Rate Outdoor Movies 'P,' for 'Pain in the Neck'

Outdoor screenings of cinema classics have spread across the nation’s cities and even its smaller towns. “But why would anyone willingly attend such an event?” wonders Juliet Lapidos of Slate. Prattling lawn-mates, necking teenagers, and too-bright city streets send Lapidos straight to the theater. “The cost of a movie ticket is quite low if you consider that it protects you from the indignities of the outdoors,' she writes.

“The real problem with outdoor screenings,” Lapidos writes, is “the people who attend outdoor screenings.” She can’t stand the Camembert-and-Prosecco set, with its would-be cinéastes who “won't shut up” after the movie starts. “They chat in stage whispers, making banal yet dubious observations, such as ‘Isn't it great that we're watching a movie al fresco?’” Lapidos suggests a venue where “you can order a Sprite, the Prosecco of soft drinks. It's called a movie theater; I highly recommend it.” (More movies stories.)