Home
MOVIE THEATERS
Kathy Huffhines on the Star Theatre, Detroit:
It's friendly, kicky, and cute and looks like a bright
red-and-white jukebox from the outside. (Detroit Free Press)
John Hartl on the Cinerama, Seattle:
The Cinerama, a big, single-screen theater, has the best sight
lines, projection, and sound in Seattle. (The Seattle Times)
Mike Clark on the American Film Institute Theater, Washington, D.C.:
The American Film Institute Theater at the Kennedy Center is
intimate (224 seats), has perfect sight lines, and is the only
theater where I've seen both Abel Gance's Napoleon and a Green Acres retrospective. (USA Today)
Carrie Rickey on the Ritz at the Bourse and AMC Olde City,
Philadelphia:
I'm torn between the Ritz, a five-plex art house that features
many independent films, appropriately located within spitting
distance of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and the AMC Olde
City, which overlooks the Delaware River and has big screens and a
wonderful staff. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
David Kronke on the Texas Theater, Dallas:
It's where they captured Lee Harvey Oswald. I love the tacky
paintings of JFK on the stucco walls. It's currently being renovated,
though. (Dallas Times Herald)
Kenneth Turan on the AMC Century 14, Los Angeles:
It's the only multiplex I've ever loved. It's laid out in such a
way that it manages to feel spacious and to convey the excitement
that I feel should be part of the moviegoing experience. (Los
Angeles Times)
Eleanor Ringel on the Garden Hills Cinema, Atlanta:
Because it's got history and character, because it plays films
like The Nasty Girl and La Femme Nikita, and because I went there as
a little girl. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Peter Travers on the Ziegfeld Theater, New York City:
It's one of the few venues left that can show an epic like Lawrence of Arabia in revival as it was meant to be shown. It stands
as a rebuke to all of the multiplexes out there. (Rolling Stone)
Jay Carr on the Brattle Theatre and the Coolidge Corner Theatre,
Boston area:
It's a dead heat between the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge and the
Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline. They're both old movie houses
lovingly restored that allow you to commune with the ghosts of your
younger self. (The Boston Globe)
Jeff Strickler on the Uptown, Minneapolis:
In an era of stamped-out clone theaters, the Uptown has a
personality of its own. It's an old-fashioned movie palace built in
the '30s with a full-size balcony and murals on the walls. (Star
Tribune)
VIDEO STORES
Malcolm Johnson on Video Visions of Storrs, Conn.:
They have a decent collection with good foreign films. They are
near a college so they have a category called ''Relationships,'' where
they shelve videos like When Harry Met Sally (The Hartford Courant)
Bruce Westbrook on Audio/Video Plus, Houston:
A good store. I was looking for old Outer Limits episodes the other
day, and I could almost expect to find it there without calling. They
keep a big inventory, with a lot of 8-mm videos and laserdiscs.
(Houston Chronicle)
Rita Kempley on Video Vault, Washington, D.C.:
I love Video Vault in Georgetown because it's wonderful and
courteous and carries all sorts of bizarre Italian neorealism films
and lots of old TV shows. (The Washington Post)
Charles Taylor on Hollywood Express, Cambridge, Mass.:
It has the widest selection of anything in the area, with both
popular and obscure titles, including some fairly outré things like
the Maysles brothers' documentary on Christo. (Boston Phoenix)
Rick Harmon on Phar-Mor, Montgomery, Ala.:
Phar-Mor, a discount warehouse-type store, is irresistible because
it's incredibly cheap: For $1.50, you get three tapes for two nights!
People with shopping carts come and rent [lots of] movies at a
time. They carry truly bad films from the '40s and '50s, and some of
the worst horror films ever made. It's lots of fun. (The Montgomery
Advertiser)
Richard Schickel on Video West and Vidiots, Los Angeles area:
For a neighborhood store, Video West in West Hollywood has an
extraordinarily good collection of older movies and documentaries.
The other real specialty store is Vidiots in Santa Monica, which has
things nobody else does. I was surprised to find Mister Winkle Goes
to War there when I was working on a book about World War II. (Time)
Robert Butler on Tivoli Video, Kansas City:
My favorite has to be Tivoli Video in Kansas City's Westport
neighborhood. Where else could you find all the Fassbinder films? You
can walk into the store and not think your intelligence is
insulted — there's no Steven Seagal at this place. (The Kansas City
Star)
Terry Orme on Avalon Video, Salt Lake City:
As far as American classics go, there is no comparison to Avalon
Video in Salt Lake City's main business district. It's run by an
incredible film buff who is very knowledgeable and gives you personal
attention. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Andrew Sarris on the International Film and Video Center, New York
City:
The International Film and Video Center has over 10,000 titles
catalogued by director, and the store is very strong on foreign
films. They also carry a lot of erotic titles; disgustingly erotic
tapes are easy enough to find these days, but it's hard to find
things that are tastefully, artistically erotic. (The New York
Observer)
Bill Cosford on the Video Cassette Club, Miami:
The store is perfect for finding obscure foreign titles, like the
1966 Czech film Closely Watched Trains. People don't ordinarily stock
25-year-old Czech political satires, but these guys actually do. (The
Miami Herald)
— reporting by Christopher Henrikson and Taehee Kim
