In Which We See a Movie With Friend #3

So,  went to see Sicko with Friend #3, also known as Marcia, Marcia, Marcia Cohen-Leibowitz-Rothschild-Guilerstein, my friend who is incidentally of the Jewish Persuasion.

I feel I need to mention Marcia is an Individual of the Jewish Persuasion, because after this story you might think she's African-American and escaped another type of ghetto entirely. This is because Marcia seems to believe in the African-American tradition of Talking Back to The Movie Screen.

I think Talking Back to The Movie Screen started in the eighties, or else perhaps I just visited the dollar cinema in my home suburb of Florissant in the eighties. I was with a friend, and some girl on-screen decided to talk to some dirtbag of a man, and someone in the audience ROARED at the screen, "Nuh-unh, girl, don't you fall for that!" And others chimed in! "Whoo, he's a dog!" "Don't go there!" - It was quite surprising. I didn't care if I experienced that movie in my little self-absorbed shell, so it was pretty entertaining, but I think my equally white girlfriend was taken aback.  I visited the theater down by Union Station once, and found the same experience, but that's the only other time. Still, I generally don't go to the movies because of the noise, even the white-bread-topped-with-crushed-soul suburban level of noise. Even if one white whisper in the silence hits my ears it is deafening to me.

I think Marcia usually has had the same movie experiences, because a few people sitting behind us talked during the previews and she announced "Oh, give it a rest." Pointedly. I leaned forward and scoped out alternate seats. The cinema put up its "Please be quiet and respectful of others during the movie" and if I recall correctly, Marcia said "Amen!" loudly. Poin.Ted.Lyyyyyyyyy.

Now, before you make any assumptions, don't think the Talkers Behind Us were of any interesting ethnic variety. I didn't see them, but I doubt they were, because we were in croquet-mallet-up-your-ass-West County. If they were it was immaterial, because they stayed pretty quiet. Until  partway through the movie -- when Marcia saw Dick Cheney.

"HHHHIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" Marcia hissed.

"Heh" said the people behind us, quietly.

Then Marcia saw G.W.Bush.

"ASSHOLE," Marcia barked, loudly, even louder than she had previously Hissed or given up her Amen.

"Rrraararararr" grumbled the others in the cinema. "RARARRARARARARRARRararararar!"

By the end of the movie, everyone was following Marcia's lead and talking back to the screen. I don't know if Marcia noticed, because she was having her own exclusive in-depth conversation with Michael Moore by that time.

Michael said, "They want us to fear -"

"Mm-hmm. Yup" Marcia agreed.

"And they want us to keep silent - " Michael tried to add.

"Mnmmm-hmmn. That's right!" Sistah Marcia muttered.

And she kept agreeing with Michael, not that I wasn't agreeing with Michael, but I knew Michael wasn't there and that he could not hear me. A detail. This escaped everyone else. By the time they got to Cuba everyone was talking amongst themselves and at the screen.

I whooped it up a little, but I couldn't keep up with the disgust the People Behind Us expressed when Michael Moore showed the excellent free health care the Guantanamo Bay prisoners are granted.

"RAArarararRRRAARRARArr!" the People Behind Us grumbled, "No!" "Give me a break!" "Disgusting!" "RARRARArr!"

"Geneva Convention?" I thought quietly, "Have you not heard of it? Are you too young? RARArr!"

At any rate, I really enjoyed the movie. And if you haven't seen it, be sure to stay for the credits. It inspired me to call up Cigna tomorrow and question their claim that my pharmacy was out-of-network, I can tell you that. And it made me very, very happy my MS flared up for the first time five days after I started with an insurance company. I don't think I'd even made my first payment and I hit them up for a hospital bill and my first of many years of injectables. Bwhahaha!

Comments

[Becs]

The one time I was in a theater where people were testifyin' to the screen, after awhile, I kind of got into it. It was like 'Rocky Horror' but without food being thrown (well, not that much food).

I despise people who talk in the movies. Last week when I went to see "Ratatouille", I had to change my seat twice before landing in the Cone of Selective Silence.

[sue]

I'm all about the silence, too... that's why I usually have to wait until a movie comes out on DVD or satellite.

[KC]

This was really funny! Thank you for the giggle so early in my work day. I needed it.

I don't talk at the movie theatre, probably because I'm used to spending a lot of time in live theatre audiences where it is VERBOTEN to speak out loud, even if the actors on stage could really use the advice. (and who can, by the way, hear you. Detail.)

However, I talk talk talk and talk some more to the TV, movies, and news shows I watch at home. I'm surprised my hubby hasn't smacked me upside the head. It must bother him. Sometimes it even bothers me. I really can't figure out why I can't stop talking to the TV when I'm at home. Maybe I need to eat more popcorn. That might keep me quiet.

[Faythe]

My boyfriend Ryan has really taken to the TiVo. Now he can pause in the middle of a show, pontificate for 10 minutes and then continue with the show and I won't miss anything. Of course, sometimes it takes an hour to watch a half hour show!

Actually, the back and forth (or really, just forth) was my favorite thing about the first time I attended a movie on opening night. The energy of the crowd! The expectations! The freshness of wit! And I'm talking about Wayne's World.

[Autumn]

We have a family friend who talks back to the movies-ALWAYS. It's usually very annoying, but I gotta say, Sistah Marcia sounds like she was very entertaining.

[Friend #3]

Don't you think you're exaaaaggggerating just a TAD??

Yes, I hissed at Cheney, but it wasn't a loud hiss. And my "asshole" epithet at the Shrub was under my breath. I can't help that you have the hearing of a fruitbat.

You gotta admit, this movie was ripe for audience reaction. And for the record, I took my cue from the old man and his wife who were sitting in our row. He started it.

And, yes, Sistah Autumn, Sistah Marcia is VERY entertaining. Ellen misses shlepping me to work.

[TheQueen]

Becs – I would have enjoyed some audience participation with the new James Bond movie, or with Ratatouille. It’s just that one whisper piercing the silence that I can’t take.
Sue – I think this was the first movie I’ve seen at the cinema … since … the last time I saw a movie with Friend #3 (Manchurian Candidate)
KC – Oh – I hadn’t thought of that. I need to see more live theater if I want quiet entertainment. That’s a good point. Huh. It’s kind of the opposite of blogs.
Faythe – Oh, Ryan and Gary must be related, except Gary says one sentence, plays the tiVo for a microsecond, pauses, talks, plays, pauses, talks – I would love a ten-minute diatribe.
- (I know who you are, you know) That is cool! I guess the actors don’t need to concentrate on the plot, since they know all the lines and what happens next.
Autumn – Sistah Marcia was entertaining, even though she thinks I was exaggerating, which I was not.
Friend #3 – Yes, I do miss the schlepping. I was Born 2 Schlep U.

[Friend #3]

Were, too.

[ajooja]

We saw "An Inconvienient Truth" at Plaza Frontenac and that crowd of certified Jewish people hooted when Al made one tiny comment about voting for change. ;)

[Friend #3]

Er, what?

[TheQueen]

Friend #3 - nuh-uh. Besides, my blog.
Ajooja - they were certified? I think Marcia (Friend #3) might be a little surprised to hear you can get a certificate. But want I want to know is, did the crowd hoot in derision, like "Yeah, we tried that, the Supreme Court overruled us" or was it "Change! Hah! Who needs change?"
Friend #3 - This is why you need to stay in Saint Charles.

[Catherine]

I'm so not a fan of talking in movies. When I saw Stomp the Yard (...what? It's AWESOME) with Jen and Lauren, these bratty teenagers in front of us not only talked to each other throughout the movie (until they got kicked out - HA!), they also TEXTED and THREW THINGS UP AND DOWN THE ROW AT EACH OTHER. I gave more than one sharp kick to the backs of their seats to get them to shut the F up and also firmly told them to cut it out.

Oh, yeah - the talking. Last night during Grindhouse this one asshole kept piping up with his little comments, oh-so-witty things like "HI, JOHN McCLANE!" whenever Bruce Willis was on screen, or "DON'T WORRY IT'S NOT AN IPHONE IT'S OKAY TO DROP IT!" when a woman almost dropped her T-Mobile Sidekick. Jen and I hissed at him to shut UP more than once. Thank Jeebus he and his friend left before Death Proof.

My point is, don't talk in movies. I didn't pay $10.50 to hear someone who isn't on the screen drown out those who are.

[TheQueen]

If we go to movies, we go at un-cool times, like on Thursdays at 4 or Tuesday nights. Never, ever, date night.And never any movie a kid might want to see. In a theater of kids you would be my teenage hero for getting those kids kicked out. Movie bullies.

[Caroline]

So many thoughts...

Sicko - Why do I imagine the worst of US healthcare being compared to the best of socialized healthcare and providing a stark but unbalanced comparison.

Talking in movies, part 1 - While watching "Hanging Up" in the theater, the women behind us had an ongoing discussion of the costumes and sets. I *love* the interior design in Meg Ryan's home! Oh, that pencil skirt Diane Keaton is wearing is to die for. Where do you think I could get that vase? I almost demanded they reimburse my ticket price.

Talking in movies, part 2 - While watching some Gwyneth Paltrow movie about being a flight attendant, my husband and I were nearly the only people over 18 in the audience. Mall theater. Kids were calling and texting each other within the same theater to join each other. I got climbed over about a million times. I'm not sure where the people were going, because no one ever left the row. My husband gave up and left for a while. Afterwards the theater manager gave us free vouchers and then advised us to use them at a different theater in the chain. Apparently they don't tell the kids to behave because teenagers in PG-13 movies are how they make their revenue at the mall. It's cheaper to give the schmuck adults who happen to enter that realm free passes. We've never gone back.

[Friend #3]

You might think so, but then you'd have to see the movie to know for sure. ;-)

[TheQueen]

Caroline and Friend #3 - first of all, you work tweleve steps from each other.

Also, you are both right, it was a stark but unbalanced comparision, but still very very enjoyable. Even if in your head you are thinking "I know better about Canadian healthcare" he spreads his propaganda in a very enjoyable way.