Holding Space is a joint column by Anne T. Donahue and Peter Knegt that “holds space” for something or someone in popular culture.
Peter: Anne, I am concerned. A very special time of year has arrived, and I do not feel like people are properly celebrating! In fact, I have hard evidence that they are not. And it’s really bumming me out. So I was hoping we could use this month’s column to hold space for something I annually cherish more than anything else and fear is being abandoned by far too much of society: going to all the movies in the fall!
Anne: Peter, I mentally and emotionally need this column. I mean, in general, but also to kickstart my long overdue New Year’s resolution of seeing more movies in theatres. Do you know how many I’ve seen in theatres this year? Zero. I have seen zero. And sure, yes, I’m busy, and okay, whatever, movies are turning around super-quick before heading to streaming, but those are pitiful, pitiful excuses. Especially since indie theatres aren’t the $100 ticket the chain cinemas are.
I, and everybody else, need to hightail it to the big screen if only to get away from the smaller screens nestled tightly in our white-knuckled hands. But I riddle you this: why the fall? What is it about autumn that makes you want to get up close and personal with Frankenstein’s Monster? (Because I for one would be happy to hang with Jacob Elordi anytime. Hi-oh!)
Please don’t fire me.
Peter: Fire you? Anne, I’m here to convert you! Which I know makes going to the movies sound like some sort of culty religion. But you know what? As far as I’m concerned, this is kinda true! The cinema is essentially my church, and I want you to join me in singing its gospel. And the fall is the best time for you to do that, as it’s when 80% of a given year’s genuinely worthwhile movies all come out within a few months of each other. That’s because the fall is not only an ideal time to be inside a movie theatre (it’s getting cold out there!), but also generally considered the best time to release a movie for Oscar consideration (which is debatable), so theatres are packed with movies that at the very least have ambitions to be great.
Take right now, in Toronto cinemas, for example. You could spend an entire weekend watching movies like Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Leg’s I’d Kick You, Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt, Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, among others. I have seen all of these movies, Anne, and while I didn’t love every single one, I have no regrets about my time spent in church watching them. And some of them I absolutely did love and am excited to go see again with someone who has not yet had the pleasure (like you!).
Anne: For the record, our first IRL hang will be at a movie theatre. This is now canon.
But I agree about the ritualization of going to the movies. The first movie I saw alone was Atonement in winter 2008, and I was immediately converted to the cinematic domination of “going to the movies by myself.” I will go with pals, but taking myself to a movie became a routine that really meant a lot to me.
Because to start, it really is a ritual: I get to the theatre early, I buy my ticket, I get my large popcorn with layered butter (and I bring my own 1L of water because I’m not made of money), and I sit in the aisle, on the side, about halfway up. Then I watch the pre-show and silently pray nobody will come sit next to me because I need my own space. Unlike watching a movie at home, I can really lose myself at the movies. I can’t check my phone! I don’t care what’s happening outside the theatre! I have nothing to do but follow a story! It’s amazing. It’s even better when it’s at the Princess Cinemas in Waterloo (by where I live) because both theatres are cozy, the butter is real, and, well, it’s an independent, locally-owned perfect place.
The thing is, the pandemic threw me. Everybody stopped going to the movies, and so did I. Then when everybody started up again, I felt . . . lazy? Disinterested? Consumed by the anxiety that continues to plague us as a people? I’m not sure! Did you go through anything similar post-2020? How do you keep the love alive, Peter?! I feel like the movies are a friend I lost touch with and don’t know how to broach the subject of coffee. I wanted to see Frankenstein on the big screen, but the closest cinemas showing it are in Toronto and bless its heart, I’m not braving 401 traffic for two hours of Elordi.
Peter: You are not alone in this, Anne. Not about braving the 401 traffic for two (almost three, actually) hours of Elordi (although I’m sure there’s someone else somewhere who made this consideration!) but about going to the movies in general, post-pandemic. This fall in particular has made that very clear, with most of the “prestige” films geared at adult audiences underperforming if not fully bombing (see: The Smashing Machine, Kiss of the Spider Woman, After The Hunt, etc). Which isn’t to say people aren’t still going to the movies. They are, in droves even, but largely for a) big-budget franchise movies, b) horror movies or c) movies for kids. Just look at the highest grossing films of the year so far in North America, Anne! The only two original movies anywhere near the top of the list are Sinners and Weapons, which are both absolutely fantastic movies that I am thrilled became huge hits. But they also are both horror films, which seems to be the only genre where original movies can actually make money anymore.
The highest grossing film this year not based on existing IP that isn’t a horror film or a kid’s film? One Battle After Another, way down at #24 with $66 million. Which, frankly, given how every cinephile alive (myself included) has spent the past month screaming at everyone they know to go see that movie “in theatres in a specific format NOW or else cinema will die!”, that number really should be two or three times that amount. (But seriously, Anne, go see that movie in 70mm NOW or else cinema will die!).
It was not too long ago — the 2010s! — when original, “prestige” movies would come out in the fall and easily make $100 million in North America alone: Lincoln made $182 million in 2012; The Revenant made $153 million in 2013; La La Land made $151 million in 2016. If those movies were released today, I don’t think they’d even make $50 million. And honestly, this really bums me out! Because what if they just stop making movies for anyone who isn’t a kid, a horror fan or a franchise freak? What if cinema really does die!?
Sorry, I feel like I just went way too far into an abyss of movie nerd madness. But I guess my extremely long winded point is that you need to start going to the movies again, Anne!
Anne: No, I hear you and I understand and I respect this passion! I think the problem at large is twofold: on the one hand, when everything — and I am gesturing broadly, referencing the state of the world — feels overwhelming and terrible, it does feel therapeutic to lose yourself in somebody else’s story. But on the other hand, we’re all broke! Everything is so expensive! And if you can afford to see a movie, the physical act of getting up, going out, and interacting like a regular person can feel like too much. Like, I want to see One Battle After Another! TERRIBLY. I’ve heard the most fantastic things, and I like going into awards season knowing what everyone’s rooting for and/or rooting against. But then I get up, I go to school, I do some work, I go to class, do some more work, and by the time I get home, it’s like . . . no. I’m not going to a movie at 9 p.m.! My old bones can’t take it!
But I remember somebody saying once that they don’t like to offer criticism without suggesting a solution, which is an ethos I really like. So what’s our suggestion? Other than banging our shoes on the desk and yelling, “go back to the movies,” do we build on what looks like it has momentum to push a film into “at least it made its money back” territory? Or do we commit to original movies like Sinners and Weapons to help edge us out of remake and Marvel hell?
I do think there’s a reason horror films are drawing in crowds where other movies aren’t: that anxiety really does match 2025’s vibes. Especially since they’re not just slasher films. Sinners is a blues song that comes to life; there’s so much depth and complexity, it’s not just a “vampire movie” and it’s also very emotional. And Weapons is just . . . okay, I haven’t seen Weapons. But sometimes when I do my makeup wrong, I feel like the old lady. Aunt Gladys?
So is that the solution? Start monthly, and choose an original movie that everybody’s talking about? For me, that feels doable: there’s no way I can or want to keep up with the superhero franchises, but I do like the idea of seeing something a) I’ve never seen before, and b) that makes us all feel like we’re part of something bigger. Even if that “something bigger” is the cultural zeitgeist.
Peter: I hear all of this, very much. There are obviously some very valid reasons why some people aren’t going to the movies, and I should have probably started with that! As you said, they cost money a lot of us don’t have, and they also can be an easy place to catch a cold or flu (I’ll be the first to admit the coughing happening in cinemas lately is… out of control. Stay home!). But for those of us privileged enough to not face these barriers, I do really genuinely believe the movies are worth pushing ourselves to get up, go out, and conjure the person we were in 2019.
If you’re going to start monthly, Anne, may I make two recommendations to choose from for your first foray? Both might very well be something you’ve never seen before, and both will absolutely make you feel like you’re part of something bigger. But that “something bigger” is not the cultural zeitgeist (unless somehow one of these movies really takes off into the mainstream, which honestly would be shocking). That “something bigger” is humanity!
The first is If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You, a movie that I think extremely matches 2025’s vibes in that it is basically a cinematic panic attack. Which I know I probably shouldn’t lead with, because it will scare you off, but please don’t let it. It’s also kind of a comedy! And watching what Rose Byrne (an actress who can truly do absolutely anything) pulls off in this movie is worth the price of admission alone. She commits so, so hard to playing a mother spiralling out as she tries to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, and it’s my favourite performance of the year. And Conan O’Brien and A$AP Rocky are in it too, and they are both incredible.
But if you do want something arguably less stressful (but like, ever-so-slightly), may I instead recommend Jafar Panahil’s It Was Just An Accident? It’s an Iranian screwball comedy which also just so happens to… follows a group of people who kidnap a man who may or may not have tortured them in person. Which again, sounds like a rough watch, I know. But there is so much light in this film, and it also really offers this incredible insight on a society we are far too often not told the whole story about. It also has one of the best endings I’ve seen in a movie in a very long time.
I’d happily see both of them again with you if you want a double feature that may or may not require an hour of deep breathing after?
Anne: Deep breathing is one of my favourite activities! It’ll be even better if it’s in a movie theatre watching Rose Byrne!
Unless it leads to coughing. Which, for the record, is likely because I can’t eat popcorn at a normal pace and will consume 85% of the bag before the first preview is over.
Peter: Turns out we already have something in common when it comes to going to the movies!