Movie Theater Diaries #6: Midnight at The Vista

A play-by-play of my first midnight screening, for One Battle After Another

Hello everyone. In lieu of a new movie theater recap I wanted to focus on one very special moviegoing experience I had last week: The first midnight screening of One Battle After Another in Vistavision at The Vista Theater. For those of you who are not nerds, VistaVision is basically 35mm film that is turned to the side so it’s much larger. My stance on seeing films in special formats like these is along the lines of “sure, why not”, I’m not as passionately inclined to seek them out as most in the film community (though I understand the urge) but I am always fascinated and grateful when I get to.

Absolutely everyone on the internet has been sharing their opinions on One Battle After Another and I’m happy for them. What I’m more interested in talking about today is my experience of a midnight screening, as someone who tends to be in bed by 10pm. In fact here’s a play-by-play breakdown of my evening to serve as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale. Enjoy.

4pm: Forced myself to take a nap even though mid-day naps are one of the worst things you can do. I believe this decision was right and ultimately saved me from sleeping through the entire movie.

8pm: I made pasta with shrimp which was the first wrong turn I took. I’ve been alive way too long to not realize that eating carbs before a midnight movie would make me sleepy, but here we are. Thankfully my friend Anna arrived and we made the (brilliant, course-correcting) decision to have Turkish coffee before we headed out.

9.15pm: Something to note about Los Angeles if you’re unfamiliar is that people don’t really go out on a weekday here, so the roads were relatively empty as we drove to Los Feliz. We parked right by the theater and conveniently close to the only open establishment nearby which happened to be “Tiki-Ti”, a (you guessed it) Tiki bar. I got a margarita because everything else on the menu terrified me. We finished half of our drinks before we started getting antsy and walked over to the theater.

10.20pm: We got in line outside The Vista, which by that point was wrapped around the block. This line was for people who had tickets but wanted to get in earlier to pick their seats. One thing about me is I am not going to stand in a line for more than 15 minutes, and I also don’t care to sit in any of the “prime spots” (towards the back, centered), so I’m fine to walk in a bit later and sit closer to the front. A TikTok influencer crawled by the line in a dog costume (?) and we all thought we were hallucinating, which I still hope we were.

10.35: Although the vibe of the line was “tired, actively questioning decision to be there” it quickly changed into pure anticipation once we got in. I will say I do not think I’ve seen a theater audience that’s so overwhelmingly male before (although The Brutalist at The Egyptian last year came close). Personally I love a bathroom without a line so no complaints from me. After saving our seats we got popcorn and Topo Chico (The Vista doesn’t sell Diet Coke which is devastating) and Anna got a glass of rosé as well.

Anywhere between 10.55pm and 01.45am: Something I learned about VistaVision that day is that you can’t play regular commercials and trailers beforehand, as I assume the film needs to be loaded in & ready-to-go quite a bit in advance. Very grateful for that so we could begin this 2-hour and 50-minute marathon on time. I will say as scary as that number might seem to some, this movie absolutely flies by. It is very well-paced and there aren’t any snooze-y moments. Keep that in mind when I say I absolutely did still sleep for a few minutes. My cardinal mistake was having a few sips of Anna’s wine with no Diet Coke to offset it with. I think I closed my eyes for exactly 2 minutes, and unfortunately that does mean I’m gonna have to see the movie again (I rarely even go to the bathroom during a movie, scared I’ll end up missing the best scene.). However, and I wouldn’t lie about this, I woke up seconds before the already infamous car chase scene over the “Texas Dip” in this fashion:

What a time to be alive if you love watching things on screen that have definitely never been filmed before.

01.45am: It’s a real specific pleasure to drive home in zero traffic after seeing a really good movie. I would highly recommend a midnight screening for a special release, but take my advice:

• Coffee after dinner (and no heavy carbs)

• No alcohol. Sorry

• Bring eye drops if you wear contacts

• Snacking throughout helps keep you awake

Obviously if you’re under the age of 30 ignore these rules and live your life, you’ll be fine.

Until next time!