The opening scene of David Lynch’s Wild at Heart provides an effective template for the rest of the film and – it could be said – for the following two decades of his career. It opens with jazz music, a pan across the ceiling of an opulent casino, and the title card “Cape Fear: Somewhere Near the Border of North and South Carolina.” Sailor (Nicolas Cage) walks into frame, kisses Lula (Laura Dern), and then they both walk down a large set of stairs to leave. Another man calls Sailor’s name and they engage in a terse exchange of dialogue. The man accuses Sailor of trying fuck Lula’s mother in the toilet. The man pulls a knife, the jazz stops and is replaced by heavy metal. Sailor smashes the man’s head against a wooden railing and then throws him down the stairs and smashes his head against the marble floor, spilling blood everywhere. The jazz returns. Sailor, covered in blood, lights a cigarette and points a threatening finger at Marietta, Lula’s mother.

Within this two minute scene, the audience witnesses Lynch’s nostalgia for the iconography of 1950s Americana, as well as his penchant to punctuate that nostalgia with deeply unpleasant depictions of violence. The extravagant image of an early 19^th Century casino, the lack of a specific location, and Laura Dern’s hair all suggest an America that no longer exists (with “Cape Fear” possibly acting as a reference to the 1962 film of that name – a noir-esque thriller dealing with rape and sexual predation in a unusually frank manner). This is a technique Lynch will return to many times – the superficial image of the morally upright Production Code era America problematized by moments of violence and sexual depravity.

In Wild at Heart, the iconography at play is that of American road movies – empty desert roads, gas stations manned by genial African-Americans, and an episodic look at the eccentric characters they run into along the way. But the other icon used is that of Elvis Presley. Sailor is a character inspired by Elvis, and Nic Cage lip-syncs not one, but two Presley songs in the film (because it’s awesome, and because Lynch loves moments where characters sing 50s pop songs for no logical reason). In a recent online chat with fans at Empire, Cage had this to say about the role:

Wild At Heart was more my “Andy Warhol performance” than my Elvis performance, and what I mean by that is that – and I have to go back to a book by Stanislavsky called “An Actor Prepares” here – where he put forth the rule that you must never imitate anybody while acting, which I understand, but rules are made to be broken. And I wanted to put this to the test. So I thought about Andy Warhol, and how he in his art would take pop icons and make poster art pieces with these famous faces. Having also been a believer in art synthesis – in other words, what you can do in one form, you can do in another – I was excited by the idea of breaking Stanislavsky’s rule and give an Andy Warhol performance by overlaying Elvis’s aura on the film Wild At Heart.

As it turns out, this interpretation of Sailor is perfect. In one of the most oft-quoted lines of the film, Sailor, referring to the unique snake skin jacket he wears throughout the film, asks Lula “Did I ever tell you that this here jacket represents a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom?” He talks and acts with the swagger of a distinctly American individual, yet that individual is an icon of another era. Sailor’s individuality and personal freedom realizes itself not through originality, but through pastiche. Further problematizing his supposedly rebellious spirit is his longing to settle down with Lula and make a family, a surprisingly conformist attitude for someone like Sailor.

Wild at Heart is a film that attempts to explore the problems of social individuality and conformity. In his previous feature, he explored the characteristics of small town America, and pushed inward through cracks to find rampant sexual repression and misogyny hidden within the facade of a peaceful conservative community. In Wild at Heart, Lynch explores the Hollywood-created mythology of the romantic outsider and reveals that in certain ways, Sailor is just like everyone else.

After a year of brain-busting questions, loud waves of laughter and delicious prizes, “Woo Hoo! Simpsons Trivia” is showing no signs of slowing down. The anniversary August edition boasted an impressive 72 teams and offered two novel changes: fan-voted episode selections (for your viewing pleasure between rounds while the hosts tally the score) and a stump-the-hosts segment where one lucky Simpsons fan went away with a limited edition animation cell from the show’s 300th episode supplied by one of the show’s producers Al Jean. The trivia night has even spread to Brooklyn, New York, where it has begun what appears to be a monthly rotation.

Starting a new season of trivia, Woo Hoo! will be matched by its closest living relative: Futurama. “You Guessed It! You Can’t Unguess It! Futurama Trivia” premieres Tuesday, September 27th at 8:00pm in the Melody Bar of the Gladstone Hotel for anyone willing to take their trivia know-how into the year 3000. It too will be back – although every other month, with its second night set to occur in November. Futurama Trivia will operate in a very similar fashion to Simpsons Trivia – 50 questions, themed prizes, episode viewings, etc. – so if you’ve got the headache with pictures that you can compete with fellow Futurama faithful, grab between zero and five of your closest friends and party board on down.

Join the Futurama Trivia Facebook group here.

Visit Facebook event page here.

Follow Twitter updates: @FuturamaTrivia

Here are some dorky installations and exhibits that are well worth checking out:

Zone A

Cabin in the Woods

Interactive Landscape Dune

Lower Bay Station,
Bay and Bloor

An interactive landscape takes over Lower Bay Station, reacting to the behaviour of people. Large lighted fibres are brightened and dim in reaction to the sounds and motion of passersby. Think the bright ethereal night time jungle from the film Avatar. Exhibits at Lower Bay Station are notoriously busy, so get there early tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Zone B

Chip Music Mega Show!

Nathan Phillips Square,
Queen and Bay St.

From 10:00 PM until 1:30 AM the heart of Toronto will experience the magical tones of chiptune music. Featuring DJ Eastern Blok, Arisuki, deadbeatblast, bossFYTE, DJ JONZILLA, jefftheworld, Battle Lava and Starpilot. 8 and 16 Bit madness!

Zone C

The Arcadian Renaissance: The Video Arcade Enlightened

The Atrium of TIFF Bell Lightbox,
350 King St. W. at John

The Hand Eye Society presents six old-school arcade machines —Torontrons— retrofitted to play games designed by the local indie development scene. Featuring some of the most amazing independent games to come out of Toronto in recent years, including Cephalopods Co-op Cottage Defence by Spooky Squid Games, Everyday Shooter by Jonathan Mak, Gesundheit! by Matt Hammill, N Arcade by Metanet Software, Osmos by Hemisphere Games, and Silent Skies by Spyeart.

And at midnight Messhof‘s mind-bogglingly awesome Nidhogg will take centre stage for a two-player tournament of epic proportions.

GRINDBOX!

TIFF Bell Lightbox,
350 King St. W. at John

Midnight Madness programmer and Kung Fu Fridays curator Colin Geddes presents Grindbox!, an all night marathon of trailers for horror and exploitation films from around the world. Weird, hilarious and twisted stuff to be seen!

The Essential Cinema

TIFF Bell Lightbox,
350 King St. W. at John

Two great Canadian filmmakers, Atom Egoyan and Guy Maddin, explore the relationship between the viewer, the screen and the film. Egoyan’s take on 8 1/2 is particularly cool.

NFBeats

National Film Board,
150 John Street

Enter the dance floor and create! Visitors who enter the exhibit will trigger new patterns, colours and images, generating an interactive art project fuelled by the collective rhythm with a backdrop of music from contemporary and classic National Film Board films.

There are so many other great exhibits out there, not all of them considered dorky. Be sure to check out the official Nuit Blanche site to see a full list of art exhibits and installations.

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival showcases the best in horror, cult and sci-fi films from around the world.  The festival has announced the first 8 titles on this year’s schedule, and there are some great ones.

• Trick ‘R’ Treat (Dir. Michael Dougherty, USA)
• Grace (Dir. Paul Solet, Canada)
• Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (Dir. Yoshihiro Nishimura, Japan)
• Franklyn (Dir. Gerald McMorrow, UK)
• The Forbidden Door (Dir. Joko Anwar, Indonesia)
• Embodiment of Evil (Dir. José Mojica Marins, Brazil)
• Black (Dir. Pierre Laffargue, France)
• Someone’s Knocking at the Door (Dir. Chad Ferrin, USA)

After Dark just gets better and better each year, you won’t see most of these films anywhere else.  The Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs from August 14th to the 21st.  Passes are available for purchase and single tickets go on sale starting  July 29th.  For more info make sure to check out the official Toronto After Dark Film Fest site.

French developer Ubisoft announced plans to open a major game development studio in Toronto.  Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat; who will head the new Toronto studio, held a press conference earlier today with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to make the announcement.  The provincial government is set to invest $263 million over 10 years with Ubisoft investing another $500 million.  Mallat said the focus of the new studio will be to develop Triple-A titles; something his current Montreal studio is no stranger to, having developed the Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed franchises in the past.

This is huge news for the city.  The studio is expected to employ upwards of 800 people and will be located in the heart of downtown Toronto.  We’ll post more details as they become available.

Via CBC

Any comic artist qualifies, though we hope to focus on artists in Toronto and Canada.  We’ll do our best to keep it that way, but great art must be seen no matter what the country of origin.

In this inaugural post, we feature Michael Avon Oeming, Francis Manupul and Rob Reilly.

Michael Avon Oeming

First up is Powers co-creator and artist on the upcoming Rapture from Dark Horse Comics, Michael Avon Oeming. Mike has a hefty catalogue of work to enjoy. Not limited to pencils and inks, Mike’s writing work is also quite vast including a legendary run on Thor, and re-launch of Canada’s premiere superhero team Omega Flight. Mike doesn’t just work on Marvel books, he’s also working on DC’s The Spirit #30. Dark Horse will be launching Rapture, a creator-owned title made with Taki Soma, and of course Mike’s Mice Templar book with writer Bryan J. Glass should not be missed. Check out his official site. Mike also posts over on the Jinxworld Forums.

Francis Manapul

Local Toronto artist Francis Manapul is by no means new to the comics game. He recently signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics that has garnered him a lot of attention. His covers will soon take over the DC Universe and his upcoming Adventure Comics run with Geoff Johns is highly anticipated.  Check out Manapul’s official blog to see his some of his art and pictures of his process.

Rob Reilly

If you see the incredibly talented Rob Reilly in artist alley at a con be sure to talk to him and get a sketch: they are fantastic and he’s a hell of a guy.  Rob’s art is not the only reason to visit his blog, his take on comic book conventions is worthwhile too. Keep an eye out for Rob, let your friends know, and when he breaks big you can say you were with him on the ground floors (thanks to Dork Shelf, of course).

If you are a local artist or have any artists you think we should check out let us know: email jeff@dorkshelf.com.

Words cannot describe how ridiculous and amazing this movie looks—which is probably why they’ve released a trailer for this straight-to-DVD schlock fest. Snakes on a Plane, eat your heart out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Fox Theatre recently announced that the all-night grindhouse marathon Shock and Awe will be returning next month. The event starts on June 13th at 11:30 and runs until 10:30 the next day.

The event will feature some amazingly bad/awesome films from the 60′s through the 80′s all presented in 35mm, including Swinging Pussycats, Hell’s Angels on Wheels, Return of the Living Dead and a mystery film. It’s sure to be an awesome time and tickets are $25 in advance.

For full details visit the Shock and Awe page on Facebook.

Complete lineup of films after the jump.

Mona (1970): The first theatrical adult motion picture, complete with bad wigs and dungy allies! The trials and tribulations in the day of Mona, a Valleri Bertinelli knock-off and the weirdos she meets. Bukowski written actors seem like they’ve just popped out of the methadone clinic to do some summer stock.

Swinging Pussycats (1969): Lost West-German Eurotrash showing the sexy hijinks at Filander Manor. Can Alexandra endure an entire summer at her family’s castle after her return home from school? Filled with more loins than plates of schnitzel at Octoberfest!

Hell’s Angels on Wheels (1967): Jack Nicholson and real Hell’s Angels terrorize the screen! A gas station attendant (Nicholson) finally gets into the Hells Angels & goes on a rampage of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and violence! It’s a battle of bikers against hippies! Ripped from todays headlines of Quebecois newspapers!

Screams of a Winter Night (1979): The under-rated horror gem from Louisiana which after seeing, you can see from where Friday the 13th, The Evil Dead and Blair Witch Project borrowed. A group of teens camp out at an abandoned house and share ghost stories they have heard from the area. From it’s opening credits, you know you’re in for some creepy thrills. Still unavailable on DVD.

Mystery Film (?): A rare, seldom-seen film, guaranteed to delight!

The Return of the Living Dead (1985): The Dan O’bannon classic. Thrills, chills and chuckles combine in the 80′s zombie classic as a gas released in a medical supply company brings the dead to life!

The Ryerson University Film Festival is an annual showcase for graduating students of the School of Image Arts in Toronto.  The festival features many films, including the thesis works completed by students in their final year.

The festival is a great opportunity to check out some up and coming local filmmakers.  One such local filmmaker is friend of Dork Shelf, Chris Ritvo—who wrote and directed the hilarious short films that were used to promote the festival.  RUFF runs from May 14th to 16th at the Royal Cinema.

Check out Chris Ritvo’s short film Shark Boat after the jump.

Dork Shelf co-founder and all around awesome guy Jeff Brown was married to the wonderful Kiara Barrett yesterday.  Congratulations to the happy couple and have a great honeymoon!

There are many better pictures of the ceremony, but sadly this was the best one my camera phone could provide.  Good luck kids!

As a life long Trekkie, I went into the new J.J. Abrams Trek reboot/sequel with my expectations set to stun—fearing that if I set them to kill I would end up vapourizing myself… whatever that means.  Phaser analogy aside, I knew that J.J Abrams’ vision of Star Trek would be different from that of its original creator Gene Roddenberry. This Star Trek isn’t Roddenberry’s Star Trek; it is a familiar and yet altogether different beast. Many of Roddenberry’s hallmarks remain intact and for better or worse Abrams makes Trek his own with this film. Abrams’ Star Trek is cool, it’s sleek and it’s shiny, but I don’t know if that was what Star Trek was ever about.

Full review after the break. Possible spoilers to follow.

Much of the plot of the new Star Trek film centres around time travel and alternate universes.  Time travel and Star Trek go together like bread and butter. Every Star Trek TV series and three of the previous Trek films featured plots that involved time travel as part of their stories.

Events in the classic Star Trek universe (the universe that every series and film thus far have taken place in) lead to a change in the timeline right before the birth of James T. Kirk. This change in the time-line means that everything in this new Star Trek universe can and will be different. The characters remain the same but the events that shape their lives are much different. This gave the creators of the film carte blanche to play with the characters in the universe, without having to deal with almost 50 years of established Trek canon.

Seeing Leonard Nimoy reprise his role as Spock was a welcome inclusion for me. I felt that Nimoy’s involvement in the film lent it an air of legitimacy that would not otherwise have existed if the film were just a straight reboot of the franchise.

Stepping.  Into the shoes… of.  Acharacterlike, Captain Kirk is no… small task; To follow in the footsteps of William Shatner is an even greater task. Given the expectations piled upon Chris Pine, he really succeeded in capturing the essence of Kirk: the charm, the confidence, and the arrogance. Pine’s performance wasn’t an impersonation of Shatner’s Kirk (or rather Shatner) he really made Kirk his own.

As for Spock, gone is the gravelly detachment of Leonard Nimoy (although his Spock is in the movie), Zachary Quinto‘s take on Spock was an very interesting portrayal. Something was lacking from Quinto’s Spock in the film. He nailed the look of the character, but just didn’t have the same gravitas as Nimoy. This Spock is meant to be a younger more emotionally fragile version of the character, so maybe this was a conscious choice on Quinto’s part.

Karl Urban was spot on as Leonard “Bones” McCoy, but at the same time really made me miss DeForest Kelley. Eric Bana is solid as the Romulan villain Nero, a man with nothing to lose and the tools to exact terrible vengeance.

The rest of the cast is great, but they’re just not given enough time to shine. Undoubtedly, there will be plenty of time for them to develop in the sequels. I should also note that the movie also features one of the most unlikely romantic pairing of classic Star Trek characters… and no it’s not Sulu and Chekov.

From the short skirts and green Orion girls, right down to the way the characters act, it looks like the Trek we know. However, in many ways the film feels more like a caricature of the original 1960′s Star Trek series, a shallow and shiny imitation.

Familiar catch phrases like “Damn it Jim!” and gags like the cannon fodder Red Shirts felt like they were being checked off a Trekkie’s list of must haves for the movie. Star Trek tries to be one part nostalgic fan service and another part slick Hollywood blockbuster.

There is no question that the movie is huge in scope and scale, they spent a lot of money on this movie and you can tell: the film looks amazing. The big budget and effects may be enough to draw people into the theatres to see Star Trek, but I have a feeling it may put off some hardcore Trekkies.

Save for the politicking of the last three seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it was the first time that the world of Star Trek felt like a living breathing universe to me.  Gone is the ridiculous techno-babble that nearly sank Star Trek: The Next Generation at times, you don’t have to know what an inverse tachyon pulse is to enjoy this movie.

Star Trek has been a part of pop-culture for nearly 50 years, even those people who’ve never seen a single episode of the original series have a vague conception about what Star Trek is. I probably bring too much Trekkie baggage to the film, and as a result I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have.

If you love Trek, you’ll like something about this movie, but you’ll probably find it lacking in some ways. Make no mistake Star Trek is an entertaining movie; it may even be a good movie, I’m just not sure it was a good Star Trek movie.

If you were lucky enough to see the documentary Best Worst Movie at the Hot Docs Film Festival this past week then you know all about the movie Troll 2.

Considered by many as possibly the worst film ever made, Troll 2 was filmed by an Italian director who barely spoke any English and was shot in small town Utah using mostly local actors. The film features a completely nonsensical story, terrible special effects and acting that would make a local elementary school play look like the Royal Shakespeare Company. Troll 2 definitely falls into the so bad it’s good category.

Rue Morgue and the Toronto After Dark Film Fest are presenting a very special 20th anniversary screening of Troll 2 in 35mm on May 12th at The Bloor.

I highly recommend seeing this, you haven’t seen a bad movie until you’ve seen Troll 2. If you don’t believe the movie could be as bad as I’m saying it is, just check out a sampling of Troll 2 after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.