You guys. February is legitimately a time I look forward to every year. Might sound radical considering I’ve spent my entire life in Michigan – but it is award show season and I unashamedly love it. My award show fondness mainly stems from my complete adoration of movies. Long, short, incredibly sad, rom coms, sweeping fantasies, bleak dramas; I don’t discriminate. One of my hobbies is voraciously ingesting movies at an actual movie theater (maybe because physical activities are not always a priority – get at me). I just so happened to be able to combine two of my things for the first time this past month: Detroit and going to the show.*

*Going to the show might be an old timey Detroit saying, so in case it is, it means going to the movies. You can blame my parents for instilling it in me.*

For all those rebels like me who refuse to wait for a movie to stream in this godforsaken digital age, follow me on my journey through my favorite movie houses in The D.

Cinema Detroit
First introduced to me by fellow fellow Carmen earlier in the fellowship, in my opinion it the coolest place to catch a movie in the greater metro Detroit region. Playing independents and classics alike in what used to be a school, it’s an experience begging to be had.

Detroit Film Theatre
This arm of the Detroit Institute of Arts is a lavish venue to take in a film that will undoubtedly open your eyes wide. Their offerings are made to make you think. As the DIA’s biggest fan, my first trip to the Detroit Film Theatre only made the institution lovelier to me. I also had the pleasure of attending my first official red carpet event here this month, Hollywood in Detroit. We screened the Oscar nominated live action and animated short films. Disclaimer: I cried through most of them, though it’s not hard for me to do. In one of the foreign films nominated there was even a little bit of Detroit present – one of the DJs had a Tigers hat on.

RenCen 4
A mainstream movie theatre showing four of the current biggest blockbusters located in the heart of Detroit’s own mini city, the Renaissance Center. It’s convenient, it’s both quaint and modern, and they even have a mini bar on the weekends. Bonus – they use old school film.

Suburban honorable mentions:
The Maple Theatre, Bloomfield
Main Art Theatre, Royal Oak
MJR Southgate Digital Cinema 20, Southgate*
*This is my longtime movie theater and I had to give it love. There are 20 screens! It saw me dressed up for many a midnight show back in my heyday.