In this house... Following its wildly impressive debut at this year's Fantasia Film Festival, the micro-budget Canadian horror film SKINAMARINK has become a legitimate viral internet sensation, and is now looking like the most anticipated genre film of the year.... And it's coming exclusively to the Rio Theatre for two nights only in January. "Films like this come along once in a generation." (Eye For Film) "With visuals that combine David Lynch’s low-fi style from “Inland Empire” with the aesthetic of dusty ’70s family movies pulled from the attic, it’s a claustrophobic hallucination that blends the scariest ideas from childhood into a dreamy, dreadful experience." (Variety) "I haven’t felt this challenged or this horrified by a film in a very long time. Literal guttural sounds of the purest terror fell out of me at several points across its span. This is quite plainly the scariest movie I have seen in a very very long time." (Pajiba) "The horrors of ‘Skinamarink’ are in its ability to transport you back to your childhood home and then leave you there. Unattended, abandoned, and lost." (Dread Central) "Skinamarink is a kinder trauma experiment put to screen with indescribable contents." (SlashFilm) Friday, January 27 Doors 6:30 pm | Movie 7:00 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. SKINAMARINK (Kyle Edward Ball, 2023 / 18A / 100 mins) Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. [more]

I bet you have never seen a donkey fly! Sometime since the release of this lovable animated satire in 2001 and now, SHREK has morphed into something of a cult-classic, a generational touchstone that make is perfect for a double bill screening with our Friday Late Night Movie SHREK 2 January 27. See one, or see 'em both for one sweet price! Once upon a time, in a far away swamp, there lived an ornery ogre named Shrek whose precious solitude is suddenly shattered by an invasion of annoying fairy tale characters. There are blind mice in his food, a big, bad wolf in his bed, three little homeless pigs and more, all banished from their kingdom by the evil Lord Farquaad. Determined to save their home--not to mention his own--Shrek cuts a deal with Farquaad and sets out to rescue the beautiful Princess Fiona to be Farquaad's bride. Accompanying him on his mission is wisecracking Donkey, who will do anything for Shrek... except shut up. Rescuing the Princess from a fire-breathing dragon may prove the least of their problems when the deep, dark secret she has been keeping is revealed. Featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Jon Lithgow, and Vincent Cassel. "Turning the fairy-tale genre on its head was a clever, if not totally novel, notion at the time, and Shrek still retains much of its ironic charm 20 years later." (Bitch Media) "While simultaneously embracing and subverting fairy tales, the irreverent Shrek also manages to tweak Disney's nose, provide a moral message to children, and offer viewers a funny, fast-paced ride." (Rotten Tomatoes) Friday, January 27 Doors 9:00 pm | Movie 9:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. SHREK (Vicky Jenson, Andrew Adamson 2001 / 90 mins / PG) It ain't easy bein' green -- especially if you're a likable (albeit smelly) ogre named Shrek. On a mission to retrieve a gorgeous princess from the clutches of a fire-breathing dragon, Shrek teams up with an unlikely compatriot -- a wisecracking donkey. [more]

I bet you have never seen a donkey fly! Sometime since the release of this lovable animated satire in 2001 and now, SHREK has morphed into something of a cult-classic, a generational touchstone that make is perfect for a double bill screening with our Friday Late Night Movie, SHREK 2, on January 27. See one, or see ’em both for one sweet price Friday, January 27 SHREK Doors 9:00 pm | Movie 9:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. SHREK 2 Movie 11:20 pm *As this film is part of a double bill, the start time is approximate. Please arrive on time. SHREK (Vicky Jenson, Andrew Adamson 2001 / 90 mins / PG) It ain’t easy bein’ green — especially if you’re a likable (albeit smelly) ogre named Shrek. On a mission to retrieve a gorgeous princess from the clutches of a fire-breathing dragon, Shrek teams up with an unlikely compatriot — a wisecracking donkey. SHREK 2 (Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon / 2004 / 93 mins / PG) Shrek and Fiona travel to the Kingdom of Far Far Away, where Fiona’s parents are King and Queen, to celebrate their marriage. When they arrive, they find they are not as welcome as they thought they would be. [more]

Once upon another time... Sometime since the release of this lovable animated satire in 2001 and now, SHREK has morphed into something of a cult-classic, a generational touchstone that make is perfect for a double bill screening with our Friday Late Night Movie SHREK 2 January 27. After returning from their honeymoon and showing home movies to their friends, Shrek and Fiona learn that her parents have heard that she has married her true love and wish to invite him to their kingdom, called Far Far Away. The catch is: Fiona's parents are unaware of the curse that struck their daughter and have assumed she married Prince Charming, not a 700-pound ogre with horrible hygiene and a talking donkey pal. "The animation by which it stands or falls is as brilliant as ever and, though it wouldn't really be right to call it totally anti-Disney, it certainly trumps that institution for sharpness of focus, notably as far as the screenplay is concerned." (London Evening Standard) "Can an ogre live happily ever after? Can fairy tale characters be content with their fairy tale lives? Can an Oscar-winning animated success generate a successful sequel? To all these questions, Shrek 2 is happy to answer yes, yes and yes." (Los Angeles Times) Friday, January 27 Movie 11:20 pm *As this film is part of a double bill, the start time is approximate. Please arrive on time. Late Night Date Night! Bring a friend, date, or talking donkey to SHREK 2 and get two-for-one entry! SHREK 2 (Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon / 2004 / 93 mins / PG) Shrek and Fiona travel to the Kingdom of Far Far Away, where Fiona's parents are King and Queen, to celebrate their marriage. When they arrive, they find they are not as welcome as they thought they would be. [more]

In acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund's (FORCE MAJEURE, THE SQUARE) wickedly funny Palme d'Or winner TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, social hierarchy is turned upside down, revealing the tawdry relationship between power and beauty. Celebrity model couple, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged boat captain (Woody Harrelson). What first appeared instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island and fighting for survival. With Holly De Leon, Vicki Berlin. "An absurd, iconoclastic riot. Ruben Östlund’s point may be blunt — yep, rich people are bad — but his telling of it is hilariously, breathlessly entertaining." (Empire Magazine) "Ruben Östlund’s latest brainy satire is a continually self-renewing yet uncompromisingly coherent opus." (AV Club) "After that final breathless shot, rather than walking out chuckling, you may walk away with your own triangle of sadness engaged, brow furrowed, mouth agape, mind whirring. And isn't that kind of rush worth the price of admission?" (Mashable) "Don't go in expecting art-house intellectualism. The movie is as loaded with fun as it is with social implications." (Wall Street Journal) Saturday, January 28 Doors 1:45 pm | Movie 2:15 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (Ruben Östlund, 2022 / 147 mins / 14A / with English subtitles) A cruise for the super-rich sinks, leaving survivors, including a fashion model celebrity couple, trapped on an island. [more]

Swing into 2023 with your favourite friendly neighbourhood web-slingers, Geekenders! The Geekenders are excited to bring one of their most beloved superheroes to the Rio Theatre on Saturday, January 28. INTO THE STRIPPER-VERSE is a burlesque show that celebrates every version of that lovable photographer from Queens with energetic dancing, comedy, and cheeky satire created by artists just as nerdy as you are. The Geekenders’ popular nerdy cabarets combine the irreverence of the Muppets with the polish and showmanship of a Vegas showgirl revue. Some of Vancouver’s silliest and sassiest burlesque dancers will be entertaining you with all different characters from your favourite Spider-Man comics, movies, and cartoons for INTO THE STRIPPER-VERSE! So grab a friend and join us for the geeky, sexy, body-positive, energetic, reference-filled and super hot night out with the nerd community that you love! Saturday, January 28 Doors 8:00 pm | Show 9:00 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. Early Bird Tickets (Limited Number Available!) $25 General Admission $30 advance | $35 at the door VIP (Reserved Seating, Rows 1-6 Centre Section) $35 | $40 at the door. About The Geekenders: Geekenders, called a "cult sensation" by Vancity Buzz, is British Columbia's pre-eminent geeky theatrical and performance troupe. Producing ‘nerdlesque' shows, variety shows, fandom-based parties, plays, and immersive theatre, Geekenders is, first and foremost, about community. Our emphasis is always going to be about providing a quirky, interesting evening full of art, socializing and fun for those of us who might not otherwise spend their Friday at a party. What can you expect from any Geekenders show? Original performances from some of Vancouver's favourite geeks, nerdlesque, variety acts, comedy, performers both seasoned and brand new, singalongs, and new and different themes that combine nostalgia, memes, and iconic pop culture. Hosted by RAGE AGAINST THE PUSHEEN! Starring: SEXA DECIMAL! FAIRLITH! MAXX DAMAGE! JASPURR MOANS! BABE FROMAN, THE SAUSAGE QUEEN OF CHICAGO! SYLPHIE NYX! ROXY REVERIE! LYSSA STRATA! THE NEWEST GRADUATING CLASS OF NERDLESQUE FOR NEWBIES! With... THE GEEKENDERS SOLID GOLD DANCERS! And your HEADLINER.... ANDROSIA WILDE!! [more]

Set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, EMPIRE OF LIGHT is a compelling and poignant drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times, from Academy Award® winning director Sam Mendes. EMPIRE OF LIGHT features a stellar cast led by Academy Award winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite, The Lost Daughter), BAFTA winner Micheal Ward (Blue Story, Top Boy) and Academy Award winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man). It also reunites Mendes with Academy Award winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (1917, Skyfall). Hilary (Colman) is a cinema manager struggling with her mental health, and Stephen (Ward) is a new employee longing to escape the provincial town where he faces daily adversity. Together they find a sense of belonging and experience the healing power of music, cinema, and community. "Achingly beautiful to look at." (Daily Express UK) "One of the year's most beautiful and underrated films. Olivia Colman and Michael Ward play employees of a once-grand movie theater who find an unexpected emotional connection." (The Film Yap) "With 'Empire of Light,' Sam Mendes offers a similar, brief but delightful escape from reality." (Film Threat) "At its best, it is genuinely evocative... It wisely leaves the camera — plus Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ delicate, pensive score — to do a lot of the talking." (Empire Magazine) "With Roger Deakins handling the cinematography and making the most of the magical light found on parts of England’s south coast, the film never ceases to be visually absorbing." (Eye For Film) Sunday, January 29 Doors 1:10 pm | Movie 1:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. EMPIRE OF LIGHT (Sam Mendes, 2022 / 14A / 115 mins) A drama about the power of human connection during turbulent times, set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s. [more]

Female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers. As the body count mounts and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the ‘Spider Killer’ is embraced by many as a hero. Based on the horrific true story of serial killer Saeed Hanaei, acclaimed writer-director Ali Abbasi (BORDER) unveils a gripping crime thriller, and a daring indictment of a society in which rough justice is routinely a fact of life. Despite being banned in Iran, HOLY SPIDER is the winner of numerous accolades and awards at film festivals across the world (including the Best Actress award for newcomer Zar Amir-Ebrahimi and a nomination for the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival), and is Denmark's official submission for the 2023 Academy Awards. "A crisp, engrossing, and disturbing crime thriller." (Observer) "A striking film in any case, especially with what is going on in Iran right now... It's well constructed and allows us to see the greater society through this Iranian woman." (NPR) "'Holy Spider' trickily manages to bridge the gap between social realism and exploitation cinema in a way that hints at how both are rooted in a similar place of gritty authenticity." (Slant Magazine) "The whole film is pitched between a howl of rage and a gasp of disbelief." (Irish Times) "If the first half of the film shies away from the cheap thrills of its serial killer story, the pointed banality of its final chapters proves as horrifying this genre ever gets." (indieWire) Sunday, January 29 (Final Screening) Doors 3:50 pm | Movie 4:05 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. HOLY SPIDER (Ali Abbasi, 2022 / Persian with English subtitles / 18A) A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners. [more]

At a fading vacation resort, 11-year-old Sophie treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum (Paul Mescal). As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie’s tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t, in Charlotte Wells’ superb and searingly emotional debut film. "I had my top-five-movies-of-the-year list all sorted. Now - boom! - I’ve had to start from scratch. Damn you, Mescal, for being the cornerstone of something so beautiful." (London Evening Standard) "This mesmeric debut will make you want to stay suspended in its sun-baked setting with its two captivating lead characters for far longer than the runtime. A triumph of new British filmmaking." (Empire Magazine) "Director Charlotte Wells knows exactly what she’s doing, and her storytelling is as precise as it is piercing." (Observer UK) "The film is the first from Scottish director Charlotte Wells, the result such a gossamer knockout that the fact seems implausible, the movie made with a dizzyingly sharp eye for the universal stuff of growing up." (Financial Times) Sunday, January 29 Doors 6:20 pm | Movie 6:50 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. AFTERSUN (Charlotte Wells, 2022 / 101 mins / 14A) Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't. [more]

John Carpenter's remake of Howard Hawke's 1951 classic THE THING is a bleak, tense and frightening sci-fi thriller that delivers some truly memorable practical and makeup effects, in addition to Kurt Russell's truly memorable performance. THE THING is an ice-cold white-knuckle chiller about about scientists in the Antarctic who are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills.  "THE THING is a peerless masterpiece of relentless suspense, retina-wrecking visual excess and outright, nihilistic terror." (Empire Magazine) "THE THING is one of [Carpenter's] greatest moments, creating a terrifying atmosphere of claustrophobia, suspense and paranoia. And Kurt Russell is as good as he's ever been, wearing one of the best beards in movie history." (Total Film) Sunday, January 29 Doors 8:45 pm | Movie 9:15 pm *As this is screening as part of a double bill, the start time is subject to change. THE THING (John Carpenter, 1982 / 109 mins / PG) It’s the first week of winter in 1982. An American Research Base is greeted by an alien force, that can assimilate anything it touches. It’s up to the members to stay alive, and be sure of who is human, and who has become one of the Things. [more]

With his first film in seven years, legendary director Jerzy Skolimowski (DEEP END, MOONLIGHTING) directs one of his most free and visually inventive films yet. This sweet, layered, and very human story about the travels of a donkey named Eo has now earned the film an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film. After being removed from the traveling circus, which is the only life he’s ever known, EO begins a trek across the Polish and Italian countryside, experiencing cruelty and kindness in equal measure, all the while observing the follies and triumphs of humankind. During his travels, EO is both helped and hindered by a cast of characters including a young Italian priest (Lorenzo Zurzolo), a Countess (Isabelle Huppert), and a rowdy Polish soccer team. Loosely inspired by Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar, and featuring immersive, stunning cinematography by Michal Dymek coupled with Pawel Mykietyn’s resonant score, Skolimowski’s film puts the viewer in the perspective of its four-legged protagonist. EO’s journey speaks to the world around us, an equine hero boldly pointing out societal ills, and serving as warning to the dangers of neglect and inaction, all while on a quest for freedom. Inspired by Robert Bresson’s 1966 classic AU HASARD BATLHAZAR, and featuring immersive, stunning cinematography by Michal Dymek coupled with Pawel Mykietyn’s resonant score, Skolimowski’s film puts the viewer in the perspective of its four-legged protagonist. EO’s journey speaks to the world around us, an equine hero boldly pointing out societal ills, and serving as warning to the dangers of neglect and inaction, all while on a quest for freedom. Among its many accolades, EO shared the Jury Prize in this year’s Cannes competition, and is Poland's official entry to the 2022 Academy Awards. "It’s funny. The comedy of EO is in its randomness. But so is the tragedy. Moments that play like punchlines do the double duty of making us both laugh and wince." (Rolling Stone Magazine) "EO is an astonishment and so too is this wild, boldly expressionistic movie that conveys the life of its largely silent protagonist with a bare minimum of dialogue." (New York Times) "EO is a thrillingly imaginative piece of filmmaking: a strange, haunting epic about a donkey that couldn't feel more of our moment." (NPR) "EO may be one of the greatest movies ever made about the spirit of animals, as much as we can know it." (TIME Magazine) "Viewers can make connections or interpret people, or actions, or emotions as desired. EO is not going to judge, but he is going to tell you what to think or feel, which is perhaps the beauty and brilliance of this uncommon film." (Salon.com) Tuesday, January 30 Doors 8:00 pm | Movie 6:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022 / 86 mins / In English, Spanish, French, Polish, Italian with English subtitles) The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a sentient and anthropomorphic grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life's path on his journey through Europe. He experiences joy and pain and endures the wheel of fortune as it randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence. [more]

“Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!” We are paying tribute to the late, great film and TV composer and music arranger Angelo Badalamenti with a prime time, #MusicMonday screening of David Lynch's BLUE VELVET. While Badalamenti had a storied and very long career working in film and television, he will be best remembered for his indelible and fruitful collaborations with Lynch, which included their initial work on BLUE VELVET. Subsequent projects include both of the "Twin Peaks" TV series, THE STRAIGHT STORY, and MULHOLLAND DRIVE. Badalamenti's musical contributions directly impacted the texture and wildly atmospheric feel of the films he scored for Lynch, and are completely intertwined elements within each of them. Though he was already an established composer by the time he was brought on to be Isabella Rossellini's vocal coach for her performance of the song "Blue Velvet" in the film (he can also be seen as the piano player in that scene), the gig was essentially the "big break" that ultimately led to a career-long collaborations with Lynch, as well as other high-profile projects. Of their creative and professional partnership, Badalamenti lamented that it was his "second best marriage." Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rosselini and Dennis Hopper turn in some of the best performances of their respective careers in director David Lynch’s ultra cool and very cult neo-noir mystery thriller BLUE VELVET, which also features a standout performance from the late, great Dean Stockwell. As such, we thought it a fitting time to re-visit his turn in this oft-requested classic. Strange, sexy, brilliant and surreal, BLUE VELVET is widely regarded as one of the best films of its decade, earning Lynch his second Best Director Oscar nomination. The film is very much a showcase for Lynch’s stylish visuals and occasional bouts of disturing (if not weird) imagery, its moody aesthetic enhanced further by a memorable score from Badalementi (who also supervised the soundtrack). Also starring Laura Dern, and a severed human ear. "Every viewing yields new insights. A berserko modern classic." (Little White Lies) "Three decades after its initial release, David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet' has lost none of its power to derange, terrify, and exhilarate." (Village Voice) "The charged erotic atmosphere makes the film something of a hallucination, but Lynch's humor keeps breaking through, too." (Pauline Kael, New Yorker) #MusicMonday, January 23 (Encore Screening) Doors 8:15 pm | Movie 8:45 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. BLUE VELVET (David Lynch, 120 mins / 1986) | This sensual mystery thriller is about strange happenings in a small North Carolina town. A college student stumbles across a bizarre mystery and wants to know more, perhaps too much more. The strange world he’s found lurking beneath his hometown’s picture-postcard veneer is about to become much stranger. It is also an unforgettably fascinating and foreboding world. [more]

The whiplash, double-pronged CHUNGKING EXPRESS is one of the defining works of nineties cinema and the film that made Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express take-out restaurant stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works. Anything goes in Wong’s gloriously shot and utterly unexpected charmer, which cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of romantic longing. With Brigitte Lin. "[Wong's] hypnotic images of love and loss finally wear down your resistance as seemingly discordant sights and sounds coalesce into a radiant, crazy quilt." (Rolling Stone Magazine) "Even if all it had to offer were writer-director Wong Kar-wai's thrillingly distinctive visuals, Chungking Express would be well worth watching; happily, its thoughtfully drawn characters and naturalistic performances also pack a potent dramatic wallop." (Rotten Tomatoes) "'Chungking Express' is a breezy little Hong Kong movie that has more life, energy, humanity and sheer visual zing than most other shows you'll see in a month or so." (Chicago Tribune) Tuesday, January 31 Doors 6:00 pm | Movie 6:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. CHUNGKING EXPRESS (Wong Kar Wai, 1996 / 103 mins / PG / Cantonese with English subtitles) Every day, Cop 223 buys a can of pineapple with an expiration date of May 1, symbolizing the day he'll get over his lost love. He's also got his eye on a mysterious woman in a blond wig, oblivious of the fact she's a drug dealer. Cop 663 is distraught with heartbreak over a breakup. But when his ex drops a spare set of his keys at a local cafe, a waitress lets herself into his apartment and spruces up his life. [more]

We're toasting Chinese Lunar New Year festivities (2023 - Year of the Rabbit) with a double header featuring two standout performances from one of our favourite actors, the incomparable (not to mention prolific) Tony Leung. Join us on Tuesday, January 30 for 4K restorations of modern Hong Kong cinema classics, including Wong Kar Wai's CHUNGKING EXPRESS at 6:30 pm followed by the masterful crime thriller INFERNAL AFFAIRS (the inspiration behind Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED) at 8:30 pm. See one, or see em both for one sweet price! Tuesday, January 31 CHUNGKING EXPRESS (4K Restoration) Doors 6:00 pm | Movie 6:30 pm *Please arrive on time. INFERNAL AFFAIRS (4K Restoration - Final Screening) Movie 8:30 pm *Apx start time. CHUNGKING EXPRESS (Wong Kar Wai, 1996 / 103 mins / PG / Cantonese with English subtitles) Every day, Cop 223 buys a can of pineapple with an expiration date of May 1, symbolizing the day he'll get over his lost love. He's also got his eye on a mysterious woman in a blond wig, oblivious of the fact she's a drug dealer. Cop 663 is distraught with heartbreak over a breakup. But when his ex drops a spare set of his keys at a local cafe, a waitress lets herself into his apartment and spruces up his life. INFERNAL AFFAIRS (Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, Alan Mak, 2004 / 101 mins / 18A / Cantonese with English subtitles) Idealistic police cadet Chan Wing-Yan is recruited by Police Superintendant Wong to go deep undercover as a member of the criminal Triad society. Into the same cadet class, crime boss Hon Sam installs new Triad member Lau Kin Ming to become a long-term mole for the gang. A decade later, both have risen through the ranks in their respective aliases -- but when both of their covers are in danger of being blown, a game of life and death ensues. [more]

Two of Hong Kong cinema’s most iconic leading men, Tony Leung and Andy Lau, face off in the breathtaking thriller that revitalized the city-state’s twenty-first-century film industry, launched a blockbuster franchise, and inspired Martin Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED. The set-up is diabolical in its simplicity: two undercover moles—a police officer (Leung) assigned to infiltrate a ruthless triad by posing as a gangster, and a gangster who becomes a police officer in order to serve as a spy for the underworld—find themselves locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse, each racing against time to unmask the other. As the shifting loyalties, murky moral compromises, and deadly betrayals mount, INFERNAL AFFAIRS raises haunting questions about what it means to live a double life, lost in a labyrinth of conflicting identities and allegiances. The Hong Kong crime drama was jolted to new life with the release of the Infernal Affairs trilogy, a bracing, explosively stylish critical and commercial triumph that introduced a dazzling level of narrative and thematic complexity to the genre with its gripping saga of two rival moles—played by superstars Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau Tak-wah—who navigate slippery moral choices as they move between the intersecting territories of Hong Kong’s police force and its criminal underworld. Set during the uncertainty of the city-state’s handover from Britain to China and steeped in Buddhist philosophy, these ingeniously crafted tales of self-deception and betrayal mirror Hong Kong’s own fractured identity and the psychic schisms of life in a postcolonial purgatory "What makes it special is the inner turmoil caused by living a lie. If everyone you know and everything you do for 10 years indicates you are one kind of person, and you know you are another, how do you live with that?" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) "Spins in place with aplomb, generating exponentially more vertiginous doublings with each sweaty-palmed set piece." (Village Voice) "What gives Infernal Affairs its heat is the friction of who-am-I psychology and cool Hong Kong-style action." (Entertainment Weekly) Sunday, January 22 Movie 8:30 pm *As this is screening as part of a double bill, the start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. INFERNAL AFFAIRS (Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, Alan Mak, 2004 / 101 mins / 18A / Cantonese with English subtitles) Idealistic police cadet Chan Wing-Yan is recruited by Police Superintendant Wong to go deep undercover as a member of the criminal Triad society. Into the same cadet class, crime boss Hon Sam installs new Triad member Lau Kin Ming to become a long-term mole for the gang. A decade later, both have risen through the ranks in their respective aliases -- but when both of their covers are in danger of being blown, a game of life and death ensues. [more]

February marks Black History Month, and the Rio Theatre is honouring that with a double bill screening on February 1. We will be featuring two significant titles, including a 4K restoration of Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène's landmark 1966 BLACK GIRL (aka, "La noire de...", it currently sits at #97 in Sight and Sound's most recent poll of The Greatest Films of All Time) paired with what many film-lovers believe to be filmmaker Spike Lee's most important film (not to mention Denzel Washington's most indelible performance), MALCOLM X. Ousmane Sembène, one of the greatest and most groundbreaking filmmakers who ever lived and the most internationally renowned African director of the twentieth century, made his feature debut in 1966 with the brilliant and stirring BLACK GIRL ("La noire de . . ."). Sembène, who was also an acclaimed novelist in his native Senegal, transforms a deceptively simple plot—about a young Senegalese woman who moves to France to work for a wealthy white couple and finds that life in their small apartment becomes a figurative and literal prison—into a complex, layered critique on the lingering colonialist mindset of a supposedly postcolonial world. Featuring a moving central performance by Mbissine Thérèse Diop, BLACK GIRL is a harrowing human drama as well as a radical political statement—and one of the essential films of the 1960s. Diop stars here as Diouana, a young woman from Dakar who moves to France to work in a wealthy French couple’s home. Initially elated, she quickly becomes disillusioned by the experience — she’s made to feel increasingly alienated and "othered" by her employers, who view her as an exotic servant and little more. With Anne-Marie Jelinck, Robert Fontaine. "Ousmane Sembène lifts the mask on France’s racist post-colonial relationship with Senegal in his small yet commanding feature debut." (British Film Institute) "Fifty-one years after its initial release, this seminal film remains hauntingly relevant." (Bitch Media) "Sembene keeps his metaphors under control, and the result is a message movie with an unusual depth of characterization." (Chicago Reader) "Formally spartan, Ousmane Sembne's Black Girl is dense with cool fury." (Village Voice) Wednesday, February 1 BLACK GIRL Doors 5:45 pm | Movie 6:15 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. BLACK GIRL (Ousmane Sembène, 1966 / 59 min / French with English subtitles) A Senegalese woman works as a maid in France for a couple who treat her as a slave. [more]

February marks Black History Month, and the Rio Theatre is honouring that with a double bill screening on February 1. We will be featuring two significant titles, including a 4K restoration of Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène's landmark 1966 BLACK GIRL (aka, "La noire de...", it currently sits at #97 in Sight and Sound's most recent poll of The Greatest Films of All Time) paired with what many film-lovers believe to be filmmaker Spike Lee's most important film (not to mention Denzel Washington's most indelible performance), MALCOLM X. Ousmane Sembène, one of the greatest and most groundbreaking filmmakers who ever lived and the most internationally renowned African director of the twentieth century, made his feature debut in 1966 with the brilliant and stirring BLACK GIRL ("La noire de . . ."). Sembène, who was also an acclaimed novelist in his native Senegal, transforms a deceptively simple plot—about a young Senegalese woman who moves to France to work for a wealthy white couple and finds that life in their small apartment becomes a figurative and literal prison—into a complex, layered critique on the lingering colonialist mindset of a supposedly postcolonial world. Spike Lee's grand, sweeping epic MALCOLM X is a tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. The film chronicles the iconic figure who hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride. Wednesday, February 1 BLACK GIRL Doors 5:45 pm | Movie 6:15 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. MALCOLM X 7:45 pm *As this is a double feature, this is an approximate start time. Please arrive on time. BLACK GIRL (Ousmane Sembène, 1966 / 59 min / French with English subtitles) A Senegalese woman works as a maid in France for a couple who treat her as a slave. MALCOLM X (Spike Lee, 1992 / 202 mins / 14A) Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam. [more]

"We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us!" February marks Black History Month, and the Rio Theatre is honouring that with a double bill screening on February 1, featuring two significant films in a a double bill including a 4K restoration of Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène's landmark 1966 film BLACK GIRL (aka, "La noire de...", #97 in Sight and Sound's most recent poll of The Greatest Films of All Time), paired with what many film-lovers believe to be filmmaker Spike Lee's most important film (not to mention Denzel Washington's most indelible performance), MALCOLM X. Lee's grand, sweeping epic MALCOLM X is a tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. The film chronicles the iconic figure who hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride. With Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee, James McDaniel, Al Freeman Jr, Lonette McKee. "This is an extraordinary life, and Spike Lee has told it in an extraordinary film." (Roger Ebert) "Lee and company have performed a powerful service: they have brought Malcolm X very much to life again, both as man and myth." (Newsweek) "A spiritually enriching testament to the human capacity for change -- and surely Spike Lee's most universally appealing film." (Washington Post) "An ambitious, tough, seriously considered biographical film that, with honor, eludes easy characterization." (New York Times) MALCOLM X 7:45 pm *As this is a double feature, this is an approximate start time. Please arrive on time MALCOLM X (Spike Lee, 1992 / 202 mins / 14A) Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam. [more]

"I wake up every day, right here, right in Punxsutawney, and it's always February 2nd, and there's nothing I can do about it." We got you, babe. There's no better way to mark Groundhog Day (Thursday, February 2) than with a big-screen viewing of this quirky, oddball sci-fi comedy than with a 30th Anniversary screening of it! Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, and a very large, furry, anthropomorphic and meteorologically-aware rodent star in Harold Ramis' very, very meta cult-classic. "Ironically, given the theme of the film, this never gets old. Winning performances, and respect for the comedic value of the script delivers laughs every time." (Empire Magazine) "Smart, sweet, and inventive, GROUNDHOG DAY highlights Murray's dramatic gifts while still leaving plenty of room for laughs." (Rotten Tomatoes) Thursday, February 2 Doors 6:00 pm | Movie 6:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. GROUNDHOG DAY (Harold Ramis, 1993 / 101 mins / PG) A narcissistic TV weatherman, along with his attractive-but-distant producer and mawkish cameraman, is sent to report on Groundhog Day in the small town of Punxsutawney, where he finds himself repeating the same day over and over. [more]

In this house... Following its wildly impressive debut at this year's Fantasia Film Festival, the micro-budget Canadian horror film SKINAMARINK has become a legitimate viral internet sensation, and is now looking like the most anticipated genre film of the year.... And it's coming exclusively to the Rio Theatre for two nights only in January. "Films like this come along once in a generation." (Eye For Film) "With visuals that combine David Lynch’s low-fi style from “Inland Empire” with the aesthetic of dusty ’70s family movies pulled from the attic, it’s a claustrophobic hallucination that blends the scariest ideas from childhood into a dreamy, dreadful experience." (Variety) "I haven’t felt this challenged or this horrified by a film in a very long time. Literal guttural sounds of the purest terror fell out of me at several points across its span. This is quite plainly the scariest movie I have seen in a very very long time." (Pajiba) "The horrors of ‘Skinamarink’ are in its ability to transport you back to your childhood home and then leave you there. Unattended, abandoned, and lost." (Dread Central) "Skinamarink is a kinder trauma experiment put to screen with indescribable contents." (SlashFilm) Thursday, February 2 Doors 8:30 pm | Movie 9:00 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. SKINAMARINK (Kyle Edward Ball, 2023 / 18A / 100 mins) Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. [more]

At a fading vacation resort, 11-year-old Sophie treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum (Paul Mescal, in an Oscar-nominated performance). As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie’s tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t, in Charlotte Wells’ superb and searingly emotional debut film. "I had my top-five-movies-of-the-year list all sorted. Now - boom! - I’ve had to start from scratch. Damn you, Mescal, for being the cornerstone of something so beautiful." (London Evening Standard) "This mesmeric debut will make you want to stay suspended in its sun-baked setting with its two captivating lead characters for far longer than the runtime. A triumph of new British filmmaking." (Empire Magazine) "Director Charlotte Wells knows exactly what she’s doing, and her storytelling is as precise as it is piercing." (Observer UK) "The film is the first from Scottish director Charlotte Wells, the result such a gossamer knockout that the fact seems implausible, the movie made with a dizzyingly sharp eye for the universal stuff of growing up." (Financial Times) Friday, February 3 Doors 6:00 pm | Movie 6:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. AFTERSUN (Charlotte Wells, 2022 / 101 mins / 14A) Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't. [more]

Canadian indie genre filmmaking legend Jason Eisener (who brought us Canuxploitation favourites including HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN and TREEVENGE and served as an Executive Producer on TURBO KID) returns to the big screen with his latest work, the sci-fi infused KIDS VS ALIENS. Taking a note of inspiration from the found footage “Slumber Party Alien Abduction” segment he directed in V/H/S/2, this latest effort finds kids fighting for their lives in a gory and neon nostalgia-filled creature feature that pays homage to horror of the 1980s, wrestling, and to the filmmaker's own childhood. All Gary wants is to make awesome home movies with his best buds. All his older sister Samantha wants is to hang with the cool kids. When their parents head out of town one Halloween weekend, an all-time rager of a teen house party turns to terror when aliens attack, forcing the siblings to band together to survive the night. With Dominic Mariche (“Are You Afraid of the Dark?,” “Team Zenko Go”), Phoebe Rex (“The Last Divide”), Calem MacDonald (“The Umbrella Academy”), Asher Grayson Percival (“Scaredy Cats”), and Ben Tector. "There is an endearingly scruffy vibe here, goosed by some cool-looking costumes and effects. And there’s a legitimate underdog edge, as Eisener and Davies capture how it feels to be underestimated and overmatched but full of can-do pluck." (Los Angeles Times) "In keeping with our current "poptimistic" age, Kids Vs. Aliens keeps the aggressive neon splatter, but loses the cynicism—a choice that, for all the F-bombs and fake blood, makes it a surprisingly pure film." (RogerEbert.com) "This is the sort of “kids on bikes” movie that focuses less on how to cash in on certain kinds of nostalgia and more on delighting in ways to stretch a limited budget into something that looks pretty cool." (We.Live Entertainment) "There is a real love for sci-fi & fantasy that is never obnoxious or overbearing. The film is inviting, allowing kids to resonate with the leads." (Screen Rant) Friday, February 3 Doors 8:30 pm | Movie 9:00 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. Tickets on sale January 27 at 12:00 pm KIDS VS. ALIENS (Jason Eisener, 2022 / 75 mins / 14A) An all-time rager of a teen house party turns to terror when aliens attack, forcing two warring siblings to band together to survive the night. [more]

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste." The Rio Theatre's weekly Friday Late Night Movie series returns in February (Black History Month)with a screening writer-director Jordan Peele's game changing, groundbreaking, and Oscar-winning work of socially satirical horror, GET OUT. The film's impact since its release in 2017 can't be missed - not only on Peele's own career (he has since gone on to truly establish himself with films including US and NOPE), but on the horror genre as a whole. In December 2022, the British Film Institute published the results of the 2002 Sight and Sound poll of the Greatest Films of All Time - and had GET OUT sitting comfortably at #95. Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy and Dean. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined. With Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford. "A poster film for Black Lives Matter, Jordan Peele’s horror-satire of white vampirism gleefully needles America’s racial malaise." (BFI) "Funny, scary, and thought-provoking, GET OUT seamlessly weaves its trenchant social critiques into a brilliantly effective and entertaining horror/comedy thrill ride." (Rotten Tomatoes) "Peele succeeds where sometimes even more experienced filmmakers fail: He's made an agile entertainment whose social and cultural observations are woven so tightly into the fabric that you're laughing even as you're thinking, and vice-versa." (TIME Magazine) "Jordan Peele’s GET OUT is the satirical horror movie we’ve been waiting for, a mash-up of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? and The Stepford Wives that’s more fun than either and more illuminating, too." (Vulture) Friday, February 3 Doors 11:00 pm | Movie 11:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. Late Night Date Night! Friday Late Night Movies are two-for-one entry. GET OUT (Jordan Peele, 2017 / 104 mins / 18A) It's time for a young African American to meet with his white girlfriend's parents for a weekend in their secluded estate in the woods, but before long, the friendly and polite ambience will give way to a nightmare. [more]

Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED is an epic, emotional and interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis. "Whether speaking, seething, or vaping, Goldin is a uniquely compelling heroine." (The Ringer) "So much of this documentary is about what we cannot get back, what we were lucky enough to have when we had it, and what art preserves, accidentally and not." (Rolling Stone Magazine) "Poitras, whose gift for suspenseful contemplation is on full display here, layers her subject’s frank memories and insights over a rolling bounty of her photographs..." (Los Angeles Times) "As it surveys an individual narrative across a half-century of political, artistic, and cultural heartache, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” is, in so many ways, the Great American Novel in documentary form." (TheWrap) Saturday, February 4 Doors 2:35 pm | Movie 2:55 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED (Laura Poitras, 2022 / 117 mins / 14A) Following the life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family, the pharmaceutical dynasty who was greatly responsible for the opioid epidemic's unfathomable death toll. [more]

On Saturday, February 4, we'll see you on the Dark Side of the MOONS! The Rio Theatre's most requested burlesque show returns to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's seminal Dark Side of the Moon album! Featuring The Hot & Heavy Band playing the Dark Side of the Moon album in its entirety, plus other Floyd fan favorites. Accompanying dazzling burlesque and variety performances by Burgundy Brixx, Tonya Kay, Mz. B. Haven, Fionna Flauntit, Jessie Rockley, Ann Narky and Shaboobie Boobarella with specially curated large screen visuals! The Hot & Heavy Band features Doug Thoms, Mark Richardson, Paul LeBlanc, John Woods, John Spiby and Colin Furness. Saturday, February 4 Doors 8:00 pm | Show 9:00 pm *Please arrive on time. Early Bird Tickets $30 (Limited number available! Until January 6) General Admission $35 | $40 at the door VIP (Reserved seating, Rows 1-5 centre section) $40 | $45 at the door [more]

Considered by many to be one of the greatest and most underrated action films of the 1970s, John Carpenter's gritty action thriller ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (which he wrote, directed, scored and edited) has been given a new 4K restoration in 2023 from the original camera negative courtesy of Deaf Crocodile Films and presented by AGFA. Released in 1976, Carpenter's stark, modern homage to Howard Hawk’s RIO BRAVO updates the action with a youth gang attacking a closing police station in a blighted ghetto neighborhood. Rapid-fire banter flies fast and furious between a charismatic convict and a policewoman as the faceless, virtually supernatural marauders attack. ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 remains one of Carpenter’s most effective pictures, an edge-of-your-seat thriller that put him on the map as an imaginative, creative force to be reckoned with. When the LAPD kills several members of the South Central gang Street Thunder, the remaining members avenge themselves by way of a bloody war waged against cops and citizens alike. Caught in the crossfire is Lt. Ethan Bishop, who's managing a skeleton crew at the local and soon-to-be-closed police precinct. As the gang members close in, Bishop forms an unlikely alliance with a group of prisoners in order to defend the station and the lives of everyone in it. With Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer. "Almost all of John Carpenter's movies are owned by large entertainment conglomerates. One exception is ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, which is owned by people who made it. As executive producer of the film, I am excited to work with Deaf Crocodile on a 4K scan of the original camera negative, and the possibility of applying new technology, including HDR10 and Dolby Vision, to extract much more from the negative image than has been possible before, while still respecting the movie's original roots.” (Joseph Kaufman, Executive Producer) "A joy to behold: a taut, aesthetic blast of violence." (Empire Magazine) "...there's no mistaking the modern racial and sexual politics encoded in the distinctly western elements of Carpenter's lean, mean, genre-defying masterpiece." (Slant Magazine) "Mr. Carpenter is an extremely resourceful director whose ability to construct films entirely out of action and movement suggests that he may one day be a director to rank with Don Siegel." (NY Times) Sunday, February 5 (Encore Screening) Doors 6:30 pm | Movie 7:00 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (John Carpenter, 1976 / 91 mins / 18A) A Highway Patrol Officer, two criminals and a station secretary defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct office against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang. [more]

In celebration of John Carpenter's 1976 gritty action thriller ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 getting the 4K Restoration treatment, we thought we'd also give it the double bill treatment with another Carpenter classic that his fans can't get enough of - ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK! See one, or see 'em both for one sweet price! Sunday, February 5 ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (4 K Restoration) Doors 6:15 pm | Movie 7:00 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. Why not make it a John Carpenter double bill with ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK for one sweet price? ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK Movie 9:00 pm *As this is screening as part of a double bill, the start time is approximate. ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (John Carpenter, 1976 / 91 mins / 18A) A Highway Patrol Officer, two criminals and a station secretary defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct office against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (John Carpenter, 1981 / 99 mins / PG) In 1997, the island of Manhattan has been walled off and turned into a giant maximum security prison within which the country's worst criminals are left to form their own anarchic society. However, when the President of the United States crash lands on the island, the authorities turn to a former soldier and current convict, Snake Plissken, to rescue him. [more]

In celebration of John Carpenter's 1976 gritty action thriller ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 getting the 4K Restoration treatment, we thought we'd also give it the double bill treatment with another Carpenter classic that his fans can't get enough of - ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK! See one, or see 'em both for one sweet price! John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, the epic 1981 action film featuring his 80's-era "muse" Kurt Russell as the iconic eye-patch-wearing hero Snake Plissken, was gorgeously restored in 2018 - and it's finally headed to East Vancouver, to take over the Rio Theatre's screen starting Saturday, November 7. Set in a dystopic 1997 in which a major war between the United States and the Soviet Union is concluding, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a giant maximum security prison. When Air Force One is hijacked and crashes into the island, the president (Donald Pleasence) is taken hostage by a group of inmates where Snake Plissken, a former Special Forces soldier turned criminal, is recruited to retrieve him in exchange for his own freedom. Also starring Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, and Adrienne Barbeau. "The movie proudly wears its affection for crusty Sergio Leone archetypes and countdown-clock suspense sequences; Carpenter was Tarantino long before Tarantino was." (Time Out New York) "Carpenter’s vision, presented in a beautiful 4K remaster, still impresses with its sense of time, place and attitude." (WeAreCult.Rocks) Sunday, February 5 ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK Movie 9:00 pm *As this is screening as part of a double bill, the start time is approximate. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (John Carpenter, 1981 / 99 mins / PG) In 1997, the island of Manhattan has been walled off and turned into a giant maximum security prison within which the country's worst criminals are left to form their own anarchic society. However, when the President of the United States crash lands on the island, the authorities turn to a former soldier and current convict, Snake Plissken, to rescue him. [more]

In director Baz Luhrmann's very contemporary and highly stylized take on William Shakespeare's classic romantic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering, yet very hip, suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed. Though the film is visually modern, the bard's dialogue remains. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes lead a stellar ensemble cast that includes John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau, Paul Rudd, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino, Brian Dennehy, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Miriam Margolyes. "Luhrmann's gleefully cinematic version of the play is so relentlessly inventive and innovative, it takes 20 minutes to get a grasp on how appropriate is his approach to the material." (Time Out) Thursday, February 9 ROMEO + JULIET Doors 6:00 pm | Movie 6:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. ROMEO + JULIET (Baz Luhrmann, 1996 / 120 mins / PG) A hyper-kinetic take on the classic Shakespearean romantic tragedy for the screen, updating the setting to a post-modern city named Verona Beach. In this version, the Capulets and the Montagues are two rival gangs. Young Juliet Capulet is attending a costume ball thrown by her parents when she meets and falls in love with the son of her family's nemesis, Romeo Montague, when he crashes her family's masked ball. [more]

Join us at the Rio Theatre on Thursday, February 9, for a Valentine's Day-ish double feature inspired by one of our favourite filmmakers, Baz Luhrmann. We're getting in the mood for love with a romantical pairing of fan-faves including ROMEO + JULIET and MOULIN ROUGE. See one, or see 'em bot for one sweet price! Thursday, February 9 ROMEO + JULIET Doors 6:00 pm | Movie 6:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. MOULIN ROUGE 9:00 pm *Apx start time. Please arrive on time. ROMEO + JULIET (Baz Luhrmann, 1996 / 120 mins / PG) A hyper-kinetic take on the classic Shakespearean romantic tragedy for the screen, updating the setting to a post-modern city named Verona Beach. In this version, the Capulets and the Montagues are two rival gangs. Young Juliet Capulet is attending a costume ball thrown by her parents when she meets and falls in love with the son of her family's nemesis, Romeo Montague, when he crashes her family's masked ball. MOULIN ROUGE! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001 / 127 mins / PG) A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club's most notorious and beautiful star. [more]