BY JESSICA MILITELLO Secret Sauce
MARCH 2 0 2 0 I BOROMAG.COM 15
In the age of Netflix, it’s easy to forget that
watching movies was originally meant
as a communal experience. Comedies
are simply funnier when you’re laughing
alongside friends, and horror movies are
more suspenseful when an entire audience
is holding their breath.
If you’ve gotten stuck in a rut watching reruns
on your laptop screen, try attending local
weekly movie night Sauced Cinemas. The
events, which take place in bars in Astoria
and Sunnyside, feature classic movies as well
as trivia and drinking games. It’s a fun time
to watch a movie alongside friends and your
western Queens neighbors.
I stopped by The Astorian (28-50 31st Ave.,
Astoria) to watch a showing of the 1992 classic
“My Cousin Vinny,” starring Joe Pesci and
Marisa Tomei. Sauced Cinemas has been
holding their Astoria movie night there for
over two years.
As soon as I got there, I was checked in by
Sauced Cinema’s organizer, Brian Walters,
who likes to personally greet moviegoers. He
gets to know attendees by asking some fun
questions pertaining to the movie that is going
to be played. First, he asked how many
times I’d seen “My Cousin Vinny” (I’d only seen
20 minutes of it before), and then he asked,
“What is the first movie you can think of with a
New Yorker in it?” I came up blank, so he made
the question a little easier by telling me it could
also be a movie that takes place in the city.
For Walters, the check-in is one of his favorite
parts of the evening because it gives
him a chance to learn something new about
his guests, whether they are new-comers or
regulars.
“I love checking people in because it gives
me a good opportunity to know who’s coming,”
Walters said. “I ask a different question at
every event, for example, for the movie “Anastasia,”
I asked them what their favorite movie is
where a character discovers their true identity,
/BOROMAG.COM
