Cheers to Respect Your Elders in PDX

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I have a confession to make: the showing of Respect Your Elders and Cheers in Portland was the first movie premiere I’ve made it to this year. And it’s currently October. This pathetic fact was made possible because I spent most of September in random places (such as Orlando and Ohio), and also that I am anti social and go to bed early. The latter may also be why I showed up at the Clinton St Theater promptly at 7 PM for the first, all-ages showing.

Ok, another semi embarrassing confession: despite my position as allegedly all-knowing member of the snowboard media, I had no idea there was an “adult showing” at 9 pm. The Facebook event invitation said 7, dammit. However, I have no regrets about getting there early and checking out both movies with a crowd not pounding back beers, because once again, I am anti social. But enough about me.

The movie pairing of the evening was a bit odd. Things started with Resourceful Gnome’s Respect Your Elders, a 20-minute movie about snowboarding people actually want to do (read: riding pow), with all original music, and very few after effects. Then after the obligatory product toss for goods from Airblaster, K2 and even some passes to Timberline, People’s Cheers fired up. If there’s one thing that can be said about Justin and Pierre, it’s that they definitely know how to put together a movie. But compared to the very raw Respect Your Elders, immediately watching Cheers was sort of like going from the outskirts of the Sundance Film Festival directly into a Will Smith summer blockbuster. Basically the only thing the movies had in common was being sponsored by K2.

While the disconnect made my head hurt a little bit, both movies had their certain charm, and you can’t beat watching GoPro footage on the big screen (seriously, way cooler than on the ‘net!) Once the kids were kicked out, the real party started as pro-bros and ironic-mustache-clad dickheads crowded into the theater. Since I’d already watched both movies, I did my schmoozing, got the shot, and left before the second showing. Having been to a few of these things though, I imagine the 21-plus showing was a bit rowdier, and the movies were exactly the same. Oh yeah, and a good time was had by all! Of course.