HE WAS A QUIET MAN: THE FILMS OF JOHN PAIZS Rating: NNNN
Feeling stifled by the conventions of genre films? Looking for a change from the usual stuff? Well, youre in luck. The Royal Cinema is mounting a one-day salute to Winnipeg filmmaker John Paizs tonight (Thursday, April 10).
Imagine the playful whimsy of Guy Maddin without the fetish for old silent films and youre on your way to understanding Paizss sensibility. His features offer straight-faced deconstructions of film noir and 1950s sci-fi tropes, with characters operating on just the wrong side of self-awareness as they navigate increasingly bizarre situations. Oh, and theyre funny.
Paizss 1999 B movie goof Top Of The Food Chain (7 pm Rating: NNNN) tracks the efforts of particularly inept atomic scientist Karel Lamonte (Campbell Scott) to thwart an alien infestation in the tiny hamlet of Exceptional Vista. The material gives Paizs licence to unleash the genres grotty id, adding impressive amounts of gore and uncomfortable sexuality to the usual slime-spewing monsterisms.
The ultra-arch 1985 comedy Crime Wave (9:15 pm Rating: NNNN) casts the director himself as a writer determined to pen the best crime movie ever.
Theres just one problem: he cant write middles, just beginnings and endings, which are acted out in stark, silly vignettes for our entertainment… until a mysterious doctor offers our hero a chance to realize his dream, for a price.
Crime Wave screens with Paizss 1981 short Springtime In Greenland. The filmmaker will be in attendance for Q&As after each feature.
Screens Thursday (April 10) at the Royal Cinema.
