"Rosario Dawson, Cas Anvar and Steve Zahn in Shattered Glass" Credit: Lions Gate Entertainment

It’s an old joke that if journalists don’t have any news then they make it up. Shattered Glass is based on the true story of a young journalist, Stephen Glass, who literally made up quotations, people, events and whole stories.

What’s more he wasn’t writing for some sensational tabloid, but the supposedly august New Republic. He also freelanced for magazines such as Rolling Stone, Harper’s and George, at least he did until Buzz Bissinger’s September 1998 Vanity Fair expose.

It is the mid-nineties. Management at the New Republic worries about its relatively low circulation (81,500) and there is a drive to find new readers. With a redesign and more pictures ruled out, the conditions are ripe for the rise of the youngest writer on their staff, the gifted Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen), whose colourful scoops no-one can compete with.

Debut director Billy Ray is in danger of over-complicating the narrative, chopping back and forth between different time frames to give the film a more dramatic thrust and some of the scenes where the ambitious and eager-to-please Glass wows the staff at editorial meetings have a false ring to them. You have to ask whether some of the falsehoods on which Glass’s demise were predicated were deliberately made more glaring - dumbed-down - for mainstream cinema audiences. Surely the rigorous fact-checking department of what we are told, more than once, is "the in-flight magazine of Air Force One" would have caught some of these?

These caveats aside, the human drama that unfolds is a compelling one. Christensen gives a notably slippery performance. The battle between the besieged editor Chuck (Peter Sarsgaard) and his staff, particularly news editor Caitlin (Chloe Sevigny), who takes Glass under her wing, is well done. As the gloss begins to peel off their fresh-faced and increasingly desperate prodigy their world turns upside-down.

Watch out for these

There are echoes of The Full Monty in feel-good British comedy Calendar Girls (out on the 19th). The film, which stars Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, is based on the true story of a group of Yorkshire women who bare all for a calendar to raise money for charity.

"They are captivating, emotionally honest, funny, sad and the whole glorious everything of women on the cusp of independence," says The Wolf in his review on iofilm.com.

As if we need reminding, the final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy is out on the 17th. Let’s hope it’s not as disappointing as recently released The Matrix 3.

Cheap tickets

What cinema offers the best deal in town? If you are a senior or child then you get most bang for buck at The Ridge with double-bills of art house and second run movies coming in at $3. That’s $1.50 each, if you can sit through two films on the trot. Adult tickets at The Ridge, whose program includes the pairing of old favourites like Microcosmos and Baraka or entertaining documentaries Etre et Avoir and Spellbound, come in at $5.

That’s a great price as far as adult tickets go, but it’s trumped by The Hollywood cinema in Kits, with its knock-out Monday evening double bill offer of $3.50 (other days $5, seniors $ 3.50, and 13 years and under $3.50). Like The Ridge, films are second run, with The Hollywood leaning toward more mainstream fare. That said, you often get enticing couplings of art house features like The Pianist and Spike Lee’s The 25th Hour, or American Splendor and Swimming Pool. What these grande dames of Vancouver’s cinema circuit lack in comfort they make up for in old-world ambience.

Not to be forgotten is The Denman, a 380-seater downtown with $4 double-bills on Tuesday ($6 Wed.-Mon., $4 for seniors and under-12s).

For first run films, Tinseltown’s first matinee of the day is only a slightly better deal than the competition now that the ticket price is up to $6 (Monday through Friday, later matinees are $7). This modern, well-designed cinema complex is located at the entrance to Chinatown, just off the False Creek bike route. It has comfortable armchairs which offer views of the cinema screen for everyone.

My local, 500-seat Van East Cinema on Commercial Drive, has a good deal with $5 matinees (before 6 pm, $8 after 6 pm, $5 seniors, kids) and is holding steady to $5 on Tuesday while other cinemas have upped ticket prices to the $7-$7.50 mark on the traditional cheap ticket day. Further east, the Dolphin Cinemas at 4555 E. Hastings offers a $5 deal before 6pm and all day Tuesdays. The Varsity cinema is $6 on Tuesday. If you really start to pinch those pennies, you could see four films at the Ridge for the average price of a cheap day ticket.

Considering that The Cinematheque has by the far the most varied and international program, its prices are still reasonable at $7.50 for adults ($8.50 for a double bill) and $6 for seniors and children ($7 double bill). Membership of $6 per year is required as some films are uncertified.

Robert Alstead runs film, DVD and video ezine iofilm. Contact www.iofilm.ca.





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