Nickelodeon Theater — Local services in Columbia

UPDATE: A year later, and every word of my review below continues to ring true. Insipid, toothless programming delivered with a complacent, good-enough-will-suffice attitude. Too busy chasing grants and old money donors to care. Most everything showing here you can see at any chain theater in this very town. Ever contented, The Nick continues its forward march into the sterile, slick, and soulless abyss. Why try when "good enough" will do?

Bummer. Rating updated from two stars to one.

No big secret that The Nick/Columbia Film Society has had its issues in the past several years. From structural racism (weseeyou and changecfs hastags) to the post-COVID reopening clownshow year to a complete months-long closure to "refresh." In its newest iteration, it is a pretty toothless organization that mainly sticks to non-superhero blockbusters and "studio indies" that you can also see at AMC or Regal. It wasn't always that way.

There is a wide world of film out there that isn't even acknowledged. The IPH in Charlotte has found that balance but The Nick continues to struggle here. I think hiring a knowledgeable film programmer who understands both the mainstream and independent (domestic and international) worlds would help considerably.

The CFS (who oversee The Nick) is composed of folks middle-aged and older who belong to the upper socioeconomic classes (lots of executive-types). It shows.

We're living in a golden age for restorations of classics and hidden gems available on DCP. But the rare rep screenings have all been disc-based. Touring programs (Found Footage Festival, Everything is Terrible, A/V Geeks) don't get booked. Lots of newer movies get passed over too... would have loved to seen VORTEX in a theater. No dice.

There's room for middle-of-the-road multiplex stuff, but there's also room for so much more. It would be nice not to have to go to...

I have been going to this theatre for years, enjoying the intimate setting and small, arty feel. Just went to see "THE MENU" tonight, and now they had decided to put CLOSED-CAPTIONING over the entire thing. There were maybe 10 people in that theatre, and none of them were deaf, of course. (1 in 300 people in the USA are deaf. 10 in the theatre. Do the math). But the closed-captioning was like that thing at a bar where the text is always up on the bottom of the screen for a baseball game... It distracted from the movie and just ruined it. They tell you to turn off your phone, and then proceed to put text up on the screen that is just as distracting as a person in front of you emailing a play-by-play of each sentence in the movie to someone at home. The distraction is ongoing, the movie is ruined, and someone at the Nic feels good about themselves for pretending to help deaf people that weren't actually there... they just ruined the movie for all the rest of us instead.

NOW AS I HAVE JUST LEARNED, they only do this on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings... we just got un-lucky with our timing. So unless you watch them like a hawk when you buy your ticket, you could drop right into the middle of their virtue-signaling by random chance and have your movie ruined by being written over with closed-captioning.

So choose the date you go carefully: Before you go, be sure to check with them to see if they'll write all over the movie while you're trying...

Great clean relaxable movie theater, respectful and courteous employees. But there's some issues I will bring to light: Nickelodeon theater fails to play black cinema films, and they lack black customers. Nickelodeon is rather more looked up on as a one track minded theater: catering to the services of white elderly folks, USC students, members and of course veterans. Plus Nickelodeon lacks black volunteers and employees. The new movie The Book Of Clarence is now playing in theaters, but not at Nickelodeon. I strongly urge black people to boycott Nickelodeon theater or continue supporting the issue playing out in front of your two eyes because y'all wanna take the modern day Uncle Tom route by turning the other cheek, smiling being friendly to those white staff at Nickelodeon just so y'all won't have to travel to Harbison movie theater to watch a movie that is far more costing to watch and more costing for popcorn and other snacks and candy. On the evening of Tuesday, January 30, 2024 I walked into Nickelodeon to use the men's restroom. Keep in mind when I entered the building the employees were standing behind the counter where they should be. But when I was on my way out after leaving the men's restroom a white girl and black girl were now from behind the counters to see where...