Goodbye Carlton Cinemas, I'll miss you

On Dec. 6, Toronto's Carlton Cinemas will close its doors for good. The company operating it, Cineplex Entertainment, says the art-house cinemas was a money-losing venture. Basically, the Carlton couldn't compete with the big-box mega-movie houses found at Yonge-Dundas Square, for instance. I'll be sad to see the Carlton go. I've enjoyed many films there, from The Fog of War to Napoleon Dynamite, and even though the screen sizes were small, it felt more intimate there. Very rarely did I have to endure rowdy teenagers kicking seats or snapping gum. The Carlton appealed to true movie lovers. More often than not, I'd see solo filmgoers at one of the nine movie screens. Toronto will have one less indie cinema in its downtown core. Sure, we still have the Bloor, Cumberland, the Royal. But killing another cinema house in Toronto is a sign of things to come (there are already rumours Cumberland is on the chopping block). Between now and Dec. 6, I'll try to see as much as I can at the Carlton -- such as the widely favoured The Horse Boy. I might even snap a few pics and upload them here, so stay tuned.