I think this is true for everyone reading this, but the past couple weeks have been pretty relentless with work. It’s slowed down recently, but for a while there, I felt like I was piloting an airplane spiraling out of control. However, there was a moment in those weeks where I was able to retake control and replace the stress with happy memories, all by just doing one thing: watching a movie.
Over the course of the pandemic, I’ve found less and less of a reason to go to the movie theater. Nothing that was released especially caught my eye, and if anything I could just watch a movie at home. However, recently one movie got the attention of me and basically everyone I know: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I watched the trailer and was blown away. I had to watch that movie. The only problem was that there was never a good time to go. Also, going to the movie theater with Covid around was still a very scary thought.
Despite this, I still managed somehow. There wasn’t a good time, but that didn’t mean there was no time at all. My friends and a few other friends who still hadn’t seen it eventually made a plan to go on a Monday after school. The logic was that no one could or would watch a movie on a Monday afternoon, except us. That way we didn’t have to worry about Covid risks. This plan turned out flawlessly. We showed up at Savoy 16 a Monday after school, and it was completely abandoned. The only people working there looked to be the managers of the place. We bought our tickets from them and walked into Theater 1. There was no one. We were 15 minutes late for the start time at this point, but it looked like we still had the theater all to ourselves. This was our first time back in a movie theater since before the pandemic, and ironically we were still movies alone, just like in quarantine.
Watching a movie in an empty theater is as cool as you’d expect, but it’s also a surprisingly soothing experience. When you’re in there without other strangers, it almost feels like time slows down. You can mess around and do whatever you want (within reason of course). Watching Shang-Chi turned out to be an even better experience because of that freedom. The movie itself was amazing, but the empty theater was the cherry on top. The fact that we were alone there on a Monday when we just had school gave a childish thrill, like staying up past your bedtime as a kid. Speaking of childish thrills, during the end credits we started making shadow puppets in front of the projector which was an incredible thing to see in such a big theater.
Stepping out of that theater after the movie finished felt like I was in a dream. I mentioned that time felt slower there, and that really contributed to the daze that I felt I was in as we walked out. Watching that movie felt like a detached experience from all the crazy stuff the week had and was going to throw at me. If you ever have the time, go to a movie with some of your friends on an unconventional day. It gave me a moment of happiness that came at just the right time to keep me going.
I’ve been trying to think of something to do for really late 15th and 16th birthday parties I missed with Covid that people would feel comfortable with since Covid is still around, and going to a movie in an empty theater sounds really fun. Your description of the experience you had was vivid and I felt like I could easily picture everything you described. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you and your friends were able to find a time to destress during the rough last couple of weeks. Also, I really enjoyed your descriptions of how time slowed down and how you felt like you were kind of in a trance. It was definitely a really fun read!
ReplyDeleteDang, I miss movie theatres. The way you described them was so vivid, like unlocking a box to something I had forgotten. It makes me reflect o all the things I missed out on because of Covid and movie theatres are definitely one of them. Good post!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very fun, having a movie theatre to just yourself and friends seems like a fun experience. It's also nice that you were able to get away from your work for a while and destress too.
ReplyDeleteI found your idea of going to a movie theater at the least conventional time to avoid the crowd and just be among your friends to be an intriguing and fun idea. The idea was made all the better with the way you described the empty theater. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI found several of the description of things you wrote about like the movie theater very interesting and it gave me such a vivid idea of what is going on. It really made me miss going to the movies with my friends. It kind of sad to reminisce on all the stuff I used to do before covid, however it makes me want to reexperience the joys I had. I have been in movie theaters with little to no people there and I was such a weird experience, I definitely felt the movie taking longer sometimes getting eerie vibes.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found something that gave you the energy to power through all the work. I definitely relate to the "airplane spiraling out of control" metaphor.
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