The Flick is a 2013 play by Annie Baker.
The setting is an old theater called "The Flick", a one-screen movie revival house in suburban Massachusetts. The story revolves around three characters, workers at the theater. Sam is in his mid-thirties and still lives with his parents. He is facing the disquieting prospect of being stuck in a minimum wage job for the rest of his life. Rose, the projectionist, is a a wild free spirit who enjoys being the center of attention. Joining them as the newest employee of the theater: Avery, a 20-year-old man who is an extremely hardcore movie buff with an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema.
Jealousies, friendships, and economic anxieties complicate the lives of the three characters. Meanwhile, the theater, one of a dying breed of cinemas that use 35mm film to show movies, may soon be sold and go to digital projection.
Tropes:
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Sam finally manages to spit out "I like—I fucking love you" to Rose, while telling her how the intensity of his feelings is causing him to be unable to sleep. She rejects him.
- Black and Nerdy: Avery is a young black man. He wears glasses, he's socially anxious, he can be very shy, and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema.
- Dissimile: Avery holds a grudge against Sam and Rose after the whole Dinner Money fiasco, when Paul blamed Avery and the other two leaned on Avery to take the blame and save their jobs. After stating directly that he doesn't want to be friends, Avery The Movie Buff talks about the ending of Manhattan where Mariel Hemingway tells Woody Allen she'll be coming back in six months and tells him "You gotta have a little faith in people." Avery then says "This is like the exact opposite of that feeling."
- End of an Age: The death of film and its replacement by digital projection. Avery the hardcore film purist writes a letter to the new boss pleading with him to keep the film projector.
- The Ghost: Steve the old boss, who won't promote Sam, and Paul the new boss, who does take the theater digital. Neither are ever seen onstage.
- It's All About Me: Rose is a subtle example of this. She strong-arms Avery into not just turning a blind eye by participating in the Dinner Money ticket scheme. When the new boss finds out, she pressures Avery into taking the fall himself. She rejects Sam's Anguished Declaration of Love only to start toying with him again after finding out that he went on a date.
- Love Triangle: Sam loves Rose, but she is just stringing him along. Rose for her part makes a move on Avery, which only freaks Avery out.
- Minimalist Cast: There are only five speaking parts in the play, and the two supporting roles (the man who falls asleep in the theater, and Skylar the new usher) are played by the same actor.
- The Movie Buff: Avery says that cinema is his life and he isn't kidding. He's the kind of film snob that says America hasn't produced a great movie since Pulp Fiction. He sneers with derision when Sam talks about how much he liked Avatar. Avery's a purist who thinks films should only be shown on film rather than digital. And he has an encyclopedic knowledge of films that allows him to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with demonic skill.
- Shout-Out: Loads and loads and loads, in a play set in a movie theater where the characters are film buffs. Sam says his first sexual fantasy was caused by Kim Cattrall in Mannequin. At an emotional moment Avery recites the Ezekiel 25:17 monologue from Pulp Fiction (the second one, where Jules is talking to Ringo) verbatim.
- Stealing from the Till: "Dinner Money", Sam and Rose's little scam in which they take the ends of movie tickets, re-sell them, and pocket the money. Avery joins them with great reluctance.
