Good place to catch the new Biggie Smalls biopic?
January 18, 2009 10:40 AM   Subscribe

I'm in Chicago for a couple of days and would like to catch the new Notorious BIG movie at a rowdy black cinema on the Southside. What's a decent one that's not a hassle to get to from Downtown?
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot to Society & Culture (6 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: ICE Chatham movie Theater is on 87th street and a easy walk from the Red Line. I saw Black Snake Moan there and 300 also, both were sufficiently rowdy.

The area is also not too bad, I would take the Red Line there without feeling uncomfortable.
Have fun!
posted by aetg at 11:39 AM on January 18, 2009


anthrapoid, I did a double take at first but the overall impression I* get from "rowdy" here is a positive one (noisy, appreciative, audience participation, and so on).

* a Brit, admittedly
posted by ceri richard at 1:17 PM on January 18, 2009


Agreeing with anthropoid. What is the lure of seeing the film in a "rowdy black" cinema during your visit to Chicago versus seeing at a theater in your hometown? Is it because shots have already been fired at one venue and you're looking to live on the edge and get your street cred?

FWIW, Mr. Adams and I ended up being the only white people at a showing of Menace II Society at a Detroit movie theater. (I'd won the tickets in a radio contest.) We didn't really know what the movie was about, nor were we familiar with the area when we walked into the theater lobby. It was a bit frightening to not only have to pass through a metal detector to get inside, but also be patted down by a security guard. Mr. Adams whispered to me, "This doesn't look good, I think we should get the heck out of here." But the stubborn cheapskate within me said "I don't want to waste these tickets," so we proceeded. The audience erupted in cheers during the movie whenever someone was shot, and during a scene when two white police officers were questioning two black youths, folks in the audience started chanting "Malice Green! Malice Green!" We slouched down in our seats and tried to be inconspicuous. A theater security guard approached us after the movie and offered to accompany us out to the parking lot, and as we got into our car he said, "If you don't mind me asking, what the hell are y'all doing out here?"
posted by Oriole Adams at 1:24 PM on January 18, 2009


Response by poster: Update: it was fun. I guess someone commented with HOW COULD YOU, but can you really not see how a movie like this is way more entertaining with an audience that's totally into it? Obviously I was a tourist, but so what? You miss out on a lot of interesting stuff by being terrified of worst-case scenarios.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 3:42 PM on January 18, 2009


Some movies theaters are more participatory than others. I saw the pretty lame "Major Payne" in DC and the audience made it a memorable event.
posted by idb at 3:59 PM on January 18, 2009


The guy who produced this movie is a childhood classmate. I do hope people will go see the movie anywhere and not look for the really silly stereotypical "rowdy black cinema," which is such a cliche and stupid thought I can't even really be offended.
posted by notjustfoxybrown at 9:27 AM on January 19, 2009


« Older Inauguration Day Music   |   Help this busy office worker stick to an exercise... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.