OPINION: Mental stacks and summer slack

I am happy to say that I have returned to regular moviegoing. I watched two indie movies last Saturday, the offbeat comedy “Friendship” and the Australian horror movie “Bring Her Back.”

It’s strange to return to this. There’s some routine which is familiar but small things are out of order or different. Let me explain.

I like starting my moviegoing in the summer, when the weather is most cooperative and when movies are at their largest. This is also the first moments where the film festival circuits are releasing their most promising offerings into theaters. Summer is the moment where the film industry starts treating their releases seriously.

“Friendship” premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it took a while to get to theaters. I thought it was just fine, if a little disappointing. Without getting too specific, I think Tim Robinson and his comedy which originated in the sketch comedy show “I Think You Should Leave” is funny in a sketch format but not so much in a feature.

That’s the gamble about going to theaters. At home, where options are cheaper and much more disposable, if a movie doesn’t hook you immediately you can just turn it off and watch something else. But when you treat moviegoing like an event (if you’re paying for a movie ticket, you better), there’s a level of excitement and expectation.

That’s why I don’t mind seeing bad or disappointing movies. It’s fun to generate your own excitement about things, even if it ends in a letdown. Although after I built my own expectations about moviegoing over my break, I was a bit nervous after “Friendship” didn’t totally thrill me.

I had a genuine thought as I was taking a walk between screenings that I might not like movies anymore. Maybe half-thought as a joke, it hit me how, for a moment, I was disappointed by the seemingly diminishing rewards from the effort of this activity.

The biggest difficulty of moviegoing is the drive. I drive an hour into West Des Moines to the Jordan Creek Cinemark theater each time. The trip takes half a tank of gas, which, based on my fuel mileage, costs about $12 per round trip.

There are additional costs like movie tickets; if I get hungry and eat out that’s another cost. I don’t do concessions (I would be bankrupt). For just two movies, Saturday’s trip cost me about $35. That’s without spending money on food.

There’s a mental stack of doing this alone as well. I sing in the car on the way up (so beautifully, you would be jealous), but that’s still an hour in a closed vehicle. There’s a real feeling of isolation, especially if you do this regularly.

I sit alone in the theater, with only a blanket as the one thing I bring with me. Between screenings, I walk alone around the water feature or around the mall, all the while people-watching.

I had scheduled four movies for Saturday, but, about halfway through my walk after “Friendship,” I realized I didn’t have the energy to lock in for the whole day. I used to; I watched five movies during one eventful day last year, but it was not my day.

Even while receiving full refunds when this happens, there’s a soft disappointment in not being as efficient with my time. This trip is $12 of gas, I always think. Am I wasting money?

Perhaps I’m the only person on this planet who goes through such mental hoops because of a movie I only enjoyed.

So, as I was waiting outside of the entrance to “Bring Her Back” (I started waiting outside the auditorium to ignore the 20-minute long previews, something I later learned the late film critic Gene Siskel used to do), I was wondering if movies were really worth so much effort.

But “Bring Her Back,” to my greatest surprise, reminded me why the theater is amazing. As if the movie was projecting pure electricity into my body, I was hooked.

It’s a faint-inducing, goopy and gorey horror thrill ride, one that made me hide under my blanket multiple times (I get scared, OK?). For a movie to evoke that kind of visceral reaction out of me, it’s doing something incredibly right.

Even while “Bring Her Back” flies off the handle with its horror sting, there’s real emotional guts in it. Two siblings who enter a new foster home where something is not quite right are exceptionally good hooks. One of them, the younger sister, is visually impaired, which leads to some great sensory filmmaking which is bursting with confidence.

I don’t want to say too much, but “Bring Her Back” is the reason why going to the theaters is so valuable. This could be the only time a movie will have the best method of viewing it available. The boom of the speakers, the colors of a massive screen and the reactions of the people around me are so, so unique.

Yeah, movie theaters are a luxury. They’re never an essential. But, for the few times a year where I hit the jackpot on a movie like “Bring Her Back” which fills me with so much joy, I can’t deny how much I want to take another trip. It’s that worth it.