Ever since my first movie going experience in France four years ago, I was convinced American theatres weren't as serious about the experience as their European counterparts. Well, earlier today, the Gateway Film Center, located on High Street within the University District, proved me wrong. The theatre room, in which I saw the limited release of Chris Colfer's screenwriting debut Struck by Lightning,contained a modest 22 chairs (all sold out by the way) arranged in three rows and a large movie screen. The anonymity one could have in solo movie watching was close to impossible--not that I was intentionally aiming to be incognito today--as the door into the theatre faced the audience, as if to be a welcoming experience into the cinematic cluster that will be spending the next hour and a half or so with a host of characters on the screen. In some manner of speaking, such was this familial movie going experience that in retrospect it would seem that many gatherings include some form of group dynamic and a shared activity of some kind. Of course, here I will always tout food as that shared activity, an activity to which I leave an empty chair for the next dinner guest to walk through the doorway. For this post, though, I'm the self-invited diner as it was. And the familiar spaces I walked into after the film were both located further down on High Street in one of my favourite areas of Columbus, the Short North.
