Movies in English in Tbilisi

Those of you who read me here know that am a big movie goer. I love watching movies on the big screen, especially if I have someone to go with because it's such a wonderful shared experience. I raised my son to be a movie buff as well to the extent that he completed his Bachelor's in Media and Entertainment.

But I'm also completely comfortable going to the movies by myself. It becomes an observation of shared experience for me, when I just take in how other people watch movies. Do they laugh at the scenes I find funny? Do they gasp at an unexpected twist or jump scared? It always feels good when you are on the same wave with other humans temporarily absorbed in another reality.

So immediately after I arrived in Tbilisi, I went to the Amirani movie theater to see a crime comedy Caught Stealing. It just came out then, and I wanted to see Austin Butler in it as I've heard excellent reviews about his performance. The movie actually exceeded my expectations because there was an additional perk of seeing Liev Schreiber and Vincent D'Onofrio playing a comically violent pair of Jewish mafia brothers and Bad Bunny (who by the way was listed in credits under his real name - Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasi0) as a semi-gentle Mexican mafia guy. Zoe Kravitz was absolutely great in it, just as the entire cast.

From the viewing perspective, it was a great experience as well. Movies in English are shown in two smaller theaters of the Amirani complex, up to 40 seats, and all the seats are fully reclining so you can watch the movie lying down. I'm planning to grab a blanket next time I go, not for warmth (the theaters are perfectly climate controlled) but for comfort.

Amirani is one of the oldest cinema theaters in the city, located downtown near the Philharmonic. It still has the homey atmosphere of the cinema theaters of the 1990s, and I love it for it. The only problem is that they don't show all the movies that come out in English. Most of the times, if the movie has a good potential for box office, it is fully dubbed (not even subtitled) into Georgian.

I suspect they get only a limited license to show the movies in English for the ever-growing audience of expats and those who study English. I heard people coming to see a movie in English speaking Georgian, Russian, Azeri, and German amongst themselves. That's another fun part of my experience, trying to figure out who goes to see movies in English. It's mostly young Georgians studying English and expats of all ages, including Russians in exile.

The movies in English cost about $2-5 more than the same movies in Georgian. But even with that, they are completely affordable - I paid on average $7-8 for a movie at Amirani.

The other two movies I saw there were The Roses and The Big Bold Beautiful Journey. While I highly recommend The Roses (although am still shocked by the ending), The Journey didn't do anything for me other than enjoying its aesthetic of shooting against beautiful scenery. It was too magical realism for a romcom and too miscast for me with Collin Farrell. He just didn't jive for me as a romantic hero. But that's me, you might wanna check it out for yourself.

The movie I was anticipating a lot just came out here this week. And unfortunately, it doesn't show at Amirani in English. So I had to treck through the entire city (a 55 min bus ride) to Cavea at the City Mall in Saburtalo, an upper district of Tbilisi. I didn't mind the trip as I haven't been to that part of the city yet and riding the bus gave me good views and things to notice, like a small Indian restaurant at a walking distance from Amirani.

The City Mall was just like any American mall, with the same set up: the movie theater on the upper 3-4 floors, a food court and lots of high-end brand name stores. I was not there for shopping, but I was impressed with how many apparel brands are represented there. The mall was incredibly busy on a Saturday and all the stores were lively, with people actually buying stuff rather than just window-shopping.

Cavea is a chain that owns four movie theaters across Tbilisi. Only one of them - Cavea at Tbilisi Mall - had no movies listed in English in the entire month that I've been staying here. So I am left with two more options - Cavea East Point, which is too far from me and too inconvenient to get to by public transportation that I try to use exclusively. The second option is Cavea Galeria at the Freedom Square (the main square in Tbilisi which I already wrote about). That might be my next movie trip as Cavea I went to yesterday was overpriced ($10 per ticket) and had no reclining seats. Yeah, I know I'm spoiled that way by Amirani.

And the movie I saw yesterday was One Battle After Another. I'm still under impression and will try to write a review of it separately. I highly recommend it, though, that's as much I can say now.