And that deep, unwavering focus.
By Andrew Blackwell Supervising Editor, Op-Docs |
Like a lot of people, I've gone almost a whole year without going to one — definitely some kind of record. What am I actually missing, though? We live in the Streaming Age, with undreamed-of amounts of great stuff to watch, not to mention giant flat-screen TVs that are cheaper than ever. |
Were theaters even all that great? Or am I just feeling nostalgic for any pre-pandemic ritual that involved crowds and snacks and, you know, a blithe disregard for airborne pathogens? |
I think it's the movies themselves that I miss. If I've learned anything from 11 months of watching Netflix and HBO Max, it's that I'm just no good at watching movies at home. It's not that I think modern attention spans are that bad — if anything, it's almost heroic how we make sense of our torrential digital feeds every day. But there's a restlessness that comes with it. I find myself unwilling — unable, even — to sit down and completely tune in to a good movie. Again and again, I skip over a queue brimming with really good things, in favor of something that won't suffer if I keep an eye on my phone. (This is how I've become someone who's watched "The Da Vinci Code" three times.) |
A movie theater, on the other hand, is a beautifully simple machine for enhancing your attention. Between the dark environment, the impossibility of pausing the action while you go for a snack and the understanding that even a quick Twitter check will be met with murderous glares from your neighbors, theaters grant you the superpower of deep, unwavering focus. And that makes movies so much better. |
I've been thinking about all of this because the Sundance Film Festival started this week, and as usual, Times Opinion is publishing a collection of short documentaries from the festival. But this year the festival itself is largely online, and I won't get to have the marvelous experience of seeing these films on the big screen. I may have watched an Op-Doc a dozen times by the time it publishes, but seeing it in a theater never fails to surprise me. |
Take "The Field Trip," by Meghan O'Hara, Mike Attie and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck, which follows a crowd of fifth graders as they spend a day role-playing in grown-up jobs. It's delightful wherever you watch it. But it's also the kind of film that rewards every scrap of attention you have, elevating the kids' playacting into a parable about how we comply with our own workplace roles. And I know that, in a theater, Noemie Nakai's "Tears Teacher" might actually trigger a mass-crying event. |
As for Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers's "A Concerto Is a Conversation" — well, I just want to live inside that movie for a little while. A theater would be the way to do it. |
But until that's an option again, I'll just need to learn to hide my phone under the bed before I watch anything. This weekend I hope you'll have a chance to enjoy these films, too — in whatever your best substitute for a movie theater is. |
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