It’s your last chance to see Past Lives, the film I praised in my last three Magic in the Dark articles: the second half of June, the first half of July, and the second half of July. I unreservedly recommend it; Past Lives is the best new film I’ve seen so far this year. At the ByTowne.
It’s also your last chance to see Wes Anderson’s latest—Asteroid City. I’m a big fan of Anderson’s unique and eccentric style of filmmaking—the precisely staged and blocked frames, the rapid-fire overlapping dialogue, the convoluted improbable plots, and of course, the huge star-studded cast. I thought Anderson couldn’t top The Grand Budapest Hotel, but he’s outdone himself with Asteroid City. It’s got a multi-layered story: a 1955 TV documentary is being filmed about the staging of a new play about a quirky Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention of “brainiac” teenagers and their parents that’s being hosted by the US Army in a tiny desert village called Asteroid City (shot in over-saturated colour). I’d have to use the rest of this article to explain more of the plot, especially if I described some of the funny bits (you may never use a Tupperware container again after seeing how it’s used in this film). So I’ll just urge you to see it on a big screen. At the ByTowne.
News flash! The Mayfair has scheduled extra showings of Past Lives and Asteroid City, so you have a few more chances to see these gems.
There are two new “small” films which may have escaped your attention in all the Barbenheimer furor this summer.
One is Jules, a sweet sci-fi film that stars Ben Kingsley as Milton, a rather fussy older gentleman living a quiet life in a small Pennsylvania town whose life is upended when an alien’s spaceship crashes in his azaleas. Milton names the alien “Jules.” But it’s hard to keep the alien a secret. You can meet Jules at both cinemas.
The other film–The Eternal Memory (La Memoria Infinita)–is a Chilean documentary that features seniors in a more serious vein. It’s about a long-married couple—the journalist Augusto Gongora and the actress who was also Minister of Culture in the Chilean government, Paulina Urrutia. After Augusto is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the documentary discretely follows this loving couple as they struggle to retain the memories of their life together. There’s also a subtext: the Chilean nation’s intentional amnesia about its recent violent past. The Eternal Memory has been compared favourably to great fictional films such as Amour and Casablanca—stories about great love and loss. See it at the ByTowne.
The ByTowne is showing four classics, and all of them are stark depictions of a dysfunctional, often violent, America.
The oldest of these classics is Rebel Without A Cause, a groundbreaking portrait of teenage angst in 1950s suburban America. James Dean is the iconic young man who feels trapped with no path forward in a role which is still quoted today.
Dog Day Afternoon, a drama about a bank robbery gone terribly wrong, showcases Al Pacino in one of his finest roles as Sonny Wortzik. Sonny and his friend Sal Naturile (the ever-reliable character actor John Cazale) are bank robbers whose clumsy attempt at robbing a bank results in a hostage-taking, a standoff with a swarm of police and FBI, and a media circus. Based on a true incident and with realistic, mostly improvised dialogue, Dog Day Afternoon is a must-see for anyone who loves films.
The mystery thriller Blow Out has a now-familiar plot: a movie sound recordist (John Travolta) accidentally records evidence that a car accident was actually a murder, but the police are skeptical; the sound recordist is in jeopardy. When it was released in 1981, Blow Out didn’t generate a lot of audience buzz: Travolta hadn’t yet rocketed to “A-list” status in 1994’s Pulp Fiction; the 1966 art film by Michelangelo Antonioni, Blow Up, whose title it references, was a distant memory; the brilliant 1974 Francis Ford Coppola film, The Conversation, which Blow Out shares some plot points with, was almost a decade in the rearview mirror. Nevertheless, Brian De Palma’s Blow Out garnered a Metacritic must-see accolade. See why and judge for yourself.
Last, but certainly not least, is another Metacritic must-see—the Coen brothers’ chilling Western crime thriller No Country for Old Men. Coming upon the scene of a drug cartel’s massacre, a load of heroin, and two million dollars, a feckless hunter gives in to temptation and takes the money. He’s soon being tracked by a weary county sheriff and a remorseless psychopath in a terrifying bloody nightmare.
But let’s end on a fun note! 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 for the ByTowne are at www.bytowne.ca. The ByTowne publishes its calendar at least three weeks in advance. Dates, times and tickets for the Mayfair are at www.mayfairtheatre.ca. The Mayfair announces firm dates on Mondays, so check their website for the latest info.
