Waiting For Woody

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This isn't specific to New York - my impression of most every art-house movie theater that I've been to in small cities is of this - but if you've ever been to the terrific Lincoln Plaza Cinemas here in New York City on the Upper West Side then you know the clientele there tips specifically towards... the more elderly amongst us. Seeing Sarah Polley's film Away From Her, a film about aging and memory loss, there was a surreal experience - the lights came up and everybody immediately forgot where they were.

If they're not loudly asking each other what the person on screen just said older people tend to be better movie-goers than younger, more often than not - they never take out their cell phones mid-movie since they can hardly turn the things on - and since it's a convenient theater for me to get to I find myself there all the time. I was there twice this past weekend actually, to see The Hunt and I'm So Excited (both of which I owe y'all reviews for, I hope to get them done today) and something happened both times that struck me as funny, which I will right now share.

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Before both films I saw the above trailer for Woody Allen's new film Blue Jasmine. I really love that trailer, and I'm really excited about the movie - Cate Blanchett looks totally fabulous, Sally Hawkins deserves great roles left and right and all over, and the rest of the film's stuffed with names like Bobby Cannavale, Alden Ehrenreich, Louis CK, Michael Stuhlbarg... a whole lot of yes.

Anyway both times I saw the trailer the exact same thing happened. The audience was politely, quietly, interested in the movie, until a full minute and fifteen seconds into it when this happens...

And it was like a bomb went off in the room. "Oh dearie me!"s were uttered, lacy handkerchiefs went waving through the air, heart-rate monitors starting beeping like an enthusiastic game of Space Invaders had broken out - you know that scene in the pilot episode of Under the Dome where Lawnmower Man's pacemaker exploded? So many chests were bursting open left and right I thought I'd stumbled into an HR Giger convention.

Every joke following the revelation that this was The New Woody Allen Movie was greeted with the sort of laughter I only save for my worst enemies - hearty and deranged. There are good jokes in the front half of the trailer - Cate's flustered facial expressions are a thing of beauty - but suddenly it was if the word "xanax" alone were the height of hilarity. Oh my god you guys - Woody's done it again!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Alright I'm being hard on the folks; I totally want to see the movie, I am totally pro-Woody, and they're merely fulfilling their role as the Upper West Siders that make up about 99.74% of Woody's audience (the other 0.26% only wished they lived there). But I did find it funny just how pronounced it was both times, as if a switch had been flipped - we can laugh now, it's our old friend!
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