— पांच हजार पांच सौ तिरासी —
The highlight of my day yesterday was my
third viewing of
Dune Part Two, which kind of solidified my feeling of it as a masterpiece. Also, I have written all of two movie reviews in the past two weeks, but have gone to the movies four times in that time—it's just that three of those times were all at the same movie.
All three viewings have been with different people: I went with Tracy the first day of showings, on Thursday February 29; I went with Alexia three days later, on Sunday March 3; and yesterday I went with Shobhit and Laney, neither of whom had seen it yet. Laney was very deliberate about waiting to see it, so that the theater would not be crowded. Turns out she had double reason to wait, as in the end she'd have had to postpone any opening weekend outing anyway, as she had covid.
Tracy and I saw it at AMC Pacific Place, the one time I was able to use my AMC Plus A-List monthly membership; both March 3 and yesterday were at SIFF Cinema Downtown, formerly Cinerama. That really is the greatest place to see it, but, even though I get a $5 per ticket discount as a SIFF member, I still have to pay for every individual ticket at SIFF theaters. I'm thinking now that I will go see
Dune Part Two at least one more (fourth) time before its theatrical run ends, and I'll probably go back to AMC for the fourth viewing just to save the money.
We sat in the front row of the back section of the main level of the theater, just as I usually do at Pacific Place. This is not my default at Cinerama, though; when Shobhit and Laney and I all went to see
Wonka in December (and we were all disappointed by that movie), we had balcony seats, at my doing. I thought Laney could take an elevator up to the balcony, but it turns out the balcony can only be taken from the ground floor up to the main seating level. When Alexia and I were at Cinerama a week ago Sunday, I actually went into the lower level to scope it out, and even noted the exact row and seat numbers I would aim for when I booked the tickets for yesterday—all for Laney's benefit.
Unfortunately the very center tickets of that row were booked when I went to book them, so we had to take the three seats at the end of that center section of the row. It still had a railing we could rest our feet on (the same reason I always book that row at Pacific Place), and was still a great vantage point. Shobhit was disappointed not to get the very center, but he still declared he liked that row actually better than being in the balcony. I think I still prefer the balcony, although I will concede that the lower level vantage point, being actually closer (but not too close) to the screen, gives it a bit more of an IMAX feel with the screen taking up most of your field of vision.
When we first walked in, that middle section of the front row of the back section of the seats (as in, it was the frot row behind the walk way that cuts the lower seating area in half widthwise) was nearly full. It was clear that other people were in two of our seats, this somewhat older couple, one of them even using canes of his own. Well, Laney has a cane too, so don't feel too bad for them! They admitted they had moved over there from their seats, something I always find bizarre because they would have had to purchase specific seat numbers themselves, so why the fuck would they just assume no one else was in these seats?
And then, that lady, after the two of them moved to their original seats in the same row but in the side section, chatted audibly through the entire fucking movie. Now, when the movie was loud, which was kind of most of the time, you couldn't hear her. Any time there was an even moderately quiet moment, we could hear her—or at least Laney and I could. Shobhit somehow never heard her. Laney told us after the movie that she was annoyed enough by it that she "almost pulled a Karen" and went to speak to the manager, but she never did.
Chatty Cathy aside, it was still a spectacular movie watching experience. Laney even applauded when the credits rolled, which inspired some others in the audience to follow suit. Shobhit did not gush over the movie like Laney or I did, but he was clearly into it: he never nodded off, and was visibly engaged from start to finished. I glanced over to check on his engagement a few times, and he was very much locked in. And I kind of love watching him love a movie, especially when it's actually a good one.
— पांच हजार पांच सौ तिरासी —
— पांच हजार पांच सौ तिरासी —
Shobhit had walked to my office to then walk with me to the theater, to get steps in for the day. The movie showtime was at 4:00 so I left at 3:25, having told Laney to meet at the theater at 3:50.
There's an Indian restaurant in Belltown that I have no recollection of eating at before, but Shobhit says we did, so I guess we did. It was maybe a block and a half backtracked from Cinerama, and Shobhit decided before the movie that he would order takeout from there to take home for dinner after the movie.
Laney walked with us back there after the movie, chatting with us about the movie along the way. She called her daughter, Jessica—who, now that I've seen
Dune so many times, I may always think "Lady Jessica" when Laney mentions her—while Shobhit and I went inside to get the food, which was ready surprisingly quickly. We then all walked up to Pine and Fourth, where we waited about six minutes for the #11, which is the one bus from there that gets all of us to the exact bus stop we need: Laney got off at Pine and Broadway, the stop in front of the Egyptian Theater right around the corner from her apartment building, Pride Place; Shobhit and I got off at 15th and Pine. Actually there was a very handsome young man and an old lady, presumably his grandmother, sitting across from us on the bus, and she got up and asked the bus driver, "Can I get a courtesy stop at the curb right here?"—which we took advantage of as well, because we got to get off the bus right across the street from our building as opposed to the actual stop halfway up the next block.
Largely for my sake, Shobhit got the Shahi Paneer, my favorite Indian dish, from the Indian restaurant. But, he asked for 3-star spiciness out of five, which I decided not to complain about: I could take it. The problem, although I could indeed tolerate it, was that all I could taste was the spice, and it overpowered any actual flavor. This has long been one of Shobhit's problems with spicy food, how he conflates spice with flavor, which are two very different things. On the upside, the garlic naan was fantastic. I even had seconds, which I should not have done; I was up a pound this morning.
We ate while watching this week's episode of
Shogun, which was the best yet. I was really impressed with it. Thus, we had an entire evening of exceptional visual storytelling.
After that, I got on the phone with Gabriel for about twenty minutes, knowing he would be all too willing to talk to me about my third viewing of
Dune Part Two—he's still only seen it once, so he very opening said he was jealous. It should be noted, however, that he has watched
Dune Part One a
lot more times than I have, and no doubt in the end the same will be the case with
Dune Part Two, simply because it is currently still in theaters. Once it is streaming, there is no doubt that Gabriel will watch the movie way more times than I will ever be able to.
Anyway! Most of the points I brought up over the phone with Gabriel, I also wrote
on Letterboxd this morning, logging my third viewing of the film there. I seem to write more there with each new time I watch the movie, which I am now declaring to be the best of the year. I suppose anything is possible, but what are the odds that I will love any other movie as much this year? My obsessive return for rewatches in the theater hasn't been like this for any other movie since
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. And that was twenty years ago.
— पांच हजार पांच सौ तिरासी —
[posted 12:31 pm]
