What a lot of films to choose from at the ByTowne and Mayfair!
Let’s start with bios at the Mayfair of two legendary Canadian performers: Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie and Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind.
The former, according to The Globe and Mail’s senior film reviewer Barry Hertz, “will not only make you love the Back to the Future icon more than you already do, but understand him, too.” The trailer looks entertaining: Fox is the sole “talking head” in the documentary—he’s charming, funny, and honest. There are lots of clips from his past works, plus some reenactments, including a scene when Fox realizes he might have Parkinson’s. And despite his remarkable work on behalf of the disease’s research, it certainly doesn’t make him out to be a saint. At the Mayfair.
The latter bio is a bit of a hagiography of Lightfoot. There’s extensive glowing commentary from others in the music industry and many clips of Lightfoot performing, particularly from his first few decades when his voice was so mesmerizing. Naturally, there’s a tremendous emphasis on his songwriting prowess. As one famous fan says, “This is a guy who sang poems.” A film to delight his legions of fans.
The Maiden is another Canuck film on my radar. In a bucolic corner of a Calgary suburb, two teenage boys mess around and do stupid stunts. They spray a graffiti tag on a railway bridge: the word “MAIDEN.” And this shy girl is hanging out in the woods. But then something terrible happens…. The Maiden made it onto The Globe and Mail’s “What to watch in 2023: the best movies (so far)” list. I’m looking forward to finding out why at the ByTowne.
The aforementioned theatre also gives you one more chance to see a personal favourite of mine: The Quiet Girl. You’ll meet Cáit, a young girl sent away from her neglectfully chaotic and poverty-stricken family to live with a prosperous middle-aged farming couple. The wife is welcoming and the husband gradually warms to Cáit, who begins to enjoy a normal home life. But there’s an undercurrent—something unspoken, until a nosey neighbour blabs the couple’s secret. Superb acting, especially Catherine Clinch as Cáit.
The trailer for You Hurt My Feelings (at the ByTowne) makes me smile. It might look like a TV sitcom (its star is Julia Louis-Dreyfus) about a long-standing upper-middle-class marriage that hits a rough patch when the wife overhears her husband saying he doesn’t like her latest book. But the acting and the description “Love means always having to say you’re sorry” put it on my list of films to see.
From first-world marital problems in NYC to a cocaine-crazed bear rampaging through a Georgia forest? Sign me up! Yup, Cocaine Bear is at the Mayfair. Loosely based on a real incident in which an innocent black bear ingested part of a shipment of cocaine that had been jettisoned from a trafficker’s plane (the real bear died), this over-the-top movie has a lot of pre-release buzz and looks to be a real hoot.
The last new film I’m interested in seeing is a historical bio about Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. He was a prodigy–a composer, violinist and expert fencer–who rose to great heights in the court of Louis XVI… or at least as high as an illegitimate son of a French plantation owner and his African slave could. His compositions were suppressed by Napoleon, but may be ready to be rediscovered in the 21st century. The film: Chevalier. At the ByTowne.
There are lots of goodies from the vault, starting with the romantic classic Casablanca at the ByTowne. Do I even need to pitch this film to you? A rekindled romance between Humphrey Bogart and the exquisite Ingrid Bergman amidst wartime intrigue in Nazi-occupied Morocco, this wartime classic never gets old.
The Manchurian Candidate is another wartime film, but this time it’s about the Korean War and the Cold War. A decorated U.S. Army sergeant (Laurence Harvey) returns home. He was a POW during the Korean War, held by the Chinese Communists, who brainwashed him. Now he’s primed to become a sleeper assassin. The trigger that will set him off? His controlling mother, played to the hilt by Angela Lansbury as the wife of a Joseph McCarthy-like politician who wants to become President. Frank Sinatra plays the sergeant’s Army buddy who uncovers the nefarious plot. At the ByTowne.
If you’ve never seen a Federico Fellini film, you have a real treat in store. The ByTowne has programmed his most famous film: 8½. If you’ve seen Fellini films before, this is probably your favourite. Director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) tries to get a new film off the ground, but he has writer’s (director’s?) block. His personal life is a mess of romantic entanglements. The pressures of delivering the film are immense. Overwhelmed, Guido escapes into his thoughts, which become more and more fantastical—classic Fellini tropes. It’s been called the best film about filmmaking ever made.
The ByTowne celebrates National Sing Out Day on May 25 with a Mamma Mia Sing Along. (National Sing Out Day? Who knew? Who defines these things in the calendar anyway?) Get ready to belt out your favourite ABBA songs and smile at a bunch of A-list stars led by Meryl Streep having the time of their lives. What fun!
Speaking of singing along, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is back at the Mayfair! As usual, this ultimate cult classic is hosted by the Absent Friends Shadowcast and accompanied by the message from the Mayfair: “Feel free to dress up as your favourite character, bring props and items to be thrown in the air (newspapers, toast, toilet paper, playing cards…), call back at the screen, and dance in the aisles.” But no rice or confetti. Let’s do the Time Warp again!
Enjoy!
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