COLUMN: Lost in Scene

In 2019, I learned AMC Theatres had a subscription service that allowed you to pay simply $20 a month to watch three movies of your choice per week. It didn’t matter if it those three movies were spread out across the week, or all in a single day.

This was during the age of failed services like Moviepass where filmgoing eccentrics could more affordably go to as many movies as their local theater had screens. Most AMC-owned theaters close to me in the Des Moines area were multiplexes, stuffing as many movies into their walls just because they could. As far as I know, this service still continues today, although at an increased price and to only select areas.

So imagine this: A young teen, who liked a few movies already and recently got his driver’s license, spending one full day of his weekend making a drive just to spend hours watching movies back to back to back. It was in the Johnston AMC Theatre where I truly fell in love with movies. Week by week, movie by movie.

2019 was an incredible year for movies, especially towards the latter half with titles like “1917,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “Jojo Rabbit” and the surprise phenomenon that was “Parasite” that would go on to sweep the main categories at the Oscars, despite being a foreign film out of South Korea. I couldn’t have lucked out with a better year to fully dive in to exciting, refreshing, innovative movies that became instant classics.

However, quality movies does not always mean success. Seeking out the top ten highest-grossing films of 2019 will only disappoint as every single title is attached to a preexisting franchise, from live-action Disney remakes with “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” to Disney’s usual moneymakers with “Star Wars” and “Avengers.” The films that I remember 2019 for aren’t the films that found the most financial success.

So why talk about movies? Movies for most are simple escapist entertainment. As we’ve entered into a Hollywood that’s more reliant on CGI and bland franchises to keep themselves afloat, what good is it to still believe in the movies for providing genuinely unique stories, visuals, sounds and performances?

That Johnston theater where I truly fell in love with movies was the last in the Des Moines metro area to close in November last year, marking the final closure of three different AMC theaters in a 13 month period. The business model with the subscription would not be sustainable, especially with people like me desperate to see as many movies as possible. To see what was the most affordable way to see new movies be shut down makes me melodramatic about the state of the industry.

Yet, despite all of that, the movies are still providing, even despite these concerns. Just look at the strange case of “Barbenheimer,” two completely different films that somehow became the main cinematic event of the year. “Barbie’s” satirical look at gender dynamics penned by film industry veterans in Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach provided an appealing contrast to the dramatic “Oppenheimer,” this year’s Oscar darling, brooding and existential coming from a diehard filmmaker in Christopher Nolan.

Movies always bounce back. The next phenomenon can not be predicted. Every production that exits out of Hollywood or studios beyond is something hundreds and sometimes thousands have worked on to bring to life. That’s the real draw of the movies.

I don’t like the term film. I think it siphons the excitement out of a fun word like movie. That’s what movies, films, whatever you want to call them should be. I should be excited for the lights to dim around me, to look beyond simple light projection and be immersed in the world displayed in front of me. It doesn’t matter if I’m in a large cinema or a small TV at home, watching something new or an old classic, to be fully lost in scene is a feeling like no other.

I’m thrilled to bring my thoughts about movies to Creston. With news that movies will be closer to Creston than ever with the renovated Strand Theatre opening soon, there’s no better time to dream about the movies.