Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Film Which Williamsburg Movie Theater is Right for You?
Posted by Henry Stewart on Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 12:10 PM
Williamsburg Cinemas' first bookings are The Hobbit and Life of Pi in 3D, as well as Lincoln. The theater's being promoted as a multiplex, a place "to see Hollywood’s biggest hits without hopping on a Manhattan-bound L train," according to the Brooklyn Paper. [photos]
Artier fare tends not to play at the multiplexes, or at least stay there long—the stuff with prestigious directors and Hollywood stars that might not appeal to the kids, teenagers or families that account for so much movie-theater revenue. Nitehawk Cinema is good for this: right now they're showing Looper, Seven Psychopaths, Silver Linings Playbook and Killing Them Softly (as well as Francine with Melissa Leo). But the theater is more well-known for adopting the Alamo Drafthouse model: they serve food and booze to your seats, with movie-specific specials (like the current "Close the Loop Doughnut Holes" for Looper). They also have just a bar, in case you like booze but not movies. [photo]
Videology, the video store on Bedford, recently also opened a screening room, where so far they've been programming well-received indies from the festival scene, sort of like reRun in DUMBO has been doing. Since opening last month with a week of Holy Motors, Videology has shown First Winter, The Sheik and I, and New Jerusalem, directed by Rick Alverson, who had just had a triumph at BAM with The Comedy. (Videology also shows some rep stuff, including a well-curated kids club on Sundays.)
IndieScreen is a really nice theater/screening space on Kent Avenue (with a bar!), and was the first of these spaces to open (in 2010), but since I've never been quite sure what they were: a theater? A screening space for rent? Well, it's both: for the rest of the year, you can catch one-off screenings and week-long engagements of well-received documentaries (The Central Park Five, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, the Gregory Crewdson one), as well as art-house faves (Holy Motors) and work from local filmmakers (The Fitzgerald Family Christmas).
UnionDocs as an organization does a lot of work with filmmakers and other organizations and such, but they also screen about 100 movies a year. In fact, I had one of my favorite filmgoing experiences here, during last year's Northside festival. I had gone to see the Ai Wei Wei documentary, and the house was packed, and the room was sweltering. I looked around, and here was a crowded room of sweaty young people swilling inexpensive beer out of cans, watching a movie about a Chinese artist and dissident. It was the first time I was actually doing what my family from around the country must assume I'm always doing. [photo]
God bless Spectacle, located in a former bodega, for showing any and all kinds of movies. For example, yesterday they screened Bat Whispers, a horror comedy from 1930, and Gabbeh, a 1996 quasi-documentary from Iran about carpet makers. Cinema is a vast landscape, and Spectacle surveys it all. [photos]
Follow Henry Stewart on Twitter @henrycstewart
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