CINEMA IN THE TIME OF STREAMING

When I was just a girl, every weekend when we didn’t know what to do, my father would say: What if we go to the movies or the video store? I’ve always thought that my father is responsible not only for my love of movies, but also for my love of physically going to the theater. I’d spend the week working at school looking forward to the weekend thinking what movie we’d watch. Once the weekend arrived we would watch one film minimum, if it wasn’t on TV, we would go to the video store (God I miss video stores) or, on special occasions, we would go to the cinema and watch a new movie, buy candy and popcorn… literally heaven.

Movie theatre (Tima Miroshnichenko)

Every time we went to a new place I always wanted to go to the movies. My parents would tell me “We can go to the movies at home, we are here for two days and you want to waste an evening going to the movies?” Wasting the evening? Sorry? For me, going to a movie theater is never a waste of time, even if I don’t like the movie. Even as an adult, when I go to other countries, I love going to see what the movie theaters are like, what snacks they have, how different they are… For instance, when I was in Sweden, I found rather interesting that the cinemas there have less volume than in Spain. I remember going to watch ‘Deadpool’ and whenever something funny happened and people in the room laughed, I couldn’t hear the dialogues and, since the subtitles were in Swedish, I couldn’t understand what they were saying while people were laughing. In comparison, in Spain cinemas are really loud, which I love, because if you watch a movie at home, you usually have to raise the volume during the dialogues and lower it if there are explosions or shots or things like that.

I understand not everyone feels this way, there are people who would rather spend their money on other things or they don’t think it’s worth it enough to go out just to end up locked up in a room when you can watch movies at home, but for me it’s like: Rainy day? Go to the movies. Sad day? Go to the movies. Sh*t, do you have your period? Go to the movies. First date? Go to the movies. You have an antisocial day but you have to meet a friend? Obviously… Go to the movies!

Popcorn (Megha Mangal)

Another thing I find fascinating about cinema is how the perception of a film can change from watching it at home to actually going to the cinema. For me there are films that are worth seeing in the cinema and others that are not. That's why I love theaters that play old movies, because they give you the opportunity to re-watch movies that you couldn't watch in the cinema, either because you missed them or sometimes because you weren't born at all. And there are films that are worth seeing in the cinema because the sound is better, you appreciate the details better and you live the full experience.

Do you remember that a while ago I said that my father is responsible for my love for cinema? Well, my father loves watching movies and going to the cinema, but his favorite genre is one that many movie cinephiles criticize for its lack of substance and that is: action. I love action movies because they remind me of my father and because I have a good time. They are pure entertainment and it's what I like to see when I want to disconnect and I feel like watching a movie but I don't want to think too much. I do think that every kind of movie has an end, auteur cinema makes me reflect or appreciate the beauty in certain things that I don't normally stop to stare at, romantic films and dramas help me when I'm feeling bad and I want to get the emotions out to the surface and the Z series or blockbuster-style action movies, they amaze me with the VFX and help me disconnect from the world for a moment. 

Going to the movies seems like an experience to me, a pause in life. Whenever I'm stressed, even if I feel like I don't have time for anything, I always try to find time to go to the movies. Those two hours (more or less) when you don't care that someone is talking to you, you put your phone on flight mode and forget about the outside world for a moment to enter a new one. For me, these breaks are super necessary, because I usually have so many things on my mind that I can't find any other way to get rid of them. And that's something that streaming platforms won't ever give. It's so hard to choose between the infinite catalogs of movies and series... And once you’ve decided and manage to watch something, nothing stops you from picking up your phone and talking to someone, pausing it to start doing something else, taking it off and putting something else on... It's a whole other story. . Like everything in life, everything has its good parts and its bad parts and different things will work out for different people, but for me, going to the movies has become my escape route and for that reason this year I gave myself the Challenge of going to the movies at least once a week, and for now I’m delivering.

'All of Us Strangers' by Andrew Haigh

Earlier this week I went to the Renoir Floridablanca cinemas in Barcelona to see ‘All of Us Strangers’ by British director Andrew Haigh and wow. The truth is that it is one of those movies that when I walk out of the theater I don't know if I’ve liked it or not. Does it happen to you? When I go to watch a movie I like not knowing a thing. I never watch trailers before watching a movie, even if I go to the cinema and they play the trailer of a movie I want to see, I’ll close my eyes and cover my ears so I don’t see any spoilers. Sometimes I love it because I get a lot of surprises, but sometimes, like with this movie, expectations play tricks on me. I expected to go see a light (dramatic but light) film and the truth is that it seemed quite dense, in fact, I think it is the typical film in which you have to watch it a second time to give it meaning and form. In this case, what convinced me to go see it were the protagonists, since I did not know the director's filmography. It stars Andrew Scott, AKA the hot priest from 'Fleabag' (a highly recommended show if you haven't watched it) and Paul Mescal (who everyone is in love with since 'Normal People' and 'Aftersun'). The film deals with the traumas in a spine-chilling way, specifically family traumas, the fact of growing up without a family to support you during adolescence and how the protagonist carries this emptiness throughout his whole life (and the way he finds to fill this void). After thinking the film through for a few days, I’ve decided I did like it, but I’d still have to re-watch it so I can really understand everything. The photography is gorgeous and the way the director plays with the point of view of the protagonist is just brilliant. I’d say it’s an 8/10.

If like me, you love movies and you like this type of content, come to the movies with me every week. Every Tuesday we will upload a small video review to our social media talking about the movie I’ve watched, don’t miss it if you’d like to be up to date with what’s on theaters and if you have any recommendations, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments!