Feel welcome at a neighborhood art house that schools both the cool kids and the movie geeks.

by Contributor

The Scene
Great big screen, plenty of comfortable seating and some fairly atrocious acoustics. The Egyptian was originally built in 1915 as a Masonic Temple. It's safe to say that no one then was thinking about the Dolby stereo system it currently houses, and even much refurbishing hasn't quite done the trick. The resulting sound can be frustratingly thick and muddy.

The Experience
Anyone who believes film to be one of life's necessities has this theater's schedule hanging on the fridge door. It's a major venue for both the Seattle International Film Festival and the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. It's also a year-round mecca for cinephiles, Capitol Hill denizens and midnight-movie hipsters. What's showing? Challenging foreign fare, hip retrospectives (Hitchcock, the Coen brothers, etc.), restored classics and must-see documentaries.