Your most memorable film experience • Page 2

Cool thread. I'm just gonna pick some of the first that come to me.

I got a train to Birmingham to see Before Midnight in the closest cinema I could find that was playing it and it ended up being the smallest one I've ever been to where you got to sit on your own leather couch and you had a menu and a phone number you could text to order food/drinks from. It was the most perfect experience I've ever had going to see a film, from the movie itself to the environment and the company.

I vividly remember watching Bridge to Teribithia for the second time because I had recently watched it for the first time after some friends told me it would make me cry despite the fact that I hadn't cried at a film in years at the time. The first time I was sad but no tears. The second time I was solidly crying for like half an hour, I have no idea what happened but I was fucking weeping.

I remember watching Baby Mama 5 times in a row when my girlfriend was pregnant. It wasn't even that bad.

 

Seeing Scream as my first horror film at like 6 or 7. The opening definitely had an effect on me.

Attending the 39th Cleveland International Film Festival and seeing the LGBTQIA+ shorts program along with Xenia and The Way He Looks. It was just really nice to see films like this in a public setting for me. It also helps that they didn't fall into the typical tragic/self loathing mess that a lot of queer cinema does.

Being absolutely shaken by Lake Mungo while watching in the dark with a few people on Netflix.

Seeing John Carpenter's Halloween in theaters for a limited engagement around Halloween a few years back.

 

definitely did not cry during wreck it ralph, stop asking me if I cried during wreck it ralph cause I did not

 

*first post!*

Seeing Cloverfield in a theater was pretty unforgettable. I honestly couldn't process reality after having left the theater and it felt like I had left my body for an hour and a half. It was a wild experience.

My earliest memory watching a film was that Volcano movie with Tommy Lee Jones. Lava is not cool, man.

Any memory involving the first Spider-Man film, when I was 8. SHAZAM.

Watching A Beautiful Mind freshman year and really getting into it. It held my complete attention from beginning to end - that's rare.

Watching Jumanji with a friend and laughing hysterically at the Poacher's face during that one scene in the hunting store. Good times.

Watching The Matrix for the second time and finally understanding it.

Seeing The Happening one morning with my mom. I get why the movie "sucks" but I couldn't help but enjoy that movie.

There was an old found-footage film called "Alien Abduction At Lakeland County" that I watched while on vacation in Central America. It was my first FFF and it was frightening.

Watching Kung Pow on PPV as a kid, so much that I can still recite lines from it years later.

Sitting through the "birth" scene in Austin Powers Gold Member with my family. Everyone was in hysterics.

Some movies that have given me soul feelings, either inspiring me or making me cry:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - I loved the romance of that movie and was really taken with all of the characters that Benjamin met along the way. It was also the first movie I saw in a theater alone.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - every prayer accepted, every wish resigned. I watched a lot of movies in 2008 and this one was one of my favorites. It gave me that warm sad.

V For Vendetta - inspired me deeply and means a lot to me still. Do you like music, Evey?

Watching A.I. Artificial Intelligence made me feel things I had never felt before. It made me weep unknown tears. I didn't need that at like, 9 years old ;-;

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There are bound to be more so I'll update this post accordingly lol.

 

I don't think anything has made me cry harder than Millennium Actress. Maybe Wolf Children.

 

Any time I went to the midnight premiere of a Harry Potter movie. The last one was extremely emotional.

 

The Perks of Being A Wallflower- I'm not sure I would care as much if I saw the film for the first time today, but seeing it senior year when I was in a rough patch really helped me out. I felt like the characters were my friends and that everything was speaking to me. I still have a strong connection with it.

It's Kind of a Funny Story- Similar deal, except I was younger. Just hit me at a really important time when I needed to feel like other people got what I was going through. I related strongly with the lead and I think the humor in this film is really underrated.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- Took me two viewings to really connect with it. Not a great movie to watch with other people, I think it's best served alone on a quiet night.

Creed- I'm a huge Rocky fan. Loved the movies when I was a kid, still love them to this day. I thought Creed was fantastic, it felt like a true Rocky film while still feeling fresh and unique. When he gets up off his stool and "Gonna Fly Now" starts playing I lost it. What a perfect use of that song after keeping it locked up the entire time up to that point.

 

Last night my friend and I watched A Brighter Summer Day through his projector on his wall with the window open and a really nice breeze coming in. We were up until three because it was already late and that's a four hour movie but the uniqueness of the situation combined with the quality of the film made it one of the more pleasant film-watching experiences I can remember.

 

Boyhood was a really special movie for me, it came out just as I was thinking about different types of films and storytelling. It helped me think about the maybe non-linear, slowed down aspects of storytelling. And it was just a phenomenal movie. When I saw it for the second time, it was in a mostly empty theater and the only other people watching were some girl in her 30's, 18 year old me and some 50+ year old guy. Really felt like some kind of universal experience or whatever, I don't know. But Boyhood is a very important movie to me.

 

The Electric, right? Really good cinema.

 

I don't know if it's my most memorable but someone sitting in the row in front of me bringing their 10 year old to see Wolf of Wall Street and staying through the entire thing is up there. I imagine they had some interesting conversations afterward.

 

Yeah! I loved it so much. The big film showing there that week was Man of Steel and they even had like themed cocktails for that movie, it was just so cool.

 

1) this is going to sound lame when coupled with my icon haha but when I saw The Fault in our Stars in theaters during an early release event. It was the first time I can remember openly sobbing in a movie theater, and knowing everyone around you was doing it, too. I was so pleased with the book-to-movie transition.
2) when I saw Mean Girls in theaters...when Regina got hit by the bus and Cady said "and that's how regina george died" I started laughing so hard that I missed her saying "I'm totally kidding". My friend had to tell me because I truly thought she died. That memory still makes me chuckle when I'm watching the movie these days.

 

Furious 7: I cried. People laughed at me. It was sad. That is all.

 

Living room routine! Yes!

Ezra Miller was so great in that movie.

 

I saw Napoleon Dynamite with my mother when it came out; small independent theatre. I think it cost us like 4 bucks each. We never really "did stuff" together, so it was a different experience. I just love that movie because of how much she loved it, and that experience we were able to share.

Second, and less sad: Saw anchorman at a private screening in St. Louis while I was in college. Got booze fueled smoothies and a screening 2 days before it actually came out. Movie was funny, but I liked it more because fuck you I get to see it before you!

 

Word. Took my mom to see Crazy Stupid Love before I moved across the country, and I didn't like the movie but she was having a blast and it was dope. Probably hadn't gone to a movie theater with her since the first Shrek.

 

My mom never goes with us to the movies. Language barrier, etc. We take our dad to see 007 and stuff, though.

 

I know there are more than this but:

1)The Force Awakens Opening night. Just everything about it was unmitigated joy. I was very overwhelmed.

2) Boyhood. This was the first movie I saw after moving across the country away from pretty much everyone in my life and it all really resonated with me. What a really special movie.

3) The Dark Knight. This was less the movie (which I still enjoyed a lot) and more that it was my first midnight screening and just the people I was with. Hanging out in the parking lot afterwards almost until the sun came up just bullshitting is something I think back on really fondly.

Edit: 4) the last Harry Potter film at midnight. Saw it with my sister, HP is something we've always really connected over. Was nice.

 

Seeing the premiere of Mike Birbiglia's Sleepwalk With Me and getting mad at someone who wouldn't stop talking during the film only to discover it was Mike Birbiglia talking during his own film

 

Renting the unrated vhs version of Scream from Blockbuster. Single most important moment I've ever had with film.

 

I'd agree with you @Henry and say mine was Jurassic Park as well. I remember seeing that in theaters with my brother and mom. I also remember somewhere during the movie the film cutting off and the audience booing, hah.

Some honorable mentions would be Toy Story, as I saw that in theaters with my mom so that's a nice memory. The other, oddly enough, would be Freddy Got Fingered as that was the first rated R movie I ever saw in a theater.

 

The Master in theaters

 

The Dark Knight at midnight release was a great moment for me. went with a bunch of friends junior year of high school. I'll never forget that, as well as seeing the trailer for "1-18-08" (which would be Cloverfield) before and feeling my jaw drop in anticipation.

Almost Famous was cool too, watched it in a theater class sophomore year of college and was really enthralled and forgot i was sitting in a class room.

 

Ahhh good call on that. I saw the trailer at a Transformers viewing. (Don't judge.) Nobody knew what was going on! Proved to be a great marketing ploy.