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Coronavirus Diary

The place I miss most is the Maplewood Cinema.

Many New York City screening rooms have a professional, impersonal vibe, and my new local cinema is not like that at all. My new cinema is more like the screening rooms I grew up with. It's a shit show. It's staffed by twelve-year-old kids; no movie can be screened before 4 pm, because the kids are doing their school work.

(I imagine I'm not the only mildly-depressed stay-at-home parent who craves a 1 pm Tuesday screening now and then.)

The Maplewood Cinema puts up film ads seemingly at random; advertising a particular movie is no guarantee that that movie will air in Maplewood, tomorrow or any day after that, even if the little plaque says, "Coming Soon!" I still eagerly await the chance to see the mediocre Glenn Close vehicle, "The Wife," once advertised on the Maplewood Cinema's walls, though I'm certain my local screens will never actually bring me that chance.

The twelve-year-olds at my cinema sometimes can't be bothered to match my ticket with the actual film I'm seeing; sometimes, they'll just hand me a printout for something entirely unrelated, and if I conscientiously object, they'll shrug and say, "It's fine." And it's a nice feeling to sit alone in an unheated room for two hours, with Octavia Spencer's "Ma," and to know that no one, really no one, is monitoring my behavior.

Right before the Maplewood Cinema caved to Covid--right before the shut-down--local cinema executives planned to screen Annette Bening's "Hope Gap." Well, *maybe* this was the plan. There's definitely a "Coming Soon!" ad for "Hope Gap," growing sadder and sadder by the day, its colors fading. This is like a parody of an indie-film campaign. Annette Bening looks forlorn in the photo, and you just know that her town, "Hope Gap," is also a metaphor for her inner state; you know there's a troubling "gap" in the "hope" that once sustained her, in happier times. And you know that that gap isn't really a crisis; it's nothing that, say, a wise, tender Bill Nighy couldn't fix. I think about this movie everyday, as I pass the cinema, on my way to mail a card that doesn't need mailing; this is my ritual, to keep myself afloat. I'd very much like to see "Hope Gap."

When the cinema does resuscitate itself, if that day ever comes, I have a feeling I'll be first in line. Will I finally have a chance to see the live-action "Mulan"? Or that Amy Schumer-ish Pete Davidson vehicle? It doesn't really matter what the particular narrative is. I just need a filmed story pumped into my veins--pumped soon. An addict is an addict is an addict.

These are the days of our lives.
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