15 Questions With No Notes
"It’s something to do, it’s a good date, it’s a good family outing. Stop being lame and go have fun."
Name: Gabriel Frieberg and Sena of No Notes
Location: San Francisco and Detroit
Occupation: Hosts of the No Notes show on The Cinegogue
1. What’s your favorite day & time to go to the movies?
Sena: Noon, Wednesday, empty theater. Somewhere I can cry in peace if I have to.
Gabriel: So agnostic. Any day & time is a good time for a movie. I’ll say 11am on a Saturday 'cause I love this newsletter so much.
2. What’s your favorite movie theater?
Sena: Used to be The Arcl ight in LA, now I’m a scavenger — anywhere they don’t have chicken fingers being served to teenagers in the middle of my movie. Have a lot of love for Chinese Theater because of how beautiful it is.
Gabriel: I’m just Ken, so AMC Century City. It really is a wonderful place (if you remember where you parked). So many movies have been pre-gamed or post-gamed at Shake Shack or Chick-Fil-A but especially at my gorgeous Din Tai Fung. When we got the shit kicked out of us as Hollywood assistants, we’d drag our haggard selves here.
I remember Avengers: Endgame here—that was a moment. So was the gruesome cliff jump in the first act of Midsommar. Whole theater freaked out.
3. What’s your go-to movie theater snack & drink combo?
Sena: I’m such a slut for a movie theater hot dog it’s embarrassing. For drinks it’s always a lemonade.
4. What’s your dream movie theater snack & drink combo (if noise and sound weren’t an issue)?
Gabriel: I’ll stick with my answer from last time: An omakase platter with a lightly dirty gin martini.
5. First movie you remember seeing in a theater?
Sena: You Got Served.
Gabriel: Not my first, but an early special memory was my dad taking me to the NYC premiere of Shrek. Got green Shrek ears. Met Jeffrey Katzenberg (how I remember that, I have no clue). Then compulsively said “In the morning, I’m making wafflessss” like Donkey non-stop for days.
6. Last movie you saw in a theater?
Gabriel: I recognize this is UNFAIR, but I was at Oakland’s historic Grand Lake Theater (celebrating its 100th anniversary) recently to rewatch Sinners on 70mm with Ryan Coogler and Delroy Lindo there for a Q&A.
Full body chills multiple times. Coogler was his usual charming, candid self; and Delroy had that insane profundity.
7. Is there a movie you wish you could have seen in a theater?
Sena: Apocalypse Now, 150%. I’ve been on the hunt for a showing on the biggest screen I can find.
Gabriel: How about Pulp Fiction’s 1994 Cannes premiere? Must’ve been incendiary.
8. Have you ever seen a movie more than once in theaters?
Sena: SO many, but the one I’ve seen the most was Dune: Part Two seven times in a row.
9. Do you stay through the credits or leave once the film ends?
Gabriel: Both. Sometimes I stay if there’s a particular aspect of craft I’m interested in or if I want to confirm whether they used Australia as a double for California (usually they did—looking at you, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes).
10. What’s one thing you would change to make movie theaters better?
Sena: If you pull your phone out more than twice, they pause the movie and give the crowd tomatoes to throw at you while we all yell “SHAME”.
Gabriel: I’d love to cuddle with my 1.5-year-old Samoyed, Berkley, at the theater. She’d need a trazodone though.
11. Tell me about an especially memorable moviegoing experience that stands out in your mind.
Sena: I Saw The TV Glow left me absolutely befuddled, everyone walked out of the theater with their mouths slightly agape and looking at each other wordlessly with pain in their eyes. But we understood. I had never felt so alone and so together at the same time in my whole life.
Gabriel: Seeing Sentimental Value at Cannes with Sena. We exited in a daze; so verklempt, shell-shocked by the truth and emotion on display in the filmmaking and performances. We set up the camera and mics and hit record…near tears. At NYFF, when we interviewed her, Elle Fanning told us she saw it and sent it to her mom —touching and mortifying in equal measure.
12. What’s a movie you’re looking forward to seeing?
Gabriel: Dune 3. Let’s see what Denis does with it, with Linus Sandgren replacing Greig Fraser behind the camera. They better get more psychedelic.
13. What’s your dream combination of director and lead(s)?
Sena: Gimme Timothee, Pattinson, Michael B., Cooper Hoffman, Bad Bunny, and Austin Butler in a heist movie directed by Soderbergh tomorrow.
Gabriel: How have Spielberg and Denzel never worked together?!
14. If you could live in a movie, which one would it be?
Sena: I’m living in Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind as we speak.
15. Why do you think people should continue seeing movies at the movie theater?
Sena: I think that all the “it’s the form it was meant to be seen” proselytizing isn’t working. Just go because it’s more f*cking fun. It’s something to do, it’s a good date, it’s a good family outing, it’s the best way to eventize these things we care about. Go because you can watch 1000 movies on your couch and never have ⅕ of the experience someone who saw a movie they love on the big screen does. Stop being lame and go have fun.
Gabriel: I’ll make the argument specifically for rep/revival theaters, which I know some don’t have the privilege of having nearby. But if you do, GO. They’re gorgeous. There’s history in those walls. The curation is meaningful.
Go see some sweaty ’70s detectives make poor decisions and solve crime. Get lost in a ridiculously colorful Douglas Sirk melodrama. Get friends together for Boogie Nights on 35mm (shout out Odyssey Film Institute). These are my happy places. God bless all the work, programming, and upkeep that goes into them.
“Stop being lame and go have fun.” Will be using this not only for watching movies but in all areas of life tysm