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The Court Street Regal

 The Court Street Regal, in Brooklyn, lasted for around twenty years, matching my own tenure in New York City.


For the first few of those years, I lived with a man who hated movies, and so I stuck with the television. (Even as I type the words "hated movies," I can't believe myself. Someone once said to me--"I hate movies"--and I thought, Here is a guy I should make my life with.)

After the breakup, I fled my apartment, and I saw "Revolutionary Road" on the big screen. In my memory, time is collapsed; the guy said, "I'm out," and I immediately ran into the arms of Kate Winslet. I don't think this is accurate. 

But this was the start of a love affair, and the affair often involved the Court Street Regal. For years, I would take myself to that one theater, and I'd watch big movies. Big--and often bad. But sometimes good! "American Hustle," "Fifty Shades," "How to Be Single," the new "Tomb Raider," the new "Beauty and the Beast," the new "Cinderella," "Black Panther," "Doctor Strange," "Get Out," "Annabelle" and certain offshoots, "Baby Driver," "Sleepless," "Winchester," "Marshall," "RIPD," "Angels and Demons," "A Quiet Place," "The Post," "La La Land," "Fantastic Beasts," "John Wick 2," "Disney's Born in China," "Ted 2," "I Feel Pretty," a revival of "A Nightmare Before Christmas," "7 Psychopaths," "Death Wish," and many, many more. I knew that the elevator was a lost cause; I knew that the escalators were unreliable, at best, so that seeing a Court Street screening was sometimes like scaling a mountain. I knew that you couldn't depend on the sound, and that the "RPX Experience" wasn't worth additional money (but I would *pay* the additional money if the RPX screening-time was convenient for me).

The Court Street Regal was not my favorite spot in New York, and it wasn't even my favorite theater. It wasn't even a top-five theater for me. But it helped me to reconnect with a thing I'd loved in childhood--big, dumb Hollywood movies. And, even now, this interest helps me in my life and work. If I have a student I want to reach, I can ask: Are you planning to see SCREAM 5? What did you make of ETERNALS? These are sincere questions; I want answers. I love new characters and new voices--and I'm happy to see ideas, even half-formed ideas, up on a big screen.

So, Court Street, I thought you were a crummy business, and I'm not devastated by your departure. (I understand you left in a thoughtless, hasty way -- and this "tracks.") But I'd rather you held on; I don't look forward to the shopping mall that will soon take your (former) spot. I'm at least mildly sorry that your neighborhood has opted to move in a new direction. (And: Farewell.)
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