During the first eleven minutes of the March 16 edition of ASK EDDIE, Muller had me in stitches while he was relating his experience of going to see
Infinity Pool at a multiplex theatre. He remarked how the recent
Noir City festival that he hosted packed the theatre house while current movie releases were playing to practically empty theatres.
Muller's attitude about reserved seating in movie theatres precisely matches my own. In a theatre big enough to accommodate 200 people, only five people were in attendance for
Infinity Pool -- and all of Muller's fellow attendees were sitting near him . . . because of reserved seating. A guy came into Muller's row and actually
climbed over Muller to get to his seat.
"There are
no other people in the movie theatre!" exclaimed Muller, "And I actually said to him, 'Like seriously, Man?' "
"Well, that's the seat I bought," responded the intruder.
"Are we . . . are we lemmings?" Muller asks, "Like, we can't just sit wherever the hell we want to sit?" My sentiments exactly!
Then three more people come in . . .
"They sit
right next to me!" reported Muller.
"Is everybody lonely?" asked Muller's co-host Film Noir Foundation's Director of Communications Anne Hockens.
Personal rant: Needy extroverts who crave the "communal experience" of movie-going
really tee me off. What! Do you want me to hold your hand or give you a hug during the scary parts, 'Nookums?
Muller's rant (reserved seating, TV news playing in the theatre lobby, groping one's way in the dark because the lights in the theatre auditorium are not on, being subjected to ads) perfectly encapsulated why Going to the Movies is no longer a pleasurable experience -- and indeed a
drag -- for some folks.