The smell of buttery popcorn filled the Cinephiles screening room on Sunday afternoon as Tinsley rearranged the free snacks she’d put together for her fellow Owls. In addition to bags of freshly popped popcorn, she’d laid out a bowl of bite-size Snickers, Junior Mints, a plastic jug of licorice, and a pile of Pixie Stix for those who liked to mainline their sugar. A cooler full of diet soda was iced and ready under the table, a couple of wine coolers buried all the way at the bottom, in case Tinsley was so inspired. The number of favors she’d had to call in to lay her hands on the film would never be known by her fellow Owls, though they’d all be impressed with the FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION tag at the bottom of the screen, revealing that the bootleg had come from an Academy Award voter. Much cooler than if it had come from one of the hawkers on a nondescript corner in Chinatown, which was sort of like buying knockoff perfume or fake Fendi bags. Tinsley glanced at the watch on her left wrist.
