Stay away from the soy sauce
JOHN DIES AT THE END: Pairing the director of Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep with one of the last decade’s wildest horror novels is the kind of chocolate-and-peanut-butter combo that no cult-movie fan can resist. Sure enough, John Dies at the End— director Don Coscarelli’s new adaptation of the book by David Wong (a penname for Jason Pargin) — contains more than enough weirdness to sate the appetites of adventurous viewers. They’ll get a chance to partake when Coscarelli’s film launches Sinister Cinema, a monthly program of fresh genre flicks presented by Cineplex and Raven Banner.
A worthy selection from last year’s Midnight Madness at TIFF, John Dies at the End stars Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes as paranormal investigators whose already shaky grasp on reality loosens further after they encounter a bizarre drug nicknamed “soy sauce.” The particular brand of chaos that ensues involves everything from telekinetic dogs to monstrous insect creatures to a skeptical reporter played by Paul Giamatti (a big Coscarelli fan, the actor is also one of the movie’s executive producers).
Coscarelli will be ready to hopefully explain what it all means when he does a Q&A after John Dies at the End’s screening at the Cineplex Odeon Yonge-Dundas location on March 27 at 9:30 p.m. The movie plays March 27 at six more Cineplex theatres in the GTA, with encore screenings to follow at YongeDundas on April 1 and 4. Upcoming selections for Sinister Cinema include American Mary and The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh.
ALUCINE: Now in its 13th year, aluCine showcases new works by filmmakers and artists working in Latin America, Canada and just about anywhere else Spanish may be spoken. Exhibitions, performances, talks and workshops complement an intriguing slate of screenings at AGO’s Jackman Hall, the theatre at the Artscape Wychwood Barns (601 Christie St.) and the Toronto Free Gallery (1277 Bloor St. W.) The fourday program opens on March 27 with the Canadian premiere of La Playa D.C., an arresting feature about a Bogota street youth’s search for his missing brother that garnered considerable acclaim for Colombian director Juan Andres Arango Garcia at Cannes last year. It screens at 7 p.m. at Jackman Hall with The French Tomb, a long-lost 13-minute doc on the Afro-Cuban dance of the title that was co-directed by legendary cinematographer Néstor Almendros. AluCine continues to March 30.
CMW AND CANADIAN FILM FESTS: There’s no shortage of worthy options for festival-goers this weekend thanks to two big events. The CMW Film Fest continues with a strong slate of new music docs. Scholars, students and survivors of the local punk scene will most definitely be at TIFF Bell Lightbox when The Last Pogo Strikes Again — a 212-minute (!) history of Toronto’s role in the snottiest of musical movements — makes its world premiere on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Equally anticipated is Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, a new portrait of one of rock’s least fortunate bands. It plays Lightbox on Saturday at 9:15 p.m. Meanwhile at the Royal, the Canadian Film Festival continues with a patriotic program of shorts, features and documentaries. The movie most deserving of your hard-earned loonies is The Disappeared, a starkly powerful feature by Halifax’s Shandi Mitchell about six fishermen stranded off the East Coast. It makes its Toronto premiere on Friday at 7 p.m. Closing-night honours at the CFF goes to Mr. Viral, a satire of the ad world by Toronto’s Alex Boothby. It plays Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
SCI FI FILM LAB: Science fiction cinema gets the love it deserves at a new series presented by the online SF lit magazine AE and the Martians and Monsters film fest. Pairing muchloved movies with talks by many of Toronto’s best science fiction authors, the Sci Fi Film Lab launches March 28 at 7:30 p.m. with a screen-
ing of the 1995 anime milestone Ghost in the Shell and a lecture by author Madeleine Ashby at Big Picture Cinema (1035 Gerrard St. E.). Canadian SF king Robert J. Sawyer is on deck for the April 25 screening of the Brit cult flick Quatermass and the Pit.
THERMAE ROMAE: A bawdy comedy about bathhouses set in modern Tokyo and ancient Rome, Thermae Romae was one of Japan’s biggest box-office hits last year. Local viewers who missed it at TIFF can catch it at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (6 Garamond Court) on March 28 at 7 p.m. Attendees will also be the first to hear about the lineup for the annual Toronto Japanese Film Festival, which returns in June.
SCIENCE AT THE MOVIES: A 1986 comedy that introduced Ally Sheedy to a sentient robot named Johnny Five, Short Circuit is the latest selection for a new program by the University of Toronto and the Treehouse Group on science-themed movies. After the screening, host Dan Falk will be joined by U of T professors Diana Raffman (Philosophy) and Sheila McIlraith (Computer Science). This brainy affair takes place March 26 at 5:45 p.m. at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema.
EPICURE’S REVUE: The Revue’s films-for-foodies series has a distinctly Gallic flavour for this month’s edition. On March 28 at 6:45 p.m., a screening of Entre Les Bras — a documentary about a French chef’s efforts to pass his Michelin three-star restaurant down to his son — is accompanied by a talk by Christophe Measson, a French-born and Toronto-based restaurateur, pastry chef and George Brown instructor. Barque and Mildred’s Temple Kitchen are just two of the restos providing tasty items to hungry patrons.