Critic's Screenings: Part Two

The much more pleasant environment of the Screening Room.

The second most common type of Press Screening is the Screening Room screening. These are the screenings commonly done for the smaller, independent films.

Scattered around Manhattan in many office buildings, some in the studio buildings, some just in regular office buildings, are mini-theaters known as Screening Rooms. If you've ever seen The Way We Were and you remember the scene where they watch the film that Hubble's written, then you know exactly what a screening room looks like.

Compared to an All-Media Screening, the Screening Room screening is very pleasant. Nearly everyone who is invited to one of these screenings is a professional and behaves accordingly. You never see the screening groupies at these screenings. There isn't any of that feeling of being packed in like sardines and they mostly start on time. Occasionally you will even run into a celebrity who's been invited to watch the movie early as well. I watched The Aristocrats with Nathan Lane in the room (he laughed louder than everybody). I've also run into Pete Hamill, John Turturro and James Lipton at various screenings. And of course those fellow critics who've gained some fame on their own, such as Rex Reed, Jeffrey Lyons and Owen Gleiberman are also in attendance. When you're just starting to be invited to these screenings, nothing makes you feel more self-important than knowing you're watching a movie with these people.

The downsides to these screenings are fewer in number than with the All-Media. There's no concession stand and in most screening rooms you aren't even allowed to bring water into them. Since the room is obviously much smaller than a real theater, the screen is also smaller and the size varies considerably from screening room to screening room. Also, as much as I've complained about the All-Media screening, in many ways it's closer in reality to what a "real" movie going experience is like. A Screening Room screening almost feels like you're watching the movie on DVD with a group of friends, or at least acquaintances, since after a while you realize that it's almost always the same 50 people or so in the room with you.

Does the fact that independent movies are shown more often in these types of screenings have any effect on the reviews that you read of them? Critics are certainly treated with more respect here than they are in the All-Media screenings. There's definitely a feeling of exclusivity when you're watching them. And the seats are almost always more comfortable and the overall experience is infinitely more pleasant. While writers who come to these movies are mainly professionals who should be above such things, ask yourself if your opinion of a movie isn't affected by the other moviegoers when you see a movie. If the guy behind you never stopped talking or the people next to you kept getting up and climbing over you to go to the bathroom, doesn't that sometimes affect your opinion of a movie? However small, the atmosphere does play a part in how we all view movies.

In the same way that watching a movie on DVD is a different experience than watching a movie in a theater, so too is watching a movie in a screening room. When you read a review of a movie, particularly of a smaller film, remember that the critic who wrote that review probably didn't watch it under the same conditions that you did.