Parker Lewis If I had all the time and money in the world, I'd definitely love to spend my time in New York catching as many movies as possible 24/7. It would be a dream! But alas, I have to get the vicarious experience through this fine documentary about five folk who live the dream.I wish there was a sequel that followed up on the five folk. Are they still pursuing their cinema viewings, albeit at a slower pace? Also, I'd be interested to see how the era of Peak TV has impacted on their cinematic habits? Maybe there should be a documentary called "Binge" where we follow five different folks in their respective lounge rooms debating whether to watch Black Mirror in one hit, or whether to watch the first two episodes of the new season of Orange is the New Black.

fedor8 "(Movies are) better than sex", says the Marxist nerd. Desperate self-deception as a means of self-comfort? Don't ask me. I'm not a shrink.To speak of these misfits in terms of their incurable urge to shove their cowardly heads into the sand (read: their favourite cinemas) again and again, like a bunch of frightened ostriches in order to escape the "harsh reality" of everyday life, would still be a major understatement. These five characters make Robert Crumb's siblings look like Wall Street yuppies by comparison. The question begs itself: what would they do if films didn't exist? Books? Alcohol? Drugs? Kiddie porn? Stamp collections? In spite of his relative eloquence, the biggest loser of the bunch is undoubtedly Jack Angstreich (whose name quite fittingly means "rich with fear"): a typical "intellectual moron" (as Daniel J. Flynn calls all such bipeds in his book of the same title), although a more apt label would be "quasi-intellectual moron". I've always pitied the ignorant souls who learn all of their "history" and politics from Tinseltown movies and Continental Euro-trash cinema. Talk about a sound education! "I watch movies therefore I am an intellectual, a historian, and a very wise man." The poor schluck, he doesn't even realize that he'd been brainwashed by those 103,000 Leftist/Marxist propaganda films he'd subjected his long-suffering brain to in the course of his tragically sexless life. (But I guess that's the nature of the beast: like the lunatic who doesn't know he is insane. Brainwashing will do that to you.) I had to laugh out loud when Jack said this about a filmmaker/actor: "He was a Communist, but in a bad way." He said this with a straight face.Evidently, Jack hadn't spent much of his X-legged woodyallenesque existence outside of his NY: the cinema, the subway, and his depressing devoid-of-female-company flat. I'd suggest he visit North Korea or Cuba, to get a badly needed reality check; might shake him out of his self-imposed cowardly "intellectual" slumber. Isolation (or as Marx would call it: "alienation") breeds political extremism, among other things. Were it otherwise, he'd know that there's no such thing as being a Communist "in a good way." There are only two types of Marxists: the anti-social, semi-sociopathic Marxist who is aware of his own misanthropy (which is ironic of course because Leftists are meant to be do-gooders), the other type being the gullible Marxist who actually believes that Utopia (i.e. Heaven) can be achieved. Jack is a typical "couch philosopher": a species of wannabe intellectuals whose sense of reality becomes so warped due to the decades of close-to-zero physical participation in the real world, that they get lost in the thickets of (self-contradicting) theory, losing all focus in their thinking in the process.Jack hates Capitalism precisely because it forces competition within the human species, and if there is anything cowards/misfits hate it's having to compete in a world which tends to devour weaklings and lazy people. How stereotypically hypocritical: his comfortable 5-movies-a-day layabout existence would be far less likely in any Marxist dictatorship. He enjoys the fruits of other people's labour (unemployed; lives off the tons of money his aunt left him), while whining about the imperfect system. But I guess if Michael Antonioni told him that America stinks then it must be true...But let's leave this lonely man and his supposed "ex-girlfriends" - a lie he spreads on several occasions in this documentary to save face. (Nice try, but no cigar!) Roberta is possibly the most fun creature here. Slightly malicious, (un)intentionally amusing, OCD-afflicted, and somewhat insane, she comes off as a kind of female reincarnation of John Huston. (The facial resemblance is as hilarious as it is baffling.) She tried to choke an usher because the latter tore up her ticket. Nuff said.Eric is the one who comes closest to being a half-way normal, sensible human being. (Let's disregard Jack's half-baked semi-philosophical definition of "normal"; he'd love to be "normal" and he knows it.) He is also the only one in the bunch who seems to have common sense (something "intellectuals" generally detest). At one point he says: "Some of the foreign movies are called 'masterpieces' because they're not fun so people think they must be profound." Plus he watches videotaped films. Obviously he has a clearer head on his shoulders than his rather confused, manic-depressive, frantic-yet-lethargic, movie-devouring "buddies".Harvey is a rather likable, cheerful character. He'll watch anything, does not discriminate between Kubrick and Bert I. Gordon. He has an impressive collection of very rare LPs (movie soundtracks) but he does not have a turntable to play them on. You gotta love that...Bill is the ultimate nerd. He constantly gets the chills in the cinema, but not because it's cold there. It must be the fear of life that makes him shake like a leaf. He probably dreads the moment when the movie ends and the lights go on because that means he has to endure an entire 15 minutes until the next movie projection, when he can yet again immerse himself into a world in which HE is Alain Delon. He pretentiously "adores" Euro-trash cinema (if that's even possible), thinking naively that this will impress us (i.e. fool us) into thinking that he is a "movie buff intellectual" of some sort. Alas, there's an oxymoron right there: the species I just named does not even exist.Which brings me to the worrying, puzzling, and downright cretinous over-adoration of cinema and the rampant idolization of its low-IQ thespians and hyped-up, barely educated directors... They're just MOVIES, frcrissakes! People who think they will find all of the world's wisdom in moving pictures - made by greedy businessmen and overrated "artistes" - are just as sadly deluded as those self-loathing cult members who think that comets exist for the solitary purpose of collecting their useless, pathetic souls.For my extensive "Left-wing Propaganda In Cinema" list, email me.

TheEmulator23 I consider myself a huge film buff. I have played HSX.com for @ least a decade & am ranked #135 Lifetime to Date, so I know movies & actors extremely well. Saying that, these people (especially the woman) are no longer film buffs, they are in a whole different extremely unhealthy category. What's infuriating to me is that all of these people are a drain on society. None of them serve any sort of purpose & they all collect disability. How that is possible when there are other more deserving actually handicapped whether physical or mental & are constantly denied makes it all the worse. The film isn't bad but it's not really good either. What's sad is that these people are completely consumed by watching movies. I watch at least 1 or 2 a night before going to sleep, but I don't come close to letting it run my life like these people. What's even more sad then just about anything is just how out of touch w/reality all these people are. I would bet that all of these people have some undiagnosed & yes diagnosed OCD & some other personality disorders because these people are off. Just like their is rehab for drug addicts, these people all need rehab from movies. This is really only for the hardcore fans as most will see 5 minutes say to themselves these people are crazy & turn it off.

Michael_Elliott Cinemania (2002) *** (out of 4) I had never heard of this film until reading Brook's review of it and I think I enjoyed it a bit more than he did, although I agree that this film is somewhat disturbing to watch. It follows five New York film buffs who go to all ends to see the films they love. I always thought I was near the top of those who watch films but after this film I realized that I'm rather tame. One of the men claims to have seen nearly a thousand movies in one month. One guy refuses to have sex with women because the sex can't be in B&W like in the movies. There's another woman who has a collection of soda cups, which she bought at various movies. I'm not going to sit here and call these people freaks or weirdos because they enjoy what they do and if it makes them happy then who am I to call them out on it? At first I thought these people made a few good points but soon their obsession got pretty damn scary with some of the things that were being said. The most bizarre thing was one guy who said he should kill people talking in the theater but he might not get to finish watching the movie because he'd get arrested.