I had a first date on Friday. It wasn’t really a date. It started out as a meet cute at a coffee shop where I was supposed to be writing this week’s entries, but instead I went for a multi-hour walk and talk with a cute guy. My goal for the evening was to watch that night’s midnight movie, Multiple Maniacs, hosted by Joshua Grannell (Peaches Christ) and Mink Stole, and he was already staying up past his bed time. He wanted to have a second date on Monday, but I had a pair of tickets for The Birth of A Nation which isn’t exactly a second date movie.
In Monday’s comments section, I wondered whether dates could survive controversial or dumpster fire movies. My very Catholic cousin once went on a first date with a movie critic who took her to a screening of Catherine Breillat’s Romance, a brutal X-rated film that is serves up a multitude of explicit sex scenes that explore the disconnect between love and anonymous sex in a mission to own one woman’s own sexuality. There wasn’t a second date. One of my exes and I had a huge fight over Elephant and the controversy of Columbine. We were about 7 months in, so we at least had a solid ground to build on, but I can’t imagine a first date surviving a date like that.
But, let’s look at the positive side, what are your perfect first date movies? Do you go see intelligent art movies that give you plenty to talk about after? Easy going, critically acclaimed, mainstream blockbusters so you can come out on a giddy high? Romantic movies that will get you in the right mood? Horror movies for the cuddles?