Showdown in Yesteryear and its Amusing Anime Connection

The ne’er-do-well who leads this film is no stranger to realising where home is where the heart is in Showdown in Yesteryear.

Showdown In Yesteryear Wild West PosterNow playing on VOD (Amazon Prime, Google Play) Subject to geolocation restrictions.

Showdown in Yesteryear is an amusing title that made me think about the classic Star Trek episode, “Spectre of the Gun.” The set design and concept that’s presented isn’t in verbatim but as for what’s real or imagined, that’s up to Daryl Dumwoody (Jeff Grennell) to decide. The fact this work is set in the Wild West was enough for me to want to check it out!

This character is a nobody in a dead end job where he can easily get forgotten. After being dumped by his girlfriend and losing that work, he’s ready to end it all. But when a magical door appears before him–a common enough trope used in various anime, namely Suzume no Tojimari–it’s perhaps a sign for him to look into who he is deep inside. Instead, what he walks through is a portal to the past, his hometown some 120 years ago.

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[Victoria Fringe 2023] Is it Bad There’s New Earth Bandits? Welcome to the Future, If You’re Brave!

You’ll get plenty of exercise walking up and down the hills around Macauly Point Park to discover where the New Earth Bandits are hiding in SNAFU’s latest.

New Earth Bandits SNAFUFrom Interstellar Elder to Kitt and Jane (both shows I’ve seen and reviewed), The SNAFU Society of Unexpected Spectacles has an all new show! I’m not sure if they’ll tour this because it’s very site specific, but for anyone visiting Victoria, BC‘s Macaulay Point Park, they’ll be in for a treat! Here, their latest, New Earth Bandits, sends visitors (theatre attendees) to the future where a colony of humans, mutants, and animals kind of belligerently live together.

Also, I found space aliens! They didn’t join the visitors (theatre attendees) to figure out what’s going on. Instead, we’re told the year is 7023. In where we started, the portal to which everyone steps through takes us there and what’s presented is a glimpse of what may be this planet’s last dance, if we don’t change our ways.

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Time Travel and Aporia. How Much Worse Can It Get?

What Jared Moshé delivers in Aporia s more of a thoughtful narrative concerning how not to alter the past for the sake of having a better future.

Aporia Movie PosterWell GO USA
Playing July 27 & 28th at Fantasia Film Festival and select theatres starting Aug 11.

Nearly everyone knows that travelling into the past is dangerous. When that person changes one tiny, insignificant thing, like in Sophie does in Aporia, everything else becomes altered in ways that can’t be predicted. That butterfly effect is effectively explored in Jared Moshé’s film.

Instead of weighing viewers with science, everything waxed here is more existential than philosophical jabber. For better or worse, the device Jabir (Payman Maadi) made is an oversized gun that can fire bullets through the fabric of time and space. It should be confiscated by the FBI, since it can kill anyone this  physicist wants. The only person he chooses to reveal this weapon to is the wife of his best friend, Sophie (Judy Greer). Ever since Mal (Edi Gathegi) was struck by a drunk driver and put six feet under, life has never been the same. But now that she has an opportunity to alter the past, will she do it?

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Relax, I’m From the Future. So What Can Absolutely Go Wrong (or Get Right)?

Luke Higginson’s movie doesn’t borrow a lot from the well known flicks of yesteryears. Instead, Relax, I’m From the Future plays with the tropes differently.

I'm From the FuturePlaying at the Victoria Film Festival
Odeon 2, Feb 8th, 8:30pm (limited tickets left at the door)

Casper (Rhys Darby) is from the future, and he’s out to change history just a little …. or a lot! However, in Luke Higginson‘s expanded version of his short film, Relax, I’m From the Future, what he’s altered has ramifications to more than the lives of those he met. It’s also about preventing that world he left from happening. For those curious as to where this movie will screen next, please visit the official Facebook page.

Many fans of this genre are aware these tales concern cause and effect. This time traveller is after Percy (Julian Richings), and it’s not because this down-and-out punk rock artist is ready to end his life. To interfere must mean something. Fans of this British-Canadian actor know him best as Death from The CW‘s Supernatural and depending on how well one knows his vast filmography, he’s a much loved character actor. I think seeing him in a non-enigmatic role is a huge sell.

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Aristomenis Tsirbas’ Timescape. Seeking Happiness in Days of Future Past at Fantasia 2022

Aristomenis Tsirbas’ Timescape is a fun 80s Disney / Amblin Entertainment style adventure about why family matters.

Timescape Movie PosterNot to be confused with the 1992 movie of the same name, Aristomenis TsirbasTimescape is a fun 80s Disney / Amblin Entertainment style adventure about Jason (Sofian Oleniuk) learning to grieve. The full title is actually Timescape – Back to the Dinosaurs and I hope it’s the the beginning of what I hope is a new franchise. The potential exists to expand upon the premise of an unlikely pairing, a girl from the future and a boy lost to the present–or should that be wishing to alter the past?

That’s because he doesn’t believe his parents are dead. Everyone else (Uncles included) believes his parents are gone and they want him to accept the harsh truth. However, he has hope. The smashed car was found in the woods, and there were no signs of where their bodies went. If that isn’t telling enough, this lad pointed out how the police who searched the forest apparently didn’t try hard enough.

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