The Core Four
The Importance of Friendship and Personal Connections
“The Core Four”: That’s the name of my movie-going group chat, and honestly in the last few weeks, I have felt a lot of appreciation towards them. If you read my full articles you’ll know that I talk a lot about “should” you watch a movie, and the idea of making an event out of a screening. In general, I don’t think the eventization of the movie going experience is necessarily a good thing on a large scale, but on a small scale in a friend group I think it’s awesome.
A few years ago, right before I started doing The Video Archives Podcast, I felt kind of lonely. Most of my friends were online, and all of the movie people I talked to certainly were. I ran a Discord movie club during lockdown that became really tight nit, so close that we actually did a meet up at The New Beverly with a large chunk of members once lockdown was lifted and life was more back to normal.
Wow, that was so long ago. It almost feels like another lifetime entirely! We had people fly in from Canada, Colorado, and a few drive up from San Diego. It was such a great experience as some of the members had never seen anything on film.
As I scrolled back through my pictures to January 21st, 2023, I was reminded of a lot of the screenings I have gone to the past 2 years. They’ve been with all sorts of people, and I’ve had all different kinds of experiences — but for now I’m going to focus on my Core Four.
The Core Four group is made up of Matt (of Matt’s Mortuary fame), Neil (or Tim, depending on how you’re introduced to him), and Christina (Neil’s fiancee). I first met Matt and Neil online. Matt instagram dm’d me when The Video Archives Podcast came out and we later met for the first time in person at my very first tape swap. Neil, on the other hand, I met in a funnier way — I always recognized his username on Twitter replies, and then he happened to win a ticket to see Cocaine Cowboys when we screened it. Then, when Be Kind Video opened — Matt worked there and Neil was always around because it was his neighborhood store, so we struck up a friendship. I think we first started hanging out during the screenings at Be Kind, and eventually we started seeing movies together elsewhere. Christina got introduced to the mix once Neil trusted that we weren’t axe murderers, and ever since then we’ve been the Core Four!
At least, that’s how I remember it. I’d be interested to hear how they think we all got mixed up together.
While scrolling through my pictures, I came across screenings I didn’t even remember us all being at! Towards the beginning of my friendship with Neil and Matt, we all ended up at the 25 cent theater to watch The Exorcist at 10AM. Friedkin was supposed to be there but ended up cancelling because he had fallen ill. I didn’t even sit with Matt or Neil, but this just goes to show how a friendship at the theater slowly forms.
Okay, apparently, according to my calendar, the same exact day we went to go see The Exorcist, we also went to go see Troll 2 at Braindead Studios. For reasons I will not explain, this solidified my friendship with Matt. This screening was incredibly important because it showed that we were on the same wavelength when it came to taste. Nilbog for life!
Next up was Saw Patrol. Yes, you heard me right — we went to go see Saw X and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie. Had I seen any of the Saw movies? No. Did I know anything about Paw Patrol, and had I seen the first one? No. Matt accompanied me, along with my friend Blake, to this one.
One of the important screenings we did was The Boy and the Heron, where I dragged my friends to see it once in Japanese and then again immediately after in English. It just goes to show where my mind goes and how I personally want to experience a movie.
We had a few random screenings here and there (including a very fun Fright Night projected on 16mm that Matt set up) and also spent Halloween together at Be Kind Video.
The next big one is what would solidify the Core Four: Thanksgiving.
We scheduled a big Friendsgiving where we’d go see the movie and then eat at Yard House afterwards, and I didn’t know it yet but this day would mean so much to me! I think this was the very first time Christina and I saw a movie together.
Our next big event outing after that was when we were supposed to see Twister and Twisters in 4DX. Unfortunately the theater canceled our screening of Twister, so we only saw Twisters (I’d later see Twister on VHS).
The Core Four came to support me when I presented Bugsy Malone at Videotheque.
And, lastly, we did Sonifier 3 where we went to go see Sonic 3 (in 4DX) and then Terrifier 3 (at Casa Neil/Xtina). Neil and Christina even made hats for the event! I don’t have a picture of me in the hat, so just enjoy the most important member of the Core Four, Indy.
This post ended up just being a really long blab fest about how much I love my friends. When I had the idea for this I didn’t think I was going to travel down memory lane as much as I did. I could have stuffed this post even more full of pictures of us doing funny things (like when Matt gave me a chug jug full of goldfish), but really I just wanted to stress the importance of going out to the theater with your friends to do stuff you want to do. There should be absolutely zero stress when it comes to movies, because you should be having fun watching them. I see a lot of people get stressed that they have to log as many movies as possible, or “why haven’t you seen this” — but movies are art, and art should be interpreted how you want it. Whether it’s going to see Anatomy of a Fall and getting a Hongover, or watching some exploitation VHS as a group, or having the power go out during a screening, these experiences are totally unique to us.
So here’s my call to foster relationships with people you run into at screenings. If you see someone repeatedly, just strike up a conversation. Follow them on Instagram, invite them to things, and just have fun at the theater. If you’re feeling lonely, go to places where you have opportunities to meet people. In a few years, once the friendship has grown, you’ll thank yourself.
I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled VHS shelf posts in September (thanks to Matt, who is lending me head cleaner for my VCR when we go see Batman 2!). Until then have a great rest of your week! For my wonderful paying subscribers, expect a review on Hardcore on Friday.
xoxo gala
Hi Gala! Thank you for posting this. I loved how you pointed out that the movie-going experience shouldn't be stressful. I think that as "movie geeks," we get carried away with our fanaticism and become stressed about feeling the need to see everything to the point where we forget to have fun.