15 Questions With Tasbeeh Herwees, Author of No Bad Days
Favorite movie theaters: Laemmle Glendale and AMC at the Americana.
Name: Tasbeeh Herwees
Location: Los Angeles
Occupation: Author of No Bad Days
1. What’s your favorite day & time to go to the movies?
3pm on a weekday (I love being the only person in a movie theatre) or noon on a weekend (it helps to be in a cool, dark room and nursing a massive Diet Coke when you’re recovering from a night out).
2. What’s your favorite movie theater?
I love the Laemmle Glendale or AMC at the Americana, depending on what I’m watching. If I’m going to the Laemmle, I’ll probably go have a meal at Raffi’s before or after. If I’m going to the Americana, it’s the Cheesecake Factory. I’m a Cheesecake Rewards member which means I have the great privilege of making reservations.
These became my go-to movie theatres over the last couple of years because I’ve lived near bus stops for the 180 route, which drops you off right in front of the Americana, during that period of time. But I genuinely find the Americana, and Glendale more broadly, to be a relaxing place to be (especially when you don’t have to park a car). The Americana during Christmastime is so special. I wish Rick Caruso wasn’t the actual devil.
3. What’s your go-to movie theater snack & drink combo?
If I’m not hitting Cheesecake or Raffi’s, I’ll make the bold choice of getting the AMC chicken tenders, with a large Diet Coke.
4. What’s your dream movie theater snack & drink combo (if noise and sound weren’t an issue)?
Pie in the sky? Popcorn chicken or popcorn shrimp, sliders, and a natural chilled red or pét nat.
5. First movie you remember seeing in a theater?
We didn’t really go to the movie theatres a lot growing up—we didn’t have much money and it was a luxury. I have a vague memory of watching an animated film with my dad at the Gardena Cinema (back when it was still a second run cinema and the tickets were $5) when I was really young. They’ve recently embraced their identity as a vintage cinema and play indie films and oldies. The family that owns it now has owned it since 1976, and they’ve never been able to afford to renovate so there are still “cry rooms” from the 1940s upstairs, where patrons could sit with a crying baby.
So the first movie I actually remember seeing in a real cinema, hilariously, was Fahrenheit 9/11, which was politically important to my family because we’re Arab and Muslim. We watched that at another second-run cinema in the South Bay, the Redondo Beach Cinema 3.
6. Last movie you saw in a theater?
I’m sad to say the last time I was in a movie theatre was to watch The Testament of Ann Lee at the Burbank 16 back in January. (I get a lot of screeners and watch a lot of stuff at home!) We went to Pinocchio’s after.
7. Is there a movie you wish you could have seen in a theater?
Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven. I saw it many years ago in a theatre full of like, white NPR listeners, but I wish I could see it again in a theatre full of my sisters, and I use that word loosely.
8. Have you ever seen a movie more than once in theaters?
No, I have a hard time finding the time for rewatches.
9. Do you stay through the credits or leave once the film ends?
Unless a friend is involved in making the film, I’d leave soon after the credits begin.
10. What’s one thing you would change to make movie theaters better?
Movie theatres are too cold! I’d turn up the temp a smidge. I also think bathrooms should be closer to the actual screens and there should also be a soda machine refill right outside so you don’t have to walk far.
11. Tell me about an especially memorable moviegoing experience that stands out in your mind.
On Christmas a couple of years ago my partner and two best friends and I went to watch the Robbie William’s CGI monkey biopic, Better Man, without any kind of context for what we were walking into. I think I cried through the entire second half of the film. My two best friends, who are screenwriters, left the theatre screaming “NOW THAT WAS CINEMA!”.
My favorite moviegoing experiences are ones where you kind of walk in blind, with low expectations. That happened to me with Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, too, which I watched at the Los Feliz 3. A very different kind of film, haha.
12. What’s a movie you’re looking forward to seeing?
Blue Heron and Maddie’s Secret, both of which I missed seeing at the Los Angeles Festival of Movies, due to my own scheduling errors.
13. What’s your dream combination of director and lead(s)?
I really want to see Jenna Ortega make a movie that’s good for change. I want to see more of Jodie Turner Smith on screen too. Maybe with someone like… Mira Nair? I don’t know! I don’t want to upset the Letterbox users.
14. If you could live in a movie, which one would it be?
I have a boring millennial answer, which is Amélie.
15. Why do you think people should continue seeing movies at the movie theater?
Watching films together is a beautiful way to connect to people, even if you’re not interacting with each other directly. I watched Weapons alone at a movie theatre in SF where I was on a solo trip. We screamed together. We laughed together. There is a dopamine response to that kind of collective experience. Of course, hearing your own emotions echoed by others in a movie theatre can be affirming.
You get a form of permission from your fellow movie-goers—to scream or laugh or give voice to whatever primal responses you are having to the art—and that permission can be rescinded if you get too loud or disruptive. In that way, theatres are places where you practice being part of a community. And we need more of that.
Better Man hive rise
Now I want Cheesecake Factory !!