Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Here's a problem most moviegoers don't have: scheduling conflicts. If you want to see a movie, it's probably playing at the multiplex all day and evening and you just pick a time and go. But the five people in Cinemania have every film showing anywhere in New York City to choose from, first run movies, film classics, festivals, films shown in museums and small screening rooms. Two of the men have worked out a computerized system to figure it all out. A movie they want to see might only be playing three times in the coming week, at the same time as one or more other movies they want to see. They need help from databases and decision trees. Another guy will only see a movie if it's a good print. He has the phone number of all the projection booths, and calls ahead of time to discuss the quality of the print. Then he brings his cell phone with him into the theater; if something goes wrong with the projection, he doesn't want to have to leave his seat. He calls instead. It's these kinds of details that make this movie fascinating, and fun to watch, in a head-shaking, "I can't believe this" sort of way.
It was also sad to see these people driven by an obsession that maybe even they don't understand. It was hinted that at least two of the film buffs didn't know as much about film as they thought they did, and didn't have discerning tastes. That was good stuff, and made me wonder, why do they do it, then? Ultimately, maybe the question can't be answered. There were five people, and five different, complex reasons. I think the movie gave as full a picture of what they were about as is possible in 80 minutes. So even though I wanted to know, and understand, more, I give the movie 4 stars and will watch it again.
I do wish there'd been more of sense of the mix of movies they all watched. It seemed that most of them did see a fair number of first run movies, but the documentary didn't get into that much. In one of the deleted scenes, Roberta discusses at great length her reaction to "Pearl Harbor." Suddenly she believes that the other person (another of the cinemaniacs) isn't understanding a word she's saying, and she walks away, frustrated, angry, unable to communicate. There are many small scenes like that one, that show so much just by letting the people talk.
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A funny yet mesmerizing documentary that chronicles the lives of five film crazed New Yorkers so consumed by their obsession that they don’t have jobs or social lives, out of fear that it would take time away from their movie viewing.
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