Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Last night I had one of the more bizarre experiences I’ve had at a local theater. My wife and I met a friend for dinner in Logan Square and afterward we walked over to the Logan to see a film—it was The Way, Way Back and it sucked, but suffering through it wasn’t the worst part of the evening. We arrived, purchased our tickets, and handed them to the ticket taker, who asked to look in my wife’s bag. (As we left the theater later I noticed it had posted its right to inspect the bags of patrons.) Still, I had never seen a bag search at a movie theater in my entire life, and my wife, who earned her degree in cinema studies and has been to way more movies than the average person, said it was a first for her. I know this happens occasionally at the openings of blockbuster films, to prevent bootleggers from sneaking in recording devices, but I don’t think this flick met that threshold. My wife had a container of leftovers from our dinner at the top of her bag and the ticket taker refused to let us in unless we discarded them.
