In today’s Dialogue column we asked what, in 2021, are movies worth? Here’s a related question: What’s the farthest you’ve traveled to see a movie? Not counting the few film festivals I’ve covered, I’ve been either lucky or lazy, often both. I’ve never lived on either coast, where movies arrive first and cool events seem to be happening all the time. But I’ve often never lived that far from an arthouse, even in high school. But I do regret not going more often. I’ve been able to see Agnes Varda in person twice and attend a screening of Orlando that included a Q&A with Quentin Crisp. But if I’d put in the effort to drive to Indiana University during their visits I could have seen John Boorman and Abbas Kiarostami introduce their films. Scott, on the other hand, has done some traveling to see movies he couldn’t see without long drives. I’ll let him share those stories in the comments. What are yours?
I thought about this question, because there were times in my life where I'd routinely drive an hour or 90 minutes to see movies. Back in college in the early 90s, at the University of Georgia, we used to plan full days where we'd drive from Athens to Atlanta and see two or three (or even four) arthouse movies. And there was a point where I was living in the south suburbs of Toledo in '94, and drove up to Ann Arbor to see films like Hoop Dreams, Spanking the Monkey, Oleanna and Clerks. (I remember my acute disappointment with the latter.) But the farthest I've gone beyond film festivals-- and I do drive the 6-7 hours down to True/False in Columbia, MO from Chicago every year-- are appearances I made for a little bit of money to host screenings of In the Mood for Love in Terre Haute IN and Miami Blues in Columbus OH. I have a feeling others here have probably gone to much greater lengths to see a movie.
Not that far, but in high school I lived in a tiny town about an hour north of Spokane, WA, and would routinely drive down Friday evening, just to rent 4-5 movies from the Blockbuster that had a pretty good foreign film section, drive back, watch the movies over the course of the weekend, then drive back down Sunday and return them and drive back.
I took a Hitchcock class one semester that was on the other side of San Francisco from my job. There was a giant hill in-between. Every Monday for 12 Mondays in a row I biked on my single speed. It took like 45 minutes and I'd arrive drenched in sweat, head to the bathroom and change into dry clothes. All that for a lecture on Hitchcock and to watch a movie of his. No regrets whatsoever!
My then-fiancé and I went to Sundance to see movies in general. It was the year Napoleon Dynamite was released. Oof! And I’ve seen movies in far-away places while on vacation. But I didn’t go to see any movie in particular. I’d say the farthest I’ve ever gone to see a specific film was about a two hour drive to see Richard Linklater’s Waking Life which was only playing in one theater I could find. I’d missed it earlier in its run due to school conflicts, and wanted to make sure I saw it.
Not the craziest drive, but when I was in school in Orlando, FL, a buddy and I saw that they were projecting Star Wars: The Force Awakens on true IMAX 70mm film a couple hours away in Tampa. Went there to find it was in a IMAX Dome theater inside a near-ghost town science museum. Not only was there only one sequence in the whole film that used the full IMAX aspect ratio, but the movie was projected on what was basically the ceiling of the dome, so it was not the most optimal viewing.
Growing up in Montana, it was definitely always a BIG priority on trips to either coast to make sure to cram in the movies I wouldn't get to see for another few months. Very fond memories of seeing THE LIFE AQUATIC and VOLVER during trips to Seattle, movies that wouldn't dare hit the Carmike Cinemas in Billings, MT (even the former film at the time of release).
But the best answer I have for this actually relates to the larger topic of today's piece, and it was just in 2019 when I made sure to be back in my college town, 5 hours away from where I was at the time, to catch a limited run of MARRIAGE STORY on the big screen. I'm a huge Baumbach fan so I would obviously have watched it on Netflix, but I didn't buy the idea that it was probably just "shot for streaming" and wouldn't matter projected large. It was no comparison. Absolutely stunning in a theater. I feel so fortunate to have had that immersive experience and the opportunity to have a little cry in the darkness while the credits rolled.
When I used to travel a lot for work I got a reputation for hitting up whatever art house theater was in a 30 mile radius, usually at great expense of time and money for Ubers or transit. I was able to catch screenings of Portrait of a Lady on Fire in 3 different states (I was a bit obsessed)...
But I have also driven 3 hours to catch a 70mm screening of Phantom Thread at the Music Box!
I didn’t travel but my family traveled from Edgewater to someplace deeeep in Chicago’s western suburbs, I think Schaumburg but it may have been into DuPage, to see Mouse Hunt when I was little.
I almost went from Amsterdam to Paris for a Star Trek film festival—I was going to meet with an online friend, but he then said he was bringing a friend who might be turning into something more and…I’d already bought my train ticket so I found other stuff to do.
I would routinely drive into San Francisco from the North Bay back in my teens/20s (probably an hour-ish drive) but the farthest is driving from LA to SF to see ROTK with friends, and flying from LA to SF to see Dunkirk in IMAX with my dad.
It was 2014 and I was a big fan of Linklater after having seen dazed and confused and the Before trilogy. Boyhood was THE movie everyone was talking about that year, and I was not gonna wait for Blu ray. So I hopped in a car and drove two hours to a major city with a small art house theater(one that recently shut down because of the pandemic, rip) to see it. I distinctly remember just how much better the screen/projection was then the crummy AMC I had in my small town. And it was a very good film; not quite Grand Budapest Hotel good, at least ten times better than BP winning fuckin’ Birdman.
I've made the 4-5 hour drive from eastern WA to Seattle many times just to see movies on the giant screen of the Cinerama Theater (RIP, maybe?), including "Roma" (the drive back was in a snowstorm so brutal I thought, "Am I going to die because I wanted to see a movie?") and "The Irishman." Incredible experiences, both.
The first that comes to mind is that I’ve driven a few times to the Warwick Drive-In — which is over 90 minutes away — because it’s the closest one to NYC. I haven’t done it since I had kids but I do love going there.
In January, because I was very starved for a big screen experience, I found out that there was only one drive in open about 2 hours away. I ended up driving there to see NEWS OF THE WORLD.
When I lived in Houston, Hal Hartley's FLIRT opened in Austin but not Houston, and a few Hartley-heads and I road tripped three hours for that. Later on I lived in Portland, and I did two solo road trips to the Cinerama screen in Seattle: one for TITUS and one for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Three hours each way. (Although one of them - maybe TITUS - I managed to make a double header with a daytime Dismemberment Plan gig.)
Later, after I moved to NZ, I centered a trip to Melbourne around a 70mm screening of 2001 at the Astor which also coincided with the opening weekend of THE MASTER (not in 70mm, but four months before it ultimately came to NZ). But it would be hyperbole to say I went just for that.
And in 2019 when I was in Europe we went from Paris to Brussels for one night to see IN FABRIC with Peter Strickland presenting.
I was visiting my friend at Oberlin College for the weekend and was planning on driving him back to his parents house in the Chicago suburbs on Sunday. He was starting his fall break that week, but we realized if we left Saturday afternoon we could catch a late screening of Julien Donkey-boy at the Fine Arts Building Theatre in Chicago so we drove the 5 hours to catch the new Korine film starting Herzog. Which was very important to us at the time..
We made it to the showing, and its been a minute, but im sure the film still holds up.
When I was living in Blacksburg, VA we would frequently get good limited releases at the Lyric theater, but not everything. For some things you'd have to go further afield.
Which is why in spring of 2014 I drove two and a half hours each way to Charlottesville to see Under the Skin, and it was worth every mile. Later that year I would drive the same distance to see Adieu au Langage in 3D at the Virginia Film Festival - something I knew would be a vanishingly rare opportunity to do.
Both times that year I felt like I was getting away with something, and was well-rewarded for my efforts.
I've had the privilege to live in a few great college towns with good cinema (special shout out to all the films I saw during my time in Ann Arbor), so I haven't done many crazy travels, but one of my memorable ones was driving 2+ hours to the small Vickers Theater in Three Oaks, MI to see a screening of Buster Keaton's Seven Chances with live accompaniment. It was totally worth it.
Not going to say I traveled to Boston to see Inland Empire in the theater (which weirdly never played here in Atlanta), but I definitely made sure our travel dates and schedule lined up to give me a few hours in the middle of the day to go see it.
Scott, as you know I did a lot of those Athens-to-Atlanta movie trips (sometimes for a triple feature, sometimes with a Braves game or a trip to a museum or book store mixed in); but probably my longest trip was a *Nashville*-to-Atlanta trek to see Hoop Dreams. I was anxious to see it, it wasn't opening in Tennessee for a while, so my buddy and I drove down (and probably saw a Braves game too, while we were there).
I now live in Brooklyn, and since the pandemic we discovered Pennsylvania's Mahoning Drive In. It's about a 2 1/2 - 3 hr drive, but they offer on site camping for just $5 more per person. Plus there's a lot to do in the area (rafting/canoeing in the summer, corn mazes and pumpkin patches in the autumn). It's a great time, and they show most of the films from 35mm prints. (Going again for Freddy Fest next weekend).
When I was living in Columbus, Oh a friend told me that we were going to see something, but kept what and where a secret. So we drove for about 3 hours to the Cleveland Cinematheque to see the only Ohio screening of Southland Tales during its initial run.
Aside from the year I drove to Toronto for TIFF, the longest I've driven to a theater was earlier this year, when I trucked down 3.5 hours to the Mahoning Drive-In... but that was to see a live edition of Garagehouse Pictures's TRAILER TRAUMA compilations. So, the longest drive I've ever had to see a movie was the night I drove to Middletown to catch a film. About an hour-and-a-half away from my work, which means it was a 2+ hour drive home. So, not that crazy.
It doesn’t count because I didn’t go through with it, but I seriously considered flying to London from NYC to see Rivette’s OUT 1 at one of its first screenings. Eventually I realized that if it played in Paris and London, it would probably come to NYC.
I flew from Vancouver to Montreal then took a detour to New York to see any movie that was showing on the day I was there. Thankfully it was The Trouble with Harry.
Since I live in a place that doesn't routinely get arthouse movies until at least 1-2 months after they are initially released, I routinely travel to Indianapolis or Chicago for movies. Indy is about 2 hours from my location. Chicago is a little over 3. I make the Chicago trip probably a dozen times a year, though that number will go up because I've got three movies in three days for the Chicago International Film Festival later this month. (So excited!) If we are including unplanned theater trips that occurred while on vacation, I could say the furthest I've ever traveled to see a movie was about 1,200 miles when I saw The Counselor in Arizona. Related: Would love Scott and/or Keith to write anything about The Counselor, because IMO it's an underrated Ridley Scott movie that is due for a reappraisal.
Think the longest I ever drove was 70-miles from Los Angeles up to Ventura County's, 101 Drive-in, during high school, to see SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS (1998) when it came out, as I was with some friends that had never been to a drive-in before, and that was the closest one at the time?
i drove from truth or consequenxes to austin to see stalker in 4k. i live in san antonio and was coming home anyway, but wouldnt have booked it like i did to make the movie, dkes this count?
Growing up in a small rural town in NW North Dakota in high school I would occasionally be able to convince my farmer dad to drive me to the Grand Theatres in Bismarck 2.5 hrs away to see movies I’d never have a chance of seeing on my hometown one screen or even on Minot’s 8(?) screens which was about an hour away. We would usually see a couple movies before turning around later in the day and head back home. It was amazing, and still to this day I can’t believe he did that. One trip I remember (and if I get my exact films I apologize, it’s been a long time, but but we almost always did double features) we did a double feature of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and Brokeback Mountain. What an amazing thing for a father to do.
When I was in college, I would frequently drive about three hours once every couple months to see a movie at the St. Louis arthouse theaters. Since graduating I haven't done it as much, but there are a couple high profile exceptions; I once drove six hours to catch a Netflix awards contender on the big screen, but the more high profile one I think would be me flying from Chicago to Los Angeles this summer for solely the opportunity to catch Pixar's LUCA at the El Capitan Theatre. Over the months before, I had skipped SOUL on Disney+ until I had the opportunity to rent the Music Box (great Chicago theater) to see it on the big screen as it deserved. When I found out LUCA was getting a short theatrical run in Los Angeles, I decided to bypass the wait to rent the theater at the Music Box and fly out there to catch it on the big screen opening weekend. To be honest, I'd been looking for a reason to visit Los Angeles for a while and for a weekend getaway and meeting up with old friends who live in the city, it was a great time... but the main reason I did fly out there was for LUCA, and honestly, that was worth it to me.
Unemployed by a pandemic has some obvious downsides, but positive is that even if Tenet wasn't playing anywhere near me in Los Angeles, I had plenty of time to drive all the way to Las Vegas to catch it - maybe not on film, but at least on Dolby Atmos (it's something!).
I wound up not liking Tenet very much, but my desire to drive hours to catch a new Nolan film if that's what it takes stands.
Not too far but loving in Jacksonville Fl and driving to Orlando see Winged Migration (?) It was a doc on birds that had amazing footage. Saw it with a date and I remember picking her up and a bunch of her male friends were there and they are all a bit taken aback “you’re watching a movie about birds?” And I kind of agreed with them that it was dumb, even though I genuinely wanted to see it.
My apologies if my answer comes out of left field. The farthest I've ever travelled to see a movie was when I was working in Al Jubail (Saudi Arabia), which is in the northeast portion of the Kingdom. At the time, there was nowhere you could go watch a movie except in home theatres via pirated DVDs or cable channels. When AVATAR came out in 2009, its hype swept the world, including the Kingdom. Saudis who wanted to see movies in theatres then could do so by travelling to the bordering nation of Bahrain, which was around 170km or so away from Al Jubail. I went one weekend and it surpassed by expectations. It enthralled audiences even there.
In Saudi Arabia, where the patriarchy dictates everything, you would think that most people would be conditioned to be used to seeing movies within their forced parameters (movies are now allowed in the Kingdom since 2018, but only in the capital Riyadh). But in my time there, moviegoing in theatres was craved for. I would like to think that the communal experience will forever be sought for, fingers crossed.
I live in a northern Sydney suburb and I have went to the Ritz Cinema, which is in Randwick, which is one of the richest suburbs in the city, to see a 35mm screening of Heat. The travel route is around two hours via bus and train. The tickets are pretty cheap if you are a member and the venue has been heritage listed and it is an art deco model.
This Gun For Hire and The Glass Key double feature at the new beverly is technically 2,052 miles away from my Milwaukee home but it doesn't REALLY count because I was in town for work.
Throwing it back here but in 1999, my mom the saint she is, drove me an hour to go see Princess Monoke at the lone art house theatre that was playing it at the time in Massachusetts. My 14 year old self was overjoyed, and it was my intro to Studio Ghibli movies!
A friend and I traveled two hours over subway to a mythical comic book store where we were told an employee could provide "new" (i.e. not officially released) Dragonball Z films with hardsubs via VHS if you brought your own tape and $30. What we didn't anticipate before we Mapquested the journey was it taking two hours via subway (each way) nor the six mile walk that inevitably lead to a highway without a sidewalk. We quit halfway to eat Popeye's and turn back. That Monday we found out someone else went there because they got a car and we all got to see the Dragonball Z movie where "Goky" and "Vegtable" fought "Jambalaya." Years later in New York I'd rent the same film from Kim's Video and learn the difference between unprofessional fansubs and professional subtitling.
When The Hateful Eight was released, the UK distributor made the utterly infuriating decision to give the 70mm version to a single screen in London as a nationwide exclusive, all 200 miles away. But it made for a fun day out nonetheless.
I’ve become hesitant to travel too far to a theater, as my two longest trips (not very long in relation to some tales in these comments) wound up not being good experiences. The first was traveling about 60-90 minutes to a small NJ theater that was playing DePalma’s Scarface. The theater never got the projector working, so I returned home with just a free movie voucher to a theater I would never return to. Second farthest was from NJ to Queens to see a 70mm print of Inherent Vice at the Museum of the Moving Image. About 5 minutes into the film, my right contact lens popped out of my eye onto the theater floor. Spent the rest of the screening with my hand covering that eye (grateful that it wasn’t a 3-D screening.)
My last two years in active duty Air Force, I was stationed at a base in Del Rio, Texas. The local theater was a small Cinemark and only carried wide release blockbusters. I drove three and a half hours to an Alamo Drafthouse in San Antonio to see Ari Aster's Midsommar. I did this a few other times for various films I couldn't wait to see at home. Now, I'm a film and screenwriting student at University of Iowa.
We live in Hamilton, ON, a nominal 45 minutes from Toronto. I say this because the corridor of traffic between here and Toronto can quickly become a 4 hour round trip. This makes a visit to the TIFF Bell Lightbox a true test of will and bravery (the caliber of driver here is very low).
While we haven't always had a finger on the pulse of the programming and filmmaker visits there, we did see a showing of an unrestored 70mm print 2001: A Space Odyssey as part of a celebration of the film's 50th anniversary. The Lightbox was the only place in Canada showing this print so we felt lucky to live in somewhat close proximity to see the film this way.
I drove ~4.5 hours from Ottawa to Toronto to see ROMA projected in 70mm, I couldn't stand to watch Cuorón's work on my shitty TV with stereo sound. I remain very pleased with my choice, the overwhelming nature of ROMA pairs so naturally with the theatrical experience (specifically sound), I can't imagine it any other way. The 70mm presentation was lovely, if not all that important for something shot digitally.
We also centred a ~10 hour journey to New York City at the end of 2017 around movies (drive to Buffalo from Waterloo, ON and then take Amtrak). We saw I, TONYA and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME a little before they would be released at home - but the real jewel of the trip was a PTA crosstown double-feature, THERE WILL BE BLOOD on 35mm at Metrograph followed by PHANTOM THREAD on 70mm at Lincoln Center, which is as good as it gets.
My then-wife got an extra role in a little indie movie called Game 6 with Michael Keaton and a pre-Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. They shot the scenes in Tarrytown, NY, and it ended up being a "starring extra role" because she's there, right over his shoulder, the entire scene RDJ is wearing the very Jim Jarmusch-type wig and trying to blend into the theater audience. It was a nice little film that absolutely no one saw, well reviewed, and we were the only people in the theater to see it after we drove many hours to Chicago, to one of the only theaters showing it anywhere close, from downstate Illinois, long after leaving New York behind. We cheered and clapped. It's a good memory.
Seattle WA to Coeur d'Alene ID. Last August I had about five weeks with no school or work, and I was getting cabin fever from spending five months in my living room. So my brother and I decided to drive five hours to Idaho to catch Tenent in theaters. The unease of being in a theater during covid was stronger than I expected, and we got stuck in a sandstorm on the way back and had to pull off the freeway for an hour and a half.
When I was posted to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I planned one of my R&Rs so I could see Blade Runner 2049 at the Sony Center IMAX in Berlin. I also flew to Muscat to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
When I was about 13 or 14, I would sometimes ride my bike 3 miles to the public transit station & then take that to the next town over, where I'd ride an additional mile to the arthouse. Trip took about 2.5 hours each way.
More recently, I rode the ferry from NYC to Hoboken to see Possessor. Including the subway & the walk, it probably took a little over an hour. When I got there, I realized I'd missed the beginning of the movie, so I left and came back the next day instead. Did the same thing with Mank after that (although I was on time), which was already on Netflix by that point.
I used to take a 120km trip from my small town to the Lighthouse Cinema is Dublin. It would be a 100 to 110 minute train journey depending on delays. The Lighthouse is the best arthouse cinema in Ireland. I would make a weekend daytrip of it, have a nice lunch, see an old friend. But the movie would be my main reason to travel.
I flew from New Zealand to Australia (approx. 4 hour flight) to see The Phantom Menace. It opened a week earlier in Australia and I guess the friend I went with and I just couldn't wait.
I remember the excitement while queuing outside the theater and the crowd almost breaking into a run when given the green light to go into the screening.
And then afterwards, the ambivalent reaction we both had.
"That was good, right?"... "Some great visuals."... "Duel of the Fates is pretty great"
Took a bus from Hanover, NH and stayed the night in Cambridge, MA to make sure I could be in line in time to get tickets for The Empire Strikes Back. This is 1980. No advanced ticket sales. You had to wait in line. Can't remember ever anticipating a movie like the first sequel to Star Wars.
I used to drive from Simi Valley to a variety of theaters in Los Angeles to see whatever The Dissolve was recommending and that wouldn’t be playing at my local Regal Theater. Calculating in traffic, some of those treks would take more than 90 minutes. But the opportunity to quietly reflect on the film on the drive home is something I miss. Once I became a parent, trips to the local movie theaters are special events. No more 90 minute drives for me.
I thought about this question, because there were times in my life where I'd routinely drive an hour or 90 minutes to see movies. Back in college in the early 90s, at the University of Georgia, we used to plan full days where we'd drive from Athens to Atlanta and see two or three (or even four) arthouse movies. And there was a point where I was living in the south suburbs of Toledo in '94, and drove up to Ann Arbor to see films like Hoop Dreams, Spanking the Monkey, Oleanna and Clerks. (I remember my acute disappointment with the latter.) But the farthest I've gone beyond film festivals-- and I do drive the 6-7 hours down to True/False in Columbia, MO from Chicago every year-- are appearances I made for a little bit of money to host screenings of In the Mood for Love in Terre Haute IN and Miami Blues in Columbus OH. I have a feeling others here have probably gone to much greater lengths to see a movie.
Not that far, but in high school I lived in a tiny town about an hour north of Spokane, WA, and would routinely drive down Friday evening, just to rent 4-5 movies from the Blockbuster that had a pretty good foreign film section, drive back, watch the movies over the course of the weekend, then drive back down Sunday and return them and drive back.
I took a Hitchcock class one semester that was on the other side of San Francisco from my job. There was a giant hill in-between. Every Monday for 12 Mondays in a row I biked on my single speed. It took like 45 minutes and I'd arrive drenched in sweat, head to the bathroom and change into dry clothes. All that for a lecture on Hitchcock and to watch a movie of his. No regrets whatsoever!
My then-fiancé and I went to Sundance to see movies in general. It was the year Napoleon Dynamite was released. Oof! And I’ve seen movies in far-away places while on vacation. But I didn’t go to see any movie in particular. I’d say the farthest I’ve ever gone to see a specific film was about a two hour drive to see Richard Linklater’s Waking Life which was only playing in one theater I could find. I’d missed it earlier in its run due to school conflicts, and wanted to make sure I saw it.
Not the craziest drive, but when I was in school in Orlando, FL, a buddy and I saw that they were projecting Star Wars: The Force Awakens on true IMAX 70mm film a couple hours away in Tampa. Went there to find it was in a IMAX Dome theater inside a near-ghost town science museum. Not only was there only one sequence in the whole film that used the full IMAX aspect ratio, but the movie was projected on what was basically the ceiling of the dome, so it was not the most optimal viewing.
Growing up in Montana, it was definitely always a BIG priority on trips to either coast to make sure to cram in the movies I wouldn't get to see for another few months. Very fond memories of seeing THE LIFE AQUATIC and VOLVER during trips to Seattle, movies that wouldn't dare hit the Carmike Cinemas in Billings, MT (even the former film at the time of release).
But the best answer I have for this actually relates to the larger topic of today's piece, and it was just in 2019 when I made sure to be back in my college town, 5 hours away from where I was at the time, to catch a limited run of MARRIAGE STORY on the big screen. I'm a huge Baumbach fan so I would obviously have watched it on Netflix, but I didn't buy the idea that it was probably just "shot for streaming" and wouldn't matter projected large. It was no comparison. Absolutely stunning in a theater. I feel so fortunate to have had that immersive experience and the opportunity to have a little cry in the darkness while the credits rolled.
When I used to travel a lot for work I got a reputation for hitting up whatever art house theater was in a 30 mile radius, usually at great expense of time and money for Ubers or transit. I was able to catch screenings of Portrait of a Lady on Fire in 3 different states (I was a bit obsessed)...
But I have also driven 3 hours to catch a 70mm screening of Phantom Thread at the Music Box!
I didn’t travel but my family traveled from Edgewater to someplace deeeep in Chicago’s western suburbs, I think Schaumburg but it may have been into DuPage, to see Mouse Hunt when I was little.
I almost went from Amsterdam to Paris for a Star Trek film festival—I was going to meet with an online friend, but he then said he was bringing a friend who might be turning into something more and…I’d already bought my train ticket so I found other stuff to do.
I would routinely drive into San Francisco from the North Bay back in my teens/20s (probably an hour-ish drive) but the farthest is driving from LA to SF to see ROTK with friends, and flying from LA to SF to see Dunkirk in IMAX with my dad.
It was 2014 and I was a big fan of Linklater after having seen dazed and confused and the Before trilogy. Boyhood was THE movie everyone was talking about that year, and I was not gonna wait for Blu ray. So I hopped in a car and drove two hours to a major city with a small art house theater(one that recently shut down because of the pandemic, rip) to see it. I distinctly remember just how much better the screen/projection was then the crummy AMC I had in my small town. And it was a very good film; not quite Grand Budapest Hotel good, at least ten times better than BP winning fuckin’ Birdman.
I've made the 4-5 hour drive from eastern WA to Seattle many times just to see movies on the giant screen of the Cinerama Theater (RIP, maybe?), including "Roma" (the drive back was in a snowstorm so brutal I thought, "Am I going to die because I wanted to see a movie?") and "The Irishman." Incredible experiences, both.
The first that comes to mind is that I’ve driven a few times to the Warwick Drive-In — which is over 90 minutes away — because it’s the closest one to NYC. I haven’t done it since I had kids but I do love going there.
In January, because I was very starved for a big screen experience, I found out that there was only one drive in open about 2 hours away. I ended up driving there to see NEWS OF THE WORLD.
When I lived in Houston, Hal Hartley's FLIRT opened in Austin but not Houston, and a few Hartley-heads and I road tripped three hours for that. Later on I lived in Portland, and I did two solo road trips to the Cinerama screen in Seattle: one for TITUS and one for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Three hours each way. (Although one of them - maybe TITUS - I managed to make a double header with a daytime Dismemberment Plan gig.)
Later, after I moved to NZ, I centered a trip to Melbourne around a 70mm screening of 2001 at the Astor which also coincided with the opening weekend of THE MASTER (not in 70mm, but four months before it ultimately came to NZ). But it would be hyperbole to say I went just for that.
And in 2019 when I was in Europe we went from Paris to Brussels for one night to see IN FABRIC with Peter Strickland presenting.
I was visiting my friend at Oberlin College for the weekend and was planning on driving him back to his parents house in the Chicago suburbs on Sunday. He was starting his fall break that week, but we realized if we left Saturday afternoon we could catch a late screening of Julien Donkey-boy at the Fine Arts Building Theatre in Chicago so we drove the 5 hours to catch the new Korine film starting Herzog. Which was very important to us at the time..
We made it to the showing, and its been a minute, but im sure the film still holds up.
When I was living in Blacksburg, VA we would frequently get good limited releases at the Lyric theater, but not everything. For some things you'd have to go further afield.
Which is why in spring of 2014 I drove two and a half hours each way to Charlottesville to see Under the Skin, and it was worth every mile. Later that year I would drive the same distance to see Adieu au Langage in 3D at the Virginia Film Festival - something I knew would be a vanishingly rare opportunity to do.
Both times that year I felt like I was getting away with something, and was well-rewarded for my efforts.
I've had the privilege to live in a few great college towns with good cinema (special shout out to all the films I saw during my time in Ann Arbor), so I haven't done many crazy travels, but one of my memorable ones was driving 2+ hours to the small Vickers Theater in Three Oaks, MI to see a screening of Buster Keaton's Seven Chances with live accompaniment. It was totally worth it.
Not going to say I traveled to Boston to see Inland Empire in the theater (which weirdly never played here in Atlanta), but I definitely made sure our travel dates and schedule lined up to give me a few hours in the middle of the day to go see it.
Scott, as you know I did a lot of those Athens-to-Atlanta movie trips (sometimes for a triple feature, sometimes with a Braves game or a trip to a museum or book store mixed in); but probably my longest trip was a *Nashville*-to-Atlanta trek to see Hoop Dreams. I was anxious to see it, it wasn't opening in Tennessee for a while, so my buddy and I drove down (and probably saw a Braves game too, while we were there).
I now live in Brooklyn, and since the pandemic we discovered Pennsylvania's Mahoning Drive In. It's about a 2 1/2 - 3 hr drive, but they offer on site camping for just $5 more per person. Plus there's a lot to do in the area (rafting/canoeing in the summer, corn mazes and pumpkin patches in the autumn). It's a great time, and they show most of the films from 35mm prints. (Going again for Freddy Fest next weekend).
When I was living in Columbus, Oh a friend told me that we were going to see something, but kept what and where a secret. So we drove for about 3 hours to the Cleveland Cinematheque to see the only Ohio screening of Southland Tales during its initial run.
Aside from the year I drove to Toronto for TIFF, the longest I've driven to a theater was earlier this year, when I trucked down 3.5 hours to the Mahoning Drive-In... but that was to see a live edition of Garagehouse Pictures's TRAILER TRAUMA compilations. So, the longest drive I've ever had to see a movie was the night I drove to Middletown to catch a film. About an hour-and-a-half away from my work, which means it was a 2+ hour drive home. So, not that crazy.
Except that the film was BILLIONAIRE BOYS' CLUB.
It doesn’t count because I didn’t go through with it, but I seriously considered flying to London from NYC to see Rivette’s OUT 1 at one of its first screenings. Eventually I realized that if it played in Paris and London, it would probably come to NYC.
But I was looking for plane tickets and hotels.
I flew from Vancouver to Montreal then took a detour to New York to see any movie that was showing on the day I was there. Thankfully it was The Trouble with Harry.
Since I live in a place that doesn't routinely get arthouse movies until at least 1-2 months after they are initially released, I routinely travel to Indianapolis or Chicago for movies. Indy is about 2 hours from my location. Chicago is a little over 3. I make the Chicago trip probably a dozen times a year, though that number will go up because I've got three movies in three days for the Chicago International Film Festival later this month. (So excited!) If we are including unplanned theater trips that occurred while on vacation, I could say the furthest I've ever traveled to see a movie was about 1,200 miles when I saw The Counselor in Arizona. Related: Would love Scott and/or Keith to write anything about The Counselor, because IMO it's an underrated Ridley Scott movie that is due for a reappraisal.
Think the longest I ever drove was 70-miles from Los Angeles up to Ventura County's, 101 Drive-in, during high school, to see SIX DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS (1998) when it came out, as I was with some friends that had never been to a drive-in before, and that was the closest one at the time?
i drove from truth or consequenxes to austin to see stalker in 4k. i live in san antonio and was coming home anyway, but wouldnt have booked it like i did to make the movie, dkes this count?
Growing up in a small rural town in NW North Dakota in high school I would occasionally be able to convince my farmer dad to drive me to the Grand Theatres in Bismarck 2.5 hrs away to see movies I’d never have a chance of seeing on my hometown one screen or even on Minot’s 8(?) screens which was about an hour away. We would usually see a couple movies before turning around later in the day and head back home. It was amazing, and still to this day I can’t believe he did that. One trip I remember (and if I get my exact films I apologize, it’s been a long time, but but we almost always did double features) we did a double feature of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and Brokeback Mountain. What an amazing thing for a father to do.
When I was in college, I would frequently drive about three hours once every couple months to see a movie at the St. Louis arthouse theaters. Since graduating I haven't done it as much, but there are a couple high profile exceptions; I once drove six hours to catch a Netflix awards contender on the big screen, but the more high profile one I think would be me flying from Chicago to Los Angeles this summer for solely the opportunity to catch Pixar's LUCA at the El Capitan Theatre. Over the months before, I had skipped SOUL on Disney+ until I had the opportunity to rent the Music Box (great Chicago theater) to see it on the big screen as it deserved. When I found out LUCA was getting a short theatrical run in Los Angeles, I decided to bypass the wait to rent the theater at the Music Box and fly out there to catch it on the big screen opening weekend. To be honest, I'd been looking for a reason to visit Los Angeles for a while and for a weekend getaway and meeting up with old friends who live in the city, it was a great time... but the main reason I did fly out there was for LUCA, and honestly, that was worth it to me.
Unemployed by a pandemic has some obvious downsides, but positive is that even if Tenet wasn't playing anywhere near me in Los Angeles, I had plenty of time to drive all the way to Las Vegas to catch it - maybe not on film, but at least on Dolby Atmos (it's something!).
I wound up not liking Tenet very much, but my desire to drive hours to catch a new Nolan film if that's what it takes stands.
Not too far but loving in Jacksonville Fl and driving to Orlando see Winged Migration (?) It was a doc on birds that had amazing footage. Saw it with a date and I remember picking her up and a bunch of her male friends were there and they are all a bit taken aback “you’re watching a movie about birds?” And I kind of agreed with them that it was dumb, even though I genuinely wanted to see it.
My apologies if my answer comes out of left field. The farthest I've ever travelled to see a movie was when I was working in Al Jubail (Saudi Arabia), which is in the northeast portion of the Kingdom. At the time, there was nowhere you could go watch a movie except in home theatres via pirated DVDs or cable channels. When AVATAR came out in 2009, its hype swept the world, including the Kingdom. Saudis who wanted to see movies in theatres then could do so by travelling to the bordering nation of Bahrain, which was around 170km or so away from Al Jubail. I went one weekend and it surpassed by expectations. It enthralled audiences even there.
In Saudi Arabia, where the patriarchy dictates everything, you would think that most people would be conditioned to be used to seeing movies within their forced parameters (movies are now allowed in the Kingdom since 2018, but only in the capital Riyadh). But in my time there, moviegoing in theatres was craved for. I would like to think that the communal experience will forever be sought for, fingers crossed.
I live in a northern Sydney suburb and I have went to the Ritz Cinema, which is in Randwick, which is one of the richest suburbs in the city, to see a 35mm screening of Heat. The travel route is around two hours via bus and train. The tickets are pretty cheap if you are a member and the venue has been heritage listed and it is an art deco model.
This Gun For Hire and The Glass Key double feature at the new beverly is technically 2,052 miles away from my Milwaukee home but it doesn't REALLY count because I was in town for work.
Throwing it back here but in 1999, my mom the saint she is, drove me an hour to go see Princess Monoke at the lone art house theatre that was playing it at the time in Massachusetts. My 14 year old self was overjoyed, and it was my intro to Studio Ghibli movies!
A friend and I traveled two hours over subway to a mythical comic book store where we were told an employee could provide "new" (i.e. not officially released) Dragonball Z films with hardsubs via VHS if you brought your own tape and $30. What we didn't anticipate before we Mapquested the journey was it taking two hours via subway (each way) nor the six mile walk that inevitably lead to a highway without a sidewalk. We quit halfway to eat Popeye's and turn back. That Monday we found out someone else went there because they got a car and we all got to see the Dragonball Z movie where "Goky" and "Vegtable" fought "Jambalaya." Years later in New York I'd rent the same film from Kim's Video and learn the difference between unprofessional fansubs and professional subtitling.
When The Hateful Eight was released, the UK distributor made the utterly infuriating decision to give the 70mm version to a single screen in London as a nationwide exclusive, all 200 miles away. But it made for a fun day out nonetheless.
I think the furthest I went out of my way to see a movie was a 45 minute drive to see The Host (the Korean monster film). Worth it.
I’ve become hesitant to travel too far to a theater, as my two longest trips (not very long in relation to some tales in these comments) wound up not being good experiences. The first was traveling about 60-90 minutes to a small NJ theater that was playing DePalma’s Scarface. The theater never got the projector working, so I returned home with just a free movie voucher to a theater I would never return to. Second farthest was from NJ to Queens to see a 70mm print of Inherent Vice at the Museum of the Moving Image. About 5 minutes into the film, my right contact lens popped out of my eye onto the theater floor. Spent the rest of the screening with my hand covering that eye (grateful that it wasn’t a 3-D screening.)
My last two years in active duty Air Force, I was stationed at a base in Del Rio, Texas. The local theater was a small Cinemark and only carried wide release blockbusters. I drove three and a half hours to an Alamo Drafthouse in San Antonio to see Ari Aster's Midsommar. I did this a few other times for various films I couldn't wait to see at home. Now, I'm a film and screenwriting student at University of Iowa.
We live in Hamilton, ON, a nominal 45 minutes from Toronto. I say this because the corridor of traffic between here and Toronto can quickly become a 4 hour round trip. This makes a visit to the TIFF Bell Lightbox a true test of will and bravery (the caliber of driver here is very low).
While we haven't always had a finger on the pulse of the programming and filmmaker visits there, we did see a showing of an unrestored 70mm print 2001: A Space Odyssey as part of a celebration of the film's 50th anniversary. The Lightbox was the only place in Canada showing this print so we felt lucky to live in somewhat close proximity to see the film this way.
I drove ~4.5 hours from Ottawa to Toronto to see ROMA projected in 70mm, I couldn't stand to watch Cuorón's work on my shitty TV with stereo sound. I remain very pleased with my choice, the overwhelming nature of ROMA pairs so naturally with the theatrical experience (specifically sound), I can't imagine it any other way. The 70mm presentation was lovely, if not all that important for something shot digitally.
We also centred a ~10 hour journey to New York City at the end of 2017 around movies (drive to Buffalo from Waterloo, ON and then take Amtrak). We saw I, TONYA and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME a little before they would be released at home - but the real jewel of the trip was a PTA crosstown double-feature, THERE WILL BE BLOOD on 35mm at Metrograph followed by PHANTOM THREAD on 70mm at Lincoln Center, which is as good as it gets.
My then-wife got an extra role in a little indie movie called Game 6 with Michael Keaton and a pre-Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. They shot the scenes in Tarrytown, NY, and it ended up being a "starring extra role" because she's there, right over his shoulder, the entire scene RDJ is wearing the very Jim Jarmusch-type wig and trying to blend into the theater audience. It was a nice little film that absolutely no one saw, well reviewed, and we were the only people in the theater to see it after we drove many hours to Chicago, to one of the only theaters showing it anywhere close, from downstate Illinois, long after leaving New York behind. We cheered and clapped. It's a good memory.
Seattle WA to Coeur d'Alene ID. Last August I had about five weeks with no school or work, and I was getting cabin fever from spending five months in my living room. So my brother and I decided to drive five hours to Idaho to catch Tenent in theaters. The unease of being in a theater during covid was stronger than I expected, and we got stuck in a sandstorm on the way back and had to pull off the freeway for an hour and a half.
When I was posted to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I planned one of my R&Rs so I could see Blade Runner 2049 at the Sony Center IMAX in Berlin. I also flew to Muscat to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
When I was about 13 or 14, I would sometimes ride my bike 3 miles to the public transit station & then take that to the next town over, where I'd ride an additional mile to the arthouse. Trip took about 2.5 hours each way.
More recently, I rode the ferry from NYC to Hoboken to see Possessor. Including the subway & the walk, it probably took a little over an hour. When I got there, I realized I'd missed the beginning of the movie, so I left and came back the next day instead. Did the same thing with Mank after that (although I was on time), which was already on Netflix by that point.
I used to take a 120km trip from my small town to the Lighthouse Cinema is Dublin. It would be a 100 to 110 minute train journey depending on delays. The Lighthouse is the best arthouse cinema in Ireland. I would make a weekend daytrip of it, have a nice lunch, see an old friend. But the movie would be my main reason to travel.
I flew from New Zealand to Australia (approx. 4 hour flight) to see The Phantom Menace. It opened a week earlier in Australia and I guess the friend I went with and I just couldn't wait.
I remember the excitement while queuing outside the theater and the crowd almost breaking into a run when given the green light to go into the screening.
And then afterwards, the ambivalent reaction we both had.
"That was good, right?"... "Some great visuals."... "Duel of the Fates is pretty great"
Took a bus from Hanover, NH and stayed the night in Cambridge, MA to make sure I could be in line in time to get tickets for The Empire Strikes Back. This is 1980. No advanced ticket sales. You had to wait in line. Can't remember ever anticipating a movie like the first sequel to Star Wars.
I used to drive from Simi Valley to a variety of theaters in Los Angeles to see whatever The Dissolve was recommending and that wouldn’t be playing at my local Regal Theater. Calculating in traffic, some of those treks would take more than 90 minutes. But the opportunity to quietly reflect on the film on the drive home is something I miss. Once I became a parent, trips to the local movie theaters are special events. No more 90 minute drives for me.