One of my New Years resolutions is to dedicate one night of my week away from my cozy, comfortable apartment, out doing something in the world. Something that, ideally, takes up the entirety of the night, and, also ideally, benefits my local community.
Luckily, the amazing Cinemagic movie theater here in Portland is within walking distance of my apartment, meaning if I can’t find something to do, I can always fall back on the awesome golden sheen of the theater’s curtain.
Cinemagic is great for several reasons: the atmosphere is amazing, the prices are decent, the seats are old and squeaky, and their film options range from first runs to old VHS movies they show on the first Friday of the month. We need more spaces like this–small movie theaters that are never packed. I know movie theaters in general are never packed these days, but this space has so much charm and you can tell the people who own it really just want to give moviegoers a proper experience, rather than a gigantic screen with the audio turned up to the point it hurts your ears. Kudos to you, Cinemagic!
For my first outing, I went to see The Iron Claw, a new film and the reason why Zac Efron looks jacked as hell lately.
Honestly, Zac looks great in the film. Jacked but not overbearing. This photo makes it look like he’s on HGH (human growth hormone), mainly because of those abs that stick out like that. Probably was, and on steroids too; it’s Hollywood, what can you expect. But you can tell he really worked hard for that physique.
The film is very good; I talk about it briefly on my Letterboxd, which was more of an immediate reaction. The longer burn is that it is the morning after watching the movie and I am still thinking about Maura Tierney’s face and Zac Efron’s face at the end of the film. Really powerful and moving film about brotherly love and fatherly apprenticeship. I’m still thinking about it and feeling it, which is probably my favorite thing about films, that feeling you have after watching one.
I have a feeling a lot of my nights out this year will be centered around Cinemagic. They’re showing the 90s Gamera trilogy next week (plus a Q&A with Ayako Fujitani, one of the stars of the film and … Steven Seagal’s daughter?!). Then after that they’re showing Mel Brooks films, and I feel obligated to see Blazing Saddles in a movie theater in honor of one of my father’s favorite films.
Hell, maybe I’ll spend two weeknights out, who knows?!