zenith is a retro-futuristic steam-punk thriller

Zenith

Tues 1 Mar, Black Cat Cinema, Roberts Creek Hall, 7:30pm

Thirty or so years from now, in a desolate and indefinite post-industrial future, the population has been genetically altered to live in a constant state of happiness. But what they soon discover is that without contrasting it to sorrow, happiness dissipates, leaving only a feeling of never-ending numbness. Only pain can now make people feel alive.

 

Enter Jack, who offers his customers the phenomenon of pain via drugs from modern times. But when Jack receives a mysterious videotape of his dead father, he sets out to unmask the dangerous conspiracy that has created this dystopian world. 

 

Added to the backdrop of this biological nightmare, this new world has been robbed of its language, and in its place is a bland, simplistic type of speech: "For" as one character puts it "what you cannot express in language, does not exist in human minds."

 

Tonight's screening of Zenith by Black Cat Cinema is the Canadian Premiere and I'm keen to hear what you think of the film - it's received some trippy reviews. If you're up for an art-house Bladerunner, with the frontal-lobe screwiness of Memento and 12 Monkeys then this could be the flick you've been waiting for.

 

Zeniththefilm.com

the relationship between a taxi driver and his fare

Goodbye Solo

Monday 21 Feb, Gibsons Heritage Playhouse, 7:30pm

Presented by the Sunshine Coast Film Society

Ramin Bahrani is a director who is finding a style of American cinema that is different from both Hollywood commerce and indie-Sundance drear: his new movie is an instantly gripping, funny, quietly persuasive drama that held me from the first frames.

Souleymane Sy Savane gives a superbly likeable performance as Solo, a Senegalese taxi driver in North Carolina. One day, he picks up a morose old white guy called William, played by Red West, who offers Solo $1,000 to take him to a remote and dangerous beauty spot on a certain date. The exuberant and compassionate Solo suspects that William wishes to make away with himself, and so tries to involve himself in his life, even insisting that William coach him for his upcoming Airline Flight Attendant exam.

The film has been likened to Kiarostami's 1997 classic & Palme d'Or winner, The Taste Of Cherry, which it has much in common with stylistically and thematically. However Goodbye Solo is nonetheless entirely distinctive: about friendship and perhaps also about the impossibility of ever really knowing another person.

For more information on Goodbye Solo which screens tonight at Gibsons Heritage Playhouse see the Sunshine Coast Film Society website.

Review by Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian.co.uk

Image credit: axiomfilms-shop.co.uk

vanishing of the bees

Tues 15 Feb, Vanishing of the Bees, 7:00pm - 9:30pm

Black Cat Cinema, Roberts Creek Hall

Brighten up your garden with some bee-friendly flower seeds. Plant wildflower seeds in your garden, patio pots or window boxes, the Honeybees are vanishing... 

Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomen has brought beekepers to crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and hundred of other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables.

The docmentary, Vanishing of the Bees, which screens tonight at Black Cat Cinema, follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.

Get planting, it's almost Spring! Vanishingbees.com

friday night flix

DAFT PUNK ROCKS TRON

Tron Legacy

Fri 11 Feb to Tues 15 Feb, Patricia Theatre Powell River, 7:00pm

(mat Sun 13 Feb, 1:30pm)

There are loads of top flicks screening at Sunshine Coast Cinemas this week but since I've already covered True Grit and the King's Speech in an earlier post, my pick for this week's Friday night flick has got to be Tron Legacy, it’s just too big to ignore. The Coast does its utmost to promote the art-house and the undervalued, but when you’ve got visuals like this on display, it’s like you’ve been invited to the greatest party in the world, your eyeballs are the guests of honour and Jeff Bridges wants to give you a high-five. But it’s not just a delight for your eyes, your ears are in for a treat too, as none other than Daft Punk have created the movie soundtrack. They pepper orchestral sweeps with their unmistakable electronica, and feature scrambled 8-bit beats that would have Crystal Castles reaching for their chiptune emulators in envy. It’s certainly a step up from the original film which I don't think even made it to video/DVD. For more details see Patriciatheatre.com

now playing: gibsons

The King's Speech

Fri 11 Feb to Thurs 17 Feb, Gibsons Cinema, 7:15pm 

(mats Sun 13 Feb & Thurs 17 Feb, 4:00pm) Gibsonscinema.ca

now playing: sechelt

True Grit

Fri 11 Feb to Thurs 17 Feb, Raven's Cry Theatre, 7:00pm
(mats Tues 15 Feb & Thurs 17 Feb, 2:00pm)

Ravenscrytheatre.com

Review: Naag.com

Image source: imdb.com

double up on climate change

Black Cat Cinema presents a Double Feature on Climate Change!

Tuesday, 8th February 2011 
7:00pm - 9:30pm, Roberts Creek Community Hall

Remember when only nerds watched science flicks? Thankfully times are a changin, especially when it comes to films about the environment. Expect a packed house tonight when the Black Cat Cinema screens documentaries, 'The Cloud Mystery' and 'Inuit Knowledge on Climate Change,' both films offer a unique and visually intriguing take on the topic. 

The Cloud Mystery is a scientific detective story covering 10 years of pioneering experiments by Danish scientist, Henrik Svensmark, who solved the puzzle of how the Galaxy and the Sun interfere in our everyday weather. These provocative revelations challenge the belief of most climate theorists that carbon dioxide has been the main driver of global warming. As a result the Copenhagen based scientist has faced never-ending opposition.

Inuit Knowledge & Climate Change is the world's first Inuktitut language film that documents the knowledge and experience of Inuit elders and the impact of climate change. The film takes the viewer “on the land” with elders and hunters to explore the social and ecological impacts of a warming Arctic. This unforgettable film helps us to appreciate Inuit culture and expertise regarding environmental change and indigenous ways of adapting to it.

See Blackcatcinema.ca for more information.

man's best friend

My Dog Tulip, Monday 7th February, 7:30pm

Gibsons Heritage Playhouse (brought to you by Sunshine Coast Film Society)

Adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel by J.R. Ackerley, My Dog Tulip is an eloquently told woofs and all portrait of Ackerley’s intimate relationship with his best friend, a cheeky Alsation.

The film’s hand-drawn animation by the directors Paul and Sandra Fierlinger and Christopher Plummer's conversational narrative combine to make “My Dog Tulip,” one of the most sophisticated dog movies ever created. Animated with 58,320 beautiful minimalistic drawings and swirling pastel colours, the film’s quaint and unassuming look both perfectly suits the story and narration and belies its more risqué elements.

With next to no dialogue, directors Paul Fierlinger and Sandra Fierlinger rely on Christopher Plummer's extensive voice over lifted from Ackerley’s writing. With wry, acerbic flair Acklerley discusses all aspects of dog life – spiritedly embracing the less than sophisticated subjects of poop, fornication, ass whiffing and other doggie matters.

It is through Acklerley’s observations about Tulip that the narrator emerges as a strong character. Not unlike the protagonist of Notes on a Scandal, Acklerley’s perspective is both high-minded and scandalous, painting a picture of a loner and borderline misanthrope who observes human behaviour from a distance – and, in this instance, canine behaviour from close-up.

With it’s mixture of brevity and profundity, lofty ideas, low brow humour and a lovely visual style, My Dog Tulip plays like an adult picture book littered with candid and concise illuminations on the dynamic between pooches and people.

The film works both as a deep and affecting personal ode to the bond between man and dog and as a piece of frivolous entertainment. Like Adam Elliott’s sublime claymation Mary and Max, My Dog Tulip can crack poo jokes one moment and make poignant soul-tingling observations the next, while never jeopardising the sense that this is real art. And very good art, too. Review by Luke Buckmaster at Crikey.com.au 

For anyone interested in animated art, it is well worth reading an insightful interview with film makers Paul and Sandra Fierlinger on BMFI's blog here



culture: friday night flix

Black Swan

Fri 4 Feb to Thurs 10 Feb, 7:00pm Raven's Cry Theatre, Sechelt

(Plus Mats Feb 6, 8, 10 @ 1:00pm)

After much anticipation, Black Swan finally hits the Raven's Cry Theatre tonight. Having lived the ballet world for 14 years, the teenager in me is pretty excited about the idea of an evil ballerina movie. What's not to love about ladies in cool costumes, dance themes, horror flix, and a totally confused sense of reality??? Throw in a Hollywood scandal, that being the real life romance that developed between Natalie Portman and her fiancee-to-be choreographer, Benjamin Millepied, and it's got the makings of the perfect gossip filled girls night out.

For more info see Ravenscrytheatre.com

And here are some pics from February Russian Vogue thanks to Fashion Gone Rogue. Totally ballet inspired and gorgeous.

bandit is officially a sexy word

...and this particular sexy bandit happens to be Lee Pace (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) who stars in The Fall, the latest offering by the Sunshine Coast Film Society.

Screening tonight at the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse, the Fall is a visually stunning masterpiece that blurs the line between fiction and reality. If you’re up for a lushly detailed fairy tale about 5 mythical heroes, coupled with the heart-breaking friendship between an injured actor and one of the most adorable little girls on screen, then this is what you’re looking for.

Upping this movie's cred, is that the cinematic poster for The Fall was based on the Salvador Dali painting, "1935_03_Face of Mae West Which May Be Used as an Apartment", circa 1935.

Come check it out tonight. Doors open at 7pm with the film starting at 7:30pm. For more information see Sunshine Coast Film Society. Oh, and here's a preview trailer to view as well...

Images: Allmoviephoto.com

cutlure: friday night flix

THERE ARE WITCHES, WESTERNS & A KING WITH A STUTTER...

Season of the Witch
Fri 21 Jan to Tues 25 Jan, 7:15pm Gibsons Cinema

What better way to usher in the weekend than a medieval action romp, with witches, the plague and Nicolas Cage’s fascinating hairline? Love him or loathe him, Cage has had such a varied career trajectory it’s easy to forget that he rarely changes the expression on his sleepy-camel face. For every Wild At Heart (1990), he coughs up a Ghost Rider (2007), for every Bad Lieutenant (2009) he’ll give us The Wicker Man (2006). This week he stars in Season Of The Witch (2011), which is positioned squarely between his bugged-out best and meandering worst moments, but still highly enjoyable. In a frankly baffling bit of casting, he plays a crusader escorting a young woman accused of being in league with the devil across the country to be exorcised, surrounded by both the Black Death and black magic.

The above review comes straight from Naag.com cause quite frankly they nailed it! See Gibsonscinema.ca for more movie information.

The King's Speech
Fri 21 Jan to Thurs 3 Feb, 7pm Raven's Cry Theatre, Sechelt
(Plus Mats Jan 23/25/26/27 1pm)

It could have been stiff-upper-lip Brit blather about a stuttering king who can't bring himself to face the microphone. But rather, The King's Speech, with its dream cast, delivers some funny as hell human drama out of the dry dust of history. In the flick, King George VI finds his own Dr. Strangelove in Lionel Logue, a wildly eccentric Australian speech therapist who makes it possible for the stammering monarch to go on radio in 1939 and rally his subjects to support the declaration of war on Hitler's Germany. Ravenscrytheatre.com

True Grit
Fri 21 Jan to Thurs 27 Jan, 7pm Patricia Theatre, Powell River

YAY - The Coen Brothers film, True Grit has finally made it to the Coast! I'm a sucker for anything by the Coen Brothers and this movie should definitely be placed on your 'most wanted' list. Totally inspired by the weirdo - western genre, I'm hoping Cowboys & Aliens comes our way too. See Patriciatheatre.com for prices and tickets.

Image Source: IMDB.com

off coast: what's on...

If you're craving a city fix this week, here are some highlights of what's happening nearby-ish.

Vancouver

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Tuesday 18 January to Sunday 6 February, 2011

Various Vancouver Venues

The seventh annual international performing arts festival kicks off this week at various venues around Vancouver. This year's PuSh features performances by the Belgian artist collective Berlin, London-based theatre artist Peter Reder, Paris-based visual artist and composer Ryoji Ikeda, Swiss theatre-dance-music ensemble Company Drift, Montreal performance artist Julie Andrée T., Australian physical-theatre company Circa, and Vancouver's MovEnt, Neworld Theatre, Leaky Heaven Circus, Theatre Replacement, and Music on Main PLUS lots more... See http://www.pushfestival.ca/ for more information. Reviews on the Aussie act, Circa, sound great! 

First Weekend Club screening of Casino Jack

Thursday 20 January, 2011

District 319 (319 Main Street)

The First Weekend Club is an across the country group dedicated to the promotion and showing of Canadian films. Their upcoming Canada Screens (Vancouver) preview is Kevin Spacey's new movie Casino Jack which opens in theatres on 28 January. Two-time Academy Award winner Spacey plays the role of Jack Abramoff in late director George Hickenlooper's crime comedy that's based on real-life events. Jack, a Washington lobbyist, takes on a set of white collar crimes with business partner Michael (Barry Pepper). However, the two find themselves in over their heads when they become entangled in the mafia's murders and scandals.

Casino Jack also stars Jon Lovitz, Kelly Preston, and Canadian actors Graham Greene and Rachelle Lefevre of Twilight fame. The movie was written by Canadian screenwriter Norman Snider, and shot mainly in Toronto, Hamilton, and Welland, Ontario.

The First Weekend Club screening is $18 and includes a pre-show wine reception with live music at 6:30 p.m. In addition, a dinner and movie combo is offered with Boneta Restaurant (1 West Cordova Street), where diners will receive 15 percent off their meal prior to the movie screening. Advance ticket purchases are recommended. Visit the First Weekend Club website for more details or call 1-604-983-5373.

Vancouver Motorcycle Show
Thursday 20 January to Sunday 23 January, 2011

Tradex Trade & Exhibition Centre (1190 Cornell St., Abbotsford)

Preview the latest in motorcycle innovation from industry leaders Ducati, Harley-Davidson, BMW, Victory, Polaris, KTM, Hyosung, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki.

Tix $13/8 (plus service charges and fees) at www.vancouvermotorcycleshow.ca/

Seattle

30 Seconds to Mars

Tuesday 18 January 2011

The Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine Street, Seattle

I'm not sure where I've been but somewhere along the line, Jared Leto's band, 30 Seconds to Mars which he formed with his brother Shannon, has gone from being trashed by the critics to Last.fm's 7th best band in 2011, ahead of The National. Who would have thought this bit of eye candy was capable of producing good tunes. But hey, even if they're rubbish you'll get an hour and a half to lust over Jared. For ticket details see http://www.stgpresents.org/

Sources: www.firstweekendclub.ca, Last.fm, www.pushfestival.ca, The Georgia Straight, www.vancouvermotorcycleshow.ca

culture: friday night flicks

The Fighter

Fri 14 Jan to Thurs 20 Jan, 7pm Raven's Cry Theatre, Sechelt

(Plus Tues 18 & Thurs 20 Jan at 1pm)

With the Golden Globe Awards being announced this Sunday (16th Jan), it's worth catching The Fighter, which has been nominated for 6 Awards including Best Picture. Opening tonight at the Raven's Cry Theatre, The Fighter has been reviewed as the best real boxing movie since Raging Bull. Not only does it go deep into the mechanics of how fighters train and think, it is a powerful film about the brutal realities of working class American families. Plus, it stars Christian Bale, which is worth the admission price alone! http://www.ravenscrytheatre.com/

The Brideless Groom

Friday 14 Jan, 7pm Arts Building on South Fletcher Road, Gibsons

Suffering from a bit of cabin fever but aren't up for a big night out? It's vintage film night at the Arts Building on South Fletcher, and they're showing the classic Three Stooges film, The Brideless Groom, from 1947. It's only 17 minutes long so you can hurry back to your duvet and hot chocolate whilst still getting your social fix.

All ages are welcome for admission of $2.

May I be Frank

Tues 18 Jan, 7:30pm Roberts Creek Hall

Black Cat Cinema is known for putting on films that entertain and inspire, whilst expanding our consciousness and awareness of the world. This Tuesday they introduce us to Frank. Great name. Frank is 54, weighs 290lbs, had a lifetime of drug & alcohol abuse and as a result contracted Hepatitis-C. Not great qualities for a singles ad right? But Frank's life changes when he stumbles into a Raw Food Cafe in San Fran and the staff vouch to help him transform his life and fall in love one more time. All in under 42 days.

Admission is $8. For more information call 604-886-2780, email blackcat@resist.ca or see http://www.blackcatcinema.ca/

Source: blackcatcinema.ca, imdb.com, justjared.buzznet.com, threestooges.com