For dedicated cinephiles, a trip to Landmark Theatres is just about inevitable — precious few other places feature as wide a range of independent and arthouse movies. In Washington, this means either making a pilgrimage to E Street Cinema or Bethesda Row Cinema to catch the latest Terrence Malick film or brush up on Lars von Trier’s filmography.
Of the two, E Street often showcases more of these films earlier, as well as screening an eclectic selection of classic films (think Zombie or Taxi Driver) almost every week.
All of this suggests the presence of a personality or a passionate, mad-hatter theater owner, right? It’s easy to make that assumption if you only visit one Landmark theater.
Visit more than one, and you’ll learn the truth: those quirky posters of Run Lola Run or Life is Beautiful? That tastefully subdued modern decor? The well-stocked concessions stand with decent coffee and absurdly expensive smoothies? They’re in every Landmark theater.
Landmark Theatres is just as shamelessly cookie-cutter as AMC Theaters or Regal Cinemas, except more pretentious.
Forget about that slightly depressing revelation and you’ll find a competent or even pretty good cinema. E Street’s concession stand, like every other Landmark Theatres concession stand, offers a good range of junk food (e.g. Sour Patch Kids) and classy junk food (e.g. Ghirardelli chocolates).
Problematically, the theater management will happily charge an arm and a leg and then gouge your eyes out for the admittedly tasty, freshly popped popcorn, but that’s to be expected these days.
The auditoriums, while not quite as expansive as your typical AMC or Regal theater, offer good viewing angles and clean and comfortable seats. As it is an arthouse theater, E Street still maintains several old-school 35mm projectors.
A few of the more high-profile arthouse releases will be shown on a digital projector, but the vast majority of their screenings are still shown on film.
While the projectionists typically do good work, the sound systems in the theaters are bit lacking. Louder movies blow out the speakers, and the fidelity on quieter films leaves a bit to be desired.
But these are mostly nitpicks against a good — if uninspired — movie theater. E Street will satisfy that obscure movie itch you may have, but look elsewhere for a thriving film community.
— Warren Zhang
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Tickets: Regular – $11, Matinee – $8, Student – $9
Popcorn: Small – $5.50, Medium – $6.50, Large – $7.50
Fountain drinks: Small – $4.25, Medium – $4.50, Large – $4.75
Transportation: Within walking distance of Metro Center and Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro stations. Parking available nearby, offered at $11 for three hours for moviegoers with parking validation.
