Movie-going experience @ Cloverfield & a hot chick

I went to see this movie by myself because the person I was going to go with had something come up. I don't normally see scary movies by myself, cause I prefer to have someone's arm (or something else) to grab onto when I scream.  But by 7pm, I had already had a couple of friends try to tell me about it, so I decided if I was gonna see it, I better go the first night before I wanted to kill someone for giving away the juicy parts. I've been excited about this movie since last year, the first time I saw a trailer in a theatre with 1.18.08 after it.

So I went to the theatre in Sherman Oaks (a new Arclight that's the shit - it has assigned seating), but hadn't been able to buy tickets ahead of time because my credit cards were stolen last week in Vegas and the replacements hadn't arrived yet. The first showing available was after 10pm (I got there at 7pm, and there was a showing every hour). I decided to drive to another theatre in Woodland Hills. That one was sold out for the rest of the night. There was another theatre about 5 minutes away in Calabasas, and that one had tickets available for the 10:10pm showing. So I basically could have stayed at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, eaten at Cheesecake Factory, and seen the movie there. Oh well... 

I grabbed a tuna wrap at a restaurant and went to a Barnes & Noble bookstore, where I bought a pocket calendar for my home office, a book on nutrition (which I SORELY need) and a party planning book that I'm gonna use for my daughter's birthday. About 25 minutes before the movie started, I went to get in the movie line. There were already about 50 people in line, but no big deal because I was by myself, so I didn't need to find multiple seats together once I got in. A cute, slightly eccentric-looking girl came up behind me and asked if it was the Cloverfield line, and I said yea, and went back to texting on my phone. She asked if I was alone, and I said, yea - I really wanted to come see it tonight. She said "Don't worry, I'm alone too. Is it cool if I hang with you?". I looked up at her again. She has the personal style of Lizzie Caplan's character in the movie - vintage style tshirt and jeans, retro jacket and fitted boots. She seemed sweet, so I said sure.

We started talking about horror movies, guys, food... basically just random chitchat. 

Before the movie started, there was a commercial for LA Ink which featured Joanna Angel. In it Joanna says she's an adult film star. Before I realized what I was doing I clapped... and about 5 or 6 people in front of me turned around and looked at me like I'm an idiot. I shrunk into my seat and mumbled that she's a good friend. The 18 year-old girl, "Marissa", was next to me and asked me how I knew Joanna, and I said it was because I'm a publicist and friends with her publicist. She immediately started gushing that one of her close friends is a stripper who wants to get into porn, and that she herself wants to get into porn. I love porn and being a part of it, but I've always felt nervous about helping girls I don't know get into the business because, well... I don't know them. I don't know if they have the right personality to want to have sex on camera, or if they will be able to deal with conservative people judging them. More importantly, I don't know just by looking at someone if they'll be able to have decent to volcanic sex on camera. Luckily, the commercials ended and the actual previews started, so we had to stop talking right then. I gave Marissa my card and told her that she should email me if she has any questions.

A couple minutes later, I was texting my best friend about how bad ass the IronMan and Hellboy 2 trailers were. Oh my god, I've been a Robert Downey Jr. fan since before Less Than Zero. 

Marissa sat together through the movie, and at a couple of the scary parts, she leaned towards me, and we grabbed each other's arms. I couldn't help but wonder if a few months later, I'd be seeing her naked picture on a boxcover somewhere. I was very conscious that this girl was 18 and still in high school. So young, but yet old enough to be in a porn movie. I was certainly conflicted. After having just spent a week in Las Vegas surrounded by porn people, I found myself having to remember that I was no longer in the small world of the adult business, and this girl wasn't someone who had already thought out whether she actually wanted to be a porn girl or not. As we walked to our cars, I gave her a quick hug, and told her to give me a call sometime if she wanted to. If she ever does call, I'll have to tell her what I've told some others in the past. This isn't a business where it's a good idea to just 'try it once' to see if you like it. Once you've been on camera once, it's out there forever. I've often recommended girls to try stripping first to see if they're comfortable with their bodies and the way that they feel when they go home at night.

As for Cloverfield, I thought it was really good. It has a lot of shaky camerawork, ala Blair Witch. I thought it suited the movie, and I never once felt like it gave me motion sickness, as one of my friends described. The characters (with the exception of Hud) were actually quite believable, and my main complaint is that the main monster didn't have as much up-close interaction with the human characters as I would have hoped. But there are plenty of scary moments in the movie, the pacing was really satisfying, and the cinematography complemented the story. There's already talks of a sequel. Maybe I'll go to Calabasas alone again.  :)

- January 21, 2008