The Best Movie Houses In America
For many of us, film is religion, and there is no more hallowed temple than the local independent movie house. We look to it as a calm voice of reason in a sea of neon-appointed megaplexes; as a secure place of refuge where we discover talented indie filmmakers who’ve been flying under the radar. There aren’t many of these movie houses left (and increasingly easy access to film on the internet probably won’t help their cause), but shrewd, creative business moves from owners and plenty of love from neighborhood film buffs has kept top-notch indie theaters in business. Here are some of the best.
Boston
The Coolidge Corner Theatre
The Coolidge has been a neighborhood staple since 1933, showcasing classics and cult hits in restored prints, and running annual all-night horror-movie marathons. Coolidge originals include events like Science on the Screen, which pairs films with lectures from real-world scientific counterparts—an astrophysicist for Jodie Foster’s Contact, an anthropologist for David Bowie’s The Man Who Fell to Earth. The Coolidge’s gorgeously renovated Art Deco theater with a genuine silver screen showcases big-name releases, while smaller theaters and digital screening rooms showcase lesser-known films and documentaries.
Seattle
The Grand Illusion
The plush, red, womb-like interior of the Illusion feels like a film-school screening room designed by David Lynch. The size of a funeral parlor, it seats about 70 people in wide, velvety seats with a tiny screen that rests behind some curtains straight out of Dracula’s castle. Seattle’s oldest independent movie theater, the Illusion shows crisp projections from an impeccably selected schedule of high-brow art films for the Kurosawa/Polanski set, plus old Hollywood classics and proudly degenerate weirdo fare like 1978 heavy-metal epic Stunt Rock. Unofficial, BYOB-friendly late-night showings are a bonus.
Austin