The Soloist

Spoiler alert.

Before Monday, April 27 we hadn’t seen a movie in a movie theater for over 18 months.  The last one we saw was Into the Wild in October 2007.  It’s actually difficult to catch a movie we want to see because so many films come and go through theaters.  We usually don’t want to pay the $8-$10 tickets and when we get passes, they’re usually only good for two weeks after the release.  Still, we wanted to see The Soloist because most of the events on which it is based took place in Downtown L.A. when we lived there 3-5 years ago.  It’s about our old home.

We had often driven past the sign for the Foothill Cinema theaters just up the street north of us.  It seemed like an old independent theater that charged less than most.  During the past couple of years it has been renovated and is now the Regency Foothill Cinema 10, though I’ve also seen it listed as Golin Theaters under moviefone.com.  They’ve added stadium seating to at least some of the theaters and increased admission but it’s still only $7 for regular showings and $5 for matinees, a real bargain for the first run movies it shows.  The sign is no longer displayed along the road and the building is located discreetly behind the shops at the redone Citrus Crossing shopping block.  But it’s easy enough to find.  We did recon a few days before to figure out how to get to and from the theater and whether what we read about it online was true.  Other than the name, “Golin,” everything was.  They do charge the low admission and have further discounts for seniors and children, though no student discount that we could see.  They don’t have as many showings or theaters as some of the larger multiplexes such as the AMC Theaters Covina 30, but they have enough.  There doesn’t seem like much parking as most of it is along the curb in front of the theater, though I think there’s more in the back.

We went to the 12:45 pm Monday showing of The Soloist because we figured they would more likely charge matinee price and it wouldn’t be very crowded.  I had heard the theaters had stadium seating but I wasn’t sure if all of them had it.  If it didn’t at least it wouldn’t be crowded and we could still see.  We arrived and parked in one of the angled spots along the curb in front.  They have windows outside to buy tickets, but since there were so few people the guy at the window told us to go inside and buy our tickets at the concession counter.  The inside looks like a regular theater lobby, though a bit smaller, with a room with arcade games.  The restrooms are upstairs, though they also have ones downstairs for the disabled only.  Next to the cash register they had a box of brochures for Regency Theaters (www.regencymovies.com).  It listed the latest movies showing with a little synopsis of each.  The one for the Soloist was completely wrong.  It said something about a jazz musician/ hitman unwittingly hired to take out himself.  It was very silly and not at all what the movie is really about.  They must have a low-bid contractor doing their brochures or something.  However, my wife liked the seemingly accurate synopsis of the film 17 Again, and now even wants to see that film.

Our tickets for The Soloist indicated that it was in theater number 7 that did have stadium seating.  The theater didn’t have the annoying smell of popcorn and it didn’t fill up much.  The other patrons were mostly elderly, probably taking advantage of not working during the day and the senior discount.  There were a couple of patrons in front who had the annoying habit of occasionally commenting during the movie.  Before the movie started they showed slides of E! True Hollywood trivia on the screen, mostly questions about films coming out in the next month or two and interesting facts about actors and directors.  The film began at 12:48 pm with some car commercials.  They showed the same one for the Nissan Z twice in a row; it begins just like a movie preview.  There were only three trailers, all for films I already heard of: My Sister’s Keeper with Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin, The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, and Imagine That with Eddie Murphy.  They don’t seem like films I want to see.  At least Imagine That is more comprehensible than Murphy’s last film, Meet Dave.

As for the film we came to see, The Soloist, we enjoyed it very much.  It’s based on a true story about L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez meeting and getting to know homeless musician Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr.  Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx play Lopez and Ayers.  Steve writes columns about Nathaniel, columns I read when originally published, and over time slowly but perhaps unwittingly gets much closer to him than he normally gets to his column topics.  He wants to help Nathaniel but finds it much more difficult and complicated than he thought.  Both Steve and Nathaniel go through many changes over the course of the film, though much is left unresolved.  It’s not like most Hollywood movies where the characters go through a major positive transformation with a happy ending but it’s more like the real life on which it is based.  Rather than a turnoff I found the ambiguities refreshing, like the film was trying to present the real story rather than try to manipulate the audience.

There was a lot in the film that we could relate to: current events we’ve read about, places we’ve visited or heard about, and people we’ve seen.  The depiction of the Skid Row area looks just as dirty, crowded, gritty, and scary as the parts of the real Skid Row that we’ve seen.  Many real homeless people from there appear in the film.  One of them, who had a small speaking role, was recently shot and killed in the lobby of the supportive housing complex depicted in the film and where the real Nathaniel Ayers currently lives.  My wife cried when she saw his name in the credits.  The film shows parts of Pershing Square, some of which didn’t look familiar to us, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the real musical director Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting.  We’ve seen him in concert and I chatted with him when I got his autograph.  Then and current Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is played by a younger, taller, and better-looking actor, though he initially sounds a bit like the real “Smooth Operator”.  We’ve seen the real mayor several times.  The film portrays current events such as the effects of the Safe Cities Initiative and the newspaper business suffering from fewer people reading them.

Both lead actors do excellent jobs as do the supporting cast including Catherine Keener as Steve’s fictional ex-wife.  The real Steve Lopez is not divorced.  Foxx embodies the complicated and conflicted Nathaniel and Downey Jr. especially captures Steve’s ambition, challenges, frustrations, and also his low-key acceptance, and sense of humor.  Ayers and Lopez have some humorous interactions.  They thoroughly portray the difficulty of getting Nathaniel into housing after being homeless for many years and I could almost sympathize with Nathaniel’s reluctance to make the change.  Scenes with voiceover and seemingly dream sequences capture Nathaniel’s struggles and his love of music.  The classical music is beautiful and sometimes played against complementary scenes such as colored lights and a trip down a familiar part of the L.A. River.

This film has some things in common with other good films we’ve seen in the past several years.  Into the Wild also had a scene with the L.A. River and starred Catherine Keener and Jena Malone.  Collateral was also a movie starring Jamie Foxx with scenes filmed in Downtown L.A., and Shattered Glass also had a character that was a journalist named Steve or Stephen.  As stated, the film doesn’t have much resolution and Steve and Nathaniel’s story goes on.  There was a column in December about them celebrating Beethoven’s birthday.  The film does not seem overly long or like it could have included more.  Despite not resolving the issues presented it is still about friendship and personal triumphs, and it made me feel good despite its reality.  I recommend it to anyone.  I also recommend the theater that’s a find in the San Gabriel Valley.  We’ll be seeing more films there, I’m sure.