… It made watching the movie an even more interesting experience than it would otherwise be. Normally, I watch movies (and television, and plays) with two levels of consciousness. The first is the sort of untutored, automatic reactions of feeling sad or happy for the characters, enjoying the pretty visuals, and so on. Then there’s my educated, critical intelligence that can analyze themes, assess acting techniques, note visual references and symbolism, and the like. I enjoy shifting back and forth between these modes.
With “The Wrestler,” I got not only my normal double consciousness, but also got to imagine, all the way through, what this relentless portrayal of a man’s physical and spiritual destruction must have looked like to a woman capable of being offended by popcorn. Which put the movie into the realm of science fiction, almost.
So writes Miss Conduct in her eyewitness description of the incident of The Woman Who Knows People Should Not Eat Popcorn in Movie Theaters.