Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple

The Scranton Cultural Center is quite beautiful and I’ve been in the audience for many of their live events and shows. I was once invited to a wedding at the Cultural Center and it was the nicest reception I’ve ever been to. However, I am sometimes disappointed with their schedule. The F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-​Barre usually boasts a much better selection of musical acts and theater pieces. I’m quite surprised that such a beautiful venue can’t attract performers of a higher-​caliber.
I most recently visited the Scranton Cultural Center on July 10^th for their screening of «The Trouble With Cali.»
«The Trouble With Cali» was directed by Paul Sorvino and filmed in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The movie was partly funded with $ 500,000 of Lackawanna County’s money. The county commissioners credited as executive producers of the film are now in prison on unrelated corruption charges.
«The Trouble With Cali» was shot five years ago and never released. Sorvino claims he is unable to find distribution because of negative press the movie received in the Scranton news media. After five long years a free screening of «The Trouble with Cali» was finally arranged for Scranton taxpayers.
I was a resident of Scranton for several years but moved away during the start of the city’s budget problems. Driving through Scranton these days is like driving through a ghost town. The Steamtown shopping mall has gone bankrupt and many other storefronts and restaurants have gone out of business. Even the city’s movie theater has closed and «The Trouble With Cali» screening was held at the nearby Scranton Cultural Center.
Sometimes, things work out for the better and The Scranton Cultural Center is a much more suitable venue for a film première. I quite enjoyed watching a bad movie in such upscale surroundings.
Sorvino stars as Ivan Bluejones, patriarch of the Bluejones family. He is a city policeman and closeted homosexual who eventually has an affair with a young man over forty years his junior. Because I was a resident of Scranton during the filming of «Cali» I hope my tax money paid for the eye shadow that Sorvino wears during a cross-​dressing scene. Ivan Bluejones is also a former musical conductor. During a flashback scene, Sorvino breaks down into a blubbering mess after conducting an orchestra at the Scranton Cultural Center. «Now I can be anything I want to be!» the musical genius cries. Sorvino might have thought «The Trouble With Cali» would bring him similar fame and recognition as an esteemed director. While the film was intended as a dark family drama it is instead a treasure trove of unintentional laughter.
I admit to being a lover of bad movies. I’ve bought tickets to numerous Rifftrax live events, attended a screening of «The Room» personally introduced by Tommy Wiseau, and worn out my DVD copy of Birdemic. «The Trouble With Cali» is the latest disasterpiece to claim a special place in my heart.
While movies like «The Room» and «After Last Season» were written and directed by amateurs, «The Trouble With Cali» was made by an award-​winning family with decades worth of experience in the film industry; Paul Sorvino stars and directs, Oscar-​winner Mira Sorvino plays a supporting role, and Amanda Sorvino wrote the screenplay. How could a veteran actor like Sorvino make such a sausage?
Though Scranton was made famous by the NBC sitcom «The Office» none of the show’s 200 episodes were actually shot in Lackawanna County. A few independent movies have been shot in Scranton or surrounding areas, but brought little notice to the city’s burgeoning art scene. «Forged» was shot a year after «The Trouble With Cali» and makes use of several Scranton landmarks, including the Lace Mill; the film was barely released and its distributor soon went bankrupt. Partly funded by the Scranton Cultural Center’s former executive director and over three years since shooting in Scranton and Wilkes-​Barre «The Paragon Cortex» about an agoraphobic superhero still hasn’t hit theaters. The only profitable and award-​winning recent film made in Scranton was «Blue Valentine» starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Scranton is home to many talented artists and it’s very sad to see such an artistic community underrepresented on the big and small screen.
Kudos to The Scranton Cultural Center for hosting such an event. «The Trouble With Cali» is a terrible movie, but it is also very entertaining and worth seeking out.

Saw Jersey Boys there and while we thoroughly enjoyed the show, going into the theater was a refreshing turn back in time. Every seat had a great view and while there are obvious signs of age there are also several areas that show some commitment to renovation. We would definitely love to catch another show at this venue.
PS: to the reviewer George below, if you bought tickets to the Yankees and it rained but did not rain out would you expect tickets to a future game? They sell tickets, and many of these events sell out, somebody else may have bought your tickets had you not. So to throw away that revenue to give you tickets to a future show that would sell out anyway is not good business practice. Had the weather actually cancelled the show you have a good argument, but just because you bought hard to get tickets to a show and then did not feel like getting out in that weather is not the theaters fault.