Just got back from showing Amir Motlagh's new film 'Young Ali - those were the days' at Film Noir Cinema in Greenpoint, Brooklyn as a part of my Indie Discovery LA In NYC film screening series. Noticed a huge difference in the viewing experience between the movie at the movie theater versus when I saw the movie at home.
Today's screening event attracted several Iranian-American/Persian audience members. They were laughing at things that I did not notice at home - so that was interesting. Motlagh makes very real world focused and poetic movies - so, it's not a surprise that his movie about an Iranian-American middle aged man trying to start over after a divorce while dealing with the Covid crisis and living again with his parents would have some culturally specific humor in it.
On the big screen the movie moves fast - or at the appropriate speed. It does not feel slow. Also the deadpan humor in the movie works much better on the large screen. And the several types of visual threads - the LA/home stuff, the drone footage, the poetic shots of the world - work together much better on the large screen. The music and sound design also worked much better at the movie theater. It was overall a great cinematic experience.
So, like Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria, this might be a movie that is best for the movie theaters. Catch a screening of the movie if you get the chance. If not, watch it on the largest screen possible at home with all lights off and all devices shut off.
All indie filmmakers should raise additional money and aim for theatrical releases. Home video is not cinema.
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