Also available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. On today’s podcast, my co-host Jim Hall and I recreate a little pre-Covid ritual we used to call Filmclub by discussing the movie The Cabin In The Woods with our guest Jon Livingston. Once upon a time, I started a film club. This isn’t much of a novel idea these days, I see them all over Substack now, but this was… dare I say it… 15 years ago. We met in person, for christ’s sake. I was going through quite the rough patch and having a set commitment that got me to see friends once a month was a good thing. To get me to see a movie in the theater was the cherry on top. __ Okay, I just stopped writing to go find the original invite I sent out and here it is in all its glory: apparently i never go to the movies. which is ridiculous! but i think i saw, like, 2 movies in the theater last year. i need a reason to go. and i can't think of a better one than meeting once a month to discuss, argue, enlighten, embarrass, bore, inspire, and delight each other about a movie that came out that month.here are the rules:1) the first rule of film club, is that we do not talk about 'Fight Club'. I hate that movie.2) we don't have to make plans to see the movie together. see the movie whenever you feel like - this is like a book club - watch it whenever is convenient for you with whomever you want.3) you can show up without having seen the movie. i don't care. just be prepared to have it spoiled for you.4) feel free to flake entirely. we will free to talk about you behind your back.5) when we meet, we will draw straws and whoever wins gets to pick the movie for the next month. 6) bring people! more the merrier. 7) former film students must play nice. everybody's opinion matters.8) we would meet the last thursday every month - 9pm - Red Lion - Silver Lake.it will be fun!anybody interested? I'm thinking maybe the first meeting could be THURSDAY APRIL 28th?And the first movie would be HANNA?give a shout if this sounds like something you might be down with. i'm trying to cast a wide net, but if no one's feeling it, i'll just go get drunk with jasmine and talk about the movie anyways :0i know its hard to get people to come out on a weeknight...later skaters! Yes, I did say, ‘later skaters!’ As I said, I was in a dark place. Side note: Remember that movie ‘Hanna’? Anyway. We’d meet at The Red Lion, a local German tavern that I could walk to and I’d order a Jameson and soda and sometimes people would get potato pancakes and sometimes it was crazy packed and we had to shout to be heard. Sometimes the guy who played medleys on his keyboard was there, sometimes we were out on the back patio sometimes there were 12 of us sometimes only 3. Of course, because I’m me, I had to come up with a structure for the whole thing. My biggest concern from the beginning was that film nerds would dominate and everyone else would feel like there was no point trying to contribute. So, from the beginning, we would always go around the whole group, hearing from each person what their favorite and least favorite part of the movie was. Even the quiet people who had to repeat themselves frequently because the bar was loud got to have their thoughts heard. It was cool. And not just because ‘being around people is good for you when you are in a pit of misery’ sort of way, but more in a ‘hearing other perspectives can be really enlightening’ sort of way. Because, let me tell you, there was a lot of disagreeing going on. Spring Breakers was controversial, as was Attack the Block. We got to experience in real time several interpretations of a movie at once and it almost always felt like we walked away with a deeper understanding of what we had seen. As most things do, the film club petered out over the years, reviving briefly over zoom during the pandemic and a last gasp afterwards, but it’s hard to maintain these things. Thing is, I still love to talk about movies, obvs. And while talking about them here is fun, it’s awfully one-sided. I don’t get to hear so much what other people thought. So, one of the things I knew I wanted to do on the podcast was just… talk about movies. The way we used to. Today’s episode is the first stab at that. My co-host Jim Hall is a Filmclub O.G., and Jon Livingston, our first guest, is as well. We brought a little bit of the magic back. Hope you enjoy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit inspiredwriting.substack.com/subscribe
