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When it comes time for Caroline and I to review a movie, we usually look at our choices and discuss what to see. Sometimes the choices are based on things one or both of us want to see. Sometimes we review a movie because we know the review would be fun to write. When I looked at our possible choices, however, I had one of those moments that all of us who enjoy good films experiences. I just couldn't take it. I couldn't subject myself or Caroline to another disappointing, mindless blockbuster. I couldn't sit in the plush seats, surrounded by state-of-the-art sound, shoveling $9 worth of deep fried chocolate in my face and watch another disappointing near-miss from a formerly talented director who was past his prime. I had The Moment. I couldn't. I wouldn't. I was mad as heck and I wasn't going to take it anymore. This aggression was not going to stand...man.

Still, even reviewing our options at our local, fall-back art-house provided little relief. I used to go see movies there and some were quite adequate. But even this theater was a faux representation of a true art house (having grown up in the beginnings of the Era of the Multiplex I'm not sure I'm even qualified to define an art house but I have my suspicions) . The lobby, theaters and even seats for this fakery are slick, remodeled representations of what art houses used to be. Everything is cleaned on a four hour schedule. The process is meticulously recorded on a chart hung on the back of the bathroom door with someone's initials and a date and time so that we all know that this establishment considers public hygiene a sacred duty. You can still get a microwaved chicken quesadilla and a diet Mountain Dew in three different sizes and recycle all containers as you exit the lobby.

I was feeling particularly rebellious and the thought of this again just wouldn't do.

We are in luck, however, to live in an area which features a few different places to see movies. It was then I recalled a long forgotten theater. This is an art house. Nothing has changed in 25 years. The last update to the snack bar was...Twix. The idea of cleaning anything regularly, aside from the restrooms, is a vague notion at best. The seats are made well before the Ergonomic Sciences. The decor is not reminiscent of another time, it is from another era entirely. It has, for example, what is quaintly refer to as a "minimax" of 17 seats (it's actually 14...I counted them) along with the normal theaters. Instead of commercials for some show called "Burn Notice," we're treated to Bugs Bunny cartoons before the movie. The theater simultaneously enhances the experience of watching a film and yet gets out of the way of it entirely.

Caroline and I went to this theater in hopes of seeing a movie that might be the least bit memorable and we chose last year's Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Secret in their Eyes. The film is based on Eduardo Sacheri's novel La Pregunta de sus Ojos (The Question in Their Eyes).

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