This Week at Facets! June 26-July 2!

Monsters and superheroes of all shapes, sizes and varieties invade the Cinematheque this week!

A wickedly deadpan spin on the giant Japanese superhero, the mockumentary Big Man Japan is a portrait of a pathetic but unique hero--a middle-aged slacker living in a rundown, graffiti-ridden slum whose job involves being shocked by bolts of electricity that transform him into a stocky, stick-wielding giant several stories high who is entrusted with defending Japan from a host of bizarre monsters!! Whew!

"Decidedly odd, even by Japanese standards...tears-down-the-face funny and a genuine, jaw-dropping oddity" -Variety
"I hurt myself laughing" -Village Voice
Recommended! "Strange...hilarious" -NewCity Chicago

Check the trailer!




Big Man Japan runs Friday, June 26 - Thursday, July 2! Additional info, tickets and more available here.

Facets Night School's first session comes to an end this Saturday, July 27 with There's No More Room in Hell, So Let's Go Shopping, a presentation by Facets editor Phil Morehart (yours truly, ahem) on George A. Romero's masterpiece of zombie horror, Dawn of the Dead.

Romero's sequel to Night of the Living Dead ups the zombie action, violence, gore and nihilism to follow a quartet who find refuge from the flesh-eating undead in an abandoned shopping mall. Or do they? I'll dish on this landmark horror masterpiece, from its bleak satire of American consumerism, comic book action and groundbreaking gore FX to its impact upon the horror genre and regional independent filmmaking.

Trailer!



Lecture begins at MIDNIGHT! Come early for a pre-lecture reception featuring spooky music by DJ BananaJam of the Undead and zombie face-painting!

For info, tickets and more, visit Facets Night School online.

Coming soon! Tilda Swinton stars in the festival fave, Julia, opening July 3rd, and Facets Night School's second session begins on July 11 with Brian Elza's lecture on Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible!


- Phil Morehart