Grandview Theater is trying to make fetch a thing.
We weren’t paying attention to much of anything for about 18 months, but somewhere in there the 2000s hit their 20th anniversary. That is to say, popular culture from the 2000s is now nostalgic.
That’s what Charlie Pulliam and Natalie Spencer at Grandview Theater (1247 Grandview Ave.) are banking on, anyway. The theater’s popular 90s-themed film series has evolved to include movies from the early 2000s.
“Time goes by fast,” says Spencer.
According to Pulliam, “We’re old.”
To celebrate our collective aging, the theater/draft house will screen Mean Girls, the 2004 Tina Fey-penned high school classic, this Saturday, July 17, at 11 pm.
That doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned the 90s altogether. Spielberg’s Hook—celebrating its 30th anniversary—is the scheduled film for August, while fan favorite The Mummy (1999) with Brendan Frasier will highlight September.
“Trying to pick these is sometimes hard,” Pulliam says. “We start with conversations, what we love. And then you start looking at anniversaries, or certain celebrities’ birthdays, or a character’s birthday. You play the hits, and then certain months, you’re like, let’s try this one. You just have fun. And it’s surprising the ones that work. Like Twister, holy crap, we sold it out in like five days and people went ballistic.”
“That was the one that was like who knew? for me,” Spencer says. “The callbacks and the quoting along with the movie is so fun. It’s a good time.”
“Our best-selling shows are always the ones where big groups come together and dress up, so Spice World always kills, Empire Records always does well,” Pulliam says. “Twister killed – you just never know what hits and what doesn’t.”
Spencer believes the crowds come for more than just the movie and nostalgia, though.
“Cocktails are fun,” she says. “We do a menu for each movie, usually four or five cocktails.”
“It’s a party,” says Pulliam. “We do a preshow where we show 90s and 2000s music videos and commercials, we make buttons for people, come up with different cocktails that theme around the movies.”
At each event the team announces the next film in the lineup, which gives people some time to plan that wardrobe.
Get your tickets to Mean Girls at Grandview Theater (1247 Grandview Ave.) HERE.
Follow Hope on Twitter @maddwolf and listen to her weekly movie review podcast, THE SCREENING ROOM.