I Heart Locally Owned Movie Houses

Bless the Balboa Theater.

Only 5, count 'em 5, independently run theaters left in "lefty" s.f.

And the Balboa Theater is one of them. And even though they are way the fuck out on the avenues, as inconvenient by bicyle, walking, MUNI, or car as possible from my house or most of your houses, I suspect, I am still going there. Why?

10, count 'em 10, reasons to hightail it over to the Balboa Theater:

10. Meem-ami live right there. OK, that is a bonus special to me. So you might want to substitute in the following... Some seriously good food lives right there. All around that theater. Even on the same block. And we all know that kick ass food in sf? Hard to find (yeah, right). OK, so let's go back to the part where MeeAmi live over in those there parts. Hmmmm.

10 (revised). The Balboa Theater is actually located on Balboa Street, unlike Balboa High School, which is located as far from Balboa Street as humanly possible, or Washington High School, which is equally far from Washington Street, or really the plethora of other SFUSD schools named the same names as streets but located not even a little near those streets. Which somehow makes sense but confuses people anyways. The point? Ah yes, the Balboa Theater is both sensical AND not confusing. Good times.

9. They run first-run movies.

8. They serve veggie dogs.

7. They run shorts before the main flick movie.

6. They serve spicy popcorn.

5. You can buy passes and use them even on the weekends.

4. On your way out of the theater is a board with index cards and pencils and tacks. Here you are encouraged to write and post up your reactionary view of the movie you saw not even 10 minutes before, which makes them doubly funny since of course people are all emo (for better or for worse) right after movies and say things like: "If you want to dip your cup deep in OLD LADY, see THE QUEEN." Thanks people. Really. Cheers.

3. They let you in free on your birthday. Awwwwww.

2. They are not so crowded (so do your duty to keep them alive, people).

1. They sponsor some weird-ass contests on their website

http://www.balboamovies.com/

and the guy who won the last one was at our screening and he won a .... Making an Oscar Acceptance Speech. So that is what he got up and did, wearing a tux type item, clutching an Oscar statue, to us, the viewing audience, just before the movie started. Cute. And kinda weird. And cute.


So despite their rock-hard, sciatic-nerve crushing dirty ass seats, questionable sound system, and sky high baby screens, I am there. And you should be, too.