Spring is in the air (never mind the occasional snow flurry), so no excuse—go to the movies! What better venues than our wonderful independent cinemas?
Lots of new films on offer. I’ll start with two which had time on the Oscar red carpet this year.
Living is at both cinemas. It’s a remake of one of Akira Kurosawa’s most beloved classics, Ikiru. Bill Nighy is terrific as a senior civil servant who spent his life being a perfect bureaucrat, skilled at delaying and deflecting work in his public works department. He and his son, though living in the same house, barely talk to each other. When he finds out he has incurable cancer, he decides to turn his life around in the few months he has left. Nighy was nominated at the Oscars for best male actor, and Kazoo Ishiguro was nominated for best-adapted screenplay.
The ByTowne is showing a film I’m eager to see: Women Talking. Based on the excellent novel by one of Canada’s best novelists, Miriam Toews, which was based on an actual event in an isolated fundamentalist Mennonite colony in Bolivia. Sarah Polley directed the film; she won the Oscar for best-adapted screenplay. Women Talking follows a group of illiterate women in a strict Mennonite colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with how to react to vicious sexual assaults committed by some of the colony’s men. Should they stay and fight, or should they leave?
The Lost King is another film based on a true story. Philippa Langley, played by Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water, Maudie), is an amateur historian whose dogged determination/obsession resulted in the discovery of the bones of King Richard III under a Leicester car park in 2012. Directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity), this film will delight historians, feminists and anyone who loves an inspiring story about what one person can accomplish. At both cinemas.
I’m pleased that the ByTowne is bringing us two Canadian films with a lot of buzz: Riceboy Sleeps and Brother.
Riceboy Sleeps tells the semi-autobiographical story of director Anthony Shim’s Korean mother raising her young son in suburban Canada in the 1990s, despite the constant cultural and racial challenges they face. As the son grows older, he’s increasingly intrigued by their South Korean background. Barry Hertz at the Globe and Mail called Shim “a ferociously talented storyteller.” The film won the Platform Prize at TIFF 2022 and was included in TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten, then won the Toronto Film Critics Association’s (TFCA’s) 2022 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.
Brother was a runner-up for the TFCA prize and also garnered excellent reviews. Directed by Clement Virgo (“The Book of Negroes”), the film follows the relationship between Francis and Michael, two Jamaican-Canadian brothers growing up in Scarborough in the early ’90s. In the Globe and Mail, Barry Hertz wrote, “Virgo’s film is a special work to be cherished and pored over for generations to come.” I’m very much looking forward to seeing both of these films.
Showing Up (at the ByTowne) will appeal to those who enjoy films directed by Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Meeks Cutoff, First Cow). Michelle Williams plays Lizzie, a middle-aged sculptor who is preparing for an exhibit of her work while trying to cope with her family and friends. A Metacritic must-see.
The ByTowne is hosting another international film festival in April, Bright Lights. It features a remarkable variety of Baltic and Nordic feature films from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. It’s a rare chance to see these films because most won’t find a Canadian distributor or turn up on a Canadian streaming service.
Now, what have we got from the vault this month?
Let’s start with a big treat for the kids (and the kids-at-heart)—a 90-minute Looney Tunes Cartoon Party at the ByTowne on the afternoon of April 7. The whole Looney Tunes gang will be there—Elmer Fudd, Sylvester and Tweety, Wile E. Coyote and, of course, Bugs Bunny! Eh, what’s up, doc?
For more adult humour, I recommend my favourite zombie flick—Shaun of the Dead. After seeing this hilarious (but still scary) send-up of zombie movie cliches at the ByTowne, you’ll never be able to watch a cricket match again without remembering it… and chuckling.
On Easter weekend, the ByTowne shows the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Norman Jewison shot the entire film in Israel, adapting the hit rock opera and Broadway phenom from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber into a unique cinematic vision.
The Mayfair is a reliable source of classic films. Let’s see what they have on offer…
First, a film that I think is one of Quentin Tarantino’s best—Pulp Fiction. In 1994, it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and no wonder! Tarantino weaves the stories of two hitmen, an aging boxer and his sweet girlfriend, a gangster’s wife, and two dim-bulb thieves into one glorious high-speed trip through the Los Angeles underworld. Violent? Of course; it’s a Tarantino film. Packed with stars? You bet! There’s Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, and John Travolta. A Metacritic must-see with an impressive 95 score.
A Clockwork Orange will probably be screening on April 14 or 15 or later that month. Stanley Kubrick transformed Anthony Burgess’ dystopian novel into a terrifying vision of Britain in the near future. Malcolm McDowell plays Alex, a vicious young hoodlum who leads his gang in acts of ”ultra-violence” with self-satisfied glee until he’s caught by the police. What happens to him is the stuff of nightmares.
Finally, one of my personal all-time favourites—The Big Lebowski on its 25th anniversary. One of the Coen brothers’ best films, and certainly their most quoted one, it gifted Jeff Bridges the perfect role as The Dude, AKA Jeffrey Lebowski, a laid-back middle-aged unemployed slacker who loves ten-pin bowling and who shares a surname with a billionaire Republican who has a trophy wife, Bunny, who…. No, I’m not going to explain the plot. See it for yourself!
Enjoy all this magic in the dark!
Dates, times and tickets for the ByTowne are at www.bytowne.ca. Dates, times and tickets for the Mayfair are at www.mayfairtheatre.ca.
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