Scurvy

A lot of popcorn hulls under the gum since my last post, since which . . .

Tilda wins

The most genuine moment and the best acceptance-speech joke both came early Sunday night when Tilda Swinton surprised everyone, not least herself, by winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. I (well, Dave Kerr--but in this case, I would have on my own) had picked Cate Blanchett and also actually thought hers the best performance (not necessarily the same thing, of course), but Swinton's look of absolute shock at the announcement (sincere? Hey, she's a great actor, but nobody's that good) made it impossible not to be happy for somebody who has had a long, outstanding, mostly under-the-radar career. And who knew she could be funny, too? Never mind that she was just recycling Clooney's own self-deprecating joke; when you're an accepting an Oscar, originality is a bonus, but no one should demand it.

Orange loses

I have made my last traffic-defying walk along Marsh Hill Road while talking on the cell to my son-in-law: Showcase Orange will close after Sunday's shows. This, not to put too fine a point on it, sucks, and it sucks less for me than for the area's Indian community, because for the past year or two, Orange has routinely devoted one of its eight screens to a film from the Subcontinent. Will the Post Mall DeLux 14 give 1/14 of its screens to 1/6 of the world's population. Yeah, right.

But as sad as the closing is for Indian-Connecticutan filmgoers, let's face it: it's really all about me. What does this mean to the most important film audience in my life? Just tabulated my visits to Orange in 2007: only 11 trips for a total of 14 films, and none since 3 November. Still, among those 14 films were Children of Men, Once, A Mighty Heart, Sicko, Into the Wild, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and No End in Sight--I probably wouldn't have missed any of those, but that would mean 7 films I saw via Netflix would still be sitting in my queue.

So what happens now? I can think of a range of possibilities; let's start with the worst:

• The Criterion, which has since its opening as an arthouse gradually moved toward a more mainstream theater, decides that with the one competing venue within fifteen miles for quieter, more thoughtful films gone, there's no reason not to push even harder toward Hollywood schlock. (I should point out that a key to my low number of visits to Orange in recent years has been a significant programming overlap between Orange and the Crit.) This would, in technical terms, suck donkey dicks.

I don't really think that will happen, though. More likely:

• The Crit will stay the course, but so will the other National Amusements theaters in Greater New Haven, in Milford and North Haven. Those venues generally show the same slate of films, and all the blockbusters go there. If they don't pick up the Orange slack, then I guess I'll be Netflixing another 6-12 films a year that simply don't come to town, or seeing them in Manhattan, at the cost of other even more obscure stuff I might be seeing. This would suck slightly less than the suckiness outlined just above, and seems pretty likely.

But maybe I'm being too pessimistic. Maybe:

• The two remaining Nationals will break their programming lockstep and one or both will pick up the Orange slack; this would be a Good Thing. Or . . .
• Better yet, the Cine 1-2-3-4, which has in recent months shown I'm Not There simultaneously with Orange and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days exclusively in Greater N.H., will seize the opportunity to run more exclusives. Given the new bus route that takes me practically to the front door, this would be a Very Good Thing. Or . . .
• The Criterion could pick up the Orange slack and rebound toward its arthouse origin. I don't expect it, but that would be an Excellent Thing.

Until we find out, join me in raising a toast to Showcase Orange, 1994-2008 in its current location; not sure how long it spent on the other side of I-95.