Inside Vancouver

Vancouver-made Harpoon and the Irish thriller The Perished are highlights of this year’s Badass film festival (postponed)

by Shawn Conner in Entertainment, Insider on March 11, 2020

A promotional image for the Vancouver-made Harpoon, one of the movies screening at Badass 6.

Looking for the latest and weirdest in genre films? Badass 6 has your backside.

A privately-funded film festival, Badass showcases features and shorts in genre cinema from around the world. Now in its sixth year, the festival takes place March 27-29 in East Vancouver, at four Commercial Drive-adjacent locations: the Rio Theatre (1660 E. Broadway), Havana Theatre (1212 Commercial Dr.), and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre (1895 Venables St.), along with the Legion Branch 179 (2205 Commercial Dr., for the March 27 launch party).

In all, there are 12 events, including eight features, 50+ shorts, and the Genre Film Awards gala closing show which will include reptiles, fire burlesque, and circus sideshow acts. See below for some highlights from Badass 6—if you dare. (Click on film titles to view trailers.)

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Vancouver-made Harpoon and the Irish thriller The Perished are highlights of this year’s Badass film festival (postponed)

Six movies to see at Vancouver International Women in Film Festival

by Shawn Conner in Entertainment, Events on February 25, 2020

Black Conflux.

The Vancouver International Women in Film Festival presents world and Canadian premieres of First Nations and culturally diverse films. The festival takes place from March 3-8 and celebrates cinema created by women. Along with screenings, the festival presents panels, seminars, special guests, artist talks, pitch sessions, a screenplay competition, receptions, and an awards gala. See below for highlights.

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Six movies to see at Vancouver International Women in Film Festival

Cinematheque’s Best of the Decade kicks off today

by Shawn Conner in Entertainment, Events on January 8, 2020

Haven’t seen Toni Erdmann yet? Check out the 2016 German-Austrian comedy as part of Cinematheque’s Best of the Decade film series.

Can you name your 10 favourite films from the last decade? Cinematheque programmers Jim Sinclair and Shaun Inouye have picked theirs, and the theatre is screening them from now until Feb. 17.

Among the selections, perhaps the biggest surprise is David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return, an 18-hour epic that aired in 2017 in hour-long episodes on Showtime. Other titles you might recognize, or perhaps have never heard of—and that’s exactly what lists like these (and the Cinematheque’s programming) is for.

See the selections below (click on titles to view trailers). And no, Avengers: Endgame did not make the cut.

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Cinematheque’s Best of the Decade kicks off today

Irish coming-of-age film Metal Heart and five more to see at this year’s European Film Festival

by Shawn Conner in Events, Insider on November 14, 2019

A scene from the Irish film Metal Heart.

From Nov. 22-Dec. 2, The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St.) presents its annual European Film Festival. Among the more than two dozen films, the selections include a ghost story from Malta, a political comedy from Croatia, and a coming-of-age story about two fraternal twins from Ireland. See more about these films and others below.

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Irish coming-of-age film Metal Heart and five more to see at this year’s European Film Festival

Where to watch scary movies in Vancouver this October

by Shawn Conner in Entertainment, Insider on October 11, 2019

It’s time again for our annual Halloween guide to scary movies. So sit back with some popcorn and a pumpkin craft ale (where allowed, of course) and take in some thrills, chills, and spills at the cinema.

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Where to watch scary movies in Vancouver this October

Restored (and in one case somewhat redeemed), two movies by writer-director Elaine May at the Cinematheque

by Shawn Conner in Entertainment, Insider on September 13, 2019

Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty on a camel in Elaine May’s 1987 movie Ishtar.

Elaine May is a gifted American comic performer, screenwriter, and filmmaker. This month, Cinematheque (1131 Howe St.) is screening two films by May—including Ishtar, a feature that was a notorious bomb upon its release. Despite, or because, of the fact that she was one of the only women directing features in Hollywood in the 1970s and ’80s, both films happen to be buddy pictures.

Cinematheque is screening the two movies, both in restored versions, Sept. 13–15. Find out more about these two films, and May, below.

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Restored (and in one case somewhat redeemed), two movies by writer-director Elaine May at the Cinematheque

Film noir this August includes classic Detour and films by French master Jean-Pierre Melville

by Shawn Conner in Entertainment, Insider on July 24, 2019

A scene from the noir classic Detour.

Who’s thinking about crime in August? Fans of film noir, that’s who.

Each summer, Vancouver’s premiere arthouse The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St.) presents its annual Film Noir series. This year’s runs from Aug. 1-22 and features the first major restoration of Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 classic Detour, a new restoration of Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (1946), and two pictures, both also newly restored, by Ida Lupino. The actress/filmmaker was the only woman to direct noir in the classic period.

Along with the series, the arthouse theatre is featuring a special retrospective of films by French noir master Jean-Pierre Melville. See below for more highlights.

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Film noir this August includes classic Detour and films by French master Jean-Pierre Melville