Dear Sean Baker,

There’s a reason we don’t go to the Movies anymore, at least to Corporate Movie Theaters. Well, there’s a few.

Did you watch the Oscars, recently?

There was a thoroughly-applauded moment when Anora’s Sean Baker, winner of four awards, took time to encourage us to go see movies in theaters. The magical communal experience, the big screen.

“We’re all here tonight and watching this broadcast because we love movies. Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theater,” Baker said. “Watching a film in the theater with an audience is an experience. We can laugh together, cry together, and, in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever. It’s a communal experience you don’t get at home. And right now, the theater-going experience is under threat.”

“Movie theaters, especially independently-owned theaters are struggling,” Baker continued. “During the pandemic, we lost 1,000 screens in the U.S. And we continue to lose them regularly. If we don’t reverse this trend, we’ll be losing a vital part of our culture. This is my battle cry.”

I want to agree with him.

Community is magic.

But he needs to aim his plea at the big corporate theaters, not the dwindling crowds. We’re dwindling for a reason. Because community, as we learn in Buddhism, takes a “container.” Meaning: it needs some mindful supervision. Can’t be too expensive, too loud, too exploitative of people’s attention. Folks shouldn’t be talking and on their phones. You know.

And we mostly all agree: big chain movie theaters suck these days. I’m not talking about your Outdoor Cinema where I can bike down, see friends, brown bag wine (back when I was young) and picnic with pals while watching some cult classic. I’m not calling out your local indie movie theater, usually in a historic marque, showing great films and current releases as they’ve done for 100 years.

I’m talking about corporate cinema experience. It sucks. It’s pricey. The plastic waste food and beverage stuff is pricey. You can’t bring your own food, of course. The experience of the movie itself, however, is the worst: ads, ads, ads, trailer, ads. There used to be a few trailers, some nice music, trivia on the screen. Remember that? Then, the movie finally starts, well after the showtime…and the music and action is way too loud, to the point where I wanna bring ear plugs. And that’s been the case for well over a decade, so it isn’t an age thing. Then there’s the breakdown of any sense of community—folks are on their lit up phones, bumping seats, talking. Remember when theaters cared about the experience, and an usher would mind the situation? That’s long gone.

So yeah. I haven’t gone to a movie theater in years, and won’t any time soon. I’ll hang at home on my organic couch (!) with blankets and organic popcorn with good salt, olive oil, nutritional yeast, a bathroom and a pause button available, my dog and my wife to cuddle with. If you’re hearing impaired, the home experience with closed captioning is hard to beat. And yeah: Netflix and the like are too expensive, and producing algorithmic cynical crap. They’re another problem. But I subscribe to TCM, I record my favorite artists, I can skip commercials I don’t care about.

And it’s too bad—because yeah, Sean—we miss the big screen, the community experience. We need that in America, and elsewhere, right now. But if sales are down, you don’t make the experience worse. You make it better. All my magical movie memories are in those indie theaters, or at college with pals, or outside in a neighborhood on a lawn. None of them are at Century Cinema, the closest corporate theater to my house.

So I’ll keep looking for, and finding that movie magic at my local historic theater, my local movie fest, or a local outdoor movie in a neighborhood—because, unless grassroots please like this are heard by Sean and the powers that be, we won’t be finding it Corporate Cinema and Friends (half of whom donate to Trumpish causes, anyhoo).