10 Disappointing Things We Learned About Movies In 2013
3. Mobiles In Cinemas Are All But Promoted
The Way Way Back was an entirely forgettable film that summarised various indie hits from the past five years that will succeed only with teenagers too young to have seen the films it is ripping off. Distributor Fox Searchlight seem to know this, going as far as to put an obnoxious clip before the film requesting audiences to tweet their thoughts. It doesn't seem worth getting annoyed, but in evoking using social networking, coupled with the loss of reminders directly before a film to switch off devices (the Orange, now EE, short before UK showings are now simple adverts rather than reminders to turn off your phone) were getting closer and closer to it being totally acceptable to have your phone used in a movie. Mobiles are much more than a sound nuisance; their light in a darkened screening is one of the most frustrating distractions to have during a showing. And with smartphones constancy improving, in turn leading to an increasing dependence, it's becoming an ever more common occurrence, to the extent the regular cinemagoer doesn't realise what their doing (on separate occasions I've heard people actually take calls in the middle of films). With the EE and Way Way Back issues as fuel, Mark Kermode has repeatedly voiced having special phone friendly screenings to alleviate this, but given how its only been pushed to the fore this year expect it to take a while for cinemas to deal with it, if at all.
