I had my first glimpse of the Uptown SIFF Theater, and I like it! Old-school stadium seating, and decent sized screens. Reasonably priced concessions. It seems to be very clean.
I saw a sign saying that it's run by volunteers, which might be why there was a good vibe. The ticket taker reminded me of Mr. Rogers.
I can totally see myself seeing oodles of free movies here over the next 12 months.
For my first film, I chose Barbara, a german-language film out of Estonia. SIFF describes Barbara as a "perfectly calibrated cold-war thriller" set in East Germany in 1980.
When I read the words "Germany" and "Thriller," I assume that means I'm going to see (a) tons of suspence, (b) bizarre violence (possibly torture), and (c) weird sex. Maybe that says more about me than about movies, but those were my expectations.
Barbara had zero of those things.
No suspense. No violence. No weird sex.
Nary a booby to be found.
Don't get me wrong, I actually thought it was really well done. It was just not a thriller. I thought of it more as a character piece. It had a kind of wandering, vague plot. There were one or two plot points that were lost on me because I don't really know anything about rural cold war East Germany, but I appreciated that the director didn't feel the need to explain everything. And, it was really well-acted.
But I was definitely not on the edge of my seat.
In fact, I got loudly shushed by an old person, because I was apparently eating my twizzlers too loud. (Old people at movies are the WORST. I'm sure there will be a lot more on that subject later, as this seems to be an old person's movie theater.)
I recommend seeing Barbara if you enjoy watching people ride bikes in skirts, or if you are having trouble falling asleep.
Peggy's rating: Two stars (out of five)
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