Roaming the blogosphere in this session

I'm beginning to think somebody or something is keeping me from seeing Middle of Nowhere in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere. I went to see it on Thursday at the AMC Empire 25 in Times Square which is, so far, the only theater in all of New York playing it, and maybe twenty minutes into the film the theater experiences a power surge and the film stops dead. (It happened on several other screens, too.) 

This after I had just begun to settle into the movie after the usual number of late arrivals, plus the irritating sounds of a door opening and closing (though not from the late arrivals, I think). I tried to wait for the theater staff to fix the problem, but I couldn't. As I mentioned when I first saw it at Urbanworld, this is a quiet, introspective film that demands a great deal of focus, and my anxiety level was already elevated somewhat before the power outage. It didn't help that there was no one in the projection booth to complain directly to. 

I got my refund and high-tailed it out of there, though not before hearing from an usher that the power was restored and the movies were resuming. I didn't care at that point, though; I was too damn frustrated to bother going back, so I'll have to try again next week. I can't remember the last time I had this many problems trying to comfortably see a movie. Technically, I have seen it, from start to finish, but not under the best of circumstances. This is really killing me!

Moving right along, however...

Silent Volume is a blog devoted to silent films. Here's a post from last month about a recent silent from Spain that's quite different from The Artist.

Brandie did a post for the Paramount Centennial Blogathon about the animation maestros at Fleischer Studios. (Always did love their Superman shorts.)

Page does her best Robin Leach impression in a huge picture-filled post taking us through the old mansion of silent film legend Harold Lloyd.

In the wake of Argo, here's a piece about how the Iran hostage survivors reacted to the film.

You've probably heard that Oscar-winning DP Wally Pfister dissed The Avengers for its cinematography. Here's a take on what he said.

Speaking of which... 2015: Justice League versus Avengers.