Jananas

A few weeks back I first saw Repo! the Genetic Opera (IMDB here for a different view) at the Toronto Dark After Film Festival. Now, I’m not normally a huge fan of movies with music but this one had me from start to finish. And to be clear, this is a rock opera not a musical.

• definition of an opera: there is music the entire way through with minimal to no speaking, versus
• definition of a musical: the movie is mainly dialogue with musical interludes throughout

Tonight marked night one of a six night stint at the Bloor Cinema here in Toronto (see the Bloor’s website, including schedule here). We’re lucky, the movie is only showing at eight cities in the US and this is the only Canadian release thus far. A few of us who’d been at the original screening decided that we definitely wanted to see it again so we all made plans to be there for the first night. My friend Caroline had picked up tickets on my behalf, and to thank her I’d planned on playing an Akoha “Thank Someone” mission, however they are currently having some problems with the printing tickets function (and yes, they are aware and are working towards fixing it – thanks for the quick response to the feedback!). Instead, I had a wild mission card with me.

The original plan was to give the card to Caroline as a thank you for taking the time to make sure that we all had tickets (and for paying for them on her credit card) for the first night. However, when I saw Darren Lynn Bousman (director of Saw II-IV and Repo!) at the screening I thought I’d give him the card instead as a Thank You for helping get this movie made and released, and additionally for taking the time to be there tonight at the theatre to see the fan’s reactions first hand.

I was a tad nervous this evening that the movie wouldn’t live up to my initial perceptions of its absolute awesomeness. It did, through and through. It is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but it deserves a chance to be seen and for those of us who don’t want the same old remake to make up our own minds. Darren had a super fun Q&A session that made me believe in the potential for this movie even more. Hell, he was even nice enough to come across the street to Pauper’s Pub to have a drink (or two) with fans and to sign autographs.

(And Darren, if this shows up in your Google Alerts – friends of mine in Columbus, Ohio were super jealous that I’ve been able to see the film twice. There are people out there that want to see this movie!)