The Reeler

MONDAYS: HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival; Bryant Park

Cost: Free.

Program: Crowd-pleasing, with an emphasis on classical. Nothing here is less than 30 years old, with Rocky (Aug. 21) being the most recently released film on the sked. Tonight's screening of John Frankenheimer's original The Manchurian Candidate is about as challenging as it gets.

View/Location: Convenient to every train in the city, which has its advantages and disadvatages. The ease and popularity of visiting Bryant Park means everyone goes there, and the place is packed well before sundown. There is no "view," per se, unless you count people-watching, which can be wildly entertaining as the lawn fills up and latecomers futz about with blankets three times too big for the patch of dirt their tardiness entitles them to.

Seating: As noted above, plenty of lawn seating is available--provided you arrive sometime between 6 and 7 p.m for films that start close to 9. Lawn chairs are prohibited. Seats situated 10-15 feet inside the lawn are probably best, allowing for easy aisle access without being the poor sucker across whose blanket everyone tracks their scuzzy flip-flops on their ways to and from the restroom.

The lawn fills up early at the HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival

The park's ubiquitous green-slat chairs can usually still be had before 8 p.m. if you don't mind sitting way off to the side. After that, consider it a crap shoot. TIP: Set up to the left of the screen; the further right (and closer) you get, the more conspicuous the space between the screen panels becomes at showtime.

Picture/Sound: The films are projected in crisp 35 mm., and the screen is large enough and the sound moderated enough for anyone seated back near the library to have an enjoyable time without worrying about too much fuzz or reverb. Surrounding trees block more light than you would expect, but they cannot block traffic noise or sirens, both of which annoy reliably every 30-45 minutes.

Restrooms: Ladies have a permanent (and busy) facility on 42nd Street, while a wall of unisex porta-potties lining 40th Street are there for whoever needs them.

Food/Drink: Bring your own, or pick up a $7 sandwich and $2 or $3 beverage from the two 'Wichcraft stands on the Sixth Avenue side of the park. A 'Wichcraft vendor also tours the grounds taking orders on a laptop, but the wait looked longer than you would want to withstand if you were hungry.

TUESDAYS: Summerscreen; McCarren Park Pool

Cost: $3 suggested donation.

Program: Earnest, with a dash of headscratching. Brooklyn classic Do the Right Thing launched the series July 25, followed by the typically Williamsburg-y quirk parade Bottle Rocket. The French Connection screens Aug. 8, with the unusual but admirable selections The Swimmer, Love Streams and Style Wars concluding the series this month. Even more outlandish is the live music selected to open the shows: "Koto with computer, lasers"? "Theremin & thrown voice"? It is like Broadway Danny Rose's client roster brought to life.

View/Location: No view to speak of, unless you count the high-rise under construction across Lorimer. The pool is directly across the street from McCarren Park proper and is roughly equidistant to the Bedford and Lorimer L stops--about a 10-minute walk from either.

Seating: Chairs are not only allowed but heartily encouraged for the pool, which is exactly the kind of hard, dirty, heat-radiating concrete basin you would expect to find at an empty city pool in Williamsburg. You can show up anytime and find a place to set up, but the further back you go, the less likely you are to actually enjoy the screening. Why? Well...

Picture/Sound: ... I will give you the McCarren Park Pool for rock shows--a perfect venue, really (unless you are at the deep end looking up through the crowd, I suppose). In theory, it should work for films, but between a screen too small for the venue, 35 millimeter projections too dark for the setting and the acoustically unfriendly concrete surroundings, the whole experience can be kind of unpleasant. Maybe it was just the 90-percent humidity getting me down. But I doubt it.

Restrooms: An abundance of portable stalls are available within a stone's throw of the pool.

Food/Drink: Extremely casual, but in a good way. The MC preceded the Bottle Rocket screening with the announcement that $2 pizza slices ("There's more on the way," he added comfortingly) and free Red Bull were available, while a Mister Softee knock-off parked just inside the gates. The only drinks for sale are water ($2), sparkling water and Vitamin Water ($3 each), so consider packing a bottle or two of whatever else you prefer.

WEDNESDAYS: Outdoor Cinema, Socrates Sculpture Park

Cost: Free.

Program: World cinema, with liberal dose of "Huh?" You know I love Museum of the Moving Image curator David Schwartz to death, but his best intentions seem to have gotten the better of him with this series including Stolen Children, Kikujiro and Wild Strawberries. I am all for bringing art cinema to the Astoria riverfront, but from an audience point of view, this might be overdoing it. The live music before each show is usually tied to the nationality of the film it precedes.

Not a pretty picture: Outdoor Cinema at Socrates Sculpture Park

View/Location: Brutal. The sculpture park is about a 20-minute walk each way from the N/W stop at Broadway, which, as I noted above, feels like an hour after you factor in the humidity. Once there, the terrain is part-lawn, part-mud, all concealed rocks; one viewer near me suffered a bruised elbow just from leaning back on a stone under his blanket. The backdrop comprises Harlem, the Bronx, the Triborough Bridge and the uppermost tip of Roosevelt Island, all flickering over the swirling pitch black of the East River.

Seating: Again, sit on the ground at your own peril. I did not note any prohibitions against chairs, but even so, the turf is not quite level and the wobble potential is disproportionately high. Summer rain turns the area closest to the screen into a vast expanse of mud, wiping out what is probably the best seating in the park.

Picture/Sound: The biggest problem with Outdoor Cinema's programming is that the way the venue is set up, you cannot read the foreign-language films' subtitles: The screen is too small, the seating is too distant and the image quality is too poor. The sound is all right, and the park is relatively quiet, both factors which make the events' substantial chatter-and-kids factor virtually unbearable.

Restrooms: I was so turned off that I left without checking. My bad.

Food/Drink: You are welcome to bring your own, and with the variety of take-out available along Broadway, it can be tempting. Decent grub is available on-site as well, including Caesar salad, pasta or wraps at $4 apiece and hot dogs at $1.50.

WEDNESDAYS/FRIDAYS: One Mean Summer and Big Adventures; Hudson River Park

Cost: Free.

Program: Well, it depends. What Wednesday's programmers call a "Quirky-Themed Movie Series" I would call more of a "Celebrate Vicious Urban Sociopathy Series": Goodfellas and A Clockwork Orange wrap up the schedule at Pier 54 Aug. 16 and 23 respectively. They make it up to families Friday nights at Pier 46 with a program featuring Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Aug. 18) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Aug. 25).

As close as you're going to get: Arrive early for Hudson River Park's screenings

View/Location: About a 15-minute walk from the nearest subway station (the 1 stop at Christopher St.--another hot family spot for Friday night), but worth the trek. Granted, the skyline belongs to Jersey City, but as they say in brothels: In the dark, all cats are gray. The Hudson also yields a little friendlier breeze than its cousin to the East. Or at least it did the nights I was there.

Seating: Challenging, especially on Fridays. The piers naturally possess a higher space premium, and when it fills up, don't count on leaving unless you can camp on the center emergency row or near the side walkways. That said, the artificial turf is reasonably comfy if you can claim it. Chairs are allowed, but don't be a dick: Set up to the sides or in the back. Some benches are available on the piers' edges, but trees obscure a good portion of their views.

Picture/Sound: The screen is about the right size for the piers, but the further back you are, the less likely you are to enjoy what you are attempting to watch. Sound is dodgy at best: The West Side Highway is a loud neighbor, and it is not uncommon to sense an odd disconnection between the movie's sound and picture--as thought someone is syncing them on the spot. It also improves--but does not necessarily abate--the closer you are to the screen.

Restrooms: Not a good situation. Walk off the pier, down the boardwalk a few hundred feet, and use one of three portable stalls set up right next to the locked public restrooms. Guys should bring a piss bottle. Ladies... I don't know what to say. Don't drink anything, I guess.

Food/Drink: Besides free popcorn (available after 8:45), and a bare-bones snack-cart vendor (soda, water and hot dogs for under $2) there's nothing on-site or even close to on-site. I would recommend bringing dinner and your own bottle.

THURSDAYS: Movies With a View; Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park

Cost: $3 suggested donation.

Program: Eclectic, with a dash of transgressive. If you missed The Warriors' screening and cast reunion that swamped Coney Island last week, you can always make it up here when the series wraps up Aug. 24. Also playing: Bonnie and Clyde and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

View/Location: Pretty much the best out there. Plunked in the grassy expanse between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, you cannot really improve on a backdrop of Manhattan at dusk. About a 10-minute walk from the A/C stop at High St. station and the F stop at York St.

Seating: Plenty of lawn space still remained when I dropped in at 8 p.m. A hill near the back of the lawn affords perhaps the best overall view of screen and skyline, but arrive early--it fills up fast. You can rent essentially legless lawn chairs for $5 (plus a $5 deposit) from the Park Conservancy. Tip: If you can, set up camp behind the Conservancy's reserved seating near the front of the lawn. It's right on an aisle, and in the frequent instances when BBPC officials don't show up, you have clear sightlines to the screen

Picture/Sound: Just OK, really. The screen is too small and the seating area too wide to get the nuance of a film like July 20's Strangers on a Train. Light pollution from across the river is less than you might think, but the bridges' traffic (particularly the trains on the Manhattan Bridge) generates a stereophonic clamor that you never quite get used to.

Restrooms: Disastrous--at least on the night I was there. A wall of porta-potties outside the screening area never opened up, leaving a line of frustrated filmgoers (sometimes 20 people deep) waiting for three restrooms out of viewing range of the screen.

Food/Drink: Upscale, with Rice Restaurant offering a mix of dishes leaning Southwest by way of SoHo. BBQ dinners start at $8, with gazpacho, ginger lemonade and even smores rounding out the menu. Oh, and there is popcorn, soda and water across the way for the more conventionally minded.

A customary live act before one of Rooftop Films' programs (Photo: Rooftop Films)

FRIDAYS/SATURDAYS: Rooftop Films

Cost: Varies; events at Fort Greene Park and the Brooklyn Navy Yard are free, while most others range from $8-$10.

Program: International indie, with a heavy New York flavor. And not "indie" as in "eventually sells for $10 million at Sundance," but rather "made with distribution as an afterthought." Founder Mark Rosenberg and partners Dan Nuxoll and Sarah Palmer possess keen and somewhat fearless eyes for short films in particular, unspooling rich programs like This is What We Mean... by ROMANCE and New York Non-Fiction every weekend alongside strong documentaries like Andrew Berends' When Adnan Comes Home and the wildly amusing Czech Dream. Live music precedes most shows.

View/Location: The default venue is the roof of Williamsburg's Automotive High School, a serviceable site offering both convenience to the G and L trains as well as a decent view of the city. East Williamsburg, Gowanus and Red Hook are represented as well, while increasingly more Rooftop Films events (motto: "Movies on a roof in Brooklyn") take place at ground level or in Manhattan.

Seating: The organizers generally provide chairs. Provided there is room, couples or groups can usually throw down a blanket and view the films without any obstructions.

Picture/Sound: I have never been too impressed by the image quality of Rooftop's video projector, which imposes a mildly fuzzy big-screen-TV mist on its films. Surrounding light sources can be a problem, especially in Manhattan. On the bright side, the sound is well-calibrated for its respective venues' sizes.

Restrooms: Depends on the venue, but the restrooms are never so far away and the attendance so out of control that a bathroom break takes longer than 10 minutes.

Food/Drink: A limited selection of beverages (read: water) is available for purchase. You are welcome to bring your own, however, and on a pleasant night, a picnic-style rooftop dinner with a bottle of wine is arguably the best movie date in town. Just pack light--you still have to lug it up the stairs.