SCREEN | Gillian Jacobs Remembers 'I Used to Go Here'

"Life is not like school. It's not a safe place to try things out."

Gravitas Ventures / Pacific Northwest Pictures

Actor/filmmaker Kris Rey tackles undergraduate nostalgia in her post-adult dramedy I Used to Go Here. Starring Gillian Jacobs as a somewhat unremarkable author in a funk who's getting over her millennial malaise by revisiting her college glory days, the film offers plenty of insight about the pitfalls of real-life after leaving your safe bubble.

GRUB | Marukatsu Cuisine Pop-Up x Gyoza Bar x Downtown

teishoku (meal set served with miso soup, endless cabbage and steamed rice)

Downtown—(July 22, 2020) For the summer, Aburi Restaurants is offering a new Japanese-Mexican concept in the form of their limited-time Marukatsu Cuisine pop-up and specialty menu at Gyoza Bar.

SCREEN | Mortal Contagion – 'She Dies Tomorrow' Passes It On

"There is no tomorrow for me."

Neon / Elevation Pictures

Actress Amy Seimetz writes and directs a darkly surreal character drama about mortality in the very eerie She Dies Tomorrow. Based on the most basic of premises, the arresting film follows various related characters as they become sort of infected with a morbid sense of impending death causing them to question their immediate existence.

IMBIBE | Chickadee Room x Juke Fried Chicken x Chinatown

Chinatown—(July 12, 2020) As a result of BC's Phase 2 reopening COVID-19 protocols, the team behind Juke Fried Chicken established The Chickadee Room run by bar manager Sabrine Dhaliwal—you can usually spot her safely behind the plexiglass-protected bar in a full face shield—as a separated cocktail spot and cozy dining room offshoot to their takeout counter located in the adjacent space (now separated by a spiffy new black and pink wall).

SCREEN | Dave Franco Stays the Weekend – 'The Rental'

"I know how to keep a secret."

IFC Films

Actor Dave Franco makes his debut behind the camera as co-writer and director of the standard but effective vacation horror drama The Rental. Competently directed, the film uses single-location slasher genre conventions to express its relationship themes of paranoia and infidelity.

CINEMA | Frontier Capitalism – Kelly Reichardt Milks 'First Cow'

"Some people can't imagine being stolen from."

A24 Films

Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt returns to her beloved Oregon in her latest feature, a slow western about two travellers during the nineteenth-century Old West. Based on the book The Half-Life written by author and regular collaborator Jon Raymond (who co-wrote the script with Reichardt), First Cow tenderly eases into its story of food and friendship wrapped in frontier capitalism.

FEAST | New in Town x Cold Tea Restaurant x Granville

wok beef (beef tenderloin tips with pineapple, bell peppers, onion, and cilantro)

Granville—(July 7, 2020) Downtown Vancouver's newest pan-Asian eatery, Cold Tea Restaurant—named after the secret post-last call tradition of covertly serving beer in a teapot (aka "cold tea") and not to be confused with the similarly named Toronto bar—takes over the storied, old Tsui Hang Village location right in the heart of the titular Entertainment District.

SCREEN | Andy Samberg Lives Hard – 'Palm Springs' Resets

"It's one of those infinite time loop situations you might've heard about."

Neon / The Lonely Island

Set at the titular California desert resort city over a destination wedding weekend, Palm Springs uses the Groundhog Day repeating day, time loop conceit to mine tons of very highly enjoyable comedy. Starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, a bridesmaid's boyfriend (Nyles) and the bride's sister (Sarah), as wedding guests inexplicably stuck repeating the same day over and over again, first-time director Max Barbakow makes hay of his material.

SCREEN | Charlize Theron Outlives 'The Old Guard' on Netflix

"It's not what time steals. It's what it leaves behind."

Skydance / Denver and Delilah Films

Director Gina Prince-Bythewood brings levity to the comic book action in The Old Guard based on the graphic novel series of the same created by Greg Rucka who adapted the film's screenplay himself. Charlize Theron (also a producer) stars as the leader of a badass group of near-immortal warriors in a fun but very violent assassin adventure (in the gun-fu mold of John Wick).