There still is some summer travel left on the 2018 clock. Inspired by a segment on Q on road movies, we thought we would share some of our favourite Canadian road films.
So even if you aren't actually traveling, you can do some Canadian travel from your own home.
Cas & Dylan The Jason Priestley directorial debut takes a wayward young woman (Tatiana Maslany) and a doctor driving to the West Coast (Richard Dreyfuss) on a road trip adventure from Winnipeg to Vancouver. We get to see lovely shots of the Canadian Rockies as well as the Lower Mainland in British Columbia.
Highway 61 Most of the road trip in this Bruce McDonald film takes place in the United States. Don McKellar and Valerie Buhagiar are traveling with her brother's dead body, or that is what she says. Mr. Skin is chasing them to get the body back as the couple make their way to New Orleans. Roadkill is another Bruce McDonald film with a road trip where Buhagiar's character doesn't drive and takes a taxi to find a runaway band. Hard Core Logo makes several real Canadian stops on the 5-city tour for a fake rock band.
Goin' Down The Road was more about the destination (Toronto) than the journey from Nova Scotia. Down the Road Again is actually more of a road film as Pete (Doug McGrath) travels from Vancouver to Toronto with the ashes of his dead pal Joey. Pete ends up traveling the rest of the way from Toronto to Cape Breton Island with Joey's daughter Betty-Jo (Kathleen Robertson).
One Week follows a young man (Joshua Jackson) just diagnosed with cancer going on a motorcycle ride across Canada.
American Boyfriends Like Highway 61, this film's road trip is mostly in the United States. The film is the little known follow-up to My American Cousin from Sandy Wilson. The road trip starts with 4 young women from Vancouver to Portland but ends up with 2 of them going further to Southern California in the shadow of the Vietnam War in 1965.
Route 132 might be more of a typical road trip film. The French-Canadian 2010 film involves 2 men on a crime spree after one of them is mourning the death of his son.
Cloudburst starts its road trip in the United States but ends up in Canada as an older lesbian couple runs away to get married in Canada.
How Canadian film can show U.S., North Korea what Canada looks like
Canadian film review: Goin' Down the Road
Canadian film review: Highway 61
CanadianCrossing.com film reviews
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
The road movies segment on Q mentioned classic American road films such as Little Miss Sunshine, The Grapes of Wrath, Easy Rider, Thelma and Louise, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
The Canadian road films are less well-known perhaps even in Canada. These are very good films. The roads are similar to U.S. roads, even if the speed limits are in kilometres. The characters are well-drawn and sufficiently peculiar in a good way.
The Bruce McDonald films are always filled with great music. You can tell your friends that you saw a film directed by "Brandon Walsh." You can tell your friends that you saw a film where Pacey drives a motorcycle. You can tell some of your friends that Olympia Dukakis can swear like a sailor.
photo credit: Cas & Dylan
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