“SPOONS!” cried the audience, as a volley of plastic cutlery flew through the air, thrown at the sight of a framed picture of a plastic spoon seen on the giant, fifteen million dollar screen.
Proctor’s Thursday night screening of The Room, an “electrifying black comedy” conceived of, written by, produced, directed, and starring the mysterious Tommy Wiseau, was a night of camaraderie among fans of pop culture, a celebration of the best worst film American cinema has ever produced.
The Room is delightfully awful. It is not merely a bad film, but a perfect storm of terrible acting, horrible effects, and cringe-worthy dialogue. There is absolutely no plot to this film; indeed, there are revelations of character’s struggles with cancer and drug abuse that are explored in one scene and never mentioned again.
But for admirers of all things that are bad in popular culture, The Room is an unparalleled masterpiece. I adore this film. It is my favorite. I own a copy. I have seen it over twenty times. I stared at the screen in adoration, clutching a bouquet of spoons to my chest that I had been filching for a week. I felt that on some level the other people in the room understood me, as we all applauded a suicide and laughed over a tale of domestic violence.
The three and a half graphic sex scenes during the film (one of which I deem “a half” because it is merely leftover cuts from the first sex scene shown less than eight minutes into the movie) were very nearly watchable as the theater was filled with sounds of disgust and slow-claps along with the R&B tracks that barely masked the fact that sounds of characters’ pleasure were added in sometime during post-production.
At film showings that are interactive in nature, the audience is the primary decider of the film-going experience. I was worried that attendance would be thin and I would be one of the only ones singing the Full House theme or repeatedly shouting “because you’re a woman” or “who the fuck ARE you?!?” to various characters. But I was happy to see that attendees in the full theater were enthusiastic participants.
Prior to Thursday’s successful screening, Proctors had been offering unique programming for film buffs and movie lovers. “Q-Fest” was held during the winter, which showed a collection of LGBTQ-themed films, with a well-attended screening of the film Howl.
“We are not the people who bring you Mamma Mia!” shouted one of the organizers for the evening, to large cheers. Instead of large-budget touring musicals, Proctors had apparently found a niche in the greater Capital Region for people who like the offbeat. For a Schenectady trying to rebuild a sense of culture, The Room is just the thing.
Loading ...
Thank you so very much for your support of THE ROOM and our offbeat “It Came From Schenectady” film program. We try to do at least 10 events each year, including a 24-hour film festival every October.
Our next event, THE SAMUEL L. JACKSON SUPERSHOW, will happen this coming Tuesday (5/10) at 7pm. It will include a special collection of SamJack clips, a live musical performance, the usual contests and prizes, and finally… a screening of Jackson’s turn as SHAFT.
Then, on Sat. May 28, we will present IT CAME WITHOUT WARNING! A WALK-IN DRIVE-IN DOUBLE FEATURE featuring screenings of SATAN’S CHEERLEADERS and IT CAME WITHOUT WARNING (Jack Palance, Martin Landau and Yvonne de Carlo are just of few of the actors who can be found slumming in these low budget, yet wonderfully entertaining “drive-in” movies. Also, David Caruso, as a hot-to-trot teenage loverboy, in his very first movie role. The films will be introduced by Mike White, author of the newly released film commentary collection, IMPOSSIBLY FUNKY.
*”It Came From Schenectady” takes its name from the title of a collection of short stories by Barry Longyear, who meant the title as a reference to a quote by fellow author Harlan Ellison, who – when asked where all of his crazy and creative ideas come from – snidely joked that he regularly sends money to a mysterious post office box in Schenectady, after which fresh ideas are swiftly mailed to him.
Cannot wait for Proctoberfest when I come back.
I share that sentiment, Caitlin. Our 24-hour “Proctoberfest” movie marathon is my favorite annual event to be involved in at Proctors. This year’s event will begin at Noon on Saturday, Oct. 15 and run through Noon, Sunday, Oct. 16.
Hi Caitlin,
In case you have not yet noticed, the “Proctoberfest” line-up was announced last week (actually, we’ve dropped the “Proctoberfest” part of the event title this year, simply going with “4th annual 24-Hour Marathon of SciFi & Fantastic Film). You can find the line-up on our fb page: “It Came From Schenectady”, but it includes area premieres of films such as SUPER (Ellen Page, Rainn Wilson & Kevin Bacon), 13 ASSASSINS (dir. Takeshi Miike), HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (Rutger Hauer), the fabulously silly TROLLHUNTER, and the long, long overdue premiere of BATTLE ROYALE. There will also be classics such as HEAVY METAL, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (David Bowie) and both the 1951 and the 1982 versions of THE THING.
But… prior to all of this, on Thurs. Sept. 22nd, we will 1st have our 1st annual BIG LEBOWSKI PARTY. Info on that one can be found at http://ItCameFromSchnectady.com
Thanks!
Paul