Happy Face

Estranged from his manipulative cancer-stricken mother, Stan, a quixotic 19-year-old, dons a disguise and joins a therapy workshop for disfigured patients in a misguided attempt to reconnect with her. But when his deception is revealed, Stan, who is desperate to gain coping skills to care for his disease-ravaged mother, offers the afflicted patients a bargain: … Read more

The Lighthouse

From Robert Eggers, the visionary filmmaker behind modern horror masterpiece THE VVITCH, comes this hypnotic and hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe – both, never better – ably command the screen in this thoroughly captivating tale, one of 2019’s … Read more

Cagefest 2020: Color Out of Space

Cagefest – our (unofficial) Nicolas Cage Film Fest (aka, NIFF), a solid 5 days’ worth of our fave performances from one of our all-time favourite contemporary actors – is set to end with Cage‘s 2019 turn in the sci-fi quasi-gorefest COLOR OUT OF SPACE. Written and directed by Richard Stanley (HARDWARE), the film is based … Read more

Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo

With nearly 400 film and television credits since 1985, Danny Trejo is one of the most prolific and recognizable actors around. But his remarkable ascent to beloved Hollywood hero notorious for tough guy roles in HEAT, BREAKING BAD, and the MACHETE series was as hard-earned as it was unexpected. In this moving, funny, and revealing portrait, Trejo candidly … Read more

The Ring (‘Ringu’) 25th Anniversary Screening (NEW Restoration)

The J-Horror classic is back – with a new 4K restoration – for a 25th Anniversary screening at the Rio Theatre on Sunday, September 24. Directed by Hideo Nakata (DARK WATER), RINGU is the highest grossing Japanese horror movie in history that still manages to shred our nerves with its quiet, phantasmic elegance. This is … Read more

VAFF Presents: Double Happiness 25th Anniversary Screening

25 Years later … Watch the film and meet the director, Mina Shum! A landmark film in the history of Asian representation in Canadian cinema, DOUBLE HAPPINESS is celebrated as one of the few North American films of the 1990s to have a primarily Asian cast. Earning seven Genie Award nominations and two wins, Sandra … Read more

RoboCop

“Dead or alive, you’re coming with me!” The Rio Theatre’s Friday Late Night Movie series continues with Paul Verhoeven‘s 1987 sci-fi action juggernaut ROBOCOP, an action film that balances ultra-violence with black comedy and cutting social satire. Set in a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government … Read more

Fantastic Fungi

Directed by award-winning filmmaker and pioneer of time-lapse photography, Louie Schwartzberg (Moving Art, Wings of Life, Mysteries of the Unseen Worlds 3D Imax), Fantastic Fungi is an immersive experience that will inspire a shift in consciousness and a renewed love of nature. Narrated by Academy Award-Winner Brie Larson, Fantastic Fungi takes us on an immersive … Read more

Reel Causes: My Dads, My Moms, and Me

Reel Causes is thrilled to present MY DADS, MY MOMS, AND ME, a film that follows three BC families on their parenthood journey. In her 2007 documentary FATHERHOOD DREAMS, Julia Ivanova chronicled the touching and challenging journeys of four gay men who each made the decision to become parents after Canada legalized same-sex marriage. Married … Read more

Judy

Winter 1968 and showbiz legend Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) arrives in Swinging London to perform a five-week sold-out run at The Talk of the Town. It is 30 years since she shot to global stardom in The Wizard of Oz, but if her voice has weakened, its dramatic intensity has only grown. As she prepares … Read more