The Offscreen Scene #1

For the first edition of this newsletter, I express some thoughts on the demolition of a local cinema.

Images from Unsplash.

Dear Moviegoers,

If there’s been a lack of reviews from this whole-hearted critic lately, the blame rests squarely at my bloody feet. Running around like a headless chicken, I’ve been accomplishing errands like mad and freelance hustling with great effort - though it seems, it hasn’t been great enough.

Gigs have dried up, applications left unselected, and specific future assignments might disappear completely.

Still, there are plenty of movies left to discover and plenty of words to write about them.

The following newsletter - what I hope will be a weekly exclusive feature - is made up of links, an essay, and a recommendation. This will be the pattern from now on, give or take. For free subscribers and general readers, only the opening piece and links sections will be available. For the full version, please upgrade with a paid subscription:

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Sharing is caring, but do so at your own risk:

Oh, to be an “influencer.” Might being happy-go-plucky and social media savvy grant a critic more access? Probably, but for those critically-minded few (yet many), so much energy can turn into diabetes. And why catch that from studio publicists than from theater soda?

I’ve been whittling away at this book called Seeing in the Dark: A Compendium of Cinemagoing for some time now. It’s a treasure trove of entries from movie patrons of the past, and it makes me smile with every anecdote that I read. The Guardian reached out to the audiences of Barbie for an article that’s similar in subject.

The Eyeslicer series and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair were the start of something great from director Jane Schoenbrun. A new feature from her is on the horizon, but in the meantime, she directed and cut a wonderful music video for artist Lucy Dacus. Some Wizard of Oz, some romance, some dancing. So lovely!:

“I’ve always been interested in something we could call a non-narrative cinema. I don’t really believe that cinema needs to tell you a story. I’m trained as a painter, and the very best paintings, I sincerely believe, are non-narrative. They are about statements, about ideas. And I took this particular viewpoint into the manufacture of cinema.”

“Movie theaters need to be about more than just movies.”

Do they? I mean, maybe a coffee stand or library, but…