Sneaky Peek

On the last Wednesday of every month, Theater N in downtown Wilmington holds an event they call the Sneaky Peek. How this works is they arrange a happy hour at a nearby bar/restaurant, where they give out some free wine and appetizers (although not enough so you don't want to buy your own anyway), and then everybody walks over to the independent theater and watches a movie, the title of which has not been announced ahead of time. Last night the surprise movie was Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her. Although it was a decent choice, R and I were a little disappointed because we had already seen it on DVD a few years ago. The idea that this might happen was not entirely unexpected, but if I'm going to rewatch a movie on the big-screen, I would hope it would be a movie that makes use of the big-screen. Talk to Her is about two men and the relationships they have with women who happen to be in comas. The cinematography really wasn't anything remarkable; in fact, I'd say the visuals were rather stark, sometimes even drab. There's no comparison to be made to a vibrant film like, say, 2046, which I would be thrilled to see again in a theater. It also didn't help that they just projected the DVD on the screen instead of rolling the actual film. The difference was quite noticeable. But that's enough negativity--the Sneaky Peek is a fantastic idea, a good way to expose people to movies they might not otherwise see, and not knowing what is playing until the title card comes up definitely adds some excitement to the experience. I'd go back for another one.