This Week in Film: Fine Totally Fine, Hot Water, Legend, Forbidden Planet, Conversations with Gregg Araki & Mysterious Skin
TUESDAY APRIL 5TH / TORONTO J-FILM POW-WOW PRESENTS FINE, TOTALLY FINE / REVUE CINEMA / 7PM
In Fine, Totally Fine, two Japanese almost-thirty-something-slacker-pseudo-siblings have a dream to create the scariest haunted house in all of Japan. Unfortunately even the best laid of plans have flaws and theirs begins with the inclusion of an awkward cute co-ed whom they both fall for, something which could threaten their friendship and their project. With a premise that could easily turn a quiet comedy into overt melodrama Fine, Totally Fine knows its limits and there are no villains or heroes, just people. Tickets are $8 and all profits from this screening will go to SUPPORT JAPAN - GAMBARE/ JustGiving Relief Fund, so come down, bring your friends and watch an awesome movie for an awesome cause. Tickets can be bought at the cinema.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 6TH / SILENT FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS HOT WATER / FOX THEATRE / 7PM
The Toronto Silent Film Festival has quietly started up again this year and runs until Thursday. Bouncing from Innis Town Hall to the Revue, the Fox and Trinity St. Paul's, the festival harkens back to an era where films were silent, people were loud (except not anymore, shh!) and live musical accompaniment was a requirement. Hot Water is a comedy about 'one of those days', featuring Harold Lloyd as a married man trying to keep it all together when his day goes from bad to worse to his in-laws! Stick around afterward for It's the Old Army Game at 8:30. Tickets are $7 for members, $10 for non-members and can be bought at the cinema.
THURSDAY APRIL 7TH / LEGEND / TORONTO UNDERGROUND CINEMA / 7PM
Legend, Ridley Scott's terrifying fantasy epic emerges from the depths of the Underground Cinema this week. The film stars a young Tom Cruise, fresh out of Risky Business, as a reclusive young man who falls for a reckless princess whose selfishness endangers the world. But really, Tim Curry is the villain in this story, playing the Dark Lord who attempts to seduce the selfish princess into killing off the last of the unicorns, thus freezing the world and cementing his place as the nightmare in the dreams of children everywhere. Only pre-Scientology Tom Cruise can stop him! Tickets are $8 and can be bought at the cinema.
FRIDAY APRIL 8TH / FORBIDDEN PLANET / BLOOR CINEMA / 4:30PM
Spend your Friday night at the Bloor Cinema this week for a fantastic TRIPLE BILL of science fiction classics, starting with Forbidden Planet. Starring a young Leslie Neilson, the film is about an (All American!) space mission that crash-lands on a mysterious world with an amazing robot who can create anything from beer to fabric, a sexy virgin who's never met a man before and her overprotective and eerily self-satisfied father. One of the great precursors to modern science fiction, it stands the test of time over 50 years later. Also, stick around for Predator at 7pm and Close Encounters of a Third Kind at 9:10pm. Tickets are $10 for non-members, $7 for members and can be bought at the cinema.
SATURDAY APRIL 9TH / IN CONVERSATION WITH GREGG ARAKI / TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX / 7PM
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SUNDAY APRIL 10TH / MYSTERIOUS SKIN / TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX / 7PM
The unmistakable Gregg Araki, director of Kaboom, Smiley Face, The Living End and other films about nonapologetic sexual deviants and outsiders, is having his career dissected this month at TIFF. Kicking off the festivities on Saturday the 9th is a In Conversation With... sit-down with the director and TIFF's Artistic Director Noah Cowan. For an underground director finally getting his due, Araki has certainly built up his resume for almost a quarter of a century, the real question that hopefully will be addressed will be whether or not he envisions his characters (and himself) ever growing up.
The film retrospective officially begins Sunday with Araki's critically-acclaimed sexual abuse drama, Mysterious Skin. While some of his other works could be described as dark and goofy in his portrayal of queer youth, stoners, losers and the like , it's Araki's portrayal of the toll sexual abuse can take on its victims (whomever they may be), as a living, breathing thing that sets this film apart. On top of that is the surprising and exceptional performance by Joseph Gordon Levitt, one year pre-Brick, as a hustler who has no residual feelings or emotions (other than his screwed up ideas about sex and relationships) perhaps as a result of his childhood abuse. Tickets for In Conversation with Gregg Araki are $18.75 for adults and tickets for Mysterious Skin are $12 for adults. Tickets for both can be bought online or at the cinema.
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