Last weekend I had the opportunity to see The Informant! at the Laurelhurst Theater in Portland, OR. If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing a movie at this particular theater, you are missing out. Your life is passing you by and you are depriving yourself of one of the great attributes of a great city. The Laurelhurst is infused with rustic charm (a Portland staple) and happens to be one of several Portland theaters in which a moviegoer can enjoy second-run films with the welcome accompaniment of beer and/or wine. Movie tickets at the Laurelhurst are $3, which is approximately 1/4 of the price one would pay for the same film only 3 weeks prior. Instead of waiting in line with all of the riffraff for films on opening weekend and paying inordinate amounts of money to watch a movie without beer, why not wait until the same film hits the second-run beer theaters in Portland, and enjoy your anticipated film with friends and a nice buzz? I’m making way too much sense.
And while I’m giving Portland a shoutout, I’d like to commend the city of my birth for producing respectful moviegoers. In comparison, and for whatever reason, Vancouver Canada filmgoers seem to arrive to a movie theater carrying a zero-level of reverence underneath their tooks. For Vancouverites there seems to be a general disregard for what is on the screen and overall lack of respect for the dozens of people surrounding them in a dark theater. For the record: chatting during a film is never okay. If words need to pass between you and your filmgoing partner/group, there is a respectful way of doing it. Listen, you pink-faced sillies: your commentary is not welcome during a film. Commentary should be reserved for your post-movie trip to the poutine restaurant. Or for your blog. Portlanders understand this for some reason. Vancouver-Canadians do not.
Am I generalizing an entire city? Yes. Do I have evidence? No. But I do have some theories to explain this subjectively observed phenomenon.
1.) people in Canada are too polite.
This seems counterintuitive, I know, but hear me out. In America, if you act like an asshole and jabber on through a movie, there is always the slight chance you will be shot. No matter if it’s Christmas Day, or if your kid is with you– you need to shut up or you might be shot. In Canada, if you jabber on during a movie, nobody says anything. Unless I am there to tell you in a condescending voice, like a teacher talking to a 1st grader, “SSSSH!! We’re watching a movie!!!” I actually did this while watching An Education in Vancouver to a young woman behind me who decided to announce “Awwwkward!” during an awkward scene, thereby puncturing the tense mood that the entire film was working to build. I’m not saying that this woman, nor anyone, should be shot. I’m just sayin.
2.) Canadians don’t respect American films
Perhaps it’s a cultural lack of respect for American products. Many Canadians feel, if not an outright hatred, then at least a lingering distaste for American things. Probably rightfully so. But maybe this inability to embrace America and things hailing from there leads Vancouverites to treat the movie theater as their own personal rumpus room. What adds some weight to this theory, for me, is that one of the only films that I’ve witnessed to hold an entire Vancouver audience rapt, to command the respect of every audience member, and the only film that a Vancouver audience I was a part of decided to be silent for, was Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. That’s right, a film that points out for 2 hours why the US and A might not be on the ethical up and up.
3.) Americans are innately more respectful of films/film culture?
Contemporary film culture was born and raised in Canada’s Southern neighbor. Maybe the Canucks just missed the boat in the film-watching etiquette department because this American custom is innately foriegn to their value matrix. Perhaps Americans do rude things while participating in hockey matches. Maybe there’s a Canadian blogger out there decrying Americans and their inability to play hockey without ruining it for everyone else. If this is the case, perhaps we can sketch up a treaty.
4.) Canadians collectively suffer from sociopathy
Perhaps the pristine, brisk Canadian air affects the brain in heretofore unknown ways. We all know how Alaskan brains turn out. Or maybe Universal healthcare makes Canadians a bit too comfy in their long johns. Maybe they have reached a level of comfort that so goes against the natural discomfort of life that they have lost the edgy uncertainty that has historically kept us mammals in check. Either way, sociopathy is defined as a disorder marked by antisocial behavior. If anything is antisocial, then the utter lack of awareness of the feelings, concerns and motivations of the others around you is. Granted, shooting people at a movie is also sociopathic. I suppose it comes down to a matter of taste, and only one of these sociopathic manifestations leads to people shutting the fuck up during movies.
In any case, the Portland filmgoers, although they were alcohol-infused, were very considerate. As I mentioned earlier, the movie at-hand was Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant!, a film based on a true story about an executive at a corporation called ADM. I was intending to write about The Informant!, but I got a bit sidetracked. Thanks for listening. I feel better now. I promise I will pur
sue this film in a couple days once I’ve spent a few days meditating and attempting to come to terms with all forms of life, even those that are determined to taint something that I love.
In the meantime, please listen to the This American Life episode entitled The Fix is In, which inspired the Scott Z. Burns’ screenplay for The Informant! and was based on the Kurt Eichenwald non-fiction account of the Marc Whitacre ADM saga called The Informant (sans exclamation point). And, as Nerdy Two-Shoes pointed out with my last post, This American Life is a production of PRI, not NPR. Apologies to the 1 person who gave a shit about the error.










There are not necessarily any psychotics in Paranormal Activity, but the movie does tap into another “primal fear”: that of the utter impenetrability of other people. No matter how well you think you know somebody, how much you are related to somebody, or how comfortable you feel in somebody else’s presence, you will never truly know what it is like to be that person. You will never know another person’s true motivations, wishes, desires or thoughts. It’s hard enough to pinpoint how one’s self feels about things, let alone how another person does. No matter how much you feel that you know some other person, he or she will still remain other; i.e. different, alternate, opposite. While that concept is scary, watching victims get tortured for 2 hours is not. Torture vignettes, as found in the Saw films or movies like Hostel, may be titillating, engaging or setup cleverly, but they are not “scary”.
When Dr. Hill opens the door and lets in Guy and Dr. Sapirstein, Dr. Sapirstein has this to say, with Guy standing sheepishly at his side: “Come with us quietly, Rosemary. Don’t argue or make a scene. Because if you say anything more about witches or witchcraft, we’re gonna be forced to take you to a mental hospital. You don’t want that, do you?” In many modern works of fiction, the mental hospital becomes the last viable option for men in dealing with women who are for whatever reason not fitting into their system. In Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood is given shock treatment and forced to spend much of her time in mental facilities because of her inability to behave “appropriately” for a young woman in her time and place. Lisbeth Salander in the Steig Larsson’s Millenium series is institutionalized because of the threat she poses to the patriarchal powers that be (indeed, the Swedish title of Larsson’s first book translates as Men Who Hate Women).
A young woman goes through puberty: an unfamiliar body develops, a strange voice emerges and a new personality is born. Her desires, thoughts and behavior become very different than those of her prepubescent self.
The better modern horror films will put as much craft into the non-scary aspects of their film as the payoff fright scenes. You have to work just as hard weaving the rug as you do pulling it out from underneath our feet.


