There will come a time when the life of Patron Saint Sarah Palin will be turned into a full length feature film that everyone will have to see. And before this happens, we can expect someone will produce artsy films about Our First Black President, how the Teabaggers killed the motorized scooter, et cetera and so forth. But films like these -- films that make their audiences angry enough to write op-eds and donate to their favorite think-tank -- can only really be enjoyed under certain conditions. With baklava and martinis, of course!
Strangely, D.C. is not currently overrun with independent, artsy movie theaters that screen “Fahrenheit 9/11” on loop. Why? We do not know. But the city now has West End Cinema , a small, independent movie theater that features independent (duh), foreign, documentary and classic films that you can watch while eating baklava or pita and hummus and drinking a martini or glass of red wine. They do sell candy, but that's probably some nice act of bipartisanship, because if you don’t like to eat Greek pastry while watching a documentary film about gerrymandering, we're surprised they'll even consider letting you in the theater in the first place.
Even though Washington is full of educated, literate, political-minded people, independent theaters haven’t survived in D.C. Will this theater be any different? Well, if you judge your independent theater house by its ratio of films about Israel and Palestine to films by Woody Allen, West End Cinema should very well survive. FOR NOW.
How about a theater that uses Lazy Boys for seating and has several beer taps within reach with some choice brews like Two Hearted Ale, Oberon and Delirium Tremens? They should play movies like Eraser Head, Brazil, A Clockwork Orange, Dr Strangelove, Mothra vs. Godzilla and some old politically incorrect Bugs Bunny cartoons in between.