Rotten Westpark Tomatoes
Westpark 8 is one of the places I worked for for 2 months during my brief stint in the U.S. It was a 15 minute bike ride from my aunt's house in Irvine. I remember the first time I passed by the theater. They were showing Michael Clayton, Atonement, Persepolis and Into the Wild, movies that were in my must-see list. It was only natural that I took my chances and applied for a job since I haven't been paying for movie tickets for the past 2 years.
When I told my cousin, Kevin that I got the job, he was less than enthusiastic. "That theater sucks so much ass. They show some really sad unheard movies." I didn't understand why he was talking smack about my new employer until my very first day.
"You do know that this is an art house theater, right?" Andrea, one of the many white part-time college kids who I got to work with asked me. It was at that moment when I finally figured out what Kevin was talking about. The line between "art films" and "mainstream movies" has long been blurred after film classes with Fr. Nick and hanging out with Isaw. All I could say at that moment of dawning realization was... "Sweet."
Because Westpark "sucked so much ass," its clientele is mostly senior citizens, mid-life married couples and foreigners who trekked all the way to suburban Irvine to watch a film from their native country. There were the occasional art school students and guys bringing in their dates hoping to impress them with their worldliness but we were never plagued with loud obnoxious teenagers and attention-deficit kids. I don't think I ever sold a single child's ticket.
One of the responsibilities of a Westpark employee is to read the synopsis of the movies being shown and to be prepared with short blurbs because customers will routinely ask you what a movie is about and whether you've seen it and whether you personally think it is worth watching.
You will never have enough time to watch a film in its entirety. Another one of the people I got to work with, David (who also happens to be my Michael Cera/ Robert Sean Leonard crush), told me "I've been working here part-time for the past 3 years and I can't even remember the last time I watched a movie here." Between the endless mind-numbing hours of making popcorn, sweeping floors and selling movie tickets, you'd much rather spend your free time goofing off with your co-workers and making fun of the occassional customer. It was only when I wasn't working with anybody "retarded" that I went inside a theater.
So to cap off this unnecessarily long post, I have watched several films in those 2 months, never ever knowing how some films began and how they ended. Since coming home, I have been downloading then on BitTorrent and I finally know what exactly they were that I've been recommending and why those customers found them so good that they had to go back to thank me afterwards.
Here are some of the films that showed while I was working at Westpark. If you ever see them at your nearby DVD pirate's stall or are looking for something new to download, I recommed them. Not because I heard they were good, but because now, I have discovered them for myself.
P.S. The one and only movie that I did get to watch from start to finish is George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead. Only because it is the film that surprisingly made Kevin actually want to go to Westpark. This says alot about his taste level (haha). And yes, it sucked but we enjoyed it immensely.
Hello LJ Peeps! How you doin?!?
When I told my cousin, Kevin that I got the job, he was less than enthusiastic. "That theater sucks so much ass. They show some really sad unheard movies." I didn't understand why he was talking smack about my new employer until my very first day.
"You do know that this is an art house theater, right?" Andrea, one of the many white part-time college kids who I got to work with asked me. It was at that moment when I finally figured out what Kevin was talking about. The line between "art films" and "mainstream movies" has long been blurred after film classes with Fr. Nick and hanging out with Isaw. All I could say at that moment of dawning realization was... "Sweet."
Because Westpark "sucked so much ass," its clientele is mostly senior citizens, mid-life married couples and foreigners who trekked all the way to suburban Irvine to watch a film from their native country. There were the occasional art school students and guys bringing in their dates hoping to impress them with their worldliness but we were never plagued with loud obnoxious teenagers and attention-deficit kids. I don't think I ever sold a single child's ticket.
One of the responsibilities of a Westpark employee is to read the synopsis of the movies being shown and to be prepared with short blurbs because customers will routinely ask you what a movie is about and whether you've seen it and whether you personally think it is worth watching.
You will never have enough time to watch a film in its entirety. Another one of the people I got to work with, David (who also happens to be my Michael Cera/ Robert Sean Leonard crush), told me "I've been working here part-time for the past 3 years and I can't even remember the last time I watched a movie here." Between the endless mind-numbing hours of making popcorn, sweeping floors and selling movie tickets, you'd much rather spend your free time goofing off with your co-workers and making fun of the occassional customer. It was only when I wasn't working with anybody "retarded" that I went inside a theater.
So to cap off this unnecessarily long post, I have watched several films in those 2 months, never ever knowing how some films began and how they ended. Since coming home, I have been downloading then on BitTorrent and I finally know what exactly they were that I've been recommending and why those customers found them so good that they had to go back to thank me afterwards.
Here are some of the films that showed while I was working at Westpark. If you ever see them at your nearby DVD pirate's stall or are looking for something new to download, I recommed them. Not because I heard they were good, but because now, I have discovered them for myself.
P.S. The one and only movie that I did get to watch from start to finish is George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead. Only because it is the film that surprisingly made Kevin actually want to go to Westpark. This says alot about his taste level (haha). And yes, it sucked but we enjoyed it immensely.
Hello LJ Peeps! How you doin?!?