Young people wanting to escape small-town Canada for the United States makes for a great plot, such as New Waterford Girl. Lou (Michaela Kurimsky) and Chantal (Karena Evans) want to escape their small town for New York City but more because of trying to escape where they are. Firecrackers is an intense debut Canadian film from Jasmin Mozaffari.
Lou and Chantal have been raising money by cleaning motel rooms. They think they have enough money to escape. They start down the path of doing all the wrong things to do when trying to leave a small town. There is also the outside factor of Chantal being assaulted by her possessive ex-boyfriend. Lou's revenge ultimately means losing the hard-earned money.
The gender dynamic is clearly on display as the males make leaving much more difficult. When men run away, they aren't as likely to be held back by women.
Lou also struggles with her mother's new younger boyfriend. Lou works hard to protect her potentially closeted brother. Lou wants to leave but doesn't want her brother to struggle.
Mozaffari does really well to ground the film in reality. The friendship of Lou and Chantal gets tested in lots of ways.
The tension builds in the first half of the film. The second half of the film is mostly watching Lou spiral after being stuck in the small town while Chantal mostly disappears from the screen. The friendship is meaningful until it isn't.
Changing that ratio to have more excitement and tension over a longer section of the film would help. The only real disappointment in an otherwise strong film.
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Firecrackers was the feature debut for Michaela Kurimsky, one of the 2018 TIFF Rising Stars.
TIFF named Firecrackers to Canada's Top Ten list of 2018 films. The Toronto Film Critics Association listed the film as a finalist for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award in 2019. The film won Canadian Screen Awards for Best Director for Jasmin Mozaffari and Best Editing for Simone Smith.
Firecrackers won Best Film and Best Actress (Michaela Kurimsky) at the 2018 Stockholm International Film Festival.
The film did have brief theatre runs in Canada and the United States. Firecrackers is available on Amazon Prime for an additional fee.
photo credit: Firecrackers film
video credit: YouTube/LevelFILM
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