Monday Night Movies Presents: Loveletter To Halifax Screening Postponed! Due to weather conditions, road and sidewalk conditions are expected to worsen this evening. Sorry for any inconvenience and disappointment! New date TBA

As delicate as it is vicious, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN may very well be the most heavily awarded film on the festival circuit this year.

 Oskar is a fragile, twelve-year-old boy living in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in the early 1980s. He is regularly bullied by his classmates during the day while never striking back, and spends his nights dreaming of revenge, rehearsing knife attacks in the courtyard of his apartment complex.

 There, he meets Eli, who has recently moved in next door. Eli, who appears to be a 12-year-old girl, is pale, only comes out at night, does not seem affected by the freezing temperatures and has a curious smell.

 Stunning imagery meets brilliant storytelling in this beautifully nuanced story of a horribly bullied boy who finds strength and courage thanks to his friendship with a girl who, as she puts it, has been twelve for “a very long time.” LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a tender coming of age story fused with violence, retribution and the insatiable need to feed …

Directed by Tomas Alfredson

Running time 114 min.

Country Sweden

Swedish with English subtitles

Whatever you think you know about Jean Claude Van Damme – forget it. In one absolutely unique cinematic mission, Van Damme, assisted by Director Mabrouk El Mechri, bravely kicks his own ass like nobody else can. Oozing originality, cinematic guts and cool, JCVD assembles elements of satire, heist movie, theatre, making-of, bio-pic, and off-the-wall inventiveness; JCVD is a turn-about film no Hollywood star or studio could ever have made. Described as “the” comeback role of 2008, Van Damme’s performance in JCVD has been compared to Rourke’s Wrestler, but JCVD holds its course, pushing its eccentricity to the end without any limp Hollywood “its OK now” ending. Fragments of Van Damme’s real life mix with fantasy and cinematic deconstruction to produce an off-beat and remarkably effective movie about movies, about being human, about being an icon, about having dreams, and being trapped in other peoples’ dreams. Despite the introspective thread, the film rises up to an unexpected intuitive philosophical clarity about life, fate, responsibility and reconciliation. And still manages to fit in a few martial arts battles as well.

Monday February 09, 7pm
Empire 8 Park Lane
$10 (or membership)
1 night only

“What if I told you that one of the coolest and most creative films of the fall starred…. Jean Claude Van Damme?”
Ben Lyons – At the Movies

“Keeps you glued to the screen just to see what could possibly come up next.”
Peter Sobczynski – eFilmCritic.com

“Things you never expected… America elects Black president, gas drops to 80c a litre, Red Sox win World Series,’ etc. — you can now add ‘Jean-Claude Van Damme gives a great acting performance’.”
Jim Slotek – Jam! Movies

“JCVD is a phenomenal achievement, and not despite the work of Van Damme, but thoroughly because of it.”
Jordan Hiller – Bangitout.com

“Clever, stylish – a reality-twisting cousin to Being John Malkovich.”
Lisa Schwarzbaum – Entertainment Weekly

“It’s an acting tour de force not to be missed.”
Victoria Alexander – FilmsInReview.com

“Van Damme delivers a devastating performance as a downtrodden caricature of himself, infusing the role with emotional complexity.”
Rossiter Drake – San Francisco Examiner

“JCVD is not an action movie but a shrewd satire about stardom and the cult of celebrity.”
Mick LaSalle – San Francisco Chronicle

“A clever art-imitates-life-imitates-art send-up of celebrityhood… JCVD juggles humour with whomping martial-arts moves and a kind of melancholy star turn from the melancholy, muscular star.”
Steven Rea – Philadelphia Inquirer

“A sensitive tough guy mock reality show with balls.”
Prairie Miller – NewsBlaze

“Van Damme proves that he can do something besides action… even non-fans will be surprised by this!”
Austin Kennedy – Sin Magazine

“JCVD is what you might get if a French deconstructionist decided to make a drive-in flick: It reverse engineers the mayhem until it locates the humour, the sadness, and the insecure void at the heart of the genre.”
Ty Burr – Boston Globe

“Van Damme proves he could make a viable career shift into roles that hinge more on brains than brawn.”
Claudia Puig – USA Today