The ByTowne and the Mayfair are showing new films and bringing back some wonderfully exciting classics.
In the “new” category, I can’t believe it, but my favourite film of 2024, Flow, is screening for its 23rd week at the Mayfair! I’ve raved about this exquisitely beautiful, utterly engaging animated feature for months (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10), so I won’t belabour the point. Just see it.
Caught by the Tides was hailed by The New Yorker as the best film at Cannes. Acclaimed Chinese director Jia Zhangke used footage spanning 22 years—bits of Jia’s previous films, outtakes, and documentary footage. It dramatizes China’s rapid 21st-century growth and transformation by following a young woman named Qiaoqiao (extraordinary actress Zhao Tao) as she traverses China seeking her lover Bin, who had abruptly left their hometown in his quest for better financial prospects. In Original Cin, Liam Lacey wrote, “Zhao has one of cinema’s most expressive faces, one that speaks not just volumes but entire libraries of emotional information. Her lively, mercurial presence is the glue that holds the mosaic of the film together.” In that mosaic, Jia evokes the passage of time and the shocks of change in people, landscapes, cities, politics, and ideas. At the ByTowne.
Deception, role confusion, and self-discovery are favourite themes in films, as is evidenced by the next four films.
Black Bag, Stephen Soderbergh’s latest film, is a gripping spy film that could have been penned by John Le Carré. The elegantly enigmatic Cate Blanchett is Kathryn, and an almost unrecognizable Michael Fassbender is her husband George, both working for a British spy agency. But someone in the agency has stolen something very valuable and dangerous. Their boss (Pierce Brosnan) assigns George to uncover the traitor. The trouble is that Kathryn is one of the prime suspects. “Black bag” is what spooks use as shorthand for “I can’t tell you, darling, because it’s top secret.” At the ByTowne.
Mickey 17 is still at the Mayfair. It may be the ultimate in role confusion: the hapless Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) dies for a living, only to be resurrected (I mean, reprinted) by his Trump-like employer. Until there’s a screw-up and two Mickeys–Mickey 17 and Mickey 18–exist at the same time. As I wrote in my last Magic in the Dark, Mickey 17 is a thought-provoking and funny sci-fi film from Bong Joon Ho (Parasite).
The next two films are somewhat lighter fare.
A Nice Indian Boy is a rom-com about star-crossed lovers and acceptance. Naveen is a gay doctor who has come out to his parents. They have accepted this bombshell but don’t want to discuss it or any other emotions. Naveen is conflicted and miserably alone, then he meets an attractive, outgoing white photographer named Jay, who was adopted by an Indian couple. Jay has enthusiastically adopted his parents’ culture—a nice Indian boy who happens to be white. At the Mayfair.
I’m a sucker for Jane Austen films, so Jane Austen Wrecked My Life was immediately on my radar. The heroine is Agathe, a clumsy but charming young woman who works at the legendary Parisian Shakespeare & Company bookstore. Though she’s trying to write an Austin-like romantic novel, she’s plagued by writer’s block. Desperately single, she yearns for a Mr. Darcy to sweep her off her feet. Her best friend Félix gets her invited to a Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England, and that’s when the fun starts. Head to the ByTowne to watch what unfolds.
There are two rural dramas at the ByTowne
Vingt Dieux (Holy Cow) is a dramedy about an 18-year-old boy, Totone, in France’s Jura region. His carefree life comes crashing down when his father suddenly dies, and Totone must find a way to support himself and his 7-year-old sister on their failing family farm. Rashly, he sets out to make the best Comté cheese in the region—the cheese that would win him the gold medal at the agricultural competition and 30,000 euros. Holy Cow is the feature debut from director (and part-time farmer) Louise Courvoisier.
That They May Face the Rising Sun is set in a bucolic corner of Ireland in the 1980s. Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned from London to Joe’s hometown, a small, close-knit community. Folks don’t expect these “Londoners” to stay, but they do, immersing themselves in the life around them. Through work, play, and the passing seasons, they find their best life in this enclosed world. See it at the ByTowne.
For architecture buffs or Canadian patriots, the new documentary Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between the Lines at the Mayfair will interest you. Erickson was one of Canada’s premier 20th-century modernist architects. With the directors’ unprecedented access to the Erickson archives and full cooperation of his family, this may be the definitive film about him and his striking masterpieces, such as the Simon Fraser University campus, UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, Robson Square in Vancouver, and Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto. Throughout his immensely prolific life, he transcended traditional boundaries and redefined modern architecture.
As I turn to films from the vault, let’s start with the final awe-inspiring masterwork of a great director and a droll comedy I never tire of watching.
RAN is considered one of Kurosawa Akira’s greatest films, and one of the best film adaptations of Shakespeare’s King Lear ever made. Set in 16th-century Japan. Seventy-year-old Great Lord Hidetora decides, after years of consolidating his empire, to abdicate, dividing his empire between his three sons. As in King Lear, he fails to see that this will corrupt them and that they will turn on each other and on him. Kurosawa’s battle scenes are legendary; I assure you that you’ve never seen anything like them. This 4K restoration of a cinematic masterpiece must be seen on a BIG screen, so get yourself over to the ByTowne.
The Big Lebowski is one of the films I’d take to a desert island. I’m delighted by the wacko adventures of Jeffrey Lebowski, alias The Dude (Jeff Bridges, in the role he was born to play). I’m tickled by his friends John Goodman as a volatile bowling fanatic and Steve Buscemi as the perennial sidekick. I’m wowed by the sheer variety of weird people The Dude encounters, including a wheelchair-bound Republican billionaire, his oleaginous major domo, his trophy wife and his avant-garde daughter, a porn film producer, and a would-be interpretive dancer. I think it’s the best film the Coen brothers have ever made, and that’s high praise when I consider their other films (Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men). At the Mayfair.
Withnail and I is screening at the ByTowne, and I couldn’t be more delighted. This British dramedy is deuced difficult to access online. Two chronically unemployed young actors, Withnail (Richard E. Grant) and the narrator (Paul McGann), live in a squalid flat in London, squandering what little money they have on booze. They decide they need a holiday and decamp to a cottage in the Lake District owned by Withnail’s lecherous gay Uncle Monty. But their holiday is an unmitigated disaster. See for yourself.
Lots to choose from, folks, so enjoy yourselves with some magic in the dark!
Dates, times, and tickets for the ByTowne are at www.bytowne.ca. You can also buy tickets at the box office. The ByTowne publishes its calendar several weeks in advance. Dates, times, and tickets for the Mayfair are at www.mayfairtheatre.ca. The Mayfair finalizes their upcoming films’ schedule weekly, which they post online and advertise via email. Both provide information about future weeks’ films. You can buy tickets via their weekly email and at the box office.
