While you’re (mostly) in: Drive to the drive-in, let ‘Minari’ move you, celebrate ‘Rent’
Where social distancing comes naturally
Shelton’s Skyline Drive-In Theater, usually a summer-focused business, reopened last weekend — which makes sense given that keeping at least 6 feet away from everyone else is pretty easy when you’re sitting in your car. “Our model is social distancing,” theater owner Dorothea Mayes of Lynnwood told The Olympian in June. “That’s just who we are. … People are either in their cars or in the back of their trucks. It’s the great outdoors.” As she did last year, Mayes plans to expand the theater’s offerings beyond movies to serve people and groups looking for safer ways to hold large events. Meanwhile, if you’re ready to see a film on a screen bigger than your TV but not eager to sit inside a cinema, the Skyline, at 182 SE Brewer Road, is ready for you. Screening March 5-7 are “Tom and Jerry” and “The Goonies.” The theater opens at 5:30 p.m. with screenings around 6:30, although hours will change when daylight savings time resumes. Tickets are $8, $3 for ages 6-11 and free for children 5 and younger. Get details at skylinedrive-in.com or 360-426-4707.
All in the family
“Minari,” the beautifully shot feature film about a Korean-American family working to put down roots in rural Arkansas, just won a Golden Globe for best foreign-language film. Based on director Lee Isaac Chung’s childhood, the film feels so real that you might forget it’s not a documentary. It includes memorable moments both sad (during a parental argument, the children launch paper airplanes on which they’ve written “don’t fight”) and funny (young David gets his grandmother hooked on Mountain Dew, which she calls “mountain water”). The film, which won both a Grand Jury Prize and an Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, can be rented through various streaming services, but this is the last weekend to see it through the Olympia Film Society’s Virtual Screening Room, which supports the local nonprofit while the Capitol Theater remains dark. Screenings happen each evening through Sunday, March 7, and tickets are $20, which includes access to a Q&A with the cast and crew. Want more? Check out “Minari” production company A24’s “The Florida Project,” “Moonlight” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” — all deeply connected to the meaning of family and the importance of place, and all visually stunning.
Raising ‘Rent’
It was a quarter of a century ago that Jonathan Larson’s musical “Rent” made its off-Broadway debut. The musical, which won a Pulitzer Prize for drama and four Tony Awards, went on to become an international sensation, changing the face of musical theater with its edgy subject matter, rock music and diverse cast. The New York Theatre Workshop, where the show began, is celebrating the anniversary by making the musical the centerpiece of its annual gala, “25 Years of Rent: Measured in Love.” Besides offering an inside look at how the show came to be, the gala will feature new performances of the classic songs by the likes of Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp and Daphne Rubin-Vega and appearances by such notables as Lin-Manuel Miranda. It’s available for streaming through 5 p.m. Saturday, March 6. Tickets start at $25.
Freelance writer Molly Gilmore discusses arts, entertainment and more with 95.3 KGY-FM’s Michael Stein on “Oly in a Can” from 3 to 4 p.m. Fridays.
This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 5:45 AM.