Night OUT! Screening

Whole New Thing

Friday February 16, 2007
8pm - Tower Theatre
6pm box office opens
Doors open 1/2 hour before film starts
DAY OF FILM - Cash only sales
$10 general admission
$5 VIP Members
scroll to the bottom of this page to purchase advance tickets online.

When a precocious, homeschooled 13 year-old boy is sent to the local, rural school for the first time, itis going to be a whole new thing. For everyone.

A beguiling and provocative comedy/drama about the discovery of sex and the longing for intimacy, Whole New Thing vividly brings to life the rites of passage of youth and middle age. Smart, funny, poignant, and captivatingly intense, brilliantly acted and visually lush, Whole New Thing is at once richly entertaining and thought-provoking.

EMERSON THORSEN, 13, lives with his parents KAYA and ROG in their eco-home in the wilds of Nova Scotia. He's just had his first wet dream, and completed writing and illustrating his first book, all 1000 pages of it. Meanwhile, the homeschooled youth can barely add 2 + 2. His mother enrolls him in the local school. There, Emerson's English teacher is DON GRANT. At 42, the solitary Don has settled into a life of perpetual adolescence, paying regular visits to a park washroom for anonymous sex. In the classroom, Emerson stirs things up. Surprisingly, Don sees a bit of himself reflected in Emerson. Emerson, initially scornful of his teacher, quickly develops his first crush n on Don. The precociously confident boy, raised in a household of casual nudity and sexual openness, throws himself into this awakening of his heart with dangerous abandon.

Anchoring the film are two astounding performances. As Don Grant, Daniel MacIvor delivers the performance of his considerable career. With the mixture of gravity and levity akin to prime Jack Lemmon, MacIvor plays a flawed and unhappy man, in a portrayal so rich with honesty, humor and heart audiences cannot help falling in love with him. As the 13 year-old protagonist Emerson, Aaron Webber makes an electrifying screen debut, fearlessly bringing to life a remarkably complex character for his age. Revealing Emerson as alternately annoying, appealing, haughty, warm and finally utterly winning, Webber makes an indelible impression.

DIRECTED BY Amnon Buchbinder
Genre: Comedy/Drama
92 minutes (Canada 2005)

Reviews

A sweet film! The film has a winning charm.
Gary Kramer, SAN FRANCISCO BAY TIMES

Touching. Perceptive.
Bill Stamets, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Original and memorable! Director/co-writer Amnon Buchbinder weaves prickly subjects like adultery, anonymous sex and emerging adolescent homosexuality deep enough into the fabric of his film that they never overwhelm....
-Kim Linekin, EYE WEEKLY

A lot of great ideas and flashes of enjoyable quirk ....
-JIM SLOTEK. JAM! MOVIES

...witty and well acted.
-BOSTON GLOBE

Buy Tickets Online

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* Please print out and bring your PayPal email receipt so we can verify your ticket purchase at pick-up time. Tickets can be picked up at the will-call table in front of the Tower Theatre before the film starts.

Online ticketing has ended. You may purchase tickets DAY OF FILM - Cash only sales beginning 6pm at the theater.