“How will exhibition woes be fixed?,” writes Salt Lake Tribune critic Sean P. Means. “By audiences who stop being complacent and start complaining. The first rule of effective complaining: If the film’s out of focus is to go find a manager. Don’t just yell ‘focus!’ — the projectionist is in a soundproof room next to a clattering machine and can’t hear you. If enough of the ticket-buying public raises a stink, exhibitors will get the message and start improving conditions.”
Means wrote the piece because a huge snafu in the projection of Charlie Wilson’s War for Salt Lake City critics. (The kid in the booth showed it with a 2.35 to 1 aspect ratio instead of 1.85 to 1.) Thanks for quoting from last Wednesday’s HE post about the substandard Sweeney Todd showing at the Loew’s AMC Boston Common, but I didn’t say it was “atrocious” — it was merely irritating, unarousing, substandard.