College was better. We were closer to more options and more choice, thus more chances to see quality first-run talkies. Also, better video stores with more to offer. Graduate school time was the tops. Terrific theaters, great choices, and top-notch video stores. And disposable income pre-children! We were Cineplex junkies, pretty much watching all the new fare we wanted to. Sometimes, we even got popcorn and soda.
Then the first child arrived.
If I plot the data, I find there is a direct correlation between increased child cost/time and reduction in time spent doing frivolous activities — it only makes sense, there are only so many days in the week, hours in the day. What ensued we will call The Void. Very few trips to the theater, very many trips to the grocery store.
Time passed.
What happened next was (I suppose) to be expected. We got to go to the theater again but the trips tended to coincide with Disney’s seasonal release schedule. Funny how that seems to work. I enjoy a good animated feature as much as the next guy, but this was the dominating trend. 
Every now and then we would steal a matinee that was not the brainchild of John Lasseter when the timing worked out right on a family holiday visit, but it was rare.
We are coming out of The Void, but if I step out of myself for a moment and realize just how excited I was about “Wreck-It Ralph” last week, I get a little worried.
All of this is to say this: When we do get the opportunity to go see a movie made by and for grown-ups, it better be good. No, it better be excellent.
“Argo” was excellent. The writing was solid, the dialogue crisp with few (if any) wasted lines. It was exciting, nerve-racking and terrifying — probably because it was based on true events. I enjoyed all the performances, but Alan Arkin stood out among the pack.
Just how excellent was “Argo”? So excellent, it got Mr. Affleck out of Nichole’s virtual boycott room (I think the only remaining occupant is Tom Cruise but sometimes I think he may have me as company). Affleck had been in her boycott room for something like twelve years, so nice job getting out, Ben
When my wife asked me to write this she probably wanted more in-depth commentary. I hope she’s OK with this. Maybe the best commentary comes from her own observations once “Argo” had ended and we were getting up to leave.
As we stood up and stretched, she looked out over the audience, turned to me and said, “No one moved.”
And she was right. I hadn’t thought about it until then but throughout the entire movie no one had left the theater for the last two hours. We would have seen them; we were by the exit.
I kind of wonder if anyone had even taken a breathe.
That’s how excellent “Argo” is.
