It’s where I go to see the comedy that got a 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, has already been out for six and a half weeks, and is no longer playing anywhere else. The Regal Cinemas Riverfront 2 on River Street only shows a few (usually older) films at a time. If you began at the Riverfront 2, hit the Regal 9 and the Del Mar, and finished at the Nick, your path would form a small zigzag through downtown and take less than 10 minutes to walk.Īfter a few years of going to the movies in Santa Cruz, I started to figure out the vibe and purpose of each theater. The downtown area has four theaters within one square mile. But first and foremost, we would watch movies. Whenever I could wrangle a ride downtown with friends, we’d rush into the independent bookstores, buy ice cream cones from Penny Ice Creamery, and gawk at the fudge in Marini’s. As a kid, I was quietly creative and eager to make art-so, yeah, pretty nerdy. While the city is mostly associated with surfers, potheads, and hippies, I never fell into any of those categories. People loiter on the sidewalks downtown-sitting on benches, strumming guitars under trees, gazing into shop windows as they stroll by. Santa Cruz is a place you can find local substitutes for well-known chains (Betty’s Burgers instead of In-N-Out, Bookshop Santa Cruz instead of Barnes and Noble) and cars plastered with “Keep Santa Cruz Weird” bumper stickers. I grew up in Watsonville, a small town just outside the northern California city. It came from a cluster of movie theaters bunched together in downtown Santa Cruz. My love for cinema didn’t sprout from film theory or Adobe Premiere tutorial clips, however. I’ve dabbled in script writing, and proudly marathoned entire film series with the commentary on. But as a film minor at Occidental College in Los Angeles, I’ve spent more time than I care to admit crafting punchy loglines, wrapping my head around the 180-degree-rule, and convincing people that watching three-quarters of Citizen Kane doesn’t a movie buff make. This onslaught of quick cuts seemed intended to add energy and excitement, but left my brain gasping for air.Ĭounting the seconds in a movie scene sounds weird, I know. I realized the camera hardly ever spent more than two seconds on a shot. Annoyed, I began to count how long each scene lasted. The 1920s world it portrayed looked glossy and chic, and the music sounded snappy and fresh. I only made it through the first few minutes of The Great Gatsby before I knew something about the film was off.
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