Sunday at the Yonge and Dundas Cineplex Odeon is the best day of the week to see film in the heart of Toronto. The first movie showings of Sunday are half price. If a current film sounds like it would be painful to watch at the full price of $12, it often views just fine at a $6 ticket.
Which is why I got myself on an eastbound Dundas Streetcar at 11 AM to watch the film Pitch Perfect. Anna Kendrick stars as Beca, a dark and slightly goth freshman with the usual parental and career hangups. Forced by her father to go to college instead of DJing in LA, she reluctantly joins a capella group called the Barton Bellas. The comedy at times is lame (lesbian and ethnicity jokes that don't quite work) and the plot is lighter than a box of popcorn served at the concession stand. The musical scenes rock though and make up for any deficits along the way. Don't forget Rebel Wilson, who plays Fat Amy. This large and lovely Aussie comedian fills the screen with droll physical bits and plays well against the lighter (in talent that is) supporting cast. Enjoy this clip - "The Riff-off".
The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson's latest American classic is not a snack, but a main course of a film and properly seen about an hour after the fluff of Pitch Perfect has been washed away with a beer at Jack Astor's, next to the cinema. (Truth be told - I'm in love with the Iceberg concoctions: mango/vodka slushy in a Rickard's white beer).
Joaquin Phoenix rounds his shoulders forward and walks with arms akimbo as the returning WWII vet Freddie Quell. Traumatized by the war, drifting in an alcoholic haze through dead end jobs in prosperous post-war America Freddie meets Lancaster Dodd, played by Phillip Seymour-Hoffman and his strong and focused wife Peggy, played by the amazing Amy Adams. Dodd's "The Cause" teachings at first improve and tamper down Freddie's id behaviors and he joins as a member traveling with extended family and followers around the country. Questions abound in this film, as in who is truly The Master or dominant force of the film? Is it about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard? Or does it go deeper than that with the ever maternal, scary presence of Peggy, Dodd's wife? Take a moment to watch the official trailer to wet your appetite if you will.
Around 6pm the movie feast was over and I was standing on the corner of Yonge and Dundas waiting for a westbound Dundas Streetcar. Sundays are always slower and my time was taken up listening to a street preacher sharing both printed and verbal views about (quoted to the best of my memory), "our saviour Jesus Christ." The moment and the man droned on while not a street car was in sight. Suddenly, his speech changed to focusing on supposed sins including the one of homosexuality. On and on he went, claiming the only way to redemption was through heterosexuality and Jesus.
Before I could stop myself, my mouth opened and I shouted - "You are wrong! Homosexuality is not a sin and has no need of redemption." Other phrases not too articulate and not particularly well said were thrown out as well. Family and friends would not have been surprised by my passionate outburst. It's happened before and will probably happen again. Untruths, injustice, bigotry - these all uncork my self-control and out comes the most impassioned speeches. Gratefully and somewhat sheepishly, I got on the arrived streetcar and headed on home. The magic of the movies, the gentle pleasures of a beer were now subdued and in their place a figurative heartburn had settled in to stay the evening.
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