By Rick Davis
The big story from last weekend was the record-breaking business the horror movie It did. And while the newest blockbuster will still be the number one movie this weekend and will continue to grab headlines, the big story for Kelowna are two movies playing locally that star two locals named Taylor.
Taylor Kitsch was born in Kelowna in 1981 and rose to fame in TV’s Friday Night Lights and in movies like John Carter, Battleship, Lone Survivor and The Grand Seduction and now plays the heavy in American Assassin. And 19-year-old Taylor Hickson landed her breakout role with a small speaking part at the beginning of Deadpool before getting a leading role in the SyFy television series Aftermath and now stars in the Canadian indie flick Hunting Pignut.
American Assassin is an action thriller based upon the novel Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn and stars Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) as protagonist Mitch Rapp. After his fiancé is killed by terrorists, Rapp swears to get revenge and becomes a CIA black ops recruit under the instruction of cold war veteran Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton). The pair are enlisted to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on both military and civilian targets which leads them to a mysterious operative called Ghost (Kitsch) intent on starting a war in the Middle East.
Hunting Pignut gets a special screening on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at Landmark Cinemas Grand 10 before getting a week-long run starting on Friday. Hickson stars as Bernice, a 15-year-old misfit who runs away from her rural Newfoundland community in search of Pignut, a tormented and violent gutter punk who steals her father’s ashes right out of his urn.
After premiering at the Venice Film Festival and a featured screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the psychological thriller Mother! opens this weekend. Directed by the acclaimed Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream), it stars Academy Award-winners Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem as a couple whose relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. Also starring Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kristen Wiig, Domhnall Gleeson and Briain Gleeson, this movie is definitely not going to be your typical horror movie, coming from the mind of Aronofsky, who also directed Noah, The Wrestler, The Fountain and Pi.
Right after premiering at TIFF, the documentary Long Time Running chronicling the Tragically Hip’s legendary tour last year gets some special screenings at Landmark Cinemas Xtreme on Thursday, Sept. 14 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. and on Monday, Sept. 18 at 7:20 p.m.
Also at the Xtreme is the next movie in the Classic Sci-Fi film series. This weekend it is Westworld, the 1973 original starring Yul Brynner and written and directed by Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park). It shows Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.