How's about a Double Feature at the New Beverly Cinema

I've recently been going through the Artist's Way workbook. The Artist's Way 12-week system is the brain child of Julia Cameron, an artist and screenwriter. Julia developed this process while trying to let flow her own creative juices, then helping her fellow frustrated artists do the same through consultation and workshops. (That sounds dirty...) Someone suggested she get it down on paper and thankfully for me, she heeded their advice.

I could talk forever about this book of baby-steps towards reconnecting with our inner-artist child, but today's topic is the Artist Date. This is actually a solo outing which is taken by completely giving over to what your inner artist wants. It could be to a craft store to get glue and glitter, or to Guitar Center to try out all of the $8,000 guitars with no intention of buying them, or to the LACMA for wine and cheese and a string quartet. The point is to indulge in whatever your senses crave.

So, on Wednesday night, my senses told me I needed a night at the movies. I had already seen everything worth seeing in the mainstream theaters, so I checked the bill at the New Beverly Cinema, a refurbished theater on Beverly Blvd., just off of La Brea Ave. The New Beverly has a colorful history. It was originally a vaudeville theatre in the 1920s and featured such legends of Showbiz as Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Jackie Gleason, and others. After 1950, it was converted into a movie theater and went through many phases in that capacity, including specializing in mainstream films, then foreign films, and then porn films, complete with live nude dancing acts.

Finally, in the 1970s, under the direction of Sherman Torgan, it seemed to find its identity, playing double features, beginning with A Streetcar Named Desire and Last Tango in Paris, both starring Marlon Brando. In 2010, Quentin Tarantino bought the theatre, but it is still operated by Michael Torgan, Sherman's son. Tarantino said, "As long as I'm alive, and as long as I'm rich, the New Beverly will be there, showing double features in 35mm."

The double bill that evening featured Barton Fink, a 1991 Coen Brothers picture, and Sunset Boulevard, a 1950 Billy Wilder film. The trailer looked cool, so I was like what the hell, and I went for it.

At a little after 6:30 pm, I arrived, as advised, about an hour before the 7:30 kick-off of the show, and parked a couple blocks north of Beverly. The neighborhood is predominantly Jewish, and as I walked south toward the theater, it seemed that everyone I passed was dressed in black and white and headed to Shul. But as I rounded the corner, going left on Beverly, I ran straight into a gaggle of hipsters in vintage t-shirts, skinny jeans, and flannel, and I knew I was in the right place.

As I waited for the box office to open, the line was well down the street by 7. I listened all around me to writers and film-makers discussing their projects, their day jobs, and obscure films as they leaned against the building or sat on the ground eating take-out.

At 7:15, the box office was open for business. Tickets are $6, cash only, or you can purchase them online. The inside foyer is tiny. You can't miss the concession stand and it's hard to deny yourself the pleasure of fresh popcorn.

The theater is sizeable and looks eerily like the movie theater from the last scene in Tarantino's 2009 film Inglorious Bastards. The seats filled quickly.

The great thing about the New Beverly is that there are constantly "surprise guests," famed writers and directors, and even Tarantino himself, on occasion. This evening was no different. Right after our emcee reminded us to turn off our cell-phones or she would, "punch you in the face," she introduced Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, actors, screenwriters, and co-authors of the book, "Writing Movies for Fun and Profit," with the word Fun crossed out. You know them best as the tight-shorts wearing cops on Reno:911, and writers of the Night at the Museum movies and Herbie: Fully-loaded.

They were asked to choose two of their movies to show as the double feature, but they declared their movies unwatchable, and chose Barton Fink and Sunset Boulevard for their accurate portrayal of what it's like to write movies in Hollywood.

Before the start of the movie, the two guys decided to give away five copies of their new book to the lucky audience members that could pick the Barton Fink quotes that they had included in their books.

Some of the winners included:

"I'll show you the life of the mind."

and

"We're only interested in one thing, Bart. Can you tell a story? Can you make us laugh? Can you make us cry? Can you make us want to break out in joyous song? Is that more than one thing? Okay! "

and

"He's taken a interest, he's taken A interest!"

and

"Jesus, throw a rock in here, you'll hit one. And do me a favor, Fink: throw it hard," in reference to finding a writer in Hollywood.

Of course, every non-included quote that was offered elicited a major grown of regret from Ben and Thomas, who seemed to wish they could have put the entire movie in their book. When they asked for a show of hands as to who had NOT seen Barton Fink, half the theater sheepishly raised up. Ben said, "Ah! I hate you and I love you. Whenever I meet someone who hasn't seen this movie, I'm so jealous. It's like you have some super power because you get to see it for the first time!"

With that, the previews flickered onto the screen: the original Terminator from 1984, complete with robot Arnold, and Linda Hamilton's hair, and Jason Eisener's upcoming 2011 release, "Hobo with a Shotgun."

Finally, the movie began. I won't say anything about it, except John Torturro's Barton Fink had a vague, but uncanny resemblance to the Coens, which supports the story that the brothers had been stuck on a major studio assignment for months, got frustrated, decided to take a break, and wrote this movie in 3 weeks.

Every creative soul should see this movie. You will be on the edge of your seat. You will relate to the anguish and the drinking problems. You will love seeing the likes of John Goodman, Steve Buschemi, Tony Shaloub, and Frasier's Dad in supporting characters.

After the credits rolled, I tried to hang for Sunset Boulevard and the Q and A with Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, but my artist child was past its bedtime. But, I didn't go to sleep without putting Sunset Boulevard at the top of my Netflix queue.