I am by no means a “film person,” but through my library and politics studies I have found a particular love for community spaces and community forming around art. Thus, the movie theatre has become one of my favourite places.
After one of my solo viewings of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) an older man walking past my seat paused, said “Well that was something wasn’t it?” and we nodded, knowing we had the movie in common if nothing else.
I contemplated We Live in Time (2024) with the group of girls that my friend and I cried with during the credits, and the indie film Plainclothes (2025) connected me to the woman that matched my stunned expression after the ending.
From collective laughter across the room during Little Women (2019) when Amy got her foot stuck in cement, the sniffles across the theatre during Avengers: Endgame (2019), to the compliments on all pink outfits exchanged in line for Barbie (2023) — I shared all these movies with a community that the theatre created.
I don’t love every movie that I see in the theatre, but I love every time I get to go there.
