Amanda R.
Yelp
I went to the theater two nights in a row, and had two overlapping but very different experiences. Normally I always want to cheerlead indie cinemas and arthouse theaters but I also want to give an honest review and not just wax poetic about the experiences.
The first night I went with a friend to see a very obscure indie film. The tickets were $13.50 and there's assigned seating. We didn't really enjoy the movie itself but the staff were really nice. While I understand that it's LA and an indie cinema, a bucket of popcorn runs $9 (and they don't have butter or seasonings) and a soda was almost $7. They also have canned beer and wine, and personal frozen pizzas and burritos. I know you can get a membership so maybe it's cheaper if you do that.
Second night I went alone to see an almost-sold out screening of Velvet Goldmine. They were having difficulties with the film and the small lobby became chaotic and packed with people because the theater wasn't seating. There was one guy (Marco I think was his name) doing all concessions plus scanning tickets by himself, but he was positive and friendly despite the stress level. When they finally seated us, I was disappointed to find out that the audience was just kinda awful. I sat near the very back, and the back row was a big group of friends who were all loud and whispering/giggling the entire movie. People kept talking in normal conversation voices, checking their phones, getting up to walk out to the lobby repeatedly, etc. Also if you sit in the back of the theater you can clearly hear people in the lobby, and during the movie the staff were in the concession area being super loud. There were several quiet poignant parts of the movie where I could hear the staff just being talkative and loud on the other side of the wall. I ended up leaving the movie early because of the people around me who wouldn't stop talking and whispering nonstop, I was so taken out of the experience I just wanted to go home.
The theater only has street parking (sometimes metered) so plan accordingly. I do think they have amazing programming, this whole month looked fantastic on the calendar and I would see most of their offerings, but I wish they were stricter on audience etiquette like the New Bev and that concessions were a little more reasonable. Also some soundproofing between the lobby and theater might be nice, or at least the staff please keeping their voices down during screenings.
