Canadian Cinema in Revue
The true story of a Toronto bank administrator who scammed his employer out of millions of dollars to feed a gambling addiction inspired this remarkable 2003 feature Owning Mahowny, directed by Richard Kwietniowski. It’s the next film, screening Tuesday, Nov. 24, 7 p.m. in the Canadian Cinema in Revue series, voted by NOW Toronto critics as Best Revival Programming for 2009. Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers a superb performance, lasering in on his character’s sharp focus and the single mindedness with which he deceives the banks, the casinos and most tragically, his family. We first saw Kwietniowski’s talent for obsessive, enigmatic characters in his lauded debut feature, Love and Death on Long Island. Teamed with the extraordinary Hoffman, he has created in Dan Mahowny one of the great screen characters in Canadian cinema. Roger Ebert agreed, picking Owning Mahowny as one of the best films of its year. U.K.-based Kwietniowski has kindly agreed to participate in a Q&A via Skype from the U.K. after the screening at the Revue, despite the time difference.
Alan Bacchus programs the Canadian Cinema in Revue series, which features this country’s innovative films and directors. Visit www.DailyFilmDose.com
The Dark Hours knows exactly what it is – a squirm-inducing, mind-twisting cabin movie – and it succeeds. Get ready for a fun night of terror at the Halloween edition of Canadian Cinema in Revue – Wednesday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m. What is a cabin movie, you ask? It’s a sub-subgenre of horror films born of tight budgets. It doesn’t take much money to make horror movies, especially those with a minimum of locations and actors. The constraints produce a sense of isolation where characters are forced to confront their fears. Such is the story of The Dark Hours. Samantha (Kate Greenhouse) is a psychologist for the criminally insane, a type-A hard-as-nails career woman who’s just been diagnosed with a brain tumour. To let off steam, she ventures up north with her husband and sister to their winter cabin. It’s a blissful weekend of parlour games by the hearth until Sam’s former patient Harlan and his accomplice invade their space for a game of home invasion. Harlan, seemingly seeking revenge, subjects Sam and the family to a series of torturous head games –– a battle of wills and wits before a clever twist spins the film around on its head, with maximum psycho peculiarity.
By 2005, cabin movies seemed to have peaked. There were, of course, the ’70s and ’80s classics, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead, and The Last House on the Left. By the early 2000s, horror was in vogue again, and more cabin movies emerged, such as Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever, Alexandre Aja’s High Tension, Wolf Creek. Even in this crowded field, The Dark Hours staked its own claim on the genre with the discriminating and highly loyal fanboy audience. Aint-It-Cool-News raved: “Perfect. Just perfect. The Dark Hours is a cool, gritty psychodrama that treads upon a lot of ground that’s been tread before, but does so without missing a step.” The film was nominated for Fangoria’s Chainsaw Awards as one of the year’s best low-budget films. With a meagre $500,000 through the CFC Feature Film Project, director Paul Fox, along with writer Wil Zmak and producer Brent Barclay, creates a cinematic sleight of hand as clever as the trickery of Zmak’s script. The Dark Hours stands tall in the world of genre cinema, carrying on the tradition of great Canadian horror films.
Director Paul Fox will take part in a post-screening Q&A. Preceding the feature is Colin Cunningham’s equally terror-ific ’70s style road/revenge short film, Centigrade.
Alan Bacchus programs the Canadian Cinema in Revue series, which features this country’s innovative films and directors. Visit www.DailyFilmDose.com
The ’90s brought a horde of “rave” movies capitalizing on the popular clubbing culture of the times, and, though it missed the wave slightly, the best film of the bunch is probably Michael Dowse’s It’s All Gone Pete Tong. Don’t pass up the chance to see it Monday, Aug. 10, at 7 p.m. as part of the Canadian Cinema in Revue series, which features edgy productions that deserve to be screened. You’ll also meet the director in a Skype Q & A following the feature. An instant cult classic, Dowse’s first film, Fubar, was realized in a mockumentary no-budget style. In contrast, Tong is a glossy, slick 35mm beauty, shot in the club Mecca of Ibiza.
The Spanish island landscape is gorgeous no matter where Dowse puts his camera, and his indoor rave scenes capture the awesome beauty of a thousand revelers dancing in sync behind a myriad of coloured lights and lasers. The high-energy excitement is as authentic as being there, and Dowse bottles it all. Paul Kaye, the British comedian, disappears into the skin of the film’s tragic antihero, Frankie Wilde, one of the world's great DJs, who spins his records in an arena-sized nightclub on the island. His cocaine-addicted lifestyle gets in the way of his domestic setup, but then again, it's Ibiza and everyone is high on something. When Wilde discovers he’s going deaf, however, a piece of him dies; his one true love in the world appears to be lost. But when a glimmer of hope reveals itself, he seizes it and makes a comeback worthy of the legend of his name.
Dowse has been quoted as saying; he wanted this film to “rip cinema a new a**hole.” Kaye's over-the-top performance of shouting, lewd behaviour and a lot of nasty cockney f-bombs helps to accomplish this. Pete Tong must also set the record for the most cocaine featured on film, making Scarface look tame. In fact, Wilde’s nemesis, a fantasy badger that tosses buckets of cocaine on himr, represents Wilde’s battle with the blow, a truly horrific, violent nightmare as excessive as his habit. Over the course of 90 minutes, the tone and mood shift from bass-pumping rave action, to drug-induced cocaine paranoia, to ridiculous high-energy comedy. At the end, though, a gentle, bittersweet heart is revealed, trumping all the debauchery before it, and making this film a most satisfactory experience.
The feature will be preceded by Vivieno Caldinelli’s award-winning short If I See Randy Again, Do You Want Me to Hit Him with an Axe?
Critic, filmmaker and blogger Alan Bacchus has curated The Revue’s Canadian film series. Visit www.DailyFilmDose.com
to view the trailer click here
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The Revue Cinema and Rue Morgue are teaming up for Monday night's Canadian Cinema in Revue screening of FIDO and the late show screening of DAWN OF THE DEAD. Express your inner zombie and come dressed as the undead in celebration of this doubleshot of zombie-cinema.
Before the FIDO Q&A, the most disgusting Zombies will be eligible to win prizes! Be there by 7pm to qualify!
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"When this flick comes out do support it. It's a fun, smart, entertaining, gory, but somehow still sweet film. …I'm already jonesing to see it again … it's only been 8 hours since I left the theater. It's that good.”
This is a quote from the radar of cool cinema, Aint-It-Cool-News, talking about FIDO, Andrew Currie’s genre-bending zombie comedy from 2006.
FIDO is just one film in an internationally respected catalogue of cool films that consistently jazz audiences around the world.
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This summer The Revue Cinema is bringing back to the big screen many of these ‘fanboy’ classics. Canadian Film in Revue, curated by Alan Bacchus, filmmaker and film critic (www.dailyfilmdose.com), will re-introduce audiences to these innovative features and shorts and directors, producers and actors who created them. Each feature screening will be preceded by an equally cool short film of similar genre or theme. Of Alan’s inspiration to launch this series, “Not just David Cronenberg, Vincenzo Natali, Bruce McDonald, but filmmakers like Jon Knautz, Michael Dowse – Canadian genre cinema gets some major respect with international audiences. Everyone in Canada needs to know this.”
First out of the gate is Vincenzo Natali’s CUBE, preceded by his phenomenal short film ELEVATED on Monday, June 8 at 7 p.m. Co-writer Andre Bijelic will doing a Q&A after the show along with Director Vincenzo Natali patched in from LA via Skype.
“Vincenzo Natali, the film's fledgling director and co-writer, has delivered an allegory, too, about futility, about the necessity and certain betrayal of trust, about human beings who do not for a second have the luxury of doing nothing.” - Anita Gates, New York Times
The full summer program includes: Vincenzo Natali’s Cube (preceded by Natali’s Elevated), Andrew Currie’s Fido (preceded by Jesse McKeown’s The Big Charade), Michael Dowse’s It’s All Gone Pete Tong (preceded by Vivieno Caldinelli’s If I See Randy Again…), David Christensen’s Six Figures (preceded by Jon Knautz’s Still Life)
Check www.revuecinema.ca for exact screening dates
Canadian Cinema in Revue is for casual fans, cinephiles, fledging filmmakers and anyone who wants to learn more about Toronto and Canada's impressive filmmaking tradition.
