The date was September 30th, 2025 and it was 9 pm. Charlotte and I were winding down an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It was the first episode of Season 7, The Reunion. I was getting antsy. One Battle After Another was playing in 70 mm at the Music Box which was a five-minute walk from her apartment. No doubt there was going to be a line. A wrap around the block line. Timing was everything. We decided to leave 30 minutes before showtime to get a good spot. We walked along Janssen and cut along a side street.
The cars were lined along the street nose to ass and the sidewalk was flanked on the left by tree branches curving outward like witch's fingernails and the backs of houses on the right. We approached the marquee announcing our movie in bold black letters when Charlotte said she wasn't feeling good. She went back to the apartment for medication while I saved a spot in line. Luckily it wasn't at the point where it wrapped around the block. As the time dragged out, it would eventually get there. Standing behind two guys wearing hats, one telling the other his thoughts on the last movie he saw. A woman in a flannel and black shirt saying "Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson" walking by and the momentum causing the flannel to billow around the edges. And the wind carried a slight chill around me. The line starts to move and the anxiety mounts what if I get to the theater and Charlotte is still not back? I have the tickets. Will she be there in time? I text her about an update on her status as the line caterpillars toward the entrance. Random chance spinning a wheel and landing on her meeting me at the precise time I arrive at the entrance. Perfect timing. All worries dissipate as we move into the theater and into Theater One.
The line for concessions was as long as the line for the movie itself. Going from the lobby and making its way through the theater. When 10:40 rolled around, one of the Music Box programmers walked down the aisle to announce how Paul Thomas Anderson had called the theater. Not about the sound levels or making sure the print played a specific way, but if there were any patrons dressed as Bob, wearing the bathrobe and sunglasses. A patron dressed just like him stood up and the programmer made his way to him, telling him to give his best "Viva La Revolution!" as the audience cheered.
The voice of Tom Petty belting out American Girl, a song I'd always associated The Silence of the Lambs with and now have another film to do so, played as half the audience started filing out of the theater. The screening itself was everything I'd hoped for. The crowd riding its wavelength for the whole duration. Laughing with it, getting shocked, tensing up, cheering. Charlotte and I made our way out of the theater and into the front of it. Where groups formed and reactions were shared amidst the cigarette smoke filled starlit night. We made our way through the people and into the less populated areas where the cacophony of conversations trailed off into barely discernible dialogue. It was almost 2 am and all the shops and restaurants were well past closed. A man sat outside a bar, head bowed as if in prayer. A group of guys spilled out of the bar and onto the sidewalk. Wandering dreamers whose maps to Heaven are too smudged with coffee stains and cigarette burns. A few stray lights were on in apartment buildings. In one of them, a figure walked into view exaggerating his arms as if measuring where a piece of furniture or perhaps a poster will go. Still a time for brave dog walkers but well past time for stroller pushers, we made our way along an elementary school. A rock lay at the base of a tree with "My Happy Place" carved into it. The next tree had a collection of four dolls nestled around it, looking up at me with their hollow eyes. As we made our way towards Charlotte's apartment, the nocturnal activities of a city went on. Even as we called it a night. After all it was a great big world with lots of places to run to.
I would see it two more times at the theater. Once by myself and another with a friend I grew up with and have known since grade school. Sharing a few small beers and discussing the various pathways of the people we grew up with.
It would secure a spot on the big list. A list shuffled around, reorganized and recalibrated it seems like every other day. A list that says this is me on January 17, 2025, this is me on March 26, 2025, this is me on September 30, 2025, this is me on October 1, 2025, this is me on October 15, 2025, this is me on November 18, 2025, this is me on January 1, 2026.
1. Magnolia (1999)
2. GoodFellas (1990)
3. Apocalypse Now (1979)
4. Woman In the Dunes (1964)
5. Sorcerer (1977)
6. E.T.: The Extra- Terrestrial (1982)
7. Eraserhead (1979)
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
9. No Country For Old Men (2007)
10. Rear Window (1954)
11. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
12. The Insider (1999)
13. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
14. Pulp Fiction (1994)
15. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
16. The Exorcist (1973)
17. JFK (1991)
18. Alien (1979)
19. Nashville (1975)
20. Ikiru (1952)
21. Once Upon A Time In the West (1968)
22. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
23. Welfare (1975)
24. The Thing (1982)
25. The Battle of Algiers (1966)
26. The Master (2012)
27. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
28. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
29. The Conversation (1974)
30. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
31. Midnight Run (1988)
32. All That Jazz (1979)
33. Chinatown (1974)
34. The Devils (1971)
35. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
36. The Third Man (1949)
37. Possession (1981)
38. The Fisher King (1991)
39. Back to the Future (1985)
40. The Burbs (1989)
41. Stalker (1979)
42. Aguirre: Wrath of God (1972)
43. Cure (1997)
44. Psycho (1960)
45. The Big Lebowski (1998)
46. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
47. Se7en (1995)
48. Safe (1995)
49. Sherlock Jr. (1924)
50. Paris, Texas (1984)
51. A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
52. Inland Empire (2006)
53. His Girl Friday (1940)
54. Beetlejuice (1988)
55. Chungking Express (1994)
56. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
57. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
58. Mishima: A Life In Chapters (1985)
59. Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003)
60. Do the Right Thing (1989)
61. Heat (1995)
62. The Cremator (1969)
63. The Shining (1980)
64. Tampopo (1985)
65. Suspiria (1977)
66. High and Low (1963)
67. Blow Out (1981)
68. Manhunter (1986)
69. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972)
70. A Man Escaped (1956)
71. The Age of Innocence (1993)
72. Boogie Nights (1997)
73. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
74. The Godfather (1972)
75. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
76. The Red Shoes (1948)
77. Jaws (1975)
78. Aliens (1986)
79. Ed Wood (1994)
80. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
81. The Wild Bunch (1969)
82. The Wicker Man (1973)
83. Hard Boiled (1992)
84. All the President's Men (1976)
85. Zodiac (2007)
86. Central Park (1990)
87. The Beyond (1981)
88. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
89. One Battle After Another (2025)
90. The Zone of Interest (2023)
91. Die Hard (1988)
92. The Trial (1962)
93. Exiled (2006)
94. Children of Men (2006)
95. The Devils Rejects (2005)
96. Stop Making Sense (1984)
97. After Hours (1985)
98. A Serious Man (2009)
99. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
100. Uncut Gems (2019)
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