About

Midnight Movie Train is a project about loving movies by Justin and Betsy Midnight. We started this from our general idea to create a space in Minneapolis to share and celebrate movies with our community. Someday, we might get around to building that film library of great films, rare films, bizarre films… films that inspire us, make us laugh, scare us, ignite conversations – and to share it with our neighborhood.

But for now, we’re pretty much just collecting movies for what may become a community library someday… and using this space to write about them. If you’d like to help with the former, let us know.

Meet Justin Midnight – What do you love about movies?

So many things! Mostly and in broad terms, I love the versatility of motion pictures. They have limitless ability to surprise us! I once read an anecdote about people leaving a screening of Holy Motors in Austin, Texas. In the same group, one person was heard to have said, “Well, that was not as good as The Avengers at all!”, and another, gobsmacked by the film, simply erupted, “Cinema can be anything!“. 

Both are correct of course, because the enjoyment of motion pictures is purely subjective. That is what I love about movies (for the record, I liked them both a whole lot).

I love horror films, always have. I grew up on Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Phantasm, etc. In fact, Midnight Movie Train is a not-so-obscure reference to an excellent horror film’s title.

But I love all sorts of stuff. RomComs, Period Dramas, Action, whatever. I can just as easily enjoy a Jim Jarmusch film  as I can The Perks of Being a Wallflower or Robocop (for the 900th time). It’s about quality, and what speaks to me.

Favorite living filmmaker is probably Quentin Tarantino. Pretty much everything the dude has done is the best.

Meet Betsy Midnight – What do you love about movies?

I have been known to make Justin watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy with me every year. The idea that one person can change everything if they’re brave and persistent enough is a tough thing to believe when dull and ordinary everyday life becomes stressful and difficult. Settling into this trilogy is comforting, yes – but it leaves me refreshed as well – similar to the feeling of enjoying a long dinner with an old friend or finally achieving an important goal or snuggling an animal.

I really love so many kinds of movies… weird arty films with no ending, heartfelt ensemble dramas, any kind of high school or dancing movie, gritty comic book hero stories, revenge dramas, mind-bending science fiction, political thrillers, weirdo cult films. Anything with great characters.

My favorite movie is and probably will always be Footloose.