Found My Motivation

I love St. John's. Don't get my wrong. This city is classic, natural, colorful and has style all it's own. It is one of the friendliest spots you can go. You can be on one end of the city and still be only 15 minutes from anything you want and still get a feeling of size a depth when you drive there. There's nothing I love more than driving in through Pitts Memorial drive and the view the city offers you from it's outskirts. I was gone for 3 years when I moved to AB and by the time I came home I was itching to live here once again.

After having said all that... Fuck St. John's(sometimes).

Why say that about this town I've just praised up so high? This is why.

http://www.indiewire.com/article/out-this-week-7-reviews-of-new-indie-releases

I just read this article a few minutes ago and I got pretty excited for the last 4 movies on this list. Two of them I had already heard about and was anticipating but the last two(Robot and Frank, Side by Side) caught my attention as well. I would love to see these movies in their full cinematic glory.

And then we come to the "Fuck St. John's" part of the blog.

Chances are I won't get to see these movies here. Empire Theatres doesn't seem too keen on giving up theater space for smaller movies like this when they have Total Recall and Diary of a Wimpy Kid playing in both their locations. You all plan on seeing Total Recall and Diary of a Wimpy kid right???

Now I plan to start checking their website every few days to see what's on the upcoming slate for movies showing here but I'm not holding my breath. And there are others that I've missed as well. Killer Joe, one movie I was extremely looking forward to, won't be seen by these eyes on anything bigger than a 40-odd inch TV. Safety Not Guaranteed. Won't be seeing that one either. Searching for Sugerman. This movie is being hyped up on my twitter feed as being one of the best movies of the year. Not good enough for ET's to pay attention to though.

I call bullshit on this. We have two theaters in town. Both owned by the same company. I could easily say that this is the problem. No competition. Lack of variety. I don't believe so. If we had a Cineplex here it wouldn't help matters. It may drive prices down a bit but they're still going to stock the same movies to try to steer people clear of the other. Having two theaters owned by the same company should be a good reason to bring some of these movies here. I mean, come on, how much money does the Mount Pearl cinema actually rake in showing movies like Total Recall and Dark Knight Rises weeks after they've come out while the Avalon Mall still shows these in bigger, nicer screens and in IMAX and 3D to boot. Why don't they steer more towards independant films like the ones I've mentioned before at the smaller Mount Pearl location and keep the big boys playing in the nice new theater. Mount Pearl already has that classic, rundown theater feel to it(not one they're trying to get I'm sure). Sure they can still have The Avengers 2 on opening night so it can make 1 bazillion dollars but then tone it down a bit. People are going to go to the mall to see most of these bigger movies anyway. Have Cosmopolis showing for a week or two. Give a little love to some documentary movies. Show St. John's some hollywood art and not just big budget garbage!

Will any of that happen? Probably not. From what I've heard Empire has a new theater opening up somewhere up on Torbay Road in the near future. I'm sure they'll probably close up the Mount Pearl location shortly after because it will cost more money to keep open then they make from it. Doubtful the location would be bought up by another company after that because of the condition it's in. Probably just get turned into a car dealership or a call center.

There is a small glimmer of hope for these movies though. MUN Cinema Series. Something I've heard of before but haven't bothered to look up until now. Looking at their slate for the fall they are actually showing quite a few movies I'll be looking to see. The full list here:

http://www.mun.ca/film/

This looks good and has me fairly excited. I'm hoping that I'll be able to catch a few of these and hopefully this is something that may grow in the future. It would be awesome if these guys could hold regular screenings at something like the LSPU hall and then hold the occasional regular screening at one of the main theaters. That would be an excellent way to bring some good films to this city.

One day when I find me one of those hypno-toads I may be able to make this happen through persuasive froggery, but as for now I'll have to live with netflix, the internet and my own DVD collection. Of which I'm going to watch Drive right now. If you haven't seen it you are missing out.

Also, if anybody knows of anywhere in town that may show other independent movies please let me know! I would greatly appreciate the information.

Anyway peoples, thanks for reading this rant. Have a good night!