Widescreen: Vivien Leigh, Pete Davidson and the weirdest double feature ever

As someone who professes to be a film lover, I am embarrassed to admit I had never seen the 1951 Tennessee Williams classic “A Streetcar Named Desire” until this past Tuesday. All I knew going in: “The kindness of strangers,” the “Simpsons” musical sendup and, of course, Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski crying “Stella!”

It was electrifying, especially the clash of Brando's brutal authenticity against Vivien Leigh's heightened, dizzying turn as Blanche DuBois, possibly the single best screen performance I've ever seen. I felt giddy after watching it, a special kind of delight that happens when you catch up with a classic and find that it absolutely deserves its reputation.

I am also embarrassed to admit that earlier Tuesday I paid $15 to watch “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” the seventh entry in a ludicrous franchise based upon a line of Hasbro toys, at a suburban movie IMAX theater. Set in 1994, “Beasts” features dozens of hip-hop needle-drops, giant robotic animals fighting each other in Peru, and dubious celebrity Pete Davidson as a street-racing car named Mirage.

I am way, way more embarrassed to admit that this movie made me cry, a special kind of happy-cry that happens when a blockbuster absolutely nails an over-the-top crowd-pleasing moment. It involved one of those hip-hop songs and the sudden reappearance of a beloved character, and it rivals that time Capt. Kirk killed the bad guys with a Beastie Boys song in “Star Trek Beyond.” (Literally. Man, that was awesome.)

Can you dream up a more preposterous double feature? And isn't it wonderful that these two disparate works of art and commerce could somehow help me reach a movie-induced euphoria? To paraphrase Blanche, my film-loving heart is curved, like a road through mountains.

And if you're ever in Peru, watch out for robots fighting on those mountains.

• Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor who can't wait to visit Wes Anderson's “Asteroid City” next week.