Brokeventure: Dive In Theater
Get it? Like, a drive in theater, but a DIVE IN theater?
You probably get it.
Skybar at the Mondrian, a very fancypants hotel in the West Hollywood area, has been hosting a summer movie series. Oh, and it’s miraculously FREE, so of course we had to check it out! We RSVPed to a screening of The Birdcage (the Robin Williams/Nathan Lane version), a movie that we both remembered fondly but neither of us had seen in a while. Sidenote: If you haven’t seen it, definitely recommend. It’s a 90′s film about Nathan Lane and Robin Williams being long-term homosexual partners that run a drag club. When Robin Williams’s son announces he is engaged, they have to pretend to be straight in order to impress his fiance’s conservative parents. Hilarity ensues.
ANYhoo, they do have some other, geek-friendly titles in the line up such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Batman, Ghostbusters, and Back to the Future for those who were hoping for a nerdier flair. Most appropriately, they began the summer run with the movie “Splash.” Ha. There are a LOT of outdoor movie screenings in Los Angeles, so let’s see how our Dive In experience held up in Pros and Cons format.
PROS
- It’s free! Free movie! (Some of the outdoor movie screenings do charge for movie tickets... not this one, though!)
- It’s super trendy and fancy!
- There is an amazing bar!
- Why is this hotel even doing this? Are they just the nicest? Who knows?! JUST TAKE IT DON’T ASK QUESTIONS.
- You can totally go swimming. In fact, some people were swimming in the pool before the movie started and a bit during the movie. Well, more like lounging in floaty devices so it wasn’t distracting to those watching. If you so desired, it seemed like even if you weren’t staying at the hotel you’d be welcome to swim.
- The hotel is pretty cool! Just look at that view (above). We sat in a little alcove that had a window looking out over the city. And there was glass in the window so we totally wouldn’t fall to our deaths, which is always nice.
- Did we mention it’s fancy?
CONS
- Unlike most outdoor movie screenings, for the Dive In you cannot bring outside food or drink. This makes sense, because the hotel is just kinda screening movies in an outdoor bar/lounge/pool area, and normally when you go to a hotel bar and are not staying at the hotel it’s pretty frowned upon to just set up shop and open your bagged lunch. We get it. However, it did up the cost significantly because by our cheap-ass standards the food and drinks were QUITE expensive. I mean, these are fancy hotel food/drinks we’re talking about! Of course, they were delicious (watermelon mojitos whaaaat) but it did sort of cancel out the idea of going to a free event. I guess the money we saved from the ticket went back into the bar... so fair play.
- Not gonna lie-- because the hotel was so hip and trendy and we weren’t staying there, we felt sort of awkward in the beginning. Out out of place. You know, when you show up somewhere and you’re like “whoa, everyone’s clothes are more expensive than mine and their hair is professionally styled.” It’s all well and good when you were invited to that place, but when you are on unsure footing and trying to navigate an unfamiliar space it can be a bit uncomfortable for anxious nerds. However, after scoping out a comfy spot and getting settled, it seemed that other inconspicuous people were there for the movie and not just guests. And once it started, everyone bonded over the fact that The Birdcage is amazing, so it was all good.
- Omg parking, am I right? It’s the worst. We actually had to miss the end of the movie because we couldn’t find more than 2 hour parking and it wasn’t even on Netflix to finish up when we got home. Ugh.
- Because it’s a smaller space and we assume they want to be sure there’s enough room for their guests, you have to actually plan ahead and RSVP. It gets sold out pretty quickly because the idea of a dive in theater is gosh darn appealing. We had to wait a couple weeks to go to this one.
(Above: view from the elevated bar area)
CONCLUSION:
If you were already going to go out somewhere for drinks, this is a great contender! Since you already budgeted to buy a cocktail or two, you might as well get a free movie out of it and save money on a cinema ticket. The atmosphere is great and it would be a strong candidate for a unique date night. But since we DIDN’T really budget for that or plan ahead well enough, it was sort of pricey. We were definitely used to the more casual environment of an outdoor movie screening at a park with a pre-packed picnic, a group of friends, and a bottle of wine.
But we did get to pretend to live the high life for a minute... and that is sort of its own little adventure?
BROKE TIP: Even if you don’t live in LA, a lot of cities do free and/or cheap summer movie screenings! The summer is technically over (I think? Or, it is soon) but if you live in a warmer climate like us, we bet you can still take advantage of it. A lot of our screenings in the area go into October. Check your city’s web site for free screenings (Santa Barbara screens movies at the courthouse!), take a glance at your local cafe’s bulletin board, or do a quick Google search. And if your city doesn’t provide a lot of outdoor movie screenings, start your own or have a movie night!
BONUS: It was dark so we weren’t able to take too many pictures but here is Omar’s silhouette. Thanks for reading... here’s to another Brokeventure.
