where Top Gun, Black Widow, Dune, were supposed to announce their 2020 showtimes. “This is just a brief intermission.” Obviously, that brief intermission was longer than expected, but I tried to make do with what I had until I felt right going back. When it comes to movie-watching, my pandemic habits were more a change in vibes and my location than the quantity I watched.
While I missed the forced selection of going to the ticket booth and checking out whatever nearby showtime I either hadn’t seen or wanted to see again, I consistently found something new to watch. From Oscar-winning masterpieces such Nomadland to the return of my friends Bill and Ted, I cannot say I didn’t have any fun. After all, I might never have seen a movie like Palm Beach or Shiva, Baby had they not been unusual releases. Living in a small market, I even appreciated getting smaller films at the same time that the bigger cities did. Then, it all came back.
formerly Mad Cornish Projectionist.