I saw 134 movies at the movie theater last year. That’s like two and a half a week – a little more actually. It tapered off in the second half of the year when I’d like to say the beautiful weather kept me busy doing more exciting things than seeing movies constantly but in fact I had some health problems that occupied a lot of my time and attention, limiting the number of movies I was able to see (all the way down to a low of 6 movies in theater in September, my lowest monthly total for the year). Ironically those health problems were probably exacerbated by dedicating a big chunk of my weekly schedule to sitting for long stretches and drinking soda – but we persevere. I’m doing much better now, and with a more balanced approach to day-to-day life, I can safely return to the movies many times a week without worry that it’s doing long term damage to my health (or at least, not any more damage than you’d expect sitting in a dark room for two hours would do).
Putting my health problems to the side, 2024 was a big movie-going year for me. Going to the movies has always been special in my life – growing up in the countryside outside of a small town, most of my childhood was defined by school, work and play on the farm, and sports in town. The only real ‘events’ that broke us out of that routine with any regularity (besides an annual trip to visit family) were trips to the movie theater. The town I grew up in had a two-screen independent theater that showed whatever the two big new movies were on any given week – to permanently date this post to whenever I’m writing it (as opposed to weeks from now when I finally publish it) the New Liskeard Empire Theatre (still open!) is currently playing Flight Risk and Nosferatu. That’s pretty sick honestly, would not have guessed that was the line-up. Maybe they’ll show The Brutalist (unlikely).
Anyway, growing up we’d see 2-3 movies a year, more when we got a little older and could be dropped off at the summertime toonie matinees. In high school I’d get a ride into town with my neighbours who went almost every week to see whatever looked interesting – this era of seeing movies that were mostly bland slop is beautiful in its own way to me – Clash of the Titans, Terminator Salvation – these movies are fond memories even though I’ll probably never watch them again (I will not extend the same fond remembrance towards the Dwayne Johnson Hercules though – that shit sucked then and sucks more in hindsight).
Once I moved to Ottawa for university movie-going remained a core part of my life – I can track the changes in my life and social circle by remembering what movies I saw in theaters, the theaters I saw them in, and who I saw them with. I remember seeing an ‘old’ movie in theaters for the first time – (Alien at the Mayfair), and that was such a cool experience. After a bit of a gap where life limited my theater going to something closer to the national average, I was starting to get back to regular theater going right before the pandemic shut things down for most of two years. It took a while to get back in the swing of things after that. I went to a couple of movies in 2021, a few in 2022. In 2023 Delaney and I made an effort to see all the big releases we were interested in in the first half of the year. Somewhere in there a switch flipped – I think it was when we went and saw The Shining at The Bytowne in October 2023. From then I became more systemic in tracking what was releasing and what I was interested in. We saw every release we were interested in that fall and winter, big or small. We were going to the movies several nights a week – in December I managed to fit in The Holdovers, Napoleon, the The Abyss re-release, Godzilla Minus One, and The Boy and The Heron in a single week.
For me, the exciting thing about 2024 was the way I was able to maintain this hobby for a full year. My whole life I’ve had consuming passions and fascinations that dominate my attention for six months to a year before I burn myself out and move on to something else. The last few years with tools, patience, and therapy, I’ve been trying to live a more balanced life – it’s not that I don’t want to be passionate about things, but I want to sustain my interest in the things I care about for life. It drives me crazy the way I burn through something like film or music or gaming so aggressively that I make myself sick of it. An ebb and flow of interests is fine, but I don’t ever want to fall off of something like that so hard that I spend years ignoring it and return to find I’ve missed out on a bunch of stuff that would’ve been really special if I hadn’t been so burned out at the time.
So anyway – in 2024 I went to the movie theater all year long - not sure I missed a week. There are a few movies I missed in there somewhere, either because I was sick, or burned out, or too dialed in to the Elden Ring DLC – but I saw so many movies in the theater, lots of first time viewings of new movies and classics, first time theatrical viewings of some of my favorite movies ever, many of the greatest movies ever made, and all sorts of oddball stuff that was special and unique on the side – I had a great year at the movies, and while a trip to the theater is rarely going to be worse than pretty good (why must a movie be good, etc), these were the very best days and nights I got to spend there.
10. Metropolis (2001) – Nov 3, Landmark Kanata
See my previous blog post about my favorite first time watches of 2024 for more details about the film, but this was a very cool opportunity to see an underseen classic that had a lot of significance to me because of how much time I spent reading the works of Osamu Tezuka (whose manga the film adapts) over the past 3 years. These screenings of anime classics put on as part of the Anime Expo Cinema Nights series have quickly become a highlight of the movie going year for me – frequently they’re movies that are hard to rent or stream and the kind of thing I was too young to see in theaters the first time around (or they simply weren’t shown back then!). Sad I missed out on Ghost in the Shell 2 when it came around in the summer, but I have my eye on the 40th anniversary Vampire Hunter D showing coming in April (one of my favorite movies ever).
9. The Fugitive – March 17, Cineplex South Keys
St. Patrick’s day showing of probably the best St. Patrick’s day movie of all time (using the Die Hard definition of ‘holiday movie’ here). A movie I had previously only seen when I rented it on PlayStation 4 in 2018. It didn’t make much impression on me at the time, but since then I’ve my film palette has grown significantly more sophisticated, and I’ve gained the ability to appreciate a mega-hit action thriller starring one of my favorite movie stars (did I have brain damage or something?). I remember this being such a nice day – we got a beer beforehand, and the movie was good as hell.
8. Dune Part 1 & Part 2 IMAX Double Feature – April 27, Landmark Kanata
This was the year my fiancée (a 2024 milestone I would put somewhat ahead of watching 134 movies at the theater) got Dune-pilled. After seeing Dune Part 2 three times in IMAX together (and her seeing it a 4th time without me) it was natural that we’d jump at Landmark’s offering of both parts of Villeneuve’s Dune in an IMAX double feature. It was a nice day at the movies – we had pizza. You can find my thoughts on Dune Part 2 in my top movies of 2024 blog – Dune Part 1? I like it.
7. Batman Begins – May 25, Ottawa Art Gallery
A very cool screening put on by The Lost Dominion Screening Collective here in Ottawa – the movie was shown on 35mm, with period appropriate trailers. I got the time confused on the ticket and we came 15 minutes ahead of doors opening instead of 15 minutes before showtime – Oops! Not the most comfortable seating situation in the hall where it was screened either, so good that I arranged for us to sit there for an extra hour. Still, it was a very cool experience, and I left absolutely in love with a movie I hadn’t seen in probably 10+ years. I loved Batman Begins as a kid but it was completely overshadowed by The Dark Knight (which I saw first) – this time what really struck me was how comic book-y the movie feels now. I don’t mean in the sense of like modern comic book movies, I mean more like actual comic books – the kind I read as a teenager which were able to be dark and gritty in a way that still delighted in the silliness of the whole thing by playing everything totally straight faced.
6. Jaws – July 17, Bytowne Cinema
Jaws in the summertime – packed theatre – it was like a dream. The audience reacted to everything just the way you’d want them to, loudly and with enthusiasm. I won’t pretend it was like seeing it in the 70’s, but it was probably the closest you could get to that experience today. Plus it was my second time seeing it ever, and the last time was over a decade ago on a laptop – this was a marked improvement.
5. The Philadelphia Story/The Promised Land Double Feature – Feb 18, Bytowne Cinema
This was such a nice day – Delaney and I drove into the market early, got breakfast, saw The Philadelphia story at like noon (an all time great of course), got out, got coffee, wandered around a bit, got lunch, and then saw The Promised Land in the afternoon (which was good! Mads!). It was the kind of lazy beautiful expensive day that you can’t do every weekend, but I’m always looking for an opportunity to plan another one. Days like this are what I daydream about. The snow was falling gently all the while.
4. Star Wars Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace – May 4, Landmark Kanata
So many of my dear friends came from out of town to celebrate the big 30th birthday (not just mine – it took a team effort) – it was my idea to go to The Phantom Menace though. A movie I often cite as my favorite movie of all time, it was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater, it permanently rewired my brain (for better or worse). It was special to see it at the movies again, and so much more special to see it with 9(?) of my closest friends. Very funny that the star wars sickos amongst us were hyped to see the preview for The Acolyte that was supposed to play after the credits but the movie started so late that it got cut – womp womp.
3. Casablanca – Feb 14, Mayfair Theatre
This was the second time Delaney and I have gone to see Casablanca on Valentines Day – we’re doing it again this year (I’m writing this on Feb 3 but there’s a good chance it doesn’t get published till well past Valentines Day – somehow I haven’t even published my first post of the year yet [editor's note - lol]). Obviously one of the greatest films ever made, painfully romantic, some of the best lines of all time. It was just really sweet to do this, and on the walk back to the car after it was crisp and cold and the moon was gigantic and there were visible stars, which you can almost never see in Ottawa – a beautiful night.
2. Every Kubrick Film – Cineplex South Keys
Fear and Desire, Killer’s Kiss – April 13, Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove – April 14, The Killing – April 17, Lolita – April 18, The Shining – April 19, Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket – April 20, Barry Lyndon – April 21, Spartacus, A Clockwork Orange – April 28, 2001: A Space Odyssey – May 1
It took a lot of aggressive scheduling to make this work, I had to totally destroy my sleep schedule to make it happen, but I did it. In April Cineplex showed every Stanley Kubrick feature, including his two early films pre-The Killing. I saw every single one, and it was incredibly special. I’d seen them all before, except for his two early films (Fear and Desire & Killer’s Kiss) and Lolita. As for how long it had been since I’d watched the rest it was a total grab bag. Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, and A Clockwork Orange I hadn’t seen since high school (insane that I watched A Clockwork Orange when I was like 15 or 16), The Shining and Barry Lyndon I had just seen in Fall 2023 (The Shining actually in theaters) – the rest I had watched for the first time some time between 2019 and 2022 and not since. It was incredibly rewarding, the kind of crash course in film history and style that makes me want to write dumb blog posts like this (hopefully other people were inspired towards something more worthwhile).
1. Perfect Days/Land of Bad/Aquaman 2 Triple Feature – Feb 24, Landmark Kanata
Delaney went out of town for the weekend and I was left to my own devices – this was the result. One of the most chilled out and relaxed days I’ve ever had. It started with an uber to the landmark Kanata multiplex (Delaney had the car with her in Toronto). I grabbed a self-serve starbucks coffee and attended Perfect Days, one of my new all time favorites. I loved it so much that I went again the following weekend, and bought the 4k as soon as it came out. Probably time for another rewatch. I just love the sense of peace the movie has – it’s meditative, rhythmic – a little tragic or bittersweet, but the way the central character works at contentment really spoke to me. In between movies I grabbed some pizza, then locked in for Land of Bad. An absolutely mid movie that contains an incredible Russell Crowe performance. My favorite part is when Crowe has been forced off his shift operating the drone that’s trying to protect Liam Hemsworth’s stranded in enemy territory tier 1 operator – he goes and shops for vegan cheese for his pregnant wife (who’s like his sixth wife or something – the man loves love). We cut back and forth between hectic life or death combat in the south pacific and Russell Crowe squinting at the packaging of cashew based faux-dairy. This is commentary on globalization presumably – it’s awesome. Another round of pizza and two Heinekens tided me over until Aquaman 2 – the last gasp of Snyder-verse (a project I had less than 0 investment in), the less said about it the better but two beers meant it was a perfectly good time.
That was my day – as far as days spent completely by yourself are concerned, I don’t think it gets much better than that – probably cost me less than my average trip to the used DVD store too (although that’s more of a criticism of my impulse control than anything else).
Anyway – I’m deep into another year at the movies as I write this. I’m still figuring out my health, sometimes I’ll still randomly have whole days or weeks thrown off track and it’s difficult to plan things the way I’d like – but that’s okay. I’ve got my eye on a big movie day featuring His Girl Friday and Eraserhead coming up soon – if all goes according to plan you could be reading about it here this time next year.