The Daily Gamecock

Head to Head to Head: Movies are the bees' knees

default opinion
default opinion

I always think about the movie moments in my life. Little blips of time covered in a vignette stored in my mind based on silly clichés and terrible teen dramas. 

But that’s what's great about movies — they aren’t real life. They’re an escape perfectly framed to fit into a three-hour time period. 

No matter the theme, genre or targeted age group, anyone can sit down and be immersed in what's on the screen. There is such a sense of community that you have when you are at the opening night of a highly anticipated film and everyone in the audience is sitting elbow to elbow clutching their Coca-Cola slushies and buttered popcorn. 

Even here at USC, when there is a screening at Russell House, everyone almost automatically becomes best friends at a sleepover. Same with the Nickelodeon Theatre. I remember my first semester here there was a free viewing of “The Goonies” at the Nick for USC students. Halfway through, there was a technical difficulty and we almost had to skip a whole chunk of the film, so while they were working on fixing the tape the audience started talking and sharing what was happening.

The communities that revolve around certain movies are astounding. Just take a look at “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” A cult classic about transvestite aliens, it's had a following since the late '80s and is relentlessly keeping an audience. I’ve been to the Atlanta showing at The Plaza at least 10 times, and the community never fails to astound me (especially the showing during Pride). 

Movies don’t even have to be that deep though. 

Some of the best movie experiences happen when people are curled up in bed with Netflix, or when a movie is watched in 18 parts on YouTube. Others enjoy putting a Wes Anderson film on a projector and pretending to be deep for a few hours. It doesn’t matter, we all love movies.

Everyone has that one movie they watch when they're sick, when they're sad or when they're bored, and for some people they are all the same movie. Movies capture a screenshot of the human essence and nothing can compare to that.

I mean, have you seen “The Princess Bride”? Nothing comes close, not even the book. 


Comments