As you're probably all too aware, the Sex & The City movie [insert shoe-related verb, or verb with a -tini suffix here]s its way into theaters today. As of right now, virtually every showing of the movie between the hours of 3pm and 1am here in New York City is sold out. Seriously. Yes, even the remote Battery Park City theater that no one really ever wants to go to. Below, a sign of the times:
(Most of the times still in red are fakes: they're sold-out, as well)
Obviously, the city's entire population of mega-rich caricatures are out in full force purchasing these tickets, because (finally!) there's a movie about them and their crazy Manolo-buying, over-spending, frivolous, fantasy-turned-reality lives. But what if I told you that there are other, much poorer people buying these tickets? No, really! Apparently, poor people enjoy films too! Even fantastical films about the very rich! Can you believe it? Oh, you can. Well, then you don't work for The New York Times because they wrote an entire article about it:
There are neighborhoods in the far reaches of New York City, from Tottenville on Staten Island to Bushwick in Brooklyn, that have about as much in common with the glimmering, candy-coated Manolo Blahnik world of "Sex and the City" as, say, East Texas.
As the film version of the popular television series opens on Friday, it is easy to imagine that it would not resonate very loudly in those neighborhoods, nor in places like Harlem and central Brooklyn, where more than one-quarter of residents live below the federal poverty line (which ranges from about $10,000 for individuals to about $20,000 for a family of four). But the reality, based on interviews on the streets, is that "Sex and the City" has secured a coterie of devoted fans of all backgrounds and income levels – a vast majority of them female…
First off, no neighborhood has anything in common with the "candy-coated Manolo Blahnik world" of Sex & The City, because that world largely doesn't exist. It's a fantasy. You mean human beings will see films that don't painstakingly reflect every aspect of their own lives? This is shocking.
"I think the 'Sex and the City' women do portray the single life in New York City for the most part," said Alkia Thompson, a 36-year-old single woman who lives in Harlem and plans to see the movie Friday night. " 'Sex and the City' is my little fantasy. When I watch it, it gives me a chance to get away from everyday life. I can escape into their world."
Wow, New York Times. I'm glad you dispatched reporters to interview sources about this. So poor people use movies as a form of escapism like everyone else? What about if you prick them? Do they bleed? You should probably send someone to find out.
I can't wait for the Times piece "Love (and Laughs) For Non-Gurus" about how people who aren't fake Indian gurus finding The Love Guru amusing, or their investigation "The Incredible, Everyday Hulk" about how normal human beings who have never been transformed into giant CGI green monsters can relate to Hulk.