A Useful Ghost: VIFF 2025

And now for something completely different: an absurdist comedy about ghosts inhabiting home appliances that is simultaneously a rousing, radical work of historical excavation. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s film is a wacky, whimsical look at Thai politics, from the distant past to its recent history. The film opens with the purchase of a vacuum cleaner revealed to … Read more

Our Hero, Balthazar: VIFF 2025

Balthazar (Jaeden Martell) attends a private school in New York, where he spends his nights performatively condemning gun violence in front of a ring light, mostly in the hopes of impressing his crush. But when Balthazar receives a series of alarming messages from an online troll who may be planning a school shooting themselves, Balthazar … Read more

Rental Family: VIFF 2025

Need a respectable-looking mourner to fill out your funeral? Searching for a fake dad to impress the registration committee at your posh private school? Why not call Rental Family, a surrogate agency leasing stand-in actors for social settings. In this US-Japanese co-production from director HIKARI (who has several episodes of Beef in her filmography), Brendan … Read more

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

A missing patient. A demonic hamster. A cosmic hole in the bedroom ceiling. For Linda (Rose Byrne), life is a series of surreal catastrophes pointing to her failure as a working mother, and even her therapist (Conan O’Brien) is getting sick of her. Displaced in a purgatorial motel while her husband (Christian Slater) is away … Read more

Night of the Juggler (2025 Restoration)

The grit and intensity of late-1970s New York City is depicted in stark detail in this relentlessly action-packed cult classic. Twenty-four hours of nerve-jangling tension and suspense begin when a twisted psychotic (Cliff Gorman, ‘Cops and Robbers,’ ‘All That Jazz’) kidnaps a teenaged girl, mistaking her for the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer. … Read more

Fame

“You’ve got big dreams… You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here is where you start paying. In sweat.” We’re kicking off September with an endearing back-to-school classic that that captures the dreams, anxieties, ambitions, victories and “hot lunch jams” of those perilous educational years, Sir Alan Parker‘s iconic musical FAME. Set against the … Read more

Soul’s Road (Filmmakers in Attendance for Q&A)

Shot in Alberta and starring Canadian country star Dallas Smith, filmmaker Joel Stewart‘s SOUL‘S ROAD is a riveting tale of self-discovery and redemption, promising audiences great music and heartwarming performances. After ruining his solo career and taking an extended break from music, the infamous Ronan Garrett returns to his hometown without much of a plan … Read more

Souleymane’s Story

Racing through the streets of Paris on his bicycle, Guinean immigrant Souleymane (Abou Sangare, in a breakthrough performance) is struggling to stay afloat as an undocumented gig worker, delivering food to middle class Parisians using a “borrowed” account, for which he pays a percentage of his hard-earned wages. In two days, he has to report … Read more

Know Your Place

KNOW YOUR PLACE is a slice-of-life drama set in present-day Seattle. Robel Haile, an Eritrean-American boy of 15, embarks on an errand to deliver a huge and heavy suitcase across town destined for a sick family member in his parents’ homeland. He enlists the help of his best friend Fahmi Tadesse, when an unexpected turn transmutes his … Read more

The Fall (4K Restoration)

The Rio Theatre’s “Must Be Seen on the Big Screen” series continues with one of the most regularly requested titles we get from our audience, writer-director Tarsem’s (THE CELL) visionary 2006 epic THE FALL. Relive this gorgeous fantasy fable on the big screen with its stunning new 4k restoration, presented by David Fincher and Spike … Read more