Maybe you have a movie obsessive in your life — you know, that person who schedules weekend plans around the big new releases, who can rank Scorsese's entire filmography at the drop of a hat, who keeps Criterion Collection Blu-rays on their own shelf and sorted by spine number. Because they're so discerning in their tastes, the average movie buff may be tough to shop for, but these gift ideas will make your favorite film lover's holiday truly Oscar-worthy.
RENT OUT THE MAGIC LANTERN
It's every movie nerd's fantasy: to have your own theater where you can screen whatever your heart desires. You can experience the next best thing at the Magic Lantern Theatre, Spokane's longtime arthouse destination, which will rent out either of its screening rooms — one is 100 seats, the other 33 — for you and your friends to enjoy a private showing of your favorite movie. You provide the DVD or BluRay, and they provide the big screen, the booming sound system and the popcorn. From $125 • Magic Lantern Theatre • 25 W. Main Ave. • magiclanternonmain.com
CHRIS BOVEY MOVIE PRINTS
If you went to the Garland Theater to see its roster of Halloween classics a couple of months ago, you might have picked up a print from local artist Chris Bovey, who lent his distinctive visual style to a series of posters for the movies being shown — The Shining, The Thing, Psycho, Ghostbusters. The posters were produced in limited runs, but Bovey is still selling those prints and a few new selections from his new Garland neighborhood storefront, Vintage Print + Neon. It's perfect for any art-loving movie buff, especially since the gift itself comes wrapped in actual celluloid. $20 • Vintage Print + Neon • 914 W. Garland Ave. • facebook.com/vintageprint.us/
CINEMA SPECULATION BY QUENTIN TARANTINO
Quentin Tarantino is the ultimate movie nerd success story, a human film encyclopedia who started behind the counter of a video store and wound up behind a movie camera. Now he's a published critic with Cinema Speculation, which melds formal analysis and personal memoir in its exploration of the American movie landscape of the 1970s. That decade was not only a time of thematic and stylistic daring, it's also when young Tarantino began his self-imposed cinematic education, and he reflects on his favorites of the era. True to form, he devotes as much ink to classics (Taxi Driver, Deliverance, Dirty Harry) as more obscure offerings: the scuzzy revenge thriller Rolling Thunder, the Peter Bogdanovich flop Daisy Miller and the Sylvester Stallone wrestling flick Paradise Alley. Whether or not you agree with Tarantino's admittedly singular opinions, you'll come away with lots of viewing recommendations. $35 • Auntie's Bookstore, 402 W. Main Ave. • The Well-Read Moose, 2048 N. Main St., Coeur d'Alene
BIG SCREEN BOARD GAMES
It used to be that the biggest blockbuster movies got quickie video game adaptations, and those games rarely, if ever, captured the magic of the source material. (E.T. for Atari, anyone?) But now movie classics regularly get turned into slick, complex board games designed for and by people who cherish the original properties. Take the board game version of the '75 Spielberg masterpiece Jaws, which gives fans the option of either hunting the killer shark or chewing up beachgoers as the shark itself. In Horrified, players team up to fend off a swarm of classic Universal movie monsters that are attacking a provincial village. Fans of The Godfather will have amassed lots of Corleone-themed merchandise over the years, and now they can add the movie-themed edition of Monopoly to their collection — and yes, one of the game pieces is a severed horse's head. Or pick up the Labyrinth edition of Clue, which lets you hop around that film's locations to find where Goblin King Jareth has hidden your baby brother. $40-$45 • Uncle's Games, Puzzles & More • 404 W. Main Ave.; 14700 E. Indiana Ave, Spokane Valley • unclesgames.com
UPGRADE THEIR LETTERBOXD
Odds are high that the cinephile in your life already has an account on Letterboxd, a social media film journal where millions of users regularly log, rate and review the movies they've watched. The site is free to use, but it also offers paid accounts with additional perks that movie nerds will love, and you could make their year by footing the bill for an annual membership. If you shell out $49 for the highest-tier Patron account, users can jazz up their profiles with customized movie posters, backdrops and other features unavailable to nonpaying members, and they'll also get their names added to the site's list of contributors. It doesn't seem like a lot, but any Letterboxd diehard will appreciate the personalization. $19-$49 • letterboxd.com ♦
