The Sunbaked King

…and then I don’t feel so bad.

MOVIES

I can only recall three instances when I went to watch a movie in the theater alone. The first was in high school, and it was an experiment I’ve always wanted to do then. I had to experience how it felt like to be seated in a dark movie theater with no one beside you, and the only companion you had were the characters on the screen. So I did it. The movie? Save the Last Dance, starring Julia Stiles and this black dude. Years later, I would find myself seated in the theater by my lonesome once again, but because of Filipino-cheesy-films phobia more than anything else. No one wanted to accompany me in watching Because of You (starring the VW Beetle, remember that movie?), and I really wanted to see how the Hero-Sandara tandem would fare, so I watched it by myself. Later on, after I gave my glowing review, somebody was finally persuaded to watch the movie again with me. The last instance, as far as I could remember, was brought on by a need to recover– it was a most painful heartbreak, and I needed to get away, at least temporarily. The Devil Wears Prada was perhaps the perfect solution for that profound loneliness. Never mind if I was crying at the wrong parts, or the slightest tinge of emotion from Anne Hathaway had me sobbing like crazy. What mattered was that I found an escape from the pain.

Honestly, I don’t like going to movies alone. For me, watching films on the silver screen is a shared activity. It’s almost like Mass, come to think about it– you go there as a community, but it’s rude to talk to each other while you’re there. Same thing with movies. It’s a more complex experience when you’re with family or friends (or a date). Something very amazing and refreshing happens when people with different perspectives converge to watch one single thing.

Of course, all this might just be a front from the real reason that watching movies alone makes me feel alone.

In any case, good thing that none of my top 10 movies of 2009 were watched under such dire circumstances. Here they are. [You can't read all the text in the normal view. Click on FS to have the gallery play on full screen, and click the "i" on the upper-right corner to read the text. Besides, the movie posters look a lot cooler in full-scale.]