The Canadian film industry, well, the English part of the Canadian film industry in 1979 was filled with tax write-offs and odd American leads. Hollywood North (2003) dives into this bizarre, yet sadly real, existence.
The film is an exaggerated version of this world. The film cleverly casts Matthew Modine (American) as the lead in this film given how the film his character is making has to have an American lead. Canadians do dominate the cast, including Saul Rubinek, Joe Cobden, Deborah Kara Unger, Alan Thicke, Lindy Booth, Fab Filippo, Clare Coulter, and Jennifer Tilly.
Bobby Myers (Modine) wants to adapt Lantern Moon, a low-key story about a Canadian schoolteacher who goes to teach children in Cuba. To get the American lead they need, Michael Baytes (English actor Alan Bates) wants script approval that blends in with his patriotism and paranoia. They also recruit a famous director Henry Neville (English/Canadian actor John Neville) who hasn't directed a film in 15 years. The Lantern Moon script suddenly becomes Flight to Bogota.
Part of what makes the film within a film Canadian is the source material, which has been completely ignored.
The fun part of the film is filmmaker Sandy Ryan (Unger) who films a behind the scenes approach to this film but intertwines her own serious film Human Voices. The indie film is more of a true Canadian film without the big budget.
As the overall film goes on, the film within the film loses control with pressure from the investors, of which Alan Thicke's character is in charge.
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The making of the film(s) is the plot of the film. The writers (Barry Healey, John Hunter, Tony Johnston) and director Peter O'Brian take us through the slightly exaggerated twists and turns of the film; we imagine similar situations happen quite often.
Hollywood North might be more informative than entertaining. The film could be considered a bit inside ball where some of the jokes are highly subtle. People who appreciate the filmmaking process — trust us, we see this at film festivals — will enjoy this film.
Even if you are not a film geek, there is a rather good story here. Ambition, ego, lots of suffering to try and get some reward: good enough for this Canadian film about Canadian films.
photo credit: Hollywood North film
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