Talk about a spoiler.
We pre-purchased tickets for a 10pm screening of La La Land. It played at the Regal Park Terrace, in Charlotte — the only theatre in the area showing this film, as of tonight (it opens at others tomorrow).
We already have our Christmas Day movie picked out. We’ll be seeing Fences. So tonight was the night for La La Land.
That’s a one hour drive. I thought we were running late and I sped. We got there at 9:55.
All three of us — my wife, daughter, and myself — used the facilities.
We entered the theatre at 10:03. The theatre was packed and we had to sit very close.
The movie had started. No previews. That’s odd — but I thought that might be something they do with movies at that hour. Who knows?
I hate to miss the beginning of a movie — and I love previews — but it seemed like we had only missed a minute or two, maybe even just a few seconds. That is, it seemed like the beginning of a movie.
Ten minutes later, the movie ended and the audience got up to leave.
My first thought was that I had read the times wrong. Then my daughter said, “We’re in the wrong theatre.â€
We rushed into the next room and sat down in time to see the ending of a preview and the entire movie — including the ending, again.
Ordinarily, I would not recommend watching the ending first.
That said, it’s a beautiful movie, start to finish — so seeing a bit of it twice is really a bit of a bonus.
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are classic big screen stars. Los Angeles glitters. The music is quite beautiful, and in one sequence, Gosling’s character explains why.
Although this movie was made well before anybody thought we would have such a catastrophic election result, I’d say there’s nothing better for a Trump infested country than movies like this. Good, big, bittersweet musicals with plenty of singing, dancing, and bigger than life beautiful stars who fall in love and overcome all their obstacles.
Keep em coming, Hollywood. We’ll need more of these.