What's On
Hard Eight
Anderson's debut is a deceptively modest character piece about a veteran gambler (Philip Baker Hall) who takes a much younger man under his wing and teaches him how to play the system and win. Until things take a darker turn...
Capernaum
Nadine Labaki's Oscar-nominated heart-tugger tells the story of a 12 year old boy who has grown up in the slums of Beirut, and who decides to sue his parents for bringing him into such a world. "An absolute heartbreaker." Peter Howell, Toronto Star
Boogie Nights
Being the rise and fall of a prodigiously-endowed performer on the seventies porno scene. Paul Thomas Anderson's flamboyant 1997 calling card movie revels in the wild success of xxxcess, before crashing to earth with a bump.
Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they criss-cross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.
Synecdoche, New York
Charlie Kaufman wrote Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- all great, all successful -- then turned director with Synecdoche, which is a masterpiece and which basically went unseen. It's overdue rediscovery.
Matt Grinke's Happiest Jazz Quintet Play Classic Disney Songs
Enjoy a set of beloved Disney movie tunes given the Matt Grinke treatment, and after the live music, groove to the original 1967 version of The Jungle Book, featuring songs like I Wanna Be Like You, The Bare Necessities and Trust In Me.
Image: © 1967, Disney
Punch-Drunk Love
Anderson's surreal screwball romantic comedy has a wildly experimental edge, not least in Jon Brion's audacious score, but there's something euphoric about the entire irresistible project.
Audience Choice: The Best Film of the 21st Century
What do you think belongs on our list of 21st Century Classics? Nominate your choice in our voting form and it could be voted the favourite to be added to our list and played at the VIFF Centre.
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson's lacerating epic about the birth of the oil age: Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary as the prospector entirely consumed with his own enterprise, a Trumpian figure of naked self-assertion; Paul Dano the evangelist who may be his nemesis.
The Master
Joaquin Phoenix as WWII vet Freddie Quell falls into the orbit of Philip Seymour Hoffman's self-styled prophet Lancaster Dodd in this tremulous 1950s psychodrama from Paul Thomas Anderson.
Cory Weeds Plays Sonny Rollins
Local sax legend Cory Weeds is joined by pianist Sharon Minemoto, bassist David Caballero and drummer Jesse Cahill to play music from Sonny Rollins' 1957 Riverside Records release The Sound Of Sonny, plus a screening of the acclaimed Saxophone Colossus doc.
Licorice Pizza
PTA's oddball courtship comedy takes us to the San Fernando Valley in 1973. 15-year-old aspiring actor Gary Valentine has the hots for 25 year-old Alana. She's bemused but admires his self confidence. It's quirky, meandering, but it sneaks up on you.