Yo…
What’s your favourite (all-time) movie theatre?
Perhaps: there’s an old school cinema that is no longer with us?
A moment of silence for Uptown Theatre in downtown Toronto!
This was a classic buy-1-movie-get-1-movie-free cinema. Heh.
You’d snag a Now Magazine—Toronto’s free weekly—for cinema showtimes and if you timed it right…you could see 2 movies for the price of one. Boom!
I saw Hollywood classics there like Tombstone and Under Siege.
In September 2003 Uptown was closed and then demolished in December 2003. There were a number of reasons why Uptown demised. It wasn’t wheelchair accessible, sure. That’s a legit problem.
However, it was also shut down because it was bad for business. Uptown was only a five screen cinema. Five? That’s it?
You can’t make money on only five screens! (Especially now with longer and popular movies like Avengers: Endgame (182 minutes) and Oppenheimer (180 minutes). Turn around time is super limited.)
That quaint intimacy of five screens is fading fast, typically replaced by boxy and bland megaplexes. (Megaplexes…see…you learned a movie business word whether you wanted to or not. It pairs well with similar terms like Blockbuster and Taglines. It’s show business, not show friends…)
A moment of silence for the cinemas we’ve lost on our Hero’s Journey.
Guillermo del Toro recently shared his perspective in the Toronto Star upon hearing Toronto’s Revue Cinema may close.
“The denizens of Toronto tend to be humorously self-deprecating, but to an outsider, the city is a place that loves cinema with real passion. This has been true for decades and across the span of two centuries, so it is not a passing fad. Toronto has great voices, both critical and directorial — many of the world’s foremost critics and filmmakers have made their home here — as well as a world-class film festival (TIFF) and Cinematheque.”
This is a filmmaker supporting a local cinema because cinema is where memories are made.
And The Movie Man is a documentary about a small independent movie theatre named Highlands Cinemas, located in Kinmount, Ontario. (About 2 hours from Toronto…cottage country, basically.)
On July 25th, I had the supreme pleasure of getting on a bus provided by Hollywood Suite (joining Henry VanderSpek aka Culture Snap Photography) to visit the Highlands Cinemas and see The Movie Man documentary.
First opened in 1979, the Highlands Cinemas eventually became a five-screen building brimming with movie paraphernalia, memorabilia, and vintage projectors collected from theatres and cinemas all over the U.S. and Canada that were forced to close down. (A moment of silence…)
Indeed at the Q and A following a screening of The Movie Man, Keith Stata the owner provided a mini-Universal Studios Tour.
The cinema we were sitting in? He shared the lights were from The Capitol in London. The seats were from a cinema from Barrie, the side-drapes from Bancroft, the ticket windows in the back are from O’Brien’s Theatre…Keith even pointed out: the door to the ladies room was rescued from the Vaughan Theatre in Toronto.
As he put it succinctly: “It’s all from somewhere.”
The Movie Man is a rousing ode to the theatrical experience. Those personal adventures that post-COVID we should relish even more.
Going to the movies has shaped who we are. Who we’ve become. Going to the movies is one of the coolest and smartest things I do.
It’s a commitment, a holy obligation that is never a chore. I’m so grateful I can and do go to the movies.
All of these sharp emotions are the premise of The Movie Man directed by Matt Finlin and executive produced by Ed Robertson (who you know is the lead singer of the Barenaked Ladies.).
The Movie Man is Keith’s origin story, a gentle portrait of a remarkable man dedicated to cinema and community and cats. (The cats thing is another story, for another day. For a cinema out in nature…there’s also a bear.)
After watching the documentary I’m now certain cinema is synonymous with community. Keith’s passion for the movies has resulted in a passion for him and his quirky cinema.
As a city kid I notice it right away…soon as you leave the big city and end up in a small town…strangers will say “hi” to you. Often it makes me uncomfortable and I check my 501 Levi’s to ensure my wallet is still there.
Keith via the Highlands Cinemas has established a community. That’s rare.
(Indeed, shortly after I finished my interview I ran into Jodi and Brian (along with their two cute kids) near the Christmas section of the Highlands Cinemas. Haven’t seen them like before the pandemic so it’d been years since we’ve been…well, in community. It was fun to catch up…standing there beside old tyme movie projectors draped with elf stuffies.
Armed with large popcorns they were gonna treat the kids to Inside Out 2. Though their son was asking me about Deadpool & Wolverine. Oh, child…that’s way more fun and way cooler than Inside Out 2!
If I didn’t have a bus to catch, I would have fulfilled my funcle duties and smuggled him into Deadpool 3. Gotta start watching those highly inappropriate R rated movies at a young age, right?
Pixar movies are fine but they’ll never make anyone groovy. A 12 year old on the playground describing how RoboCop shot a criminal in the dick is just gold. It may or may not be bad parenting but for true…that kid is a playground legend. Long Live The Legends!)
I sat down with producer Ed, director Matt and owner Keith on location at the Highlands Cinemas to talk about the magic of going to the movies.
Attached is the conversation I had with the three gents. (Incredibly we drop Scorsese, Cameron, Capra, Kurosawa…talk about the power of the movies! Terminator 2, It’s a Wonderful Life…Rosemary’s Baby all come up. To quote Ed: Pinch Me! What a delicious treat.
Sammy Suggestion: watch Terminator 2’s director’s cut. Good Gravy! The Special Edition adds 16 minutes and they make such a difference. Exactly like Star Trek: First Contact; Terminator 2 was introduced as a sci-fi movie and yet…it deftly transcends the genre and became exceptional.)
The whole time we talked behind me and to the left was a large human sized Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
(Bill Skarsgård, not Tim Curry. I’m half-joking about kids watching R-rated movies. The flipside of that is the deep trauma an entire generation of kids have after watching Tim Curry as Pennywise. We were not prepared for any of that. That wasn’t an ABC mini-series that was like Vietnam ruckus. We carry those scars with us to this day. Which while true has also made us cooler and creative individuals.)
You know how delightfully creepy it is to see Pennywise outta the corner of your eye?
(Is that irony considering the highlight of Skarsgård’s Pennywise was his captivating lazy eye? Absolutly: a malevolent clown is frightening. But when you see Skarsgård’s eye start to drift like a planet dislodged from gravity…that’s horrifying. You Derry kids are toast!)
If you are a movie fan…if the thrill of sitting in a dark room with strangers and laughing and touring strange worlds is your concept of a good time, you need to see The Movie Man now streaming on Hollywood Suite.
As for the Highlands…the cinema is breathtaking, photos don’t quite convey the spectacular environment. Kinda like how a Sunset photos falls flat on IG. This joint is a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! You gotta see it to believe it.
When you walk down the halls of the Highlands Cinemas on the left and the right of these long twisty corridors are display cases. Some of which are organized by decade. There’s an ‘80s display case and a ‘90s display case and a 2000s display case.
I was mesmerized by the ‘80s display case. I could read the Toronto Star headline about the Challenger explosion.
In the corner of the display case there was a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man toy. Shout out to Ghostbusters!
And not far from Stay Puft was a fuzzy soft Smurf holding a Canadian dollar bill.
This was my childhood distilled down to a museum display.
Look at me in front of the 1990s display…Bart Simpson, Buzz-Toy Story…yes that’s Lamb Chop (aka Shari Lewis) behind my shoulder.
Beside Bart is a Gordon cassette tape…the debut studio album by the Barenaked Ladies released on July 28, 1992. (Two big hits on that album? Be My Yoko Ono and If I Had $1000000.)
Under the 1990s sign is a TV Guide (?!!) Remembering Phil Hartman who died in 1998. Damn. Beside him is John F. Kennedy Jr. photos who died in 1999. Double damn.
Check out The Movie Man documentary on demand at Hollywood Suite.
And, if you haven’t gone to Highlands Cinemas…I highly recommend a Summer Road Trip.
Hasta La Vista, Baby…
Sammy Younan
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
A Barenaked Lady & The Movie Man Walk Into A Cinema...