REEL | 'Wicked: Part I' Defies A Wondrous Musical Fantasy

"I'm the other daughter, Elphaba. I'm beautifully tragic."

Universal Pictures

The first half of Chinese-American director Jon M. Chu's long-awaited, two-part blockbuster big-screen adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical sensation exploring the events of L. Frank Baum's endearing 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the revisionist perspective of the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West character finally arrives. For all its effort, Wicked: Part I dazzles as an exhilarating viewing experience mostly aimed at existing fans of the long-running hit musical.

REEL | Paul Mescal Keeps It Roman – 'Gladiator II' Echoes Itself

"I will never be your instrument in this life or the next."

Paramount Pictures / Scott Free Productions

Legendary British director Ridley Scott finally revisits his acclaimed swords and sandals epic in the long-awaited legacy sequel, Gladiator II. It stars Paul Mescal as Lucius, the grown son of Russell Crowe's departed Maximus and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen reprising her role) who is the rightful heir to the crumbling Roman Empire. His exile as a child to North Africa before being conquered as an adult and sent back as a slave turned champion gladiator mirrors his father's heroic arc.

REEL | Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin Tour 'A Real Pain'

"Money is like heroin for boring people."

Searchlight Pictures / Topic Studios

In his sophomore directorial effort, accomplished actor/playwright Jesse Eisenberg directs himself alongside Kieran Culkin as two once-close but mismatched Jewish cousins on a bonding trip to their ancestral homeland to reconnect after their Polish grandmother (a WWII survivor) passes away. A Real Pain channels the road trip template to explore the interpersonal effects of generational suffering.

SCREEN | 'It Takes A Village: An East Van Story' Gives Back x VAFF 2024

"Community is survival."

Vancouver Asian Film Festival

Vancouver native and first-time feature filmmaker Christopher Cho tells a tale of community in his Ugandan immigrant love letter to the neighbourhoods of East Vancouver. It Takes A Village: An East Van Story dives into the Mubanda family's move to Canada after escaping the violent Ugandan civil war under the brutal dictatorship of President Idi Amin.

VIFF 2024 | Cementing 'Pavements' – A Pavement Musical Retrospective

"They're like the slacker Rolling Stones of the '90s."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2024—Her Smell writer/director Alex Ross Perry helms the meta rock documentary hybrid of a fake musical biopic, Pavements, about "the most important and influential band" of our time, Pavement. It's a complex but hilariously multifaceted riff on the typical kinds of music vanity projects we usually get, including artist-sanctioned documentaries, jukebox stage musicals, or self-important biographical dramas like Bohemian Rhapsody.

VIFF 2024 | Artistic Trespassing – How to Build A 'Secret Mall Apartment'

"When I come back, you better be out!"

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2024—Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker Jeremy Workman chronicles artist Michael Townsend's hilarious early-2000s experiment taking control of an unknown space in the Providence Place Mall in Rhode Island. As its title straightforwardly implies, Secret Mall Apartment provides all the side-splitting details about how eight friends (all working artists) dared to build a makeshift home in a four-year-long act of trespassing.

VIFF 2024 | Eiko Ishibashi Live x A 'Gift' Does Exist x Rio Theatre

"Water always flows downhill."

Vancouver International Film Festival

Commercial Drive—(October 1, 2024) Talented Japanese singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist composer Eiko Ishibashi performed her affecting live soundtrack score for VIFF Live's special presentation of Oscar-winning auteur Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's wordless Evil Does Not Exist companion film Gift at the Rio Theatre earlier this month.

VIFF 2024 | 'Emilia Pérez' Finds A Musical Crime Odyssey

"I want a new skin."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2024—No one can accuse Emilia Pérez, French filmmaker Jacques Audiard's Spanish-language transgender musical crime thriller based on his opera libretto of the same name and loosely adapted from Boris Razon's 2018 novel Écoute, of not taking bold risks. His film collects different genres, from its Mexican gangster setup to some telenovela melodrama crisscrossing with a surreal queer family tragedy and full-on choreographed musical odyssey, for mostly triumphant results thanks to its talented female lead cast that commits to the strange tone.

VIFF 2024 | Barry Keoghan Lets 'Bird' Fly Away

"I don't care about your dream."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2024—Bird may not be the British filmmaker's best film, but it is certainly the most Andrea Arnold film she has ever made. Known for a trademark sense of social realism to her naturalistic cinematic style exploring otherwise unseen working-class subcultures of the impoverished, Arnold's latest continues to explore a young person's coming-of-age point-of-view to their bleak world.