Walter Reade Theater

Great programmation but not so well advertised… I wish I knew what was playing on a more regular basis.

They hold Sunday Morning Coffee Concerts here as part of Lincoln Center and I went to see the Ukrainian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk play Shubert, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev. The theater is clean and easy to find once you’re on the Lincoln Center campus. After the concert, they had refreshments (breakfast pastries, coffee & tea) in the room next door to where the performance was held. It’s definitely not grandiose but it’s nice enough for a piano concert.

Without a doubt, this is my favorite theater to watch flicks in. Very clean everything, seats are comfortable, and the actual theater room and screen are large, making for great acoustics (it was an auditory delight watching «Miles Ahead» and «The Assassin» here).
More importantly, from what I saw at the New York Film Festival and the New York Asian Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has great movie selections (better than Film Forum and the Angelika, for that matter).

Extraordinary theater with wonderful seating and rows are well spaced so you can stretch your legs. They feature ethnic film festivals, french films, latin american films, spanish, japanese, chinese, african, etc. Also the jewish film festival. Popcorn is great, staff is welcoming and they have an indoor lobby where you can relax before ticket collection. Many films shown are debuts with Q &A’s with film miakers. Great exposure to new directors !!

This theater is one of the things I miss most about living in NY! It screens avante garde, classic, new, and foreign films at very low admission prices, often with the added bonus of a q & a with the director afterward. It has the clean, maintained feel of a college campus theater /​building with the fun of a movie theater, full snack bar included.
I really adore this place, and it’s massive variety of screenings with it’s lincoln film society programs. Anything but boring is what we’re talking about here.

Went here the other night for the first time in order to watch a screening of «Before Sunrise». How have I never been to the Walter Reade before? As someone who used to work on an independent film festival, I should be totally ashamed of myself.
This is a true art house venue in a state of the art theater. Very comfortable seats — full snack bar — lack of annoying current movie crowds — everything you would expect from a great Theater. Including the ability to purchase tickets in advance on-​line.
And the film selection is a film lover’s dream. These are films you are not going to have an opportunity to see elsewhere. They run from the classics to the completely forgotten.
If you are really a fan of cinema, you need to give the Walter Reade a chance. Check out their on-​line film schedule and make the decision to see something out of the box. You probably will not be disappointed and will instead discover something great that you never knew existed.

Love this theater. I’m really only here for film festivals and special events like the New York Film Festival, New Directors/​New Films and the like, but have been coming here since the mid-1990’s. For the big events it crowds up extremely quickly so you should definitely come on time, if not fairly early. I’ve thankfully never had to sit too far up front, but there are really no bad seats in the house.
The staff is also top-​notch, always kind and thoughtful, which is much appreciated. I’ve never had any of the snacks (not sure why) but they look good!

Congratulations to The Walter Reade Theatre and filmlinc! They are now in the semi-​finals of the competition for the world’s worst website, vying with the National Film Theatre in London. Not only do they publish a false and deceptive schedule listing films, for example, that are not shown on December 26, but they are the only remaining website in the world that requires you to erase the placeholder «MM/​YY» before you are able to enter the date on which you would like to buy tickets. Even 9– or 10-​year old programmers solved this simple problem years ago!
The incompetents that run these two organizations join the growing community of useless «art» fans who contribute nothing to the entertainment world and richly deserve the unemployment to which they will be condemned when someone with practical abilities takes over the mantle of showing outstanding and classic films.
Don’t even bother to try for access to this «public service» organization. All the positive comments about the theater and the quality of the screen can only be enjoyed if you go to the box office in person during the strictly limited hours when the «cinephiles» who run this organization deign to crawl out from under their rocks and sell you tickets!

Located in Lincoln Center, this theatre could go unnoticed except for it’s fantastic. My example is that a few friends wanted to see a documentary that had come out. I nodded because I vaguely knew the subject, went, and to my surprise not only did I engage with the film a lot — the director was there to answer questions afterwards! Turns out, he’s quite famous.
Call my country bumpkin, but this always blows my mind. But, in NYC, most things happen.
The theater seems to handle a balance of contemporary and vintage films, so definitely keep looking at the calendar for things you might want to see. The space was very comfortable — a very modern theater considering it’s an art house style place.

Been to a few screenings/​talks here, and like this venue. It’s large enough to accommodate a decent crowd, but still feels intimate. I like that it’s right across the street from Lincoln which is great for a post-​event drink and chat.

The theatre has a decent amount of legroom which is the first feature I look for in a theatre. It has a big screen compared to other theatres that show independent films. My shoes didn’t stick to the floor. Buckets rather than bags for popcorn is a great thing. The only thing missing is a self-​serve hot artificial butter machine to give my popcorn a swim. There was a syrup pourer that contained an amber liquid in it that I assumed to be maple syrup. Retrospectively that makes no sense so maybe it was artificial butter.

With many of the art house theaters in NY, the screen is too small for the length of the theater. Two examples: Angelika and Lincoln Plaza. While I love going to Angelica, hanging out in the lobby and spending $ 72 for coffee and an oatmeal cookie and thinking I’m the sh*t, the viewing experience itself isn’t the greatest. But Walter Reade is perfectly proportional for movies, more impressive in that it’s a general purpose venue with a small stage up front. But this doesn’t at all detract from the movie going experience.
Get in your seat before the trailers start because it’s ultra dark and you can’t see where you’re going.

I am a HUGE Joss Whedon fan and my quest to see «Much Ado About Nothing» was all I focused on for weeks. WRT is the only place I could find it playing so I ran down there after work.
I was beyond pleased with the theater! Talk about a great location and a beautiful building, the staff was friendly and the screen quality was beautiful. The seats were comfy except for the large footed woman who kept bumping my seat from behind… but the WRT can’t discriminate against lame-o’s I suppose.
I suggest checking out the raised lawn across the street after an evening movie and relaxing. Delightful!

My best friend is a member of the Film Society so I get alot of his extra tickets to screenings here. Always have a good time as the films usually have a Q and A session (was at one last week for the upcoming film «Side Effects» and the panel included Steven Soderbergh, Jude Law and Rooney Mara) alot of times they even have post show receptions with open bar and free food. During the summer while my friend was in LA he gave me his tickets for «Hysteria» and I took my girlfriend who I kept teasing was the only non white at the reception (shes Puerto Rican) and we were by far the youngest (and Im no spring chicken anymore!) As far as the theater it is very nice, clean and for the most part comfortable though I could use a lil more leg room when it gets crowded as it did last week. The concession sells good popcorn and puts it in paper tubs as it should be. I am on a one man mission to eliminate those paper bags that they serve popcorn in now at all the multiplexes. Who enjoys hearing those crumpling sounds all movie? Alas my mission has been failing…
The thing I love most about this theater is that the film goers are just that. These people are there to see a film. Not get up every 10 minutes, not to text, not to yell out plot points or tend to their screaming brats. These are filmophiles and God bless them.

Saw Blade Runner here on Thursday night. This place is awesome. I had no idea it even existed. When I saw the address on my ticket, I could picture the entire block, but not this theatre. I wandered around the general area for a few minutes, until the box office worker across the street told me to «climb the stairs towards Amsterdam» & I was like ‘Oh, ok, I’m dreaming right now. Because that sentence made no sense.’ But I crossed the street, because in a dream you just go for things, & what! Stairs!
So anyway, the theatre feels like it’s in a treehouse, the seating is really comfortable & spacious, it wasn’t refrigerated inside, & a large bucket of popcorn is $ 5. & it was playing Blade Runner. What more could you want?

Martin Scorsese and I were hanging out at Walter Reade Theater. (Okay, rather than «hanging out,» perhaps we were just in the same room, though he was talking in my direction… the audience’s direction.) It was just before the screening of the excellent documentary «Surviving Progress.»
A choice spot for quality movies. Keep an eye out for the various festivals and special screenings that cycle through (often with directors, filmmakers, actors, etc. doing a Q&A). The new space is slick with modern artistic touches. I didn’t try out the concessions stand yet, but they do have popcorn available too. Comfortable seats with adequate legroom. But really, it’s all about the movie offerings, of which they have a great selection. And ticket prices seem on part with other theaters.

As a film buff, how can I not give it 5 stars when it shows a complete works of Bela Tarr retrospective? Amazing that we live in such a special place like NYC where there are Theaters like this showing such important works. The actual theater is an amazing space with excellent seating, I would call it «staggered stadium» style, where each seating row is slightly offset from the one in front, so that none has a bad seat. Make sure you carry your stub around with because they will check for reentry when go to the restroom. I hope to return to this theater many times. Such a great place.

I love Klaus Kinski. (If you don’t know, better ask someone)
I’m almost obsessed with him, to the point that I draw pictures of him and have dreams of me hanging out with him.
One of my favorite documentaries «My Best Fiend» starts off with a great scene of Klaus reciting a spoken word piece he wrote about Jesus. I remember watching that scene and thinking about how powerful the performance was. Sadly that scene was only a few minutes long.
What does this have anything to do with Walter Reade Theater you ask?
Well I found out recently that they were showing «Klaus Kinski: Jesus Christ Savior». A movie which is basically that entire spoken word piece. Fucking brilliant!
Now I love Walter Reade Theater as well.
I have also recently seen Hobo With A Shotgun (we got a nice Q&A with the Director at that), Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, and Submarino. All great films with little or no distribution in the US, almost making it impossible to view them in a Theater.
Owners of WRT, if you’re reading, THANK YOU!

To set the record straight, the Walter Reade does accept credit cards; it’s 2011, after all! In addition, one is able to purchase tix online ahead of time, and pick them up upon arrival at the box office. Note: there is a surcharge of 1.25 for the privilege.
The concession snacks are not necessarily what you’d find at other theaters: trail mix, brownies… etc., but, for the price, it’s pretty darn good.
Just don’t leave the movie to go to the loo without having your ticket stub, especially on a busy night, the ushers don’t fool around!

Trying to find this place for the first time is almost impossible, as it’s virtually hidden and seemingly anonymous – it’s next to a branch of the New York Public Library, a parking garage, a Julliard concert hall, across the street from an almost unmarked bus-​stop, and on the second floor of a student residential building – until you look up and, feeling like a fool, realize there’s a huge banner signifying its location… I think it’s the security-​guard booth and the escalators pointing what feels like the wrong direction that still throws me off most: nothing about it feels like the movie theatres I’m used to, and, thankfully, it isn’t…
For the first few years since discovering this place I visited only infrequently. I saw Salo, Playtime, and L’Iceberg. Walter Reade Theatre always found a way to slip under my radar, it’s posters in front of Alice Tully blending in with all the other advertisements, always promoting things entirely too obscure and almost inaccessible. It’s only recently, according to my powers of observation and my own particular tastes, that they’ve started screening festivals of selections which are easily accessible to a «mass-​market,» and boy howdy I’m in hog heaven…
The theatre itself is beautiful, lots of well-​spaced stadium-​style extremely-​comfortable seats, with a big beautiful screen and terrific sound…
I recently started frequenting – I counted the ticket stubs, more than 60 since September 1^st @ this fine establishment as a result of their retrospectives on Lindsay Anderson and Nagasi Oshima and Andrzej Wajda… Next they’re doing film-​favorites of Manny Farber (including such films as Mouchette and Mean Streets) and about a dozen films about Problem Children (including such cult favorites as The Other and Tomorrow The World)… I can’t wait, I guess I’ll sleep when I’m dead…
There always seems to be some sort of promotion. Right now there’s free coffee and espresso from illy. In the past there have been free dvds and magazines. And there are always materials around advertising foreign countries, right now it’s Sardegna. Also, this is a great place to find flyers for all the different events happening around town which otherwise might go unnoticed…
If you become a member, you save $ 4 a ticket. In addition, if you buy series passes it gets you into 5 movies with an additional savings of $ 1 each. Plus you get a free subscription to Film Comment which is a great magazine. The membership easily pays for itself.