I don’t believe I’ve ever had so many films to recommend to Magic in the Dark readers—almost two dozen! There are even two special events for kids.
One of this year’s most talked-about and praised films, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, is still playing at the Mayfair Theatre. I predict this film will become a classic that folks will be watching and discussing for decades. It’s a near-perfect film about one of the most important events in human history and it demands to be seen on a big screen.
The Mayfair is also showing Barbie, the other half of the “Barbieheimer” juggernaut that conquered the cinematic world this year. Here’s your chance to see the top-grossing film of the year and find out why it’s been such a runaway success. One of my favourite scenes is the intro to the film. Let’s just say it references another iconic film.
Are you a fan of John le Carré, the master of the modern spy novel? The ByTowne Cinema gives you a chance to discover more about his life as a British spy and as a novelist in the enthralling The Pigeon Tunnel. Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris interviews le Carré, interspersing the interview with archival footage and dramatized scenes.
Also at the ByTowne, Anatomy of a Fall is a suspenseful thriller about a complex woman put on trial for the murder of her husband. But was it an accident or a murder? And if it was a murder, did she do it? The film won this year’s Palme d’Or.
I’m a sucker for films about filmmaking (think 8 1/2, Day for Night, and The Player), so I’m looking forward to seeing A Brighter Tomorrow (Il Sol Dell’Avvenire) from Italian director Nanni Moretti at the ByTowne. It’s about a film shoot where everything seems to be going wrong. As usual with Moretti’s films, it stars him in a semi-autobiographical role as the director. His marriage is on the rocks, his co-producer is on the verge of bankruptcy, no one seems to understand his script, and he might have to sell out to Netflix. Can he find a way to a brighter tomorrow?
Talking Heads is one band that was never accused of selling out. If you’d like to see their 1984 famous concert film Stop Making Sense, you have your chance to see this 4K remastered film at the ByTowne. Pauline Kael described it as “close to perfection.”
Farewell My Concubine is another 4K remaster being reissued on its 30th anniversary. This gorgeous epic spans nearly 70 years of upheaval in China. It follows two boys, who first meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924, into the Maoist era, and concluding in the 1970s. It’s a Metacritic “must see” that is currently playing at the ByTowne.
It’s the spookiest month of the year, and both cinemas are outdoing themselves with scary offerings.
Let’s start with two special offerings at the ByTowne for kids. Their Klassic Kidz series celebrates the 35th anniversary of Beetlejuice, and their Kids Halloween Party features The Monster Squad. The eponymous Beetlejuice, a rambunctious Michael Keaton causes havoc when he tries to help two new ghosts (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) rid their former house of an obnoxious family (Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, and Winona Ryder). It’s a hoot, and I’m tempted to borrow a kid so I can attend incognito.
Kids can enjoy a costume parade and other surprises at the screening of The Monster Squad, and cheer on a young group of monster fanatics as they attempt to save their hometown from Count Dracula and his buddies.
The ByTowne also has a special event for patrons aged 18+ called “Boo-Town Burlesque,” starting with a burlesque show by Frisqué Femme Productions, followed by a screening of Neil Jordan’s 1994 Interview with the Vampire. The film is packed with A-listers: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Kirsten Dunst, and Christian Slater.
There’s a new Québecois horror/romantic comedy at the ByTowne about a young vampire who can’t bring herself to kill humans to feed herself, and the title is a beaut: Humanistic Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. The director will be at the first screening on Oct. 20 for a Q&A.
The Mayfair has a double bill of horror classics with a two-for-one ticket price: arguably William Friedkin’s most famous/infamous film, The Exorcist, in a 4K remaster of the film that garnered a Metacritic “must see” score and delivered “pure cinematic terror” (Variety), followed by Stanley Kubrick’s terrifying film The Shining, based on a Stephen King novel.
The ByTowne is also screening The Shining as well as Francis Ford Coppola’s elegant Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Joel Schumacher’s vampire horror/comedy The Lost Boys, whose cast includes a very young Kiefer Sutherland.
And this month’s Sunday Afternoon Classic is the 1935 James Whale masterpiece The Bride of Frankenstein, starring the iconic Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester. More touching than frightening, it adheres more closely to Mary Shelley’s original story of a misbegotten and misunderstood monster than other renditions of the classic.
Speaking of great classic films, the Mayfair has programmed the granddaddy of vampire films: Nosferatu. It’s the 100th anniversary of F.W. Murnau’s masterpiece of terror—his unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Max Schreck (who was rumoured to be an actual vampire) is the first and still the greatest screen Dracula. One reviewer said “it’s still one of the scariest, most unnerving films ever made.”
Three more recent horror classics at the Mayfair worth your consideration: George Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead, which singlehandedly defined most zombie-film tropes; Brian de Palma’s excellent 1976 adaptation of an early Stephen King novel, Carrie, starring the always-terrific Sissy Spacek; and 1981’s Scanners, an early masterpiece from Canada’s own body-horror shock master David Cronenberg.
I mustn’t forget The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Mayfair! It does have the word “horror” in its title, so it’s an apt way to wrap up this cornucopia of scary treats.
Wrung out by all this gruesome horror? Want something sweet and cuddly instead? In that case, I recommend Cat Video Fest 2023 at the ByTowne.
Dates, times and tickets for the ByTowne are at www.bytowne.ca. The ByTowne publishes their calendar at least three weeks in advance. Dates, times and tickets for the Mayfair are at www.mayfairtheatre.ca. The Mayfair announces next week’s schedule on Tuesdays, so check their website for the latest info on the next week and the “coming soon” films.
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