With last-minute booking changes and self-distribution becoming more and more commonplace, it’s difficult to stay on top of the release calendar in a city with as many screens as Toronto.
Then again, sleep is overrated. Which is how I caught up to The Frankenstein Theory, a horror movie landing at the Big Picture Cinema in Leslieville this week – just days after its Canadian DVD release.
A found-footage movie about people going in search of a mythological monster, The Frankenstein Theory has Blair Witch Project in its DNA. There are a few key differences: the remote location is the wintry Northwest Territories rather than rural Maryland, and the filmmakers are searching for evidence that Frankenstein’s monster was not only real, but still living in the Arctic nearly 200 years after Mary Shelley’s novel was published.
The expedition is driven by a college professor (Kris Lemche, whom you may recognize from Ginger Snaps) whose research into his own ancestry has led him to conclude that the Frankenstein legend is based on his own great-great-great-grandfather’s scientific research, and to become more than a little obsessed with proving this.
Lemche’s barely-controlled mania gives the first hour of the picture real energy, and for a while that’s all it needs. But then the team gets where they’re going, and director and co-writer Andrew Weiner can’t figure out anything new to do with the Blair Witch formula of creepy noises, mysterious disappearances and bloody discoveries all that’s left for us is a slow plod to a final revelation that won’t surprise anyone, and isn’t even particularly well-executed. Which is a shame, given such a strong start.
(Fortunately, The Frankenstein Theory isn’t the only movie to consider a cherished cultural artifact from a new perspective this week. This Wednesday night, I’m presenting Galaxy Quest at Harbourfront Centre, the latest in this summer Free Flicks program. If you want to see genre reinvention the way it ought to be done, you’ll definitely want to check that out. This concludes the plugs portion of this column.)
Elsewhere in town, free screenings abound. Should the rain break this evening – and you find yourself downtown instead of out at Ford Fest Scarborough – the Toronto Palestine Film Festival is holding its annual outdoor screening in Christie Pits Park. This year it’s Annemarie Jacir’s Salt Of This Sea, a drama about a Brooklyn-born woman (Suheir Hamad) who returns to her ancestral home in Palestine to find conflict and misery. Weather permitting, the show starts at 8 pm.
Alternately, if you’re in the Christie Pits area Sunday evening, you might want to check out the opening night of the Christie Pits Film Festival, which kicks off its Hits In The Pits series with Tom Hanks’s delightful That Thing You Do! at 9 pm. The festival will present a free screening of a different music movie every week this month – Gimme Shelter July 14, Buena Vista Social Club July 21, The Last Waltz July 28 – with a special screening of LCD Soundsystem: Shut Up And Play The Hits on July 20 at Bloor and Dufferin as part of the Big On Bloor Festival.
(I am compelled to point out that I will also be presenting a free screening of That Thing You Do! August 14 at Harbourfront, but if you choose to see it this weekend I guess I’ll understand.)
And finally, if you’re in an anime mood, this week the Japan Foundation is launching Anime Favourites, a free screening and lecture series. Monday at 6:30 pm, the foundation brings Dr. Sandra Annett to speak on “Anime Fandom And Otaku Culture”, followed by a Tuesday night screening of Tomoharu Katsumata’s Arcadia Of My Youth at 6:30 pm at Innis Town Hall. Admission for all events is free RSVPs are required for the lectures and the closing screening of Galaxy Express 999 on July 27 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The complete schedule is here. Take notes.
