Spun gold

I’m not going to tell you what I thought of Ant-Man and the Wasp – in fact, I think I’m not allowed to for another couple days – but I am going to tell you about the experience of seeing it.

That’s because even with as many movies as I see, and as many different viewing experiences as I seek out, this one was entirely new to me.

Monday’s advanced screening was one designed specifically for critics. I go to these somewhat regularly, at least a half-dozen a year. But never previously had I been to one held in the Gold Class auditoriums at Village Cinemas.

It’s called Lux at Hoyts, and Gold Class at Village, but it’s something you will immediately recognize from its own variation at whatever prestige location you see your movies. It’s the one where they charge you like $40 a ticket, where you sit in comfortable chairs that recline, and where they will bring food and drink to you during the movie if you just press a little button on your handrest.

And it’s an experience I have never had before.

The oversight is mostly a consequence of timing. These places existed, but had not really taken off yet when I left America. When we first got to Australia, I wasn’t working for seven months, so spending $40 on a movie ticket (when I was already gasping in shock at the nearly $20 for regular screenings) wasn’t in the cards. I then basically transitioned to getting movies for free through my critics card, though of course the high-end screenings are not part of that program.

So it took being sent to a critics screening in the Gold Class theater at Village Jam Factory to finally have this experience. (It’s called Jam Factory because it’s a shopping complex that is literally housed in an old jam factory.)

Excuse me if I spend the next couple paragraphs sounding like a rube from the country arriving in the big city for the first time.

First of all, the chairs. They are more like single-person sofas. I didn’t immediately notice you could put out the footrest, but of course you can – and you can mechanically adjust its angle of incline to almost any level that suits you. Comfortable as hell, of course.

Then the distance between the rows. I was actually in the front row so it didn’t matter (and the front row is a great seat in this sized theater), but obviously each row has enough room to fully extend the footrest. I didn’t notice whether the footrest could be fully extended and also allow enough room for someone to shimmy through, but presumably, there was indeed sufficient space for that type of thing.

The total number of seats seemed to be about 30. Intimate but with enough others to feel a sense of community. (Though I do understand why these screenings frequently sell out.)

Then the food ordering. I did have to seek out a menu as there was not one waiting for me at my seat. But the options were quite extensive, particularly among drinks but also among food, both sweet and savory. As this was a 6:30 screening I went with the savory. I could have skipped the food altogether as I’d have to pay for it separately, and they also provided a free popcorn and bottle of water at each seat. (And since no one ended up sitting next to me, I consumed my neighbor’s as well.) But I figured, if I haven’t had this experience before now, it doesn’t seem likely that I’m going to purposely seek it out again anytime soon. So might as well. I had planned to grab dinner anyway between this movie and the next I was planning to watch after it, Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Now I wouldn’t have to.

I pressed the button on my handrest and indeed, a few minutes later I was greeted by the server. I asked whether she liked the nachos or the bacon potato wedges better. She went with the latter. So did I.

My bacon potato wedges arrived about 15 minutes into the movie, which was perfect. They were, indeed, delicious. Their remnants were swept away from my seat with about that much time remaining.

One last thing I thought was nice to point out. You could open the handrest on the right to stow your menu, in case you wanted to make a second order during the movie. I was tempted but didn’t do it. The $21 for the bacon potato wedges was dear enough. I suppose I could have stowed other things in there, but didn’t.

Having done this once, I’m probably a bit more tempted to shell out the money to do it again on a special occasion. Definitely a nice option for a date night with the wife. She actually did it herself recently on Mother’s Day. I’ve got Australian Father’s Day coming up in two months.

As a bit of full disclosure, I did actually see a movie in America on my most recent trip where ordering food would have been possible. It was an unusually late showing of Hidden Figures on my last night in town, starting at 11 p.m. I’d actually planned to order something about halfway through, to keep me awake, but by the time I tried to place the order, they had already closed the kitchen for the night. So I don’t think it counts. Plus, I don’t remember the ticket being any more expensive and the theater was not particularly intimate, so it doubly doesn’t count.

So Ant-Man and the Wasp will go down as my first such experience, but certainly not my last.