Ticket for One, Please

The case for a new type of cinematic experience.

- TAMARA FUENTES

My pulse was racing as I walked into a packed Tuesday showing of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The theater's escalator and long concession lines were filled with people meeting up with friends and loved ones to watch Rian Johnson's latest. And then there was me, handing over my ticket-just the one-to the AMC staffer.

Going to the movies alone isn't some groundbreaking thing, I know. Plenty of people do it all the time. It's just that I'd never been one of them. This was the end of an era for me, and that realization hit hard: Shame crept in-did it look like I couldn't find at least one friend or even an acquaintance to tag along? Embarrassment followed as the seats on either side of me filled with chattering groups. I kept my eyes straight ahead, focused on the screen, while my mind spiraled around how I ended up here.

Of course, I could have waited to watch Glass Onion from my couch as soon as it arrived on Netflix. But with so many spoilers already populating Twitter and the fact that I'd hosted a Knives Out watch party for my birthday the year before, the superfan in me couldn't resist seeing it on the biggest screen possible. Even if the experience came with a side of heartbreak over dozens of "let's go to the movies" texts gone unanswered.