November 29, 2019 - January 9, 2020 Grab a Brew with your Film!

905-545-8888 • 177 SHERMAN AVE. N., HAMILTON ,ON • WWW.PLAYHOUSECINEMA.CA

See this MOVIE EVENT of the YEAR on the BIG SCREEN! Until Dec 5th Driver & Johansson Martin Scorsese’s DeNiro/Pacino/Pesci

OPENS Nov 29th

THE CLIMBING EVENT OF THE YEAR!

‘Waves’ is sure to be regarded as one of the best films of 2019.” ost - The Wrap Act fast! Alm SOLD OUT! “tender, bruising, Co-Sponsor - Gravity Climbing Gym exuberant film” Dec 11th - Tickets available! - Hollywod Reporter “ImpecCably Crafted!” Jonathan Pryce Anthony Hopkins “HHHH Hopkins and Pryce’s finely THE tuned performances illuminate Bendict’s shrewd intelligence and Francis’s TWO deep humility.” - Kate Taylor , GLOBE & MAIL POPES

DEC 6-12 Dec 13-23 DEC 13-23 (seven shows)

seven locks, the seventh of which has an "electromagnetic seal" that - Descriptions below are for films playing at according to Hans’ computer expert - it would take a miracle to break. the Playhouse Cinema from November 29, 2019, A CHRISTMAS STORY “There are good performances from everyone in this often funny, through to and including January 9, 2020. Dir. Bob Clark • USA/Canada • 1983 • 94min • Rated PG. very violent but exciting melodrama.” - New York Daily News CHRISTMAS CLASSICS ON THE BIG SCREEN! DECEMBER 15 & 18 “A Christmas Story is a heart-warming pastiche of snowflakes, Christmas lights and one little boy's quest for the present of his FRANKIE Admission Prices dreams. Peter Billingsley plays the all-American protagonist, Ralphie Dir. Ira Sachs • France/Portugal • 2019 • 100min • Rated PG. Parker, a delightful little Everykid created by American humorist Jean AN AGING ACTRESS’ FAMILY MOVINGLY DEALS WITH DEATH Members/under 12: $8 Shepherd in his novel In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. “Françoise Crémont — Frankie to her friends — is a famous actress, and she’s dying. For a sense of how she’s handling this devel- Non-Members: $ 12 • Over 65/Students: $9 “It's a nostalgic comedy featuring a family of eccentrics who lov- ingly celebrate the holidays and life itself in Midwestern America in opment, all you really need to know is that she is played by the glori- ously unsentimental Isabelle Huppert. There’s a scene, halfway Annual Membership: $10 the 1940s. They're like an early-TV comedy family, except more whim- sical and real. Melinda Dillon plays the Mom of Moms who's always through, in which Frankie figures out that her husband, Jimmy Membership benefits: dishing out seconds and hasn't had a hot meal herself in 15 years. (Brendan Gleeson), has conspired with her ex-husband, Michel $4 o regular admission Darren McGavin plays The Old Man, perpetually battling the furnace (Pascal Greggory), to casually bring her by a local spring that happens Free film guide mailing and the Oldsmobile and the neighboring Bumpus’ hound dogs. to be famed for its healing water. Snack bar combo (CONTINUED ON PG 3) “Much of the film is narrated by Shepherd in his own incompara- She’s not moved by the gesture — ble prose. It works wonderfully, with everyone emoting madly, having perhaps the most fun any actors have had since vaudeville.” “Intense, unsettling, modestly triumphant portrait of the artist as a young man.” - Washington Post DECEMBER 16 & 17 - Washington Post COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL Dir. Ron Mann • Canada/USA • 1988 • 90min • Rated STC. FRIDAY NOVEMBER 29 SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30 DIRECTOR RON MANN IN ATTENDANCE FOR INTRO AND Q&A! “The people behind Spider-Man, Captain America and other comic 4:00PM •STC• “The movie is a masterpiece,11:00AM •STC• one made by a man counting down book heroes resemble Clark Kent in real life. They are calm, reason- able, respectable-looking people whose fantasies and superhuman his own years as if they were rosary beads.”- Boston Globe powers are released in the Zap! Pow! Gasp! of their work. In Comic Book Confidential, Ron Mann's look through 50 years of American comic books, these artists and writers recall the origins of their work and read snippets of their stories. The camera zooms in on characters “In a dazzling high-wire from superpowered patriots to counterculture con men, sometimes act as actor and 8:00PM“An •STC• emotionally lacerating 3:00PM & 5:45PM •STC• setting them in motion in styles that suit their eras. screenwriter, experience, a nearly flawless “Among the 22 artists and writers interviewed, William M. Gaines Shia LaBeouf elegy for a beautifully comes to embody comic-book history itself. He describes his father lets loose on folding up the Sunday funnies and selling them for a dime - the flawed couple.” - LA Times his own life as makeshift origins of the comic book. We see the effects, in film of Mr. a child star.” Marriage Gaines testifying in 1954 before the Senate Subcommittee on - Juvenile Delinquency, which was considering the proposition that 8:30PM •STC• Story comic books were corrupting America's youth.” - The New York Times Marriage DECEMBER 19 DIE HARD Story Dir. John McTiernan • USA • 1988 • 128min. • Rated 18A. EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE ‘CHRISTMAS MOVIE’ DEC 20 PROGRAMMING NOTE “In Die Hard, Bruce Willis is your basic little guy up against a gang TBA (TO BE ANNOUNCED) TITLES of international terrorists, and they've got chainsaws and machine At press time we were not able to confirm what guns and plastic explosives and he has just the one measly handgun. - JAN 9 titles to put in these slots, so we decided to wait “It's Christmas Eve, and Willis, playing a New York cop named John until mid December, when some current titles McClane, has flown to L.A. to visit his estranged wife (Bonnie would become available. Bedelia). He goes to the high-rise office building where she works for the Nakatomi Corp. and finds her and her fellow workers having a Watch for announcements on our website or Christmas party on the 30th floor. The rest of the building is empty. through our weekly e-newsletter! Thanks for paying “Which is why the terrorists headed by Hans Gruber (Alan attention to the details! Rickman), have elected to take it over. Their object is $600 million worth of bearer bonds in the Nakatomi vault. The vault is protected by 18 FREE PARKING SPOTS IN PLAYHOUSE LOT NEXT DOOR! PLUS 18 MORE SPOTS ACROSS THE STREET IN MUNICIPAL LOT! NOV 29 2019-JAN 9 2020

SEE NOV 29 & 30 LISTINGS ON PAGE ONE MONDAY DECEMBER 2 TUESDAY DECEMBER 3 WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 4 THURSDAY DECEMBER 5 FRIDAY DECEMBER 6 SATURDAY DECEMBER 7 SUNDAY DECEMBER 1 4:00PM •STC• 4:00PM •STC• 4:00PM •STC• 5:15PM •STC• 4:15PM •14A• 1:35PM •STC• An epic gangster drama... The Irishmanfinds Martin Scorsese revisiting “This involving and extremely well-made “A major triumph and one of 2:00PM •PG• familiar themes to poignant, funny, and profound effect epic seems to be an appropriate capstone the very best movies of the for Scorsese - as well as De Niro, Pesci, and year. The best film yet from WAVES 7:00PM •PG• Pacino - at this late stage in their careers.” director Noah Baumbach “Whisks us away, showcases such - Salon.com with career highs from a talented and eclectic array of Marriage leads Adam Driver and performers, and reconfirms a 4:20PM •PG• Scarlett Johansson.” singular filmmaker's (Ira Sachs) Story 4:00M •STC• - Rolling Stone affecting artistry.” - LA Times 8:00PM •STC• 8:00PM •STC• 8:00PM •STC• FRANKIE “A deeply thoughtful and empathetic film about PEOPLE’S CHOICE 6“:3T0aPkeMs • u14sA o•n a real journey, leaving how difficult it is - logistically, on top of all the Runner-Up • TIFF 2019 FRANKIE us breathless but also marvelling 8:00PM •STC• messy feelings - to end a marriage.” Marriage 9:10PM •STC• at the end.”- Toronto Star - AV Club 8:00PM •STC• WAVES Marriage Marriage Story Marriage 9:15PM •PG• Story Marriage Story Story Story SUNDAY DECEMBER 8 MONDAY DECEMBER 9 TUESDAY DECEMBER 10 WEDNESDAY DEC 11 THURSDAY DECEMBER 12 FRIDAY DECEMBER 13 SATURDAY DECEMBER 14 1:30PM •14A• 3:45PM •STC• 4:20PM •PG• 4:30PM •STC• 3:45PM •STC• 4:25PM •STC• 1:30PM •STC• “A perfect blend of writing, unflashy direction, spot on performances and score (by FRANKIE HARRIET WAVES 6:30PM •STC• 4:05PM •G• 4:15M •STC• Randy Newman)... Its triumph 6:45PM“ •ASnT Cex• uberant Vatican-set “A captivating musical experience is that it just feels like life.” 7:30PM •STC• 6:30PM •14A• buddy movie.”- Times brought to the screen that - Associated Press Marriage Story expresses both the nature of Marriage WAVES THE TWO POPES Bruce Springsteen and the meaning Marriage 9:15PM •STC• 9:20PM •STC• behind his album Western Stars.” 7:00“PFMee •lPsG li•ke a sumptuous beach “An exhilarating and furious indictment of class struggle, - Film Ireland Story 9:15PM •14A• read on a lazy sunny afternoon.” Marriage “Provocatively examines black Parasite might be the masterpiece South Korea's - RogerEbert.com Story WESTERN STARS 6:30PM •14A• masculinity and the burden of Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer) has been working 6:45PM •STC• Story living up to a societal standard, toward his entire career.” - Globe & Mail THE TWO POPES FRANKIE as well as a parental one.”- TheWrap 9:10PM •14A• WAVES ADVANCE 9:20PM •STC• 9:15PM •STC• TICKETS WAVES WAVES ON SALE SUNDAY DECEMBER 15 MONDAY DECEMBER 16 TUESDAY DECEMBER 17 WEDNESDAY DEC 18 THURSDAY DECEMBER 19 FRIDAY DECEMBER 20 SATURDAY DECEMBER 21 1:50PM •STC• 4:25PM •STC• 4:40PM •PG• 3:15“PAM s m•SaTrCt•, empathetic film about 4:25PM •STC• 4:25PM •STC• 2:05PM •G• Kiki’s HARRIET THE TWO POPES Christmas Classics the need for both resilience and HARRIET THE TWO POPES Delivery 4:25PM •STC• 7:00PM •PG• uncertainty in a faithful heart.” 7:00PM •PG• 7:00PM •STC• assics on the big Screen! “In this intense, unsettling, Christmas Cl - RogerEbert.com Service the big Screen! modestly triumphant portrait 4:30PM •PG• on THE TWO POPES of the artist as a young man, It’s a 6:45M“A •nScThCo• red by two outstanding LaBeouf shows us not only 6:00PM how he grew up, but what it Wonderful performances from Anthony Hopkins CLOSED FOR PRIVATE EVENT FREE SCREENING WITH and Jonathan Pryce, the film is 9:30PM •R• cost him along the way.” FOOD DONATION TO a triumph of writing as well as Christmas Classics on the big Screen! - RogerEbert.com HAMILTON FOOD SHARE Life Director 7:00PM •STC• unostentatious filmmaking.” 6:45PM •STC• ann - Hollywood Reporter 9:05PM •G• Ron M THE TWO POPES in person! THE TWO POPES 9:20PM •STC• 9:05PM •STC• WESTERN 9:15PM •STC• 9:05PM •STC• 9:20PM •R• Christmas Classics DIE HARD STARS DIE HARD THE TWO POPES THE TWO POPES SUNDAY DECEMBER 22 MONDAY DECEMBER 23 TUESDAY DECEMBER 24 WEDNESDAY DEC 25 THURSDAY DECEMBER 26 FRIDAY DECEMBER 27 SATURDAY DECEMBER 28 1:55PM •PG• 4:20PM •G• Kiki’s CINEMA PASSES 1:55PM •STC• 2:05PM •STC• 1:00PM •STC• It’s a MAKE GREAT GIFTS! JUDI DENCH in Delivery HARRIET WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S Wonderful Service 4:30PM •STC• NCO SCRlEEoNINGsS DeEC d24 &. 25 REGULAR ADMISSION 6:45PM •STC• 4:10PM •STC• The Winter’s Tale GET YOUR ADV TICKETS! Life THE TWO POPES 4:35PM •STC• 4:25PM •STC• HARRIET 9:20PM •STC• 6:45PM •STC• 6:45PM •STC• THE TWO POPES “Two primal performances from TBA Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson 7:00PM •STC• 7:00PM •STC• carry Robert Eggers' second film y to glory. Stunningly shot in pp black and white, The Lighthouse a seeps into your bones with a power H 9:10PM •STC• 9:05PM •STC• that won't let go.” - Rolling Stone Holidays! 9:10PM •STC• 9:15PM •STC• SUNDAY DECEMBER 29 MONDAY DECEMBER 30 TUESDAY DECEMBER 31 WEDNESDAY JANUARY 1 THURSDAY JANUARY 2 FRIDAY JANUARY 3 SATURDAY JANUARY 4 2:00PM •STC• 2:10PM •STC• 1:40PMT •STC• BA 7:00PM •STC• T2:1H0PME •1 4AG• OOD LIAR 2:20PM •STC• 2:10PM •STC• EXHIBITION ON SCREEN TBA 4:10PM •STC• TBA LEONARDO: 4:25PM •STC• THE TWO POPES 9:00PM •STC• 4:30PM •STC• EXHIBITION ON SCREEN 4:25PM •14A• 4:15PM •STC• CERTIFIED FRESH ON THE WORKS 6:45PM •STC• ROTTENTOMATOES.COM THE TWO POPES “A sprightly, attractively composed THE GOOD LIAR 4:25PM •14A• “Writer director Taika Waititi (Hunt for the LEONARDO: 7:00PM •STC• TBA coming-of-age comedy set in WW II Wilderpeople), brings his signature style 6:45PM & 9:00PM •STC “Director Taika Waititi's THE GOOD LIAR Germany, Jojo Rabbitis an of humor and pathos to his latest film, a 6:45PM •STC• THE WORKS self-described "anti-hate satire" audacious high-wire act.” World War II satire that follows a lonely 6:45PM •STC• 6:45PM •STC• - Washington Post German boy whose world view is turned blossoms into a big-hearted black THE TWO POPES upside down when he discovers his single comedy with the thorniest possible 9:05PM •STC 9:20PM •STC mother is hiding a young Jewish girl subject at its center.” - NY Post

9:00PM •STC 9:00PM •STC 9:00PM •STC•

SUNDAY JANUARY 5 MONDAY JANUARY 6 TUESDAY JANUARY 7 WEDNESDAY JANUARY 8 THURSDAY JANUARY 9 EXHIBITION ON SCREEN 2:10PM •STC• 4:“5I5nP aM d•SaTzCz•ling high-wire act as 4:40PM •14A• 2:35PM •STC• 4:40PM •14A• actor and screenwriter, LaBeouf “ and Ian McKellen lets loose on his own life as a make it sing. They're a joy. THE GOOD LIAR child star and his relationship with his loose-cannon dad, a They are the new 7:00PM •STC• 4:25PM •14A• Hepburn and Tracy.” - Times 4:40PM •14A• THE GOOD LIAR role he plays himself.”- Rolling Stone THE GOOD LIAR JUDI DENCH in a THE GOOD LIAR 7:00PM •G• 6:45PM •STC• A cinematic journey around the USA 9:15PM •STC• Kenneth Branagh 7:00PM •STC• “Buoyed by sensitive and Theatre Company 7:00PM •14A• following migratory beekeepers and ferocious ensemble turns, their truckloads of honey bees. Honey Boy is a cinematic salve Production of for a tortured soul...a powerful WILLIAM THE GOOD LIAR The Pollinators vehicle for its star-screen- SHAKESPEARE’S writer-subject.”- LA Times 9:00PM •STC• 9:20PM •STC• 9:15PM •STC• 9:00PM •STC• The Winter’s Tale JAN DECEMBER 28 • 1PM 2&4 Hamilton’s Independent Art House Cinema November 29, 2019 - January 9, 2020 3

Studio Ghibli masterpieces like Howl’s Moving Castle and Arrietty. THE IRISHMAN “Leaving home at 13 to find her way in the world, plucky witch Kiki Dir. Martin Scorsese • USA • 2019 • 210min • Rated STC. heads for a nearby port town with her cat Jiji and sets up a broom- DENIRO, PACINO, AND PESCI IN SCORSESE’S LATEST GANGSTER PIC stick delivery company that’s an instant hit with the locals. Following a “Sinful and sorrowful. Those affecting words from a young priest's bout of illness, Kiki struggles with depression, loses her powers and prayer are loaded with contemplative weight when repeated by must search for a new purpose in life. Robert De Niro as Frank Sheeran, living out his days in the solitude of “As a story about how hard it is to make your own way in the a Catholic retirement home. He's a dinosaur whose mob cohorts have world, Kiki’s Delivery Service is truthful and scalpel-sharp. That it man- been killed or died out and what's left of his family has detached ages all this while remaining consistently funny, optimistic and excit- themselves from him, his sadness matched by their bitterness. A ing – even for little ones – is a mark of Miyazaki’s genius.” - Time Out melancholy sense of looking back also pervades the best parts of The DECEMBER 21 & 23 Irishman, in which the elder statesman of organized crime in American movies, Martin Scorsese, reunites with his most totemic LEONARDO: THE WORKS screen actor to tell a sprawling gangland saga that's by turns flinty, Dir. Phil Grabsky • UK • 2019 •102min • Rated G. amusing, richly nostalgic and rueful. EXHIBITIONS ON SCREEN PRESENTS A VIRTUAL DA VINCI EXHIBIT “The Irishman is on many levels a beautifully crafted piece of “The prolific Exhibitions on Screen strand takes a step away from deluxe cinema. It's full of sinuous tracking shots from cinematograph- its normal practice of surveying specific gallery spaces by assembling er Rodrigo Prieto that induce swoons; sumptuous period production a virtual exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings in a way no art THE GOOD LIAR and costume design that evoke not just a vanished America but a gallery – not even the Louvre (currently showing 7) – can manage. near-extinct American movie realm; and fluid cutting from indispensa- “The result is undeniably impressive: a whistle-stop tour of master- she’s furious. Frankie may have made peace with her own impending ble Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker. The movie is never pieces that hops from one Leonardo venue to another. London’s mortality, but it hasn’t necessarily left her inclined to indulge the grief less than engaging and its milieu at all times vivid and alive.” National Gallery shows off its Virgin of the Rocks, the Uffizi in Florence of her loved ones. - Hollywood Reporter NOV 29-DEC 5 its Annunciation, St Petersburg’s Hermitage its Benois Madonna, the “Frankie, which director Ira Sachs wrote with Mauricio Zacharias, National museum in Krakow’s Lady With an Ermine. takes place over the course of the family vacation that Frankie has IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE “Formally, Leonardo: The Works conforms to the makers’ custom- arranged for/inflicted on those loved ones. She’s chosen the Dir. Frank Capra • USA • 1946 • 130min • Rated PG. ary style – long, lingering closeups, authoritative comment from art Portuguese seaside town of Sintra, a beautiful setting for a gathering DEC 21 • FREE WITH FOOD DONATION TO HAMILTON FOOD SHARE historians and curators, key quotes from original documents read in that everyone’s trying to pretend isn’t overshadowed by death. “What is remarkable about "It's a Wonderful Life" is how well it booming voiceover. As gallery films go, this is pretty monumental.” “Frankie is rife with terrific little moments. Different combinations holds up over the years; it's one of those ageless movies, like - JANUARY 2 & 4 of characters come together to offer different angles on the complicat- Casablanca or The Third Man, that improves with age. ed family history on display.” - Vulture DECEMBER 6-10 “The hero, of course, is George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), a man who never quite makes it out of his quiet birthplace of Bedford Falls. THE GOOD LIAR As a young man he dreams of shaking the dust from his shoes and Dir. • USA • 2019 • 110min • Rated 14A. traveling to far-off lands, but one thing and then another keeps him at HELEN MIRREN AND IAN MCKELLEN SHINE IN EXCITING THRILLER home -- especially his responsibility to the family savings and loan. “Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren are out to seduce you — and to “George marries his high school sweetheart (Donna Reed), settles have great fun pretending to be seduced by each other in Bill down to raise a family. Then, when George's absentminded uncle Condon’s wonderfully weird thriller. Initially, the mood is all flirtation (Thomas Mitchell) misplaces some bank funds during the Christmas and classy high jinks. Roy Courtnay (McKellen), is a rapscallion, based season. George loses hope and turns mean. He despairs, and is in central London, who scams naive businessmen with such standing on a bridge contemplating suicide when an Angel 2nd Class Kingsman-style panache that it seems likely he was once a secret named Clarence (Henry Travers) saves him and shows him what life agent. He also likes to fleece wealthy widows. in Bedford Falls would have been like without him.” - Roger Ebert “Thanks to an online dating service he meets Betty (Mirren). The DECEMBER 21 & 22 latter is adorably wide-eyed, yet because we’re familiar with the tropes of this genre we suspect that Roy has met his match. And that JOJO RABBIT the pair, after trying to double-and triple-cross each other, will wind Dir. Taika Waititi • USA • 2019 • 108min • Rated STC. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE up fighting on the same side. WINNER OF TIFF 2019 AUDIENCE AWARD “McKellen is 80. Mirren is 74. They both have a ball with a script "Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit (★★★★★) defies description. It is the THE LIGHTHOUSE that constantly challenges stereotypes concerning the ‘old’ — espe- story of a young wannabe Nazi named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) Dir. Robert Eggers • USA/Canada • 2019 • 110min • Rated STC. cially the idea that they’re more interested in companionship than who dreams of serving the Führer and daydreams that Adolf Hitler THE WITCH DIRECTOR IMPRESSES WITH SECOND HORROR sex. The Good Liar offers an antidote to prejudice of all kinds” (Waititi) is his best friend. However, when he finds out that his mother “You can almost taste the salt on your lips in the new psychological - London Evening Standard JANUARY 2-9 (Scarlett Johansson) is sheltering a young Jewish girl (Thomasin horror from Robert Eggers (The Witch) that will leave even the sturdi- McKenzie), Jojo starts to reconsider his values. est of sea legs shaking. It’s a two-handed chamber piece about a pair HARRIET “It may sound terrible... comparing the rise of Hitler to Beatlemania of lighthouse keepers living on a remote island off the New England Dir. Kasi Lemmons • USA • 2019 • 125min • Rated STC. in a title sequence scored to the Fab Four’s German version of I coast at the turn of the 20th century and it’s lit up by mesmerising HARRIET TUBMAN FINALLY GETS GIVEN THE BIOPIC TREATMENT Wanna Hold Your Hand. Yet there’s a sweetness that’s quite extraordi- performances from Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. “Harriet is an impassioned, edifying portrait of a remarkable life, nary and, despite the presence of Johansson and the Oscar-winner “Dafoe is Tom Wake, an old sea dog with a clay pipe jutting from and a fitting showcase for the considerable talents of its star, Tony- Sam Rockwell, the film is really just the story of two kids bonded by his thick beard and the chief ‘wickie’ of the lighthouse. He’s an amal- winning British actress Cynthia Erivo. an extreme and upsetting wartime experience. It’s hard to categorise, gam of salty clichés and loves gin, sea shanties, and cooking lobster. “It’s 1849 in Maryland and Araminta “Minty” Ross has never which is never a good thing for an awards contender, but then so was Pattinson plays ex-logger Ephraim Winslow, recently arrived from known a world outside of slavery, though her husband is a free man. The Shape of Water (another Audience Award-winner at TIFF) and look Canada. He’s the strong and silent type who seems to have a skeleton When her master refuses to let the pair live together, she breaks for what happened there. It takes a special film to rise above the noise at or two in his closet. freedom in the North. Miraculously, she survives the treacherous 100- Toronto, but Jojo Rabbit is that film and there’s every reason to “Both are men’s men – the quarrelsome, petty, tobacco-chomping mile trek on her own, and lands in Philadelphia to find an entire net- believe this extraordinary piece of work will go on to much, much big- variety. Dafoe and Pattinson deliver Max and Robert Eggers’ script work of sympathetic brothers- and sisters- in arms, including a glam- ger things." - The Times UK DEC 26-JAN 9 with incredible pathos, sounding like characters who have slipped orous boarding-house matron named Marie (Janelle Monáe). from the pages of Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’. The dialogue is packed with “Minty gladly sheds her slave name, becoming Harriet Tubman. JUDY insults and they lash like a hailstorm. She can’t stay still for long, though; and she proves to have a singular Dir. Rupert Goold • UK • 2019 • 118min • Rated STC. “Meanwhile, life on the island isn’t going well. Wake barks orders gift for spiriting captives away under impossible circumstances. RENE ZELLWEGER SHINES AS JUDY GARLAND constantly, putting down Winslow at every opportunity. To find relief, “Even as the story paints Tubman with the broad, noble brush of “Judy isn’t a biopic; it takes place over only a few months, in the Winslow heads to the outside store- sainthood Erivo keeps her grounded in something fiercely, gratifying- final year of Judy Garland’s life. Broke, divorced and deeply in debt in shed, a small sculpture of a buxom (CONTINUED ON PG 4) ly real; a woman clearly meant for the history books, but not yet 1968, Garland reluctantly agreed to leave her children and travel to entirely hardened into myth.” - EW DEC 14, 15, 19, 26 & 27 London to perform a series of concerts at a swanky nightclub. Things didn’t go terribly well, but every now and then, a bit of that Over the HONEY BOY Rainbow magic peeked through. Dir. Alma Har'el • USA • 2019 • 95min • Rated STC. “Rene Zellweger as Garland adds a physicality; her Judy perpetual- SHIA LABEOUF EXPOSES HIS COMPLICATED PAST ly slouches, like she’s trying to make herself smaller, with her head “The genesis of this intimate drama, written by Shia LaBeouf and jutting forward as if it’s heavy. Her smile is that of a sad clown; her directed by Alma Har’el, is built into the plot: as part of his therapy in voice, in the concerts, has an almost desperate abandon. court-mandated rehab, a well-known actor named Otis (Lucas “But what’s most appealing about Zellweger’s portrayal is the Hedges) writes a script about his past, which is shown in flashbacks. brightness that peeps out from the clouds: her deep love for her chil- “The story is centered on the twelve-year-old Otis, a rising child dren, her sly wit. You get a sense, in this skilled and splendid perform- star who is chaperoned in Hollywood by his father, James (LaBeouf). ance, not of an icon, but a person; one terribly damaged by her past They live in a grubby motel where James, a former rodeo clown, a and valiantly struggling to remain in her present.” - The Seattle Times recovering alcoholic, an ex-convict, and a sex offender, conveys to DECEMBER 26-29 Otis his own severe discipline and comedic craft, along with physical and emotional violence, egocentric fury, and a well of self-pity. KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE “The public misconduct that landed Otis in rehab is linked to his Dir. Hayao Miyazaki • Japan • 1989 • 113min • Rated G. In Japanese with English subtitles. impacted rage—as is his artistry. LaBeouf plays James with a psy- CLASSIC STUDIO GHIBLI HAYAO MIYAZAKI ON THE BIG SCREEN chodramatic intensity that’s nonetheless methodical. The strongest “Kiki’s Delivery Service is Hayao Miyazaki’s giddy, glorious seaside moments are when Otis is caught off guard: on a phone call with his story about a budding young witch and her sarcastic cat. It’s adapted mother (who remains unseen), and in scenes from movie sets where from a popular novel by Japanese author Eiko Kadono, but its DNA is his acting and his life converge.” - The New Yorker DEC 20-JAN 9 rooted in the classic Western kids’ literature that would later inform

lumarae.ca HONEY BOY STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY $10.00 MEMBERSHIPS CAN BE PURCHASED BEFORE EVERY SCREENING WHEN YOU BUY YOUR TICKET Hamilton’s Independent 4 November 29, 2019 - January 9, 2020 Art House Cinema mermaid in one hand. Soon things start to take a bizarre turn. What fierce, tender and fragile, Hopkins verifies his strength with one of the comes next, set to a mind-spinning score almost defies belief. most vivid turns of his long career. Pryce goes head-to-head against “The desolate, lonely environment of the island is captured beauti- Hopkins, and matches him in subtlety as well as charismatic force. fully. There’s a vintage horror feel, both embracing conventions of the “It is a tribute to Meirelles’ direction that the film never seems stat- genre and defying them. Sometimes you’ll wonder if you’re watching ic. We never tire of watching the expressive faces of these two master a horror film at all. The Lighthouse leaves you dazed, terrified and performers. The film does venture outside the Vatican chambers for elated, and it signals Eggers as one of the most exciting directors scenes at Benedict’s bucolic summer residence as well as in the working today.” - Time Out DECEMBER 13-23 slums of Buenos Aires. Meirelles also incorporates flashbacks to Francis’ youth, when he first decided to enter the priesthood and to MARRIAGE STORY the most controversial part of his career. Dir. Noah Baumbach • USA • 2019 • 136min • Rated STC. “This drama is a searching exchange between two men of very dif- NOAH BAUMBACH’S LATEST IS HEARTRENDING AND REAL ferent backgrounds and beliefs and encourages us to see the growing “Marriage Story offers a tricky proposition. Come for the charms of understanding between these antagonists as a model that might Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson and stay for a thorough eviscer- THE LIGHTHOUSE point the way forward in an increasingly divided world.” ation of both. At the start of Noah Baumbach’s latest, and best, film, - DECEMBER 13-31 Driver’s Brooklyn theatre director Charlie and Johansson’s actress arrive that day. Our food economy, at least $20 billion of it, relies on Nicole are essentially separated – Nicole wanting to pursue her the movement of the managed honeybee—a domesticated import WAVES screen acting career in L.A., and Charlie wanting nothing of the sort. from Europe—pollinating about one-third of our entire food supply. Dir. Trey Edward Shults • USA • 2019 • 135min • Rated 14A. By the time the film cycles through their divorce proceedings –includ- “Farming’s reliance on the managed honeybee is a growing prob- INTERWEAVING VINGETTES MASTERFULLY EXPLORE AMERICAN LIFE ing what ends up being a furious custody battle for their eight-year- lem as the honeybee population continues to decline. Samuel “In classical Hollywood cinema, most movies rush forward along a old son – Baumbach’s film will have you cycling through all manner Ramsey, an entomologist at the University of Maryland, College Park, steady course toward a certain objective. Not so Trey Edward Shults’ of convulsions. This is hilarious, heartbreaking cinema – a work that estimates 33 to 50 percent of all honeybee colonies in the United brilliant, audacious third feature, Waves, whose enigmatic title sug- will make you burst out laughing one moment, and leave you tearing States are dying every year. gests how its visionary young writer-director sets out to challenge our your hair out the next. Audiences and armchair psychiatrists can “While theories around honeybee losses used to focus on worker ideas of how and why things happen in life. Set in South Florida, spend all manner of time analyzing how Baumbach’s own split from bees abandoning their hives, the film says this is no longer the major Waves bends and surprises, radiates and engulfs, in a dizzying and his actress wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) spilled into Marriage Story. cause of hive losses. Instead, a trifecta of problems is leading to hon- ecstatic attempt to capture the love and pain and pressure visited Everyone’s time will be better spent, though, marveling at what a eybee losses: pesticides, parasites, and poor nutrition. upon a contemporary American family, the Williams. completely absorbing and devastating portrait of modern desire and “When the film focuses on industrialized agriculture and how it’s “Propelled by color, energy, electronic music and a quartet of responsibility the filmmaker has wrought." - Globe & Mail impacting all native pollinators, it really buzzes.” - Sierra Club career-making performances, here is that rare sort of cinematic NOV 29-DEC 12 JANUARY 8 achievement that innovates at every turn, while teaching audiences how to make intuitive sense of the way it pushes the medium. Instead PARASITE ROAD TO THE LEMON GROVE of serving up conventionally scripted scenes, Shults strings together a Dir. Joon-ho Bong • South Korea • 2019 • 131min • Rated STC. Dir. Dale Hildebrand • Canada/Italy • 2019 • 88min • Rated PG. sequence of powerful vignettes, plunging in and out of his characters’ SOUTH KOREAN DIRECTOR BRINGS HIS SKILLS TOGETHER IN TRIUMPH FEAT. HAMILTON RAISED CO-WRITER AND STAR CHARLY CHIARELLI lives to expose the details that make the Williams family so real and “An exhilarating and furious indictment of class struggle, Parasite Charly Chiarelli (Principle Actor, Writer) and relatable.” - Variety DECEMBER 6-12 might be the masterpiece South Korea's Bong Joon-ho has been Dale Hildabrand (Director, Producer, Writer) working toward his entire career. Mixing the social outrage of will both be in attendance for a Q&A! WESTERN STARS Snowpiercer, the wild humour of Okja, the heartwarming family “Road to the Lemon Grove is an Italian-Canadian co-production, Dir. Bruce Springsteen & Thom Zimny • USA • 2019 • 130min • Rated G. drama of The Host, and the slow-boil vengeance of Mother, Bong's which also describes its co-writer and star Charly Chiarelli. Chiarelli AN INTIMATE SPRINGSTEEN SHOW MIXED WITH SHORT FILMS latest work is a genre-hopping triumph. was born in Sicily, raised in Hamilton, and made his mark in the 1990s “Bruce Springsteen steps into the spotlight with Western Stars, a “Focusing on two families – one a clan of con artists living in a with a one-man show called Cu’Fu. In this production he plays two hybrid of concert movie and short film anthology backdropped by cramped basement apartment, the other led by a tech mogul who roles. Antonio Contatini has just died and is trying to wheedle his way John Ford landscapes. Even non-Bruce fans won’t feel Boss-tracised keeps his wife and two children safely ensconced in a modern-luxe past the gates of Heaven. Down on Earth, language professor by this intimate showcase of the man and his music. mansion – Parasite expertly plays with tension and expectations. Calogero Contatini is noisily grieving his father’s death, and decides “The meat of the film sees the 70-year-old performing his latest “At first, it appears that Bong has created a sharp comedy, but then to take the old man’s ashes to a family lemon grove back in Sicily. album in his own barn. The building is, he says, ‘like a fine instru- both families' lives become upended in the most peculiar of ways, “Calogero has two settings: screaming at the Fates, as the camera ment’ – a spiritual place where musical magic seems almost certain to leading to a final hour that is sharp enough to draw blood.” obliging swings upward to deliver a God’s eye point of view; and qui- unfold. He has a full orchestra, a band of old collaborators and gui- - Globe and Mail DEC 7-17 & DEC 31-JAN 4 etly explaining the finer points of language and its intersection with tarist (and wife) Patti Scialfa alongside. With cameras swooping culture. The plot has him keeping a blog for his students back home, across the space, it all feels like a front-row seat at the world’s most THE POLLINATORS thus explaining why he sometimes breaks into pontification. exclusive gig. Dir. Peter Nelson • USA • 2019 • 92min • Rated G. “Directed by Dale Hildebrand, the comic tone in Road to the Lemon “Sure enough, magic does ensue. But it’s the cutaways between EXPLORING THE MANAGED TRAVELLING HONEYBEE INDUSTRY Grove is broad. Chiarelli mugs mightily as the ghost of the senior songs that stitch it all together with an emotional thread that charts its “The Pollinators opens under a predawn thread of red light along a Contatini, while rolling his eyes and shouting as the put-upon son.” subject’s struggles over the decades. He’s a self-effacing host and a highway near California’s almond orchards. Hundreds of wooden - National Post DECEMBER 1 candid one, opening up about heartbreaks in mini-movies full of boxes, stacked like dresser drawers on the back of tractor trailers, are bleached photos, widescreen Americana and philosophical surrounded by a soft veil of honeybees. Bob Harvey, a beekeeper at REEL ROCK 14 voiceovers. And the songs? They’re like mini-movies in themselves, Bob’s Bees, estimates 18,000 honeybee hives or 40 truckloads will Dir. Various • Various • 2019 • Rated STC. full of over-the-hill cowboys and sozzled stuntmen. Close your eyes PRESENTED BY GRAVITY CLIMBING GYM and you could be watching an old western.” - Time Out The Reel Rock Film Tour, one of climbing’s greatest celebrations, DECEMBER 14 & 16 comes to the Playhouse for the first time with a new collection of world premiere films. The trailer shows the late Marc-Andre Leclerc THE WINTER'S TALE soloing high in the alpine, the footage will appear in a film on Leclerc. Dir. Rob Ashford • UK • 2015 • 184min • Rated STC. In The High Road, the powerful and bold Nina Williams tests herself JUDI DENCH STUNS ON STAGE IN SHAKESPEARE CLASSIC on some of the highest, most difficult boulder problems ever climbed. “The Olivier Award winning production of The Winter's Tale starring In United States of Joe’s climbers collide with a conservative coal Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench returns to cinemas. The critically mining community in rural Utah, to surprising results. And in The acclaimed production was the first in the hugely successful Kenneth Nose Speed Record, legends Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold (of Branagh Theatre Company Live season, which was broadcast to cine- Free Solo fame) battle Yosemite dirtbags Jim Reynolds and Brad mas from London's Garrick Theatre over the course of a year in 2015. Gobright in a high stakes race for greatness. $22 ADV/$25 DOOR • “The tragicomedy of obsession and redemption is beautifully tickets available now at PlayhouseCinema.ca DECEMBER 11 reimagined in a production co-directed by Rob Ashford and Branagh with a remarkable cast, featuring Dench as Paulina, alongside Tom THE TWO POPES Bateman (Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile), Jessie Dir. Fernando Meirelles • UK/Italy • 2019 • 125min • Rated STC. Buckley (star of breakout British film Wild Rose), Hadley Fraser, AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION DURING A POPE TRANSITION Miranda Raison and Branagh as Leontes. “Anchored by two outstanding performances from Anthony “King Leontes appears to have everything: power, wealth, a loving Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, the film is a triumph of writing as well family and friends. But sexual jealousy sets in motion a chain of as unostentatious filmmaking. There is nothing preachy about this pic events with tragic consequences.” - Broadway World written by Anthony McCarten and directed by Fernando Meirelles. DECEMBER 28 These filmmakers have told the story of how the startling resignation of Pope Benedict XVI (Hopkins) in 2013 led to the appointment of the JAN 8 first pope from Latin America, Pope Francis (Pryce). “The story begins in 2005, when the death of Pope John Paul II led Special presentation to Benedict’s ascension. But the surprising second place competitor in by Demand.Film the initial voting was Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio from Argentina. Several years later, Bergoglio decided to resign his position. This film Special admission prices then decides to speculate on a possible meeting between Benedict and Bergoglio, in which the pope refuses to accept the cardinal’s res- ignation but instead engages with him in a series of searching conver- sations, hoping to imagine whether the progressive Bergoglio might be a worthy successor. “The sharply written dialogue between the men plays completely convincingly. Of course, the success of the film depends even more profoundly on the performances of the two leads. Alternately acerbic, THE WINTER’S TALE

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