At Ottawa’s ByTowne and Mayfair theatres, you have plenty of opportunities to see many of the nominees for the Academy Awards before the ceremony on March 12. And as usual, there are some excellent films from the vault.
But before I tell you what you can see where, there’s a very special fundraiser happening at the ByTowne on February 22: a screening of the documentary Ice-Breaker: The ’72 Summit Series, with proceeds going to support Indigenous students studying international affairs. As Wayne Gretzky says, “The ’72 series was one of the greatest thrills in hockey history.” It also had a diplomatic goal—to reduce political tensions during the height of the Cold War between the West and the USSR. All proceeds from the evening will go to a Canadian diplomatic scholarship fund for a graduate student of Indigenous background to study international affairs at Carleton University.
So, which Oscar-nominated films do I recommend at the ByTowne and the Mayfair?
My favourite film of 2022 was Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s up for an amazing 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, two Best Supporting Actress nods, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Original Screenplay.
The next film on my personal “10 best films of 2022” list is Tár. This film is in a league of its own. It’s an intense drama with an excellent script, direction and cinematography, and superlative acting by the entire cast (kudos particularly to Nina Hoss). Cate Blanchett gives a career-best performance as Lydia Tár, a world-famous classical conductor and composer who has everything she could desire—wealth, power, international prestige, a supportive spouse, a sweet daughter. Then her world begins to unravel as disturbing facts from her past begin to surface. This Metacritic “must see” is at the ByTowne.
Living is a remake of one of Akira Kurosawa’s most beloved classics, Ikiru, which in turn was based on a Dostoevsky short story. Living changes the time and country from post-WWII Japan to early 1950s England. Bill Nighy is outstanding—he’s nominated for Best Actor. He plays a civil servant who has spent his entire life being a perfect bureaucrat in his public works department. Then he’s told he has an incurable cancer. Stunned, he decides to use his remaining time to learn how to live life. The script was penned by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, but in my opinion the reason to see this film is Nighy’s understated acting talents. At both cinemas.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a remake of the American film but this version is based more closely on the original 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque. It has garnered nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best International Feature. I’ve seen both versions—both are harrowing anti-war films that are well worth seeing, particularly during the horrifying war in Ukraine.
Close is in the running for Best International Feature. This Belgian film is about the rupture of an intense idyllic friendship between two thirteen-year old boys due to homophobia from their schoolmates, and the tragic effects of this rupture. The boys in the main roles are terrific. At the ByTowne.
You may not have seen any of the Oscar Nominated Animated and Live Action Shorts. At the ByTowne, you have the opportunity—seize it! I never miss these compilations—given how poorly short films are distributed, this may be your only chance to see these little gems.
One Fine Morning didn’t score any Oscar nominations but it’s a Metacritic “must see”. The splendid Léa Seydoux plays a 30-something widow with a young daughter. Her charming, intelligent father is rapidly succumbing to a neurodegenerative disease that is robbing him of all his capacities. While she and her family are desperately trying to find him a decent care home, she runs into an old friend and they fall passionately in love. But he’s married with a young son. Mia Hansen-Løve, who wrote and directed this drama, based it in part on her experience with her own father who died, alone, in a care home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both cinemas are also showing a great selection of former Oscar winners.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a Metacritic “must see” with a 94 (!) score—and one of its stars is Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once). It won four Oscars in 2001, including Best Foreign Language Film, and was nominated for six other Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. Stunningly beautiful and exciting, it should definitely be seen on a big screen, so see it at the ByTowne.
The Mayfair is screening films from two of the most iconic directors of our time: Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick.
The first Scorcese film is Mean Streets. It stars two of his favourite actors, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. Keitel plays Charlie, a small-time hood trying to keep the peace between his volatile friend Johnny (De Niro) and Johnny’s creditors. Charlie is trying to emulate St. Francis of Assisi—he tries to help others.
The second is Taxi Driver, considered one of Scorsese’s masterpieces. It also stars De Niro and Keitel, and introduced Jodie Foster as the underage sex worker whom De Niro tries to save.
Eyes Wide Shut was Kubrick’s final film. It stars Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise as an unhappily married couple (the two actors were married to each other at the time—a twisted bit of casting). Cruise becomes obsessed with having an extramarital sexual experience after Kidman confesses one of her sexual fantasies to him. Provocative and bizarre.
Last but certainly not least—tea and scones at the ByTowne! Yes, High Tea Cinema is back, this time with Pride and Prejudice—the version starring Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennett.
This is a great two weeks for films at the ByTowne and the Mayfair!
Dates, times, and tickets for the ByTowne and Mayfair can be found online.
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