As we swing into full-blown autumn, there’s a nice selection of films at the ByTowne and the Mayfair to entertain us as the days get shorter.
Let’s start with an exciting new series hosted at the ByTowne: REEL Politics Film Series. The series’ first film is the quintessential political thriller, All the President’s Men. The Watergate scandal about President Nixon’s “dirty tricks” gang’s foiled attempt to break into the Democratic Party’s national headquarters was disturbing. But the publication of who was behind it truly shocked Americans. The film details the work of two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), with the support of their editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), to uncover who was behind the burglary. All the President’s Men provides most of the details (it doesn’t name the reporters’ “Deep Throat” informant). The film makes an excellent case for why dedicated investigative reporters and fearless newspaper editors are essential to a democracy. Heady stuff in our own perilous times. The film garnered eight Oscar nominations and four Oscars, and this special showing will include a discussion with current and former journalists. (And the popcorn is free!) This is a great opportunity for cineastes, political junkies and history buffs. All proceeds are supporting Jaimie Anderson Internships and Scholarships at Carleton’s Political Management Program. Buy a ticket or a full pass for this monthly series at reelpolitics.ca.
Leading up to Halloween, this month’s ByTowne Slumber Party (pyjamas!) features a romcom with a twist: the two sisters looking for love and happiness are a pair of bona fide witches. It’s Practical Magic with a sexy Nicole Kidman and a sultry Sandra Bullock, recently widowed due to a 300-year-old family curse. As a bonus, there’s some witchy music on the soundtrack from the likes of singers like Stevie Nicks, Marvin Gaye, and Elvis Presley.
What new films do we have?
Out Standing is an important new Canadian film based on a true story. In 1995, after returning from a peacekeeping mission in Croatia, Captain Sandra Perron, Canada’s first female infantry officer, abruptly resigned. Soon after, a disturbing photo surfaces of her apparently having been brutalized. There was a military investigation that exposed some of the sexist abuse and aggressions that she’d endured since enlisting in 1991. But Perron refused to label herself as a victim. Her story is one of fierce courage and endurance. At the ByTowne.
The reviewer in Slant Magazine wrote, “Dreams elegantly captures the disorienting rush of first love and the frustrations and anguish that stem from romantic fantasies colliding with reality.” In Oslo, 17-year-old Johanne falls in love with her new female teacher and explicitly writes about it. When her mother and grandmother read what she’s written, they’re initially shocked but come to see its literary potential. Should they publish it? Meanwhile, the girl is coming to terms with what her romantic fantasy is and what reality is. Dreams won the Golden Bear at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival.
Starting with documentaries, in honour of The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s 50th anniversary, there’s another retrospective documentary for its fans. In August, I recommended Sane Inside Insanity–The Phenomenon of Rocky Horror. It had interviews with lots of the behind-the-scenes creatives. Now there’s Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror. It has interviews with more of the creatives as well as some of the actors. Like the first documentary, there’s commentary about its impact on popular culture. At the Mayfair.
Director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) has made a documentary about the essayist and novelist George Orwell. Orwell’s novels Animal Farm and, especially, his dystopian masterpiece 1984 are, sadly, still relevant today. In Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5, Peck combines quotes from Orwell’s final diaries, cinematic clips from the 1956 film 1984, and recent news footage, to show how prescient Orwell was about the future—that is, about our present day. Orwell is quoted: “When I sit down to write a book, I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose.” At the ByTowne.
Last month, I recommended Peak Everything (Amour apocalypse) because the trailer made me smile every time I watched it. Having now seen the film, that made me smile, too. I suspect you’ll do the same. At the Mayfair.
Another new film I recommended recently, Eleanor the Great, is still playing at the ByTowne. The 94-year-old Eleanor (the superb June Squibb) relates the life story of her recently deceased friend as if it were her own, with unforeseen consequences.
In early September, I recommended the “unromantic comedy” Splitsville. It follows two couples; one couple has a one-sided “open marriage” and is financially overextended, and the other couple has badly mismatched sexual drives. The comedy arises when they try to resolve their issues. At the Mayfair.
The Mayfair is hosting the Genre Gems Film Festival. One of the films, The Ice Tower, caught my eye. In part, it was because it stars the terrific French actress, Marie Cotillard. Jeanne, a 15-year-old orphan, stumbles upon the film set of an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen. She becomes fascinated by its imperious star, Cristina (Cotillard), just as cold, mysterious and alluring as the Snow Queen she is playing, and becomes Cristina’s protege. One reviewer said the film was “Frozen meets Mulholland Drive.”
In the lead-up to Halloween, the ByTowne is showing two horror films that deal with unnatural transformation- Georges Franju’s classic Eyes Without a Face and Brian de Palma’s gothic horror/rock musical Phantom of The Paradise. In the former, an obsessive plastic surgeon attempts a terrifying, radical surgery to restore the beauty of his daughter’s disfigured face. In the latter, an evil music producer cheats a singer-songwriter out of his music and his girlfriend. The producer wants both to open his new rock palace, The Paradise. To sideline the singer-songwriter, he disfigures him and traps him in The Paradise. It’s a combination of Faust and Phantom of the Opera.
Be sure to make time for some film-viewing!
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 its 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.
