Big Change

July 28th, 2007Blog1 comment

I went to the new Landmark last night to check out Sunshine.

The Landmark is a massive indy film multiplex built on the ashes of the pretty unpopular western half of the Westside Pavilion mall on Pico. This used to be an outdoor structure with a thriving Barnes and Noble; beyond that the most popular store was a place that sold walking shoes. So dropping a new Landmark there is a pretty major upgrade.

I got there an hour early so I could do some reading without anyone poking at my forehead. The place was packed for the 7:30/8 pm shows — a good sign since I want this place to stay in business. There’s assigned seating (some theaters with make-out couches!), a concession stand that sells Pocky and Korean-style frozen yogurt (albeit at movie theater prices), and a bar. With the B&N on the ground floor and art house theaters above, this facility adds up to a super hipster/liberal magnet. And indeed there were many rectangular-framed glasses wearers in the house!

Sunshine: Danny Boyle currently resides where David Fincher was for me right after doing Se7en — here is a guy to watch. Sunshine is a heckuva hard sci-fi movie, the kind of thing that will warp a 12 year-old mind and make him/her think about life and death and be fascinated with science fiction for the rest of forever. It paints space as being both searing hot and freezing, monolithically huge and also claustrophobic. Basically, the movie tells us that it’s a fucked up place to be and only fools and heroes venture out there. We get plenty of both in this piece.

I need to emphasize this here: This movie MUST be seen in a theater. Requirements are absolute darkness and great sound. I was pretty impressed with this one — this is why I go to see movies. The sound and imagery blows away your senses, and at the same time it all means something on an emotional and human level. It’s not just eye and ear candy. It’s brain candy, campfire storytelling with 100 decibel sound. Go see it.