This Week in Tickets: 7 October 2019 - 13 October 2019

There's a part of me that wants to apologize for pages with this much white on them, but you can't treat your hobby like it's a job.



I am kind of in a bad cycle of staying up too late, using too much caffeine to get through the workday and not really getting in the zone until late in the afternoon, and then getting out late and having most shows start too late or too early relative to when I get back from Burlington. Maybe I just need to learn to hang out when there's half an hour or so.

I did hit Promare on Monday night, because it's good to throw some money at a thing if you see it for free at a festival with a press pass and love it. Good job on this for still hanging around Boston Common a few weeks after most places just had it for a couple of days. It leaves this weekend, but that's a heck of a run, even if most people didn't get close to the same experience as I did at Fantasia.

(Almost had a full Fantasia flashback, but there wasn't time to stop in Air Canada's pop-up poutinerie before the movie.)

After that, tons of staying too long at work and then hitting the SuperLux in Chestnut Hill on Saturday afternoon to make sure I got the best presentation possible of Gemini Man, in 4K/3D/60fps. It's a nifty way to see a movie that doesn't quite live up to its potential story-wise, and I do hope we get to see more like it before Avatar 2.

Sunday afternoon: Watching playoff baseball and reading a couple week's worth of comics. Gotta vary your entertainment a bit, but I'm still getting some stuff up on my Letterboxd page.

Promare

* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 7 October 2019 in AMC Boston Common #1 (first-run, DCP)

I still really like this movie - it's one of the most energetic animes I've seen in a while and just dives into what people love about this style of movie in a terrific combination of self-deprecating and sincere. It's got a look that embraces the digital tools used to make it while still mostly retaining the hand-drawn style that helps people connect to this stuff traditionally. It's anime for people who love anime, but it's modern and not down a rabbit hole.

I have to admit, though, that this viewing was also a reminder of just how great festivals like Fantasia can be - it's not just that Theatre Hall had a few hundred people crowded into it and into it, but they were also able to crank the sound because there was no worry about it bleeding into whatever was playing next door. Promare works really well loud and huge, and I hope more people get a chance to see it that way.

EFilmCritic review from the festival