Cinema 21 — Local services in Portland

I read in 3 different sources about a "family friendly" showing of the world's best shorts that would be shown Sunday Nov.20, at 1:30. I checked the website to confirm it. We bought 5 tickets, telling the ticket seller we wanted tickets to the "family friendly" showing. The trailers were very adult themes, including scenes of a rapist attacking a woman. My Grandchildren recoiled & hid their eyes. I thought that was extremely unthoughtful of the theater, but expected it was an oversight. THEN the "family friendly" shorts started...the 1st one was a clever use of found objects, but from then on, only one Pixar one was enjoyable to the children, most having a decidedly adult theme. We kept hoping it would get better when a short about someone being cut open & their guts spilling out was followed by a room of screaming characters(primal scream therapy)then a hairy creature trying to flush another down the toilet(every child's nightmare)& when the hairy creature started performing oral sex on a woman. Our entire row of children & parents...

We went to see The Fall, and look, I know we all used to go to movie theaters without assigned seating, but that only really works if you: don't sell out the theater, or close enough or - if you do, you really need an usher to force people to move in closer to make seats available Absolutely slam packed and nobody doing crowd management was a miserable experience. We got there half an hour before show time and struggled to find two seats together. Unsure if the seats are really good at transmitting motion or the person behind me just really liked randomly kicking my seat, so I can't exactly fault it for that, but if that's the sort of thing that drives you insane... be warned. Sound levels during previews were all over the place but sorted out before the movie started. Previews didn't start until half an hour after show time, for whatever reason, possibly because there were still so many people trying to find seats? Because there weren't staff? Just because?...

My feelings about Cinema 21 are mixed and that's why the four stars. It's another old Portland theatre-quirky architecture and a wonderful choice of movies that don't make it to the big box places. Our last visit was to see the animation shorts which was fun and the was even a Q & A afterwards. The popcorn was delicious (which is really important to me). The reason for four stars- the women's bathroom is up a long flight of stairs and the men's on the main floor. I understand this is a limitation due to the age but wonder why they don't just make the downstairs unisex. (I used it anyway 😊). Also, the staff could be friendlier. Both times, the ticket booth was operated by a rather surly individual. Oh and one last caveat- parking is difficult to find. Come a little earlier and be prepared to...