Mocking ʺThe Roomʺ at the Mayfair

Last Saturday I went to my first ever interactive screening of a movie, the "Mock-Along" screening of The Room at the Mayfair Theatre. 

For those of you who don't know, The Room is the worst movie ever. Seriously. It's been called "the Citizen Kane of terrible movies" by Entertainment Weekly, and has been riffed by the best, including Rifftrax and Kevin Murphy of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Adult Swim has shown it for April Fools Day pretty regularly, and it essentially has gained the biggest bad-movie cult status since Rocky Horror. Except it's actually terrible and not just weird.

The plot? Hold on, let me see if I can find one. Okay so, this guy Johnny, (played by Tommy Wiseau, who also wrote, directed, produced, and executive produced the film) is in love with this girl, whatsername. Doesn't matter. And she starts cheating on him with his best friend, because women, amiright? There are other sub-plots going on, but since most of them go absolutely no where and are barely noticeable to begin with, they're not really worth explaining. Eventually Johnny finds out about the two-timing, and (SPOILER ALERT) kills himself. Everyone is sad. Girl gets her comeuppance. That bitch.

I can't even begin to explain how bad this movie is. If that plot summary doesn't give you a good idea, the movie is terribly acted by pretty much everyone but Wiseau seems to be the worst, filmed so poorly it goes in and out of focus and some scenes are used multiple times, and contains something like five cringe inducing sex scenes, set to the most godawful 80's love-music you've ever heard. In fact, the whole movie looks like it was made in the late 80s. It was made in 2003.

You need to see this movie. But more importantly, you need to see it with other people.

The Mayfair theatre in Ottawa invites you to see this wonderful travesty of cinema in a big, beautiful theatre full of people who have seen it probably too many times. On top of mocking and riffing on the movie as loudly and proudly as you want while it plays, there's actually a list of things to do while watching, including:

• Yelling "SPOON!" and throwing spoons at the screen when you see background art featuring a spoon (and there's a lot more of that then there's any reason to be)
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• Yelling "I PUT MY EVIL INTO YOU" when Lisa's mother boops her on the nose (Lisa's mother having cancer is one of many plot lines brought up and abandoned)
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• Saying "Hi" to Danny when he shows up and "Bye" when he leaves. He does this a lot, rarely staying on screen for more then five minutes.
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• Telling the movie to "FOCUS" when it unfocuses, which it does a lot. And if it happens to focus during one of too many horrible sex scenes, tell it to "UNFOCUS! OH GOD UNFOCUS!"

And that's just a sample, you can find the full list at the Mayfair's blog. 

I'd never seen The Room before but I'd heard a lot about it, and wanted to see it. I love movies "so bad they're good," and even a few movies that are so bad they're just bad. I was a little intimidated going to an interactive screening like this being a first timer, but honestly it made it even better. It's a lot easier to laugh at and make fun of a bad movie in a group, even if you don't know everyone in the group. It took me a bit to catch on to the riffing, even reading the list ahead of time, but once I did all inhibitions were dropped and I was yelling and throwing spoons with the rest of them. Sometimes the yelling made it a little hard to hear the movie, but let's be honest this isn't the sort of movie you need to pay attention to to understand.

I had a great time and would recommend this to everyone who loves movies so bad they're hilarious, and anyone looking for a night out in Ottawa. The Mayfair does a screening like this once a month, their next one is on October 19th, but their calender is available on the website for future screenings. And of course, if you're not in Ottawa you can do this exact same thing from home - I think this would make an awesome party. Especially since there's also a drinking game - but I warn you, you will get slammed.

Links to Tear You Apart:
The Room Wikipedia
The Room IMDB
The Trailer (on Youtube)
The Official Website

"HAHA WHAT A STORY MARK!"

The Ottawa Animation Festival

Ottawa Animation Festival 2012 Poster

           One of my favourite things about living in Ottawa has to be the Animation Festival. As a lover of all things animated and cartoony, it feels great to be able to go to an even where everyone around you is as passionate as you are. I always learn new things, make new friends, and have an awesome time.

          This year, I attended two special screenings, one of the Studio Laika movie Paranorman, and another of the classic Ralph Bakshi film Wizards. If you’re familiar with either of these, you know they’re two very different movies! But I loved them both. Usually when I go to the Festival I attend a presentation or a Q&A session with someone in the animation industry to talk about different types of animation, character design, how a certain movie was made, all different parts of the production process. This year I missed the presentations I wanted to see because of class, and at first I was sad I wouldn’t get to see some of my favourite animators/directors, but in the end I think I was happy that this year I got to just hang out and watch movies.

Paranorman Poster

                Paranorman was the first of the day. I got there just as the ticket booth opened, about a half an hour before the movie, and the line-up was already so huge it went out the door and around the building! Every year the line ups and crowds are always huge and terrifying, you always end up convinced whatever you’re going to see is going to be sold out or the seats will fill up and you won’t be able to get in. Luckily, that hasn’t happened to me yet, probably because I do my best to get there early and never underestimate how big a crowd cartoons can draw. (hehe, draw, did you see my pun there?) What’s great about events like this is that you know everyone in line is there for the same reason, so its easy to talk to people while you’re waiting. I always end up making friends, standing in line or milling around a crowd waiting for an event to start. 

                I could talk for paragraphs about how amazing both the movies were, and why you should definitely watch them, but I won’t do that here. I’ll save that for a review later. Just know that they were both amazing and you should totally watch them.

Wizards Poster

                This year the guest of honour at the Festival was Ralph Bakshi, someone who’s been animating since the 70s. He gained fame when one of his first films, Fritz the Cat, became the first ever animated movie to receive an X rating. Since then adult cartoons have been his staple. The Festival held special screenings of some of his most famous films all week, but Wizards has always been my favourite of his. The screening was held at the Arts Court theatre, which is a historic building that’s a little hard to find… I got lost on the way, but I wasn’t late! I made it just in time. For some reason, when I sat down I was immediately surrounded by old animators, most of them from out of the country. I couldn’t help overhearing them talking about them seeing the film for the first time when they were kids, and how it totally blew their minds to see so many… “adult situations” in a cartoon. I know I was eavesdropping, but I thought that was so cool to hear how it inspired them. 

                The best part about the Animation Festival is being surrounded by the best audience a movie could ask for. You can tell when an audience is into it when you see a movie – they laugh, jump, gasp, and clap at all the right parts, you can really feel the love. More than that, the Festival is different than something like a convention in that it really treats the films as films, and not just movies. It’s great to go a place that really promotes what I try to tell people all the time: Animation is art!