The Rio Theatre Podcast
Join Duncan Shields and Darren Gay (The Black Dog Video After Dark Podcast) every month as we give you the lowdown on all the wonderful upcoming programming happening at Vancouver's fabulous Rio Theatre (and soon to include The Park Theatre)! Movies, live performances, special events, reviews and more. See you at the Rio!
Theme music courtesy of Dear Rouge
Recorded and engineered by Gregg Steffensen.
The Rio Theatre Podcast
Rio Theatre and Park Theatre Podcast! June 2026
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Please join your hosts Duncan Shields and Darren Gay as they give you the lowdown on all the fantastic shows, events and films that are coming to Vancouver's fabulous Rio and Park Theatres in the month of June 2026! Hope to see you at the movies!
Theme music courtesy of Dear Rouge.
Recorded and engineered by Gregg Steffensen.
Hello and welcome to the Rio Park Theater Podcast. This is a podcast for the Rio Theater and the Park Theaters. I am former video store employee and movie enthusiast Duncan Shields.
SPEAKER_01And I am former video store owner of Black Dog Video here in Vancouver and also movie enthusiast Darren Gaye.
SPEAKER_00And we're going to talk about the amazing movies and events coming this June to Vancouver's legendary sister theaters. Twin uh what is it? Sisters, but not twins, was how Rachel put it. Right. Uh the Rio Theater on Commercial and Broadway and the Park Theater on Cambion 18th here in sunny Vancouver, BC. We both go to both theaters often, and uh there's a lot of great stuff coming up here in June. There most certainly is. I can't believe it's June already. Yeah, that went quick. Yeah. Such is life. Such is life. Uh so I guess we'll start with the Rio Theater. Let's do that. Uh the first one that I want to talk about is Marama or May Rama, I believe, I believe that's how it's pronounced. Uh Far From Home and Haunted by Visions, a Maori woman uncovers gruesome secrets inside an English manor. Uh a bold, unsettling gothic tale of identity. Memory and colonial reckoning. I saw the trailer for this and I was like, that looks great. Cool. Is it uh is it a horror film? It looks like it's one of those unsettling gothic vibe movies. And and like if we're uncovering colonial horrors, then it's like maybe it's a documentary, you know, but uh bad stuff. So uh, but it looks really good. And that's on Monday, June the 1st, uh at 6 30 p.m. at the Rio.
SPEAKER_01All right, and also on Monday, June the 1st, uh later on that night, 8 45, is a movie called The Drama uh from writer-director Christopher Borgley, who also did two of uh two excellent films, one of them being uh one of my favorite films of the year that came out, which is Dream Scenario. Right. Love Dream Scenario and Sick of Myself, which is excellent as well. Excellent. Um uh starring Robert Pattison and Zendeya. Uh it's a it's a quirky dark dark comedy about a happily engaged couple that is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails. Now you've seen this, right? I just watched it last week and it's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00Me too. I saw it like uh I saw it a few last month, I think. Yeah. Great stuff. Great stuff.
SPEAKER_01It's probably gonna end up on my top top picks of the year, the year, the year list that uh when we do this later on.
SPEAKER_00And great, uh, great to see with an audience. Oh yeah, I didn't want to I watched it at home, unfortunately. But if you're watching it in a theater with a with the tension and the I know like it's really it's really good.
SPEAKER_01So I'm a big fan of that, that cringy, uh uncomfortable, you know, just yeah, things just going wrong and wrong and wrong.
SPEAKER_00Especially the crowd, people are gasping in the in the crowd. It's good. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Check this one out the uh in the theater if you can if you can do that. That's again, that's Monday, June the 1st at 8 45. Uh Tuesday, June the 2nd. This is sold out, uh, but it's worth talking about at 7 30 p.m. Tuesday, June the 2nd. Maybe there's a ticket or two at the door if you want to check it out and you're just hearing about it now. Hookers on Davy. Uh it's International Sex Workers Day on June the 2nd, and this is a special screening of uh a landmark documentary exploring the history, resilience, and activism of Vancouver's sex work community. An important part of our city's story and all proceeds from the event will support living in community and pace society, uh, helping advance the safety rights and well-being of sex workers. But this is back when there were hookers on Davy. Right, yeah. Uh, and this is like, yeah, late 70s, early 80s. Expo 86 came along, I think, and cleared them all out of course in time for the international audiences. Can't can't have that sort of thing. You think that would be good for business, all those people coming to town. I I bet it was. Yeah. I remember when I worked at the video store on Davy and Jervis, uh down there at Rogers Rogers Video. Um we had a bunch of people that would come in and rent this documentary all the time because it was like friends of theirs. Right. In the documentary who was like since passed on and kind of thing, you know, like so. It's a really important landmark documentary.
SPEAKER_01I think we had it at the shop too in the early days on VHS, way back in the day. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, it was yeah, people were again, but probably people that knew people in the movie coming to get it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I'd like to I'd like to check that out. It is sold out, so I can't.
SPEAKER_01But you never know. Sometimes they release tickets uh day off.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, maybe just check the website or whatever. Tuesday, June the second at 7 30.
SPEAKER_01All right, the next day, which would be Wednesday, May, sorry, Wednesday, June the third. Whoopsie. Whoopsie. At 6 30 in the evening, we have a filmmaker film a film called Sick Puppy. And the filmmakers are in attendance for a QA. Charlie loves her husband, John, even though he's a serial killer. Say what? What problem? I can see problems uh maybe ensuing there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Uh when he finally quits, uh sure, I do serial serial killers. They quit their serial killing. I think so.
SPEAKER_00If they have a good enough reason, uh the love of one's life, perhaps being the in this case.
SPEAKER_01Sure. Uh she's thrilled, but the police sooner on their tail.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Um, soon after that, Charlie must uh do whatever he whatever she can to keep them, keep the cops, I guess keep one step ahead of the cops. One step ahead of the cops, yeah. All the while making sure John stays on the straight and narrow. Like I'm sure he's probably well, I'll take care of them.
SPEAKER_00No, honey, we have to do this. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01So I'm I'm not sure, I'm not sure what this is. Is it a comedy? Is it a thriller, a thriller comedy? Looks like a bit of both.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, cool. Sounds good, though. Filmmakers in attendance for QA. Yeah, check that one out. Wednesday, May the 3rd, 6 30. And then Wednesday, June the 3rd at 9 30 is the Serpent's Skin. Again, filmmakers in attendance for QA. Uh, this one looks pretty good too. 20-something Anna finally leaves her small transphobic hometown for good and quickly begins dating goth tattoo artist Jen after the two discover they share supernatural powers. But before Anna can call up the U-Haul, Jen inadvertently summons a demon through the sick neck tattoo she gives sensitive guitarist Danny. As Danny or whatever is inside of him begins feeding off their friends, it's up to Anna and Jen to figure out how to use their powers to save everyone before it's too late. What a great premise.
SPEAKER_01Is this a documentary? It's a documentary. That's right. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's uh Wednesday at 9 30.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Wednesday, June 3rd at 9 30.
SPEAKER_01That sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah. Um, and then uh we have a film. I I'm not sure if it's a film, actually. It's something called The Amazing Digital Circus, The Last Act. Yeah, this looks really interesting. Yeah. Um, it's a I guess it's a viral internet sensation called The Amazing Digital Circus. And uh this uh comes to his long-awaited conclusion in a feature-length theatrical release. Discover the fates of Pomney and the gang as they unravel the true secret and unravel the true secret and history of the digital circus as the show finally arrives at its last act. Uh, this last act combines episode eight with all new hours with a not the all new hour-long episode nine for fans to see before anyone else in the entire world.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, a premiere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, with Kane gone in the circus dark, the cast are left with only the mistakes and traumas of their past to keep them company. That doesn't sound good. No, it does not. Uh, as the prospect of eternity closes in around them, like it does us all, they discover the truth about the digital circus and its history. Oh my. Yeah. Will they come to terms with what they uncover? Or will they make the other choice? There will also be a special entertaining recap of the series narrated by one of the characters.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I don't know what this is, I don't follow it, but that sounds like a lot of fun, and it sounds like it's gonna be this and it's playing a lot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think the people that are into this are gonna be there and quite enjoy it. Yeah. We're looking at Thursday, June the 4th at 6 30, Saturday, June the 6th at 3 in the afternoon, and then Sunday the 7th at 6 30 as well.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Uh, and then this uh documentary that we talked about last time, No Effects, 40 Years of Fucking Up, uh done by uh Fat Mike. Uh the film features archival footage, candid interviews, yakada yak. There's a real life spinal tap. The film features intimate and often shocking footage, backstage chaos, drug use, and personal stories, as one would hope. Yes. And uh yeah, that looks like a really good one. That's that and then it it it you know they're showing it again. They showed it like three times last month, they're showing it again. Well attended, great documentary. Thursday, June the 4th at 9 p.m.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I have friends who've seen it and they say it's great.
SPEAKER_00Wonderful. Yep.
SPEAKER_01All right, you ready for this?
SPEAKER_00I'm uh excited about this.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Uh this is actually a film I've never heard of, and it's the 50th anniversary restoration. Uh rude 50th anniversary. I know. Like we were like children, tiny little children when this came out. It's called Shole, the Final Cut. Yeah. Uh, two criminals are hired by a retired police officer officer to capture a ruthless bandit. It combines traditional Indian Dukoi film touches with spaghetti western and samurai film influences. It's the highest grossing film in India all the way up to 1994.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And like so, if it was the 50th anniversary, geez, I can't do the math, but it missed to come out in like you know, 1990.
SPEAKER_01Fifty years from here from now? Yeah. Um, yeah, it'd be like 1975 or six.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 1976. And so it was the highest grossing film in India until 1994. So that's a long stretch. That's a good run. And they, you know, they put out a few movies in India. Yeah, they didn't. So that's uh that's a pretty huge, yeah, huge record.
SPEAKER_01It's uh one of the greatest and and most influential Indian films of all time. The evening will kick off with a program overview of the Indian Summer Festival program, which is July 9th to 19th, offering access to on-the-spot ticket purchasing for the entire festival lineup. Grab specially curative refreshments and mango cocktails and settle into this one, the only show lay. Oh, it's all the only one. It's a long one. Um it's on Friday, June the 5th at 6 30. It's 204 minutes, which I think translates roughly to uh nine and nine point five hours. It's uh seven days. Yes, seven days long, and there's an intermission. So yeah, that's if you're into that, go see it. I've never heard of it, but I imagine it's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_00I'm pretty curious about it with all the uh with these accolades and these numbers, and uh, you know, I'm like, that's pretty awesome. Yeah. So I'd like to see that, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh and then Saturday, June the 6th at 6 p.m., we've got the East Fan Laugh Riot with Luke Severied, Scott Loss, and Andrew Rivers. Stand up comedy. Live comedy comes straight your face. That's why June 6th, you said?
SPEAKER_01June the 6th at 6 p.m.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then uh we have train spotting, a little film called Train Spotting. I've heard about that. I heard about it. Which uh 30th anniversary. Again, rude. Rude. How dare they? I know. But uh I th I just I know there's a a um restoration that is making the circuit, so I don't know if this is well it's the 30th anniversary restoration. Oh, so it's restoration right there. There it is. Oh, well, there you go. It's the restoration trick. That's such a great film. Uh Danny Boyle's I think second film after uh Shallow Grave. Yeah, um, it's so good. And uh yeah, it's playing on Saturday, June the 6th at 10 30 at night, Monday, June the 8th at 9 30, and then Wednesday, June the 10th at 6 30. So no excuses. Go check it out. If you've never seen the big screen, go and see the big screen. It's so dynamic, and the music's great. And yeah, you have young uh Ewan McGregor, I think it's his first film. Yeah. No, second film. He did Shallow Grave as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Shallow Grave. Kelly McDonald, I think, is in there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and uh Robert Carlisle.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Robert Carlisle. Is it Begby? Begby terrifying Begby. Yeah, it's amazing. Well worth seeing. Yeah. Uh and then on Sunday, June the 7th at 3 p.m. is Trovadorus, a celebration of women songwriters of Latin America. So it's the third time they've uh third annual concert, Canto Vivo, led by musical director Sergio Perez, will showcase the work of both acclaimed and little known Latin American women. So the choir is gonna take the audience on a journey across the continent and along more than 100 years. So the the X and the Y of the graph, uh starting at the beginning of the 20th century in Brazil and ending in contemporary Guatemala, with stops in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico. So holy geez. Yeah, that sounds like a good road trip. If you like some Latin American music, uh this looks like a pretty amazing night. So that's Sunday, June the 7th at 3 p.m. Oh, it's gonna be an afternoon concert.
SPEAKER_01Fantastic. All right. Now this is a uh next one we have is an anime which I've never been able to pronounce. We had it at the video store forever. Um you can give it a shot. I believe I know. Uh Tekken Kincrete. Tekon Kincrete, yeah, that's right. Not too bad. I worked on that for most of the day. Um, it's the 20th anniversary remaster of this one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, I've never seen it. I do like the anime, and I like the anime of that era, but I have never seen this one. But it was always a great renter at the shop.
SPEAKER_00Well, this one really changed the game in terms of style. Okay. There was a I saw this when it came out, uh, I think uh it was in Scotland at the time, and it was really, really good and very different. Like anime up until that point had a very sort of established look, at least with the stuff that made it all the way to the shores outside of uh out of Japan. And then, but this is a whole new kind of you know, strange angles and and uh you know wide lenses, you know, and it's all animated, so it's like they're drawing it that way. Really cool uh like action sequences and yeah, like very expressive and really, really cool.
SPEAKER_01I'm sure it'll be great on the big screen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um I'll give you a little synopsis, uh, an inf influen influential anime featuring two orphan street kids who live in the slums of Treasure Town. Yes. When real estate developers threaten to transform Treasure Town, aka Tit, into a massive theme park, its very existence is put at risk.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I got that. Threatened to transform it into a massive theme park.
SPEAKER_01Sorry. I thought that was a short form that you put in there from the that was uh that's uh that's on me. I just went along with it like a doofus. That's all right, anyways. Um, yeah, so one of the kids takes on the Yakuza and Assassins, gradually losing his innocence as he confronts the dark manifestation within himself.
SPEAKER_00If you haven't seen it and you're into anime, this is a wonderful, wonderful uh film to check out. Very kinetic. It's uh Sunday, June the 7th at 8.45 p.m. after the Trovadores concert. Right. Monday, June the 8th, our hero Balthazar. Again, director in attendance for QA. I love that the Rio Theater does so many of these uh director, casting crew in attendance for the QA's. Eager to impress his activist crush, a wealthy New York teenager, follows an online connection to Texas where he's convinced he can stop an act of extreme violence from director Oscar Boyson, who produced Good Time and Uncut Gems, which were both pretty wild, uncomfortable watches.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I really like Good Time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I I enjoyed Uncut Gems too, but I understand that's a test of some people's anxiety.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, it's just not a relaxing film.
SPEAKER_00No, so but this hopefully will be uh will be just as good um and just as impressive. And that's Monday, June the 8th at 6 30 p.m.
SPEAKER_01All right, and then we have the last anniversary. The story follows a couple as they return to the abandoned hotel where they were married 10 years earlier, right? Inviting their original wedding party for one final night of celebration. So something sounds good so far, but final night? What is but beneath the surface, the surface of nostalgia lies a darker purpose confronting the group about the mysterious disappearance of their maid of honor on that long ago wedding night. Uh oh. As tensions rise and the world edges towards collapse, buried truths begin to surface with devastating consequences. Yeah. I love these kind of films. Oh, yeah, it's great stuff. Yeah. So when things just start going awry and like in the drama, secrets come up that maybe shouldn't have come up. Yeah, maybe he should have been left. Yeah. This is on Wednesday, June the 10th at 8:45 p.m.
SPEAKER_00Hey, do you like Cole Porter? Um, probably. I do. Yeah. Uh there's a uh what's a show coming up called You're the Top, the Cole Porter songbook songbook, on film and live with the Laura Crema Sextet presented by Michael Vandenbos. Uh so it's uh Cole Porter tunes live, and that's gonna be amazing. That's Friday, June the 12th at 7:30 p.m.
SPEAKER_01And then later on that evening is Dario Argento Argento Suspiria.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we saw that last year with uh Goblin playing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, live with the live accompaniment from Goblin.
SPEAKER_01I've seen Suspiria so many times. It's so great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, never get tired of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I always found that the uh the the little uh blurb that they have the only thing more terrifying than the last 12 minutes of this film are the first 80. So the whole thing's terrifying. So the whole thing. Yeah, 92 minutes of terrifying stuff. But yeah, it's so good. And again, if you've never seen the big screen, please do yourself a favorite. So it's so colorful.
SPEAKER_00The music's is really unique. It's an amazing piece of work.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the goblin soundtrack is so killer, and it looks great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's Friday, June the 12th, 11:30 p.m. Late night, date night, two for one tickets. Bring someone if you if you know someone who hasn't seen it, bring them along. Yep, or bring a stranger. Bring a stranger. Uh, Monday, June the 15th at 7 p.m. is the best of Dream Big Productions, Templeton Secondaries after school film program. So it'll be a bunch of uh up and coming teen directors directing uh their Magnum opuses and uh showing them at the this year's batch of what is it, there graduation, after after school program films. Yeah, so we got you know, whatever anything you want, the gender bending, genre bending mix of funny, scary, poignant, and as always weird as heck.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they're they're a lot of fun. My kid was involved in uh in this program when he was at Templeton, and I went to a number of those these screenings, these uh the big dream screenings at the V Rio, and they're always packed and fun. Oh, yeah, yeah. And the the kids are so creative and they're having such a good time. And surprisingly, like how good the films are as well. It's it's pretty impressive.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. I'd love to check that out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, filmkid prom, it says there we go. Uh, then we have the critical hit show, the DD Live improv improvised Epic Fantasy on Wednesday, June the 17th at 7 p.m. Always a crowd pleaser. Always a good time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and this is something I'm really worried about on Wednesday, June the 7th, June the 17th at 9:30 p.m. is Dead Lover, and it's presented in stinko vision. This is like an old John Waters smell ovision bit. 100% a lonely gravedigger stinks of corpses, so she can't attract a lover. That old problem. I know. Perfumes don't help. One day, an aristocratic dandy in town for his sister's funeral is downright aroused by the gravedigger's morbid stink. They begin a rapturous love affair and dream of starting a family. Every audience member gets a scratch and sniff card for the pivotal scenes. I beat guests with instructions of what to scratch and sniff at what time. Uh what fun.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah. Um, yeah, I don't know what to say or think of this, but I think it's gonna be a blast.
SPEAKER_00That sounds like a really fun time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then uh I shot Andy Warhol, 30th anniversary restoration. Rude again. Yep. I remember uh getting this one uh for the video store when it came out, and it was a huge render.
SPEAKER_00I never saw it.
SPEAKER_01No? Yeah, it's really good. And I l I love Lily Taylor, but I never saw it. Yeah, um, it's uh and it's uh Mary Heron's uh, I believe it's her first film. Oh right. Yeah, she did American Psycho and uh a few other things. I think she did a Pet Cemetery movie, possibly. Oh, okay. I'm not too sure. Um, but yeah, it's a story of um uh what's her name? Uh Valerie Sol Solanus, right, who ended up shooting Andy Warhol uh, I guess in the late 60s. That's almost killing him, and then she went on to fame uh with her uh radically anti-male scum manifesto. Yeah, it's a really fascinating film and Lily Taylor's greatness.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, if you've never seen it, go check it out. It's a great film. That's uh what, Thursday, June the 18th? At 6:30 p.m. And then Friday, June the 19th, at 8 15 p.m. Some summer solstice fun, Midsumar. I love Midsumar.
SPEAKER_01Do we do we know if this is the extended cut or is this just the theatrical cut that we all saw? No, I have no idea. Yeah, because I've always wanted to see the extended cut. I I don't know if I need more of uh of all those uh misdealings and the antics. Yes, those uh Swedish uh sunny antics, but uh the movie sounds so good. I like I wish Ari Aster, like I loved um Eddington and Bo is Afraid. Yeah, but I wish he'd get back to more horror, like uh Hereditarian this are my two of his favorites.
SPEAKER_00Well, his vibe is a really good vibe for horror, yeah. So I hope he does too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because I was both of those other films have elements in it, especially Bo is Afraid has horror elements, but he seems to be drifting away into anyway. It doesn't matter. His films are good. Go see Midsummer. Midsummer's fantastic, yeah. And then uh later that night we got the Warriors, uh uh Walter Hill's uh great um New York and play. Yeah, New York uh travel tick, which I call that. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_00Travel tip tick. So quotable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh 11:30 that night, uh late night, date night two for one.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Uh and then Saturday, June the 20th is the Saturday morning all-you-can-eat cereal cartoon show. Yes. Always a good time. You go to that, don't you? I do. Bring the whole family, uh, get dressed in pajamas, bring a bring a bowl that uh like a plastic bowl that won't break. They do have bowls on site, uh cardboard bowls that you can use. Don't they don't they just leak all over the place? No, they're good bowls. They just uh they're just like, yeah, they're they're like single.
SPEAKER_01Like a hard cart, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so like uh you wear your pajamas and what you sleep. I sleep nude. Oh, well. Is that cool? Then no, it's not. No. All right. Well, I'll have to maybe think of something else.
SPEAKER_00Uh always a good time. Yeah. Then that night, uh Saturday, June the 20th at 9 p.m. is the burlesque long form, which is lots of fun because most people, most burlesque acts are around. Three minutes long, and then I but some people, creative geniuses that are in this town, sometimes want a little bit longer. So April O'Peal gives them each 10 minutes. So they got a they've got a uh 10-minute act that they get to create, and it's usually this is the only time you're gonna see them, so it's really really worth going. There's some fantastic acts out there, and this uh this lineup we got Scarlet Delirium book Daily Grind. Daily Grind. Ariel Helvetica, uh huge uh right now. Arabella Boop and April Appeal, and it's hosted by Diva the Violent Femme, who's a charming, charming host.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. And that's uh Saturday the 20th at nine o'clock in the evening. Indeed. In the evening, and then uh we have the Run and Gun 2026 Open the Floodgates. Uh it's the results of this year's amazing 40 48-hour filmmaking festival. Always a good time. So yeah, I imagine it's mostly people that have made it and their friends and stuff that are going to see it, but go check it out.
SPEAKER_00There's gonna be some great even if you weren't part of it. The energy in the room is incredible, right? Because everybody's just showing off what they've managed to concoct over at a very intensely short amount of time. Yeah, I can't believe I can't believe they they pull it off like that. Some of the results for 48 hours are like this is amazing. Yeah. This is amazing.
SPEAKER_01Cool. Yeah, and that's that's um the uh Monday, June the 21st to Thursday, June the 25th. So check the uh the the real website to find out exactly what uh what's going on there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then Saturday, June the 27th is something I don't really know that much about, but it's CJ the X optimized grass touching. Uh CJ the X is a Toronto-based independent artist and philosopher that began making YouTube videos in 2021. Since then, they've amassed over 350,000 subscribers, 15 million views, a robust crowdfunding base on Patreon, a loyal personal mailing list, and sold-out lectures across the world. Their breathless, interdisciplinary approach makes them one of the most unique cultural voices in the internet age, blending irreverent humor, sharp intellectualism, and earnest spirituality. From what I can tell from all of the accolades and from all of the talents that are listed, this is uh one of those people that does like just tons of stuff. Right. Like a polymath. Like one of those people, like if I found out they spoke 10 languages, I'd be like, oh, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01Like maybe you're not an astronaut.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right. They they seem to have their their fingers in a lot of pies and very successful. So I'm very curious about what that would be like. And that's Saturday, June the 27th at 7 p.m.
SPEAKER_01Cool. And I believe that's it for the real for this month.
SPEAKER_00I believe that's it for the real for this month, but there's a few days that still haven't been put up yet. Yeah. Go to the go to the schedule at Rio Theater.ca. Yeah. Theater with an R E, the Canadian Way, I believe. Yes. Uh.ca and uh go um go check out and see what's coming up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and so sign up for the mailing list. So yeah, it can just it get just show that it shows up on your computer. Yeah, which is crazy to me.
SPEAKER_00I've heard about that, yeah, through electronic mail.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like a so a series of tubes or something. And uh yeah, so do do that, and then uh what do we have going on at the park theater? Do you want to start this one since you've seen this one?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, sure. The very, very beautiful, amazing, recently purchased park theater with a incredible new projector, big ol' 70 millimeter projector. Uh they are showing they I went to the premiere of this, they're showing Backrooms, uh, a fantastic, fantastic film. Co-scored and directed by Kane Parsons, who's only 20 years old. 20 years old, which is wild. He started doing these viral uh internet sensations called backrooms, which is about the liminal spaces of like I don't know, the hallways you'd find in the back of an airport or the back of a store. These sort of endless labyrinth in office hallways with the fluorescent lights and the beige carpet that are soulless and strange. And when you're in them and there's no windows, you're like, Am I awake?
SPEAKER_01You know, like is this real? It's funny. Um, I went to work at the Orpheum Theater a couple weeks ago, and I ran into my friend Dennis, who's been there a long time, and we're walking up the street and he goes, Oh, come on in this way. So we went in the backstage door, instantly lost, just corridors and corridors of weirdness and just almost oppressive, kind of weird things. It was really cool. I'd never been backstage before, like that deep backstage. Yeah. So I get a little taste of what uh this might uh might hold.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so this uh strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom, and uh after a therapist patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, she must venture into the unarmed to save him. So, and it also um stars Chai Weddle Ajayaphor and Renat Ronsva. I'm glad I'm glad that you are doing this one because I would have put you both their names. And she got the Oscar for sentimental value, or she was just nominated. I can't remember. I forget. She was nominated for sure. But she's also in the worst person in the world, fantastic actor, and Chaiwetel Ajayaphor is amazing. Yeah, he's one of my favorites. And they both just act their pants off in this movie. They, you know, they have to carry the movie and uh they do a good job. I loved it. I saw it, it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_01I'm looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, really, really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_01Mark Duplas is in this as well, and I've always liked that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, briefly, and he's he's he's wonderful. Uh so yeah, that's Monday, June the first through till Thursday, June the 4th. Oh 6 30 p.m. and 95 9 15 p.m. every night. They have a little backrooms uh set of of like really a really skinny corridor that you can go in and take a picture of it if you want to impress your friends, and it's uh it's yeah, it's really well worth seeing. So that's up at the park theater, June the first to Thursday, June the 4th.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. And then we have uh Blue Heron, which we talked about on the last uh podcast because it has its premiere at the Rio, I believe. Yeah, that's right. Uh but it's now moved over to the um the park theater. In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island, but their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behavior from the eldest son Jeremy. Yeah. At wits end, their parents are presented with a shattering choice. Award-winning director Sophie Roman Romberry, yeah. Uh, who used to work at the Rio Theater, by the way. Um profound testament to the things we carry with us. Masterfully, masterfully chronicling the haze of a language summer and the hail. What's that word? Hail? I don't know. I don't know. Anyways, go see it. It's supposed to be really good. I know a number of people who have seen it, and everyone has nothing but great things to say about it.
SPEAKER_00I loved it. Uh it's really, really well, really worth seeing. It's a very, very beautiful film, and it really captures the sort of ache and pain of growing up with a sibling who's uh you know really not having a good time mentally, and how that changes the the dynamic and the landscape of the entire family. Excellent. And uh it's it's really, really and for a debut feature, yeah, very amazing voice that's going on here. So I can't wait to see more. Excellent. That's yeah, Tuesday, June the second, final screening at 4 p.m. Yeah, go see that. Oh, and I can't wait for this one. Me too. I'm sorry. I love boosters. A group of shoplifters take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven by stealing her clothes and reselling them at a lower price. What they call Fashion Forward Philanthropy with Kiki Palmer, Lakeith Stanfield, Demi Moore, Don Sheadle, and Adam Devine from Boots Riley, who also did Sorry to Bother You and I'm a Virgo, which were both wild. Yeah, I love Sorry to Bother You're if you have not seen Sorry to Bother. What a that's a wild movie.
SPEAKER_01That's a movie that you don't think it's it's going where it's going.
SPEAKER_00No, no, it goes to some pretty wild places. So I'm hoping the same for I Love Boosters. I've read nothing but good reviews on it. So I'm stoked. I'll be there. I hope to see you there too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And that's Friday, June the 5th at 4. Saturday, June the 7th at 1.15. Sunday, Sunday, June the 5th. Oh, sorry. Sunday, June the 7th at 1.15 in the afternoon, and then Monday, the 8th at 9 p.m. Yeah. And then we have Sinners on their brand new 70 millimeter.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's gonna be beautiful. It's gonna be beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's gonna be amazing. Uh we don't really need to talk about Sinners. Uh, we have everyone knows about it.
SPEAKER_00No, but this is interesting because it's got a post-show VA VFX uh visual effects panel. They're gonna have people there that did the visual effects for the movie talking about the visual effects that they did.
SPEAKER_01Because I remember that they showed it recently, and I believe the editor was there. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. I love that they keep doing this kind of thing. And again, never seen the big screen, and it's in 70 millimeter. Yeah, go check it out.
SPEAKER_00That's uh Saturday, June the 6th at 1 p.m. a little afternoon showing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then uh train spotting is playing uh there on Sunday, June the 7th at 6 45.
SPEAKER_00That's gonna be great on that screen.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Then they're kicking off something which I'm very, very interested in. I don't know what this is, but it sounds uh very appetizing. Friday, June the 19th to Thursday, June the 25th, something that will appeal to the cold, dark hearts of some Vancouverites. I'm one of them. I noticed you're looking at me when you say that too. They're kicking off Bleak Week, which uh each film uh what do we got here? Presented in partnership with the American Cinema Tech, Bleak Week's Cinema of Despair, is an annual film festival showcasing some of the greatest works of cinema from across the globe that venture into the darkest sides of humanity and the bleakest points in human history. The fifth annual edition in June 2026 expands to nearly a hundred theaters across the Canada. Canada, UK, uh, USA, and South and Central America, with each venue presenting its own unique, original, curated lineup of uncompromising films defined by unpleasant truths and raw empathy. The Park Theater is delighted and honored to take part in this monumental series and sought selections from local filmmakers and friends of the venue when creating the series. So this is like uh yeah, homegrown festival picked by I think like there's Osgood, Osgood Perkins picked one, I think uh uh Finn Wolfhard picked one. I think there's there's different uh different selections here. So that's you can each film is sixteen dollars general admission or thirteen for concession or a member. If you happen to be a member, become a member. But you can get a pass for the whole week for $40. That is a good deal. That's a great deal. That's nine movies for the price of three.
SPEAKER_01So these these movies that we have listed here, are these part of this festival?
SPEAKER_00They're they are the entirety of the festival.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay, cool. So uh does anybody want to hear what the f what the films are? Hey, yeah, let's uh should we tell them? Let's tell them.
SPEAKER_00Let's hear what's going on.
SPEAKER_01All right, we got The Virgin Suicides from 1999. Uh Sophia Coppola's directing directing debut. That's such a good film. It's got Kirsten Dunce, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner Scott, Glendane, DeVito. Uh it's such a good, you know, like weird. It's it's almost like a dreamlike.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's a beautiful film. I remember I saw it and I was like, oh, that was pretty good, but then it wouldn't stop occurring to me for like two months afterwards. Like it really gets in there. It's an amazing film.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, great uh soundtrack by Air. I bought that soundtrack way back in the day.
SPEAKER_00That's right. That's at 6 30 p.m. Friday, June the 19th. Yes. Saturday, June the 20th at 2.30 p.m. The Feel Good Classic. Oh, yeah. Grave of the Fireflies. 1988 Japan animated film, uh Devastating Meditation on the Human Cost of War, based on the retellings of survivor Nosaka Akiuki. Universally hailed as an artistic and emotional tour de forest that is both beautiful, yet at times brutal and horrifying. Bring your hankies. Yeah. Because that's uh this is what a beautiful and moving piece of work this one is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's pretty great. And then we have In a Glass Cage, uh 1986 from Spain, Saturday, June the 20th at 9:30. Um, I've always wanted to see this one. It's always been on my on my radar, but we had it at the shop, I never got around to watching it. Um, it tells a story of an ex-Nazi child abuser named Klaus who is paralyzed and relies on an iron lung to live. A young man named Angelo arrives to nurse the dis the sadistic patient. But as it turns out, Angelo is one of Klaus's victims years before. Inspired by the true story of 15th century French knight uh Gilles Dorais. Sure. Sure. Uh the psych psychological thriller is considered Spanish filmmaker Augusti uh Villarangas, masterpiece. I'm not sure if I pronounced the name right. I probably butchered it. My apologies, but check this one out.
SPEAKER_00It looks really, really I don't know much about it, uh, but that premise is horrifying. And boy, that's gonna make for it a tense movie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's almost it reminded me a little bit of uh the Night Porter, I believe. Sure, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Very similar. That'd be a good double bill with this one. Yeah, for sure. The uh the courageous Charlotte Rampling. Yeah. Then uh on Sunday, June the 21st at 2 p.m., we've got husbands from 1970 from USA, which is uh John Cassavetis, so you know you're in for some raw and uncompromising realism. Uh this is an unflinching portrait of masculinity in crisis. We've got uh Ben Gazara and Peter Falk and Cassavetes himself. Uh they both become key collaborators and the directors. The future Milia play a trio of middle-aged Long Island family men who, following the sudden death of their close mutual friend, challeng their grief into an epic multi-day bender that takes them from Manhattan to London in a desperate, debauched quest to feel alive. By turns painfully funny and woundingly perceptive, this comedy about life, death, and freedom uh stands as perhaps the most fearless, harrowingly honest deconstruction of American manhood ever committed to film. That's a bold statement. He is so uncompromising. I've seen a bunch of Casavetti's movies. They land for me or they don't, but generally the ones that don't are the ones that are like too raw for my blood, right? So uh if this is uh this is probably an amazing film. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I was thinking maybe uh you, me, Dylan, and Greg could re can. We could we could do this ourselves. Redo it? Yeah, redo it. Yeah, yeah. We'll go to you know from New York to London on a debauched uh some pinball, get some wings. Yeah, exactly. Talk about life, yeah, and movies. Yeah. And uh when is that playing? 2 p.m. Sunday, June the 21st. That's right. Cool. And then on Sunday, June the 21st, uh later on that day, I guess at 4 45 p.m., we have the classic deer hunter. Um uh we've got De Niro, Christopher Walk, and John Savage, uh lifelong friends. They go to a big wedding, then they go to Vietnam, and things don't really work out. It's the film that made um Russian roulette all so popular.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he really brought it, really brought it to the forefront of people's minds. An incredible movie.
SPEAKER_01It's great. Yeah, yeah, it's great. And that I've never seen it on the big screen. I've only seen it like on video.
SPEAKER_00Oh boy, this would be great to see on the big screen.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's it's fabulous.
SPEAKER_00After that, on uh Monday, June the 22nd at 6 30 p.m., we've got Hour of the Wolf from Sweden from 1988. Uh, it's Igmar Bergman's spin on the demons that plague his fellow creative artists. The strangest and most disturbing of the films Bergman shot on the island of Faro. Faro? Faro, I think, I think Pharaoh. I'm not sure, but yeah. The film stars Max von Seidau, the legend, as a partner who, while spending a summer in voluntary exile with his pregnant wife, Lee Ullman, of course, is visited by best bizarre and disturbing visions. When the couple are invited to a nearby castle for dinner, things start to go wrong with a vengeance as a coven of sinister aristocrats hasten the artists' psychological deterioration.
SPEAKER_01I've never seen this one, but this sounds amazing.
SPEAKER_00I I think maybe after seeing a lot of different uh European movies, I'm not gonna accept any dinner invitations to castles. No, no, I've never seen it go in a good way.
SPEAKER_01No, it never works out. And uh what's that Monday the 22nd at 6 30? Yeah, and then on Tuesday, the following day, the 23rd at 6.30 as well, is the great movie, the celebration from Denmark from 1998. AKA Feston. Is that yeah, Feston's cool? Yeah, Thomas Winterberg, I believe is his first film. It's a great um uh family uh bringing up family traumas.
SPEAKER_00It's uh yeah, I don't want to say too much about this. Is one of those films where it's like if you haven't seen it, just go see it. Embrace yourself. Oh my gosh. And it's uh it's notable for being one of the first big deal dogma 95 manifestos, which is uh real time, available light, available sound.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, and uh yeah, so yeah, him and Lars Vontreur really took their reins and made a whole little sort of uh like uh uh genre of that. Yeah, they're all yeah, they're this one's great. It's one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_00That's so hard hitting. Yeah. Wednesday, June the 24th at 6 30 p.m. is Nightcrawler 2014 from USA. No X-Men at all in this movie. Oh, that's good. This is Los Angeles Denizen Louis Bloom, aka Jake Gillenhall. Uh he gets by by scavenging and petty theft, and then he gets a video camera, and he f he realizes that if he's first on the scene of horrific accidents, he can sell the footage. And he's quite sociopathic, so he's like, Finally a job for me. Yeah, and uh boy, his business really takes off, and what a dark, dark, dark-hearted film. But it's beautiful, it's great, so well done. Yeah, and uh yeah, that's a very affecting movie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love this film, and then um let's see, Thursday, June the 25th at 6:30. We have Christiane F. Yeah, uh from 1981, West Germany. Again, you know, we had this at the shop forever. I never saw it. Always uh you know, good people got good reviews on it, big renter. It was actually it was really hard to find for the longest time in a non-dubbed version, but we had oh good, good.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so you got a f you you finally got one with subtitles. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um I'm gonna I'm not gonna try to pronounce this person's name. Um I'll I'll give it a shot. Yeah, why don't you uh adapted from actress and musician Christiane Felscherinau. Ah, beautiful. Nice, nice uh harrowing account of her teenage years. Christiane F depicts the impact of West Berlin's mid to late 1970s heroin epidemic on one of its youngest and luckiest survivors. On the cusp of 14, David Bowie worshiping Christiane begins slipping out from under the watch of her divorced mother and spending time at the hip discotheque sound. There she falls in love with Detlov, whose recent experiments, experiments with heroines soon have her hooked. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's like fun. Sounds like a laugh, right? Like Lilia Forever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maybe bring your mom. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So uh that looks like a forever, man. Yeah. Woof, harsh. Yeah. So that's the end of Bleak Week. And it is bleak, yeah. And it's a week long. Yeah. So it's bleak week. And if you uh can stand it and you like a lot of cinema that pushes the boundaries, as a lot of us do, yeah. Uh, this is gonna be pretty amazing. Yeah, there's a few here that there's a couple I haven't heard of, and there's definitely a few I haven't seen before. So I'd like to check them out. Yeah. Uh, and that's the end of Bleak Week. And now there's on Tuesday, June the 30th, the final screening at 7 p.m. of Kill Bill the Whole Bloody Affair. Sweet. Which is yeah, both Kill Bill halves together in one sewn stitched together. Stitched together as they were meant to be shown in the beginning, uh, with extra footage an hour. There's like an anime sequence and stuff like that. Uh yeah, so that looks really I'm sure it's gonna be great and 70 millimeter too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that's gonna be incredible. I believe it's 70 millimeter. Uh yeah, I know it's showing in 70 millimeter around time. Oh, if they have the 70 millimeter, why wouldn't they show it in 70 millimeter?
SPEAKER_00So I think it's probably gonna be that way. Yeah. So there's lots of movies and events coming to both theaters, so please stay tuned to thereotheater.ca and the parktheater.ca. And there's there is a park theater website, but it's like parktheater.com and it's ER, and that I think it's down in uh States somewhere. So it's the Parktheater R-E.ca. And then go there to see all the amazing stuff coming to both of those places as the month progresses. Because this is just a taste. This is a lot of it, but not all of it. Yeah. Um it's a pretty good taste. Oh boy. Yeah. What a what a great uh delicious. Uh so yeah, that's uh, I guess that's all from us. All right. And uh meet me at the Rio.
SPEAKER_01Meet the Duncan and maybe even me at the Rio.
SPEAKER_00And at the park. And at the park. All right. See you next month.
