I’ll never forget seeing The Dark Knight on opening day at the Feinstein IMAX Theater at the Providence Place Mall in Providence, Rhode Island. I was fortunate to live twenty-ish minutes from a real IMAX theater, considering the next closest one was two states and three-and-a-half more hours away: my class went once or twice to see documentaries produced there but although a handful of narrative films had sequences shot in or at least been released to the big big screens, it was Christopher Nolan who made it A Big Hecking Deal. So my high school sweetheart and I ducked out of our summer theater camp a few hours early and sat in our-admittedly-not-great seats in the sold out theater. And man what a fucking experience that was. The full 4:3 sequences were just so stunning, and I made it my mission to see as many films as I possible could in that format.

I now live in the same neighborhood as that second-closest theater, and I’ve done my best to continue that mission, because there is truly nothing else in the world like it. There was a period of time where video games had overtaken film as my “favorite” artform, but in subsequent years the pendulum has swung back, and so I’m back to the mind that seeing movies in a theater is really The Best Thing. And that seeing real IMAX is The Best Way to do it. That when the frame opens up and all of a sudden my vision doesn’t even reach across the full 97-foot width and 76-foot height of the screen — when my periphery is still the movie — it is utterly breathtaking.

And anyone who sees it knows that and comes back and sells out that theater, meaning I have to leave work early like I left theater camp early or stay up really hecking late if I want a good seat. (Life so hard 🙁)

But the expanded screen is, as I said all way back in The Week I Review’s ninth-week video, particularly well suited for outer space. The enormity of The Final Frontier isn’t something you can experience on even the best TV or most theater screens. I guess the only true competition is actual VR video… but that makes for a far less comfortable three hours. 

The latest production to prove my point is Project Hail Mary, which I first saw last week on “standard” 70mm film, and I loved it! I went in knowing “space” and “Ryan Gosling” and two hours before I saw a headline that said “We asked a linguist” which made me think there was probably some Arrival stuff going on, but man I had a blast watching some real competence porn. Seeing smart people* figuring out smart stuff is just fun, especially when those smart people* seem like good people*! 

As you likely know, I spend a lot of time reading about billionaires and their bullshit, and one thing those billionaires love is the idea of leaving this planet and leaving it for dead. They want to go to Mars and colonize the universe and blah blah blah, using these fantasies as cover for their wanton decimation of ecosystems and the climate and etc. And I think they’re all deeply stupid people who certainly would not have been able to save our sun from the astrophage if they tried… but they wouldn’t try. They would go for the Interstellar thing, which is a movie I truly love (and got to see the IMAX re-release in December ‘24 😍😍😍) but right now I’m real 👎️👎️👎️ on its whole “leave the earth for dead let’s go to the stars.”

I’m much more interested in Project Hail Mary’s story about a genuine effort to save the earth and its people. Also, it’s super funny! More comedic competence porn please and thank you!

It’s also gorgeous. I know there are a lot of “practical” sets and Rocky was a “practical” puppet… but I’ve also seen the “No CGI” is Just Invisible CGI series and watch every episode of VFX Artists React, so I know how those words are abused. Even so, it doesn’t matter here, because this is some of the most effective VFX work I have ever seen, practical or otherwise. There were only a handful of shots in the entire thing where I thought “Eh, looks fake.” And in a 2:36 movie set mostly in space? That’s pretty freaking impressive. It looks and feels real so I was just locked the fuck in.  

But in the back of my mind, I knew I was missing something, that at the AMC Lincoln Square there was an IMAX 70mm projection, which flips the width of a 70mm frame to make the height. And the extra visible resolution (supposedly in the realm of 12K, which is just so much sharper than the standard 4K or even 2K of digital projectors) is great, but again I’m really in it for the aspect ratio. There were certain sequences (e.g. inside the Petrova line) that I loved the first time around but knew would be a whole different experience if they filled a full IMAX screen. And so I got an IMAX ticket for a week later (aka yesterday), though I didn’t actually know how it would take advantage because unfortunately you never know with these things.

Most “Filmed for IMAX” movies these days sadly don’t use the full height of that theater, but then you have something like Dune: Part One (which shares cinematographer Greig Fraser with Project Hail Mary), which shocked me by spending like 40% of the time big-big and omg I loved it so much. Compare that to First Man (which shares cinematographer Linus Sandgren with Dune: Part Three) where it’s only used for one (amazing!) sequence near the end, and the latter certainly feels a little disappointing… though damn that one sequence is so good tho (and I stand by my overwhelmingly positive reaction to it).

But I didn’t know which sort Project Hail Mary would be until the opening shot filled my vision, and then the next one did too, and the one after that and after that: turns out that ~75% of the damn movie – everything but the flashbacks on Earth – took advantage of that expanded aspect ratio, and honestly I just couldn’t stop smiling. From start to freaking finish, I had the biggest, goofiest grin on my face. Because I was doing The Best Thing in The Best Way. 

And I hope that more of these full-sized theaters get built, because there does seem to be a tide shift back: Joker 2 (which I saw and liked probably in large part because it was in that format) and One Battle After Another (which I will always regret missing in that format) would never have received IMAX70 releases like they did were it not for the wild successes of Oppenheimer and Dune: Part Two. Sinners was a smash hit in the format too, and The Oddysey and Dune: Part Three will no doubt have sold out showings for weeks on that screen. So there should be more of them, because I don’t think the problem is that audiences don’t want to see movies it’s that they don’t want to see movies in a way that’s only (to them) marginally better than watching the thing at home. No, their TV (or laptop (or phone)) is not nearly as impressive as a proper projection, but they also don’t have to deal with the hassle of going somewhere and also the chance for an obnoxious audience. 

But a close-up of Ryan Gosling that’s the size of a standard middle-class home? One whose edges fill your periphery and you can’t escape from? That’s how cinema succeeds. That will always be worth the price of admission.