A New Cinema Experience

Tuesday night is usually movie night. Instead of our traditional Bay City Cinema movie experience, we journeyed 5 minutes north to the Rialto Cinema to see "Into the Wild". This was not your ordinary theater, but it wasn't different in a beanbag seating sense. Cinemas here are quite unusal as it is with their selling of ice cream cones and ticket sales at the same bench (counter) as the lollies (candies).

The Rialto is a more upscale and classy environment. It's not your typical two story tall building with movie banners and posters plastered on every available square inch of the latest mainstream wannabe blockbuster hit. You enter into a very quaint and cozy setting. Plush lounge chairs are available for patrons who want to relax before or after their movie. The concession stand contains small fridges with an assortment of beer or wine and brand name ice cream. No candy. No popcorn. After purchasing a ticket you walk up a couple stairs to enter one of their three cinemas with no one at the door to tear your ticket or make sure you even bought a ticket.

I found that last part to be quite interesting, maybe a little wrong, but everything else was great. Because this was a cinema that played more of the indie/adult films (not the bad adult films) it attracted an older crowd. You didn't have to worry about teenagers coming to the movie with their cellphones and talking to each other. Also, without the popcorn or candy you didn't hear the opening, crinkling, or dropping of wrappers and candy. All in all, it was really fun and a cinema I shall be visiting again.

As for "Into the Wild," I had mixed feelings about this movie. I loved the fact that it wasn't just about his adventures in Alaska, but about his journey there and the people he met. The variety of people he met and made meaningful friendships with evoked the whole range of emotions. It had a great theme about self discovery, happiness and the search for it. The acting was real and from the heart, with total commitment to the character being portrayed. Kudos to Emile Hirsch for the weight loss needed at the end of the movie.

I have two criticisms about the movie. First, it tried too hard to be an artistic film. There were too many different styles of directing, editing, and even acting. At one point in the movie, the main character looks directly at the camera and smiles. You can't randomly place that in a movie that's being narrated by his sister. The camera work would shift from his point of view, to steady cam, to shaky handheld shots, to everything inbetween. The transition of the title from a yellow hand printed font to a green, bold arial font was completely unnecessary. Second, I found this movie to be a glorification of stupidity. The main character abandons his family for a selfish dream without any type of plan. He burns his money, leaves his car, discards his forms of identification, and tries to survive in Alaska with hardly any supplies. It's great he wanted to be independent and be in the wild, but he could at least been smart about it. No map. Hardly a lasting supply of food. No real knowledge of the area. A crappy gun. The list goes on. But see it for yourself and decide.