First things first. I strongly recommend Past Lives at the ByTowne. Everything I wrote about this incredible film in my last Magic in the Dark was correct. Having now seen the movie, I’m doubling down on my recommendation because it’s the best new film I’ve seen so far this year. And readers of this column know that I’ve seen a lot of films.
BlackBerry is another film by a Canadian director, Matt Johnson. Full of innovation and hubris with touches of Canuck humour, it’s about the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of the company behind the world’s first smartphone. The main characters are two brilliant but hopelessly naive engineers, Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, and a cunning corporate shark, Jim Balsillie, who knows his way around a boardroom. Catnip for folks in high tech, and revelatory for the rest of the audience, find out what was happening behind all those headlines. At both cinemas.
There’s more Canadian history in director Marie Clements’ Bones of Crows. It’s a multi-generational epic about the residential school system and the brutalities inflicted by the Canadian government and the Catholic Church on Indigenous children and their families, and the resilience one family achieved in the present. I found it memorable, but difficult to watch. Still, I think this film should be mandatory viewing in all Canadian high schools and universities. At the Mayfair.
I thoroughly enjoyed You Hurt My Feelings—a middle-class NYC family drama with lashings of witty humour. It’s about a long-married couple (Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies—totally believable as a couple): she’s a writer, and he’s a psychotherapist. All is well until she overhears him saying he doesn’t like her latest book. A shock because he’s lavishly praised the dozens of drafts she’s shown him. More middle-class angst: their 23-year-old son with a dead-end job has just returned home. He despairs ever achieving the brilliant successes his mother has claimed he’s capable of. If you’ve ever lied (just a little) to a loved one to encourage them, this film is for you. It makes you think while smiling at some of the absurdities of everyday life. At both cinemas.
Once Upon a Time in Uganda looks pretty bizarre, but it might be based on a true story! A Ugandan former brickmaker decides to make ’80s-style action films. A film nerd from New York City, having seen one of these creations online, joins him. Improbably, their “Wakaliwood” movies are an enormous Internet success. At the Mayfair.
Now, to the movies that define the summer—there are three classic blockbusters from Steven Spielberg to choose from.
As the ByTowne says, “It wouldn’t really be summer without a visit from our favourite man-eating shark, now would it?” Yup, Jaws is back. Steven Spielberg’s first mega-success should be seen in a cinema where you can gasp and scream with the rest of the audience. “Don’t miss the chance to be too terrified to ever go back into the water again!”
Six years after Jaws, Spielberg gave us another adventure yarn—Raiders of the Lost Ark. With the fifth film in the Indiana Jones adventure extravaganzas (though not directed by Spielberg) just having been released, it should be fun for Raiders aficionados to revisit what kicked off the series. And to see Harrison Ford when he was that young! At the ByTowne.
And twelve years after Raiders of the Lost Ark (with loads of wildly successful films in the interim), Spielberg turned his attention to the prehistoric past with Jurassic Park. Frighteningly realistic dinosaurs roam about, threatening several adults and a couple of adorable kids. What scary fun! This is a fundraiser for The Ottawa Rowing Club at the Mayfair.
But the classic I’m hankering to see at the ByTowne is The Muppet Movie. Sure, it’s in the ByTowne’s Klassic Kids series, but there are so many goodies in it that it’s a good excuse to take the kids to the theatre (or go proudly alone as the diehard Jim Henson fan you are). This origin story of Kermit, Miss Piggy and a slew of other Muppet characters is packed with cameos by some genuine Hollywood royalty: Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Elliott Gould, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, Paul Williams and even Orson Welles! What a treat!
And speaking of treats: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is back at the Mayfair. Seen it once? Twice? Half a dozen times? Well, let’s do the Time Warp again!
Happy viewing!
Dates, times and tickets are online at the ByTowne and the Mayfair websites.
