I spent the weekend in a movie-goer's paradise/coma/heaven/insane asylum, AICN's Harry Knowles' yearly birthday party and 24-hour movie marathon at Austin's Alamo Drafthouse, Butt-Numb-A-Thon (aka BNAT. This year was the eleventh BNAT and Knowles turned thirty-eight so the event was nicknamed BNAT 1138). This was my third BNAT, and, I gotta say, I'm getting better at these.Armed with my trusty bottle of Jet-Alert and a willingness to watch just about anything put before me, I came fully prepared for the non-stop assault of high-profile unreleased films, underseen classics, and raw exploitation flicks. It's an endurance test, for sure, but I've learned to handle the sleep deprivation a little better every year (I only nodded off a tad during The Candy Snatchers. Most people chose Centipede Horror as a time for strategic sleep). This year's event was expertly programmed, paced with all the care of a cherished mix tape, this one from a 38-year-old boy to his one true love -- the movies.
Personally, there were two huge surprises for me this year: 1. That I would fall head-over-heels in love with a 1940's movie about ballet, and 2. That people were leaving the vintage stuff (which makes up half of the event) and only coming in to watch the upcoming new films. It's really no way to enjoy a party like this; you can always see the new stuff later. It's those vintage discoveries that make BNAT an extra-special twenty-four hours spent becoming one with your theatre seat cushion.
Here are the films we saw...
