The Laemmle Music Hall Wendy and Lucy Monday, 12/29/08, 7:40 pm

Price: $10. Concessions: It looked like they had a full range of snacks, but I brought a few Red Vines from the bucket of leftover gingerbread house building materials Aimee brought back from her classroom. Audience: 30 or 40, out of about 150 seats. Trailers/advertising: Started with a series of digital slides (Laemmle promotions, UCLA, movie trivia, film school, downtown lofts, Sierra Club expeditions, and so on). Previews (out of focus) for Good, Che, Two Lovers (huh?), and Gomorrah. Projection: 35mm platter.

Tonight’s theater, the Laemmle Music Hall, sits across Wilshire from last night’s venue. I’d never been there before, but it always seems to have a varied selection of recent but not brand-new art house films. In addition to Wendy and Lucy, they’re playing I’ve Loved You for So Long and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which they’ve managed to spell wrong on their marquee. They also have a giant poster for W. on the marquee, a film that hasn’t played there for weeks. Sadly, the neon spelling out the theater’s name seems to be broken these days.

I arrived early, parked across the street at the nick of 7:00. The theater was pretty bare bones – not dingy, but well worn. I grabbed a CityBeat and an LA Weekly to read as I waited, and was reminded of my movie-going days in Cambridge, going to films by myself at the Brattle or the Harvard Square Loews, when I’d pick up a Weekly Dig or Phoenix and read until the movie started.

I enjoyed the film very much, despite the absolutely lousy focus and a beat-up print. A very different kind of film, a quiet, intelligent, patient, character-driven story. Now, bring on the multiplex!