The Canadian TV presents are here, too late to be under a tree or near a menorah. We noted in the fall update that the good stuff was coming this winter. Let's find out more.
Let's start with our 3 debuts, 2 of which we have previously mentioned. Saint-Pierre, the lone new drama, features Allan Hawco and French actor Joséphine Jobert solving crimes on Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, the French territory just off the coast of Newfoundland. Saint-Pierre runs after Murdoch Mysteries on Monday nights.
The 2 new comedies share the treasured 9 pm Tuesday slot. North of North stars Anna Lambe as a woman trying to reinvent herself in the north. This show will also run on Netflix in the United States. Small Achievable Goals arrives in late February with Jennifer Whalen and Meredith MacNeill (Baroness von Sketch Show) dealing with menopause and producing a podcast.
Saint-Pierre and North of North debut in the first full week in January while Small Achievable Goals arrives February 25.
The ongoing and returning shows, with debut dates, are as follows:
Murdoch Mysteries (January 6), The Nature Of Things (January 2), This Hour Has 22 Minutes (January 7), SkyMed (January 5), Son of a Critch (January 7), Dragons' Den (January 2), Marketplace (January 24), About That with Andrew Chang (January 10), The Fifth Estate (January 24), Hockey Night in Canada (December 28), Wild Cards (January 8), Halifax Comedy Fest (January 14), Allegiance (January 15), Stuff The British Stole (January 24), Canada's Ultimate Challenge (February 27), Winnipeg Comedy Festival (March 9), and Bollywed (March 20) all return to the CBC television lineup.
Monday Murdoch Mysteries, 8p Saint-Pierre, 9p
Tuesday This Hour Has 22 Minutes, 8p Son of a Critch, 8:30p North of North/Small Achievable Goals, 9p Halifax Comedy Fest, 9:30p
Wednesday Wild Cards, 8p Allegiance, 9p
Thursday Dragons' Den/Canada's Ultimate Challenge, 8p The Nature Of Things/Bollywed, 9p
Friday Marketplace, 8p About That with Andrew Chang/Stuff The British Stole, 8:30p The Fifth Estate, 9p
Saturday Hockey Night in Canada, 7p
Sunday The Great British Baking Show, 7p Travel Man's Greatest Trips, 8:30p SkyMed/Winnipeg Comedy Festival, 9p
.@CBC announces winter 2025 streaming and broadcast premiere dates for more than 30 series from Canadian storytellers, including new drama Saint-Pierre (Jan. 6) and new comedies North of North (Jan. 7) and Small Achievable Goals (Feb. 25). Read more: https://t.co/aOlaDHjbGcpic.twitter.com/Q0EnAJNFgl
The 2025 CBC winter lineup is much stronger than the 2024 winter lineup. A homegrown drama in the post Murdoch Mysteries timeslot. New promising comedies on Tuesday nights.
One More Time had soft humour moments and a marvelous cast but not much of a focus or direction. The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down appears to be done. Push is gone from the lineup.
We liked the idea of a regular timeslot for Canadian documentaries like we had last winter. Those are gone from this winter. We wish the Documentary Channel, under CBC control, showed more actual documentaries. Would rather see the Canadian documentaries on CBC than British repeats on Sunday nights.
The original release mentioned Locals Welcome from food writer and expert Suresh Doss for Winter 2025 but there is no word on that show.
We will look into the limited options for Canadian TV shows on the private networks as well as Canadian TV shows on U.S. TV in 2025. We might finally get Season 4 of Transplant on NBC. Maybe.
The CW fans should know that the U.S. network will run Season 2 of Wild Cards starting on February 5. The network has not released information on Season 4 of Son of a Critch. We noticed they bunched up a few episodes from the CTV show Children Ruin Everything in November and December that ended last Friday.
Running those comedies in the spring would make some sense, as much sense as broadcast TV does in the States and Canada these days.
This is about as good as a holiday present gets on the U.S. side, outside of new Letterkenny episodes. We had some qualms of lost faith that Hulu would pick up Season 3 of Run the Burbs. We don't have new Letterkenny episodes on either side of the border any more.
Run the Burbs only had 3 seasons so at least those on the U.S. side can get the full series. Canadians can watch all 3 seasons via CBC Gem.
There are 38 episodes of the show: Season 1 (12) as well as Season 2 (13) and Season 3 (13).
The CBC winter schedule preview will run on December 27. Barring emergencies, that will be the last story we run in 2024.
The end of 2024 doesn't feel too happy. No new Letterkenny episodes to distract us from reality. Insanity aimed at Canada from the very immature, angry one. Immature threats to bring down the federal government in Canada from an opposition leader who still won't get a security clearance.
The state of Canadian television. The state of Canadian journalism. The state of Ontario under Doug Ford (well, Ontario is a province). The threats to the CBC and the public broadcaster bending over backwards to appease the Conservatives. The beyond childish attacks on Canada from the angry orange one. The Canada post strike, which came to an end this week (we are pro-worker).
The faces of Canadian money are in transition. The first coins with King Charles III instead of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, are out in the marketplace. The transformation has begun though the $20 bill won't change as quickly as the loonie and twoonie.
We have known for a couple of years that the $5 bill will get a makeover from Wilfrid Laurier, who has been displayed on the Canadian $5 note since 1972. The consensus in our minds is Terry Fox.
The Canadian government will put Terry Fox on the $5 bill to honour his Marathon of Hope and his efforts to raise money for cancer research. While Canadians know Fox's story, here is the Wikipedia page to help educate most Americans about his amazing story.
Former Liberal prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier is currently on the $5 bill and will get moved to the next version of the $50 bill. Your humble narrator didn't know who was on the $50 bill until I was in Windsor in November. I got a $50 from the ABM (ATM in the States). Former prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King is on the $50 bill. You might remember King as the prime minister featured in Matthew Rankin's debut film The Twentieth Century (2019).
The other 7 Canadians on the Bank of Canada shortlist were Pitseolak Ashoona (1904/1908-1983); Robertine Barry (1863-1910); Binaaswi aka Francis Pegahmagabow (1888-1952); Won Alexander Cumyow (1861-1955); Lotta Hitschmanova (1909-1990); Isapo-muxika (1830-1890); and Onondeyoh aka Frederick Ogilvie Loft (1861-1934).
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences aka the Oscars gave us some good news on Tuesday with Universal Language and Sugarcane making shortlists.
We have a few Canadian film updates, including a delay for the TIFF Top 10 Canadian films of 2024. Some news is better than no news or negative news.
The 2025 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships will be in Ottawa and nearby Kanata. The tournament gets underway on Boxing Day (December 26, 2024) and run through January 5. Ottawa hosts the tournament for the first time since 2009.
The Canadian Tire Centre (NHL Ottawa Senators home) and TD Place (OHL Ottawa 67's and PWHL Ottawa Charge) will host the games.
Canada is in Group A along with the United States, Finland, Latvia, and Germany and will play their games in Kanata. TSN will have the coverage in Canada and the NHL Network will take the TSN feed except when the United States is involved.
Gord Miller and Bryan Mudryk will be on the call for the World Juniors. Mudryk's absence from the Habs telecasts means play-by-play (PBP) opportunities for Victor Findlay (Habs radio) or Kenzie Lalonde (Habs host and Sens PBP). Matt Cullen (Sens PBP) would be a contender but the Senators are on a road trip because their home arena is in use. The same will be in effect when Mudryk calls curling later this winter.
This level of hockey is easier to watch than the NHL in terms of violence and cheap hits. If you don't get along too well with your family, hockey could be a needed distraction.
The NHL takes off Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. The NBA has 10 teams playing on Christmas Day. The Toronto Raptors are not considered cool enough to play on the holiday.
We have seen a few documentaries and feature films that have covered the impact of residential schools: Birth of a Family and Rhymes for Young Ghouls leap to mind. Sugarcane feels like the documentary with a laser type focus on the impact of residential schools.
Julian Brave NoiseCat, co-director of Sugarcane, talks to his father and grandmother about the impact of St. Joseph's Mission near Williams Lake, British Columbia.
We see investigators looking into the past. This comes on the heels of the remains of 215 students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Williams Lake is about 228 km (179 m) northwest of Kamloops.
NoiseCat has a vested interest in getting his father and grandmother to talk about what happened. The stigma of shame and silence means that the people who suffered do not want to discuss the experience. Some of that stems from those authority figures punishing those who talk.
Some of what you look for in this film is the significance behind the silence when asked about the atrocities.
As much as we have heard about this topic in Canada, the United States, which has its own residential schools, has barely covered this topic. U.S. President Joe Biden issued an apology for the U.S. Indian Boarding Schools program in late October. This is an important first step.
This film is an important step as well.
One disturbing element we discover is that there is evidence that priests impregnated some girls at the school. The girls gave birth and those babies were incinerated.
The film is paced well and you find yourself horrified and wanting to learn more. The archival footage that made the residential schools seem happy is really creepy. You have to understand that whitewashing of the coverage of these schools was part of the master plot to hide the truth from white people for multiple generations.
Sugarcane is a hard watch but very necessary. Watch it with your parents and children, giving them to ask questions after the film is over.
Sugarcane made the shortlist for the Academy Awards for documentary feature film.
Sugarcane had a theatre release this summer in the U.S. and Canada. The documentary also played at the 2024 Windsor International Film Festival. The film ran earlier this month in the United States on the National Geographic Channel and is available on Disney+ and Hulu.
video credit: National Geographic photo credit: Sugarcane
Universal Language | Une langue universelle is the first Canadian film in what is now the Best International Feature Film to reach the Academy Awards shortlist since Juste la fin du monde | It's Only the End of the World from Xavier Dolan (2016).
Let's look at all the contenders from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in its 15-film shortlist for Best International Feature Film.
2025 Academy Awards shortlist for Best International Feature Film
Country
Film
Brazil
I'm Still Here
Canada
Universal Language
Czech Republic
Waves
Denmark
The Girl with the Needle
France
Emilia Pérez
Germany
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Iceland
Touch
Ireland
Kneecap
Italy
Vermiglio
Latvia
Flow
Norway
Armand
Palestine
From Ground Zero
Senegal
Dahomey
Thailand
How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies
United Kingdom
Santosh
Your humble narrator has seen 4 of these films: Universal Language (Canada); The Girl with the Needle (Denmark); The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany); and Armand (Norway).
The plan is to watch Emilia Pérez (France) on Netflix. Sorry I missed Flow (Latvia) at the 2024 Windsor International Film Festival.
To my surprise, I haven't seen any other country's entries in this category that are outside the shortlist. I am curious about some of these entries, but no one film leaps into the top spot.
Sugarcane made the shortlist for Documentary Feature Film. The documentary on residential schools has been in theatres in the United States and Canada. Americans can watch the film on Hulu.
The other documentaries on the shortlist are: The Bibi Files; Black Box Diaries; Dahomey; Daughters; Eno; Frida; Hollywoodgate; No Other Land; Porcelain War; Queendom; The Remarkable Life of Ibelin; Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat; Union; and Will & Harper.
Dahomey is also nominated for Best International Feature Film. We saw Eno and was underwhelmed by the film. The clips are selected randomly with each viewing and perhaps we got the less than exciting clips.
Vancouver native Natalie Rae co-directed Daughters while Toronto's Brett Story co-directed Union.
Torill Kove's Maybe Elephants made the shortlist for Animated Short Film.
Great Canadian🇨🇦 films make #Oscars shortlists: Torill Kove’s NFB animation “Maybe Elephants,” Emily Kassie’s and Julian Brave NoiseCat’s doc “Sugarcane,” and Matthew Rankin’s absurd comedy “Universal Language.” Bravo and bonne chance! pic.twitter.com/AWtHxo6eU3
Canada's Oscar entries of note for Best International Feature Film
Year
Film
Status
1986
The Decline of the American Empire
Nominated
1989
Jesus of Montréal
Nominated
2003
The Barbarian Invasions
Academy Award
2006
Water
Nominated
2007
Days of Darkness
Shortlist
2008
The Necessities of Life
Shortlist
2010
Incendies
Nominated
2011
Monsieur Lazhar
Nominated
2012
War Witch
Nominated
2016
It's Only the End of the World
Shortlist
2024
Universal Language
TBD
As we noted, there has been a gap since the last Canadian film made the shortlist. Juste la fin du monde | It's Only the End of the World from Xavier Dolan looked like a French film instead of a French-Canadian film. You could easily argue that Universal Language is the first Canadian film to make the shortlist that has Canada on the screen since Monsieur Lazhar.
Before this year, only 2 films in the last 7 years have been the Academy Awards nominee and made the TIFF Top Ten list: Antigone (2019) and Drunken Birds | Les Oiseaux ivres (2021). We won't know the TIFF list until 2025 yet we can't imagine the list doesn't include Universal Language.
The film is one of 3 finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film award from the Toronto Film Critics Association.
While we covered some of the "foreign language" film nominees, here are the full lists from the 3 other major sources.
The Independent Spirit Awards — Best International Film
All We Imagine as Light (France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg) Payal Kapadia
Black Dog (China) Guan Hu
Flow (Latvia, France, Belgium) Gints Zilbalodis
Green Border (Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium) Agnieszka Holland
Hard Truths (United Kingdom) Mike Leigh
The Golden Globes — Best Motion Picture: Non-English Language
All We Imagine As Light (USA/France/India) Emilia Pérez (France) The Girl With The Needle (Poland/Sweden/Denmark) I'm Still Here (Brazil) The Seed Of The Sacred Fig (USA/Germany) Vermiglio (Italy)
The Critics Choice Awards — Best Foreign Language Film
All We Imagine as Light Emilia Pérez Flow I'm Still Here Kneecap The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Kneecap is the only new film (to us). The film is Ireland's entry into the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. Kneecap is about an Irish hip-hop trio from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Don't recall any of these lists featuring a Canadian film in any way shape or form in recent memory.
I have seen 30 of the last 33 nominees. The most recent one I haven't seen is Not Me! | Sous-Sol from the Oscars in 1997. The other films in that stretch that we have not seen are My Friend Max | Mon Amie Max (Michel Brault) from 1994 and The Confessional (Robert Lepage) in 1995. Kristin Scott Thomas, yes that person, was in the Robert Lepage film.
We saw the previous 2 entries: Léolo (Jean-Claude Lauzon) from 1992 and The Sex of the Stars | Le sexe des étoiles (Paule Baillargeon) from 1993.
The Oscars nominations get released on January 17 with the Academy Awards ceremony on March 2.
photo credit: Universal Language | Une langue universelle Twitter captures: @TheAcademy; @peterhowellfilm
Then there was 3, as in 3 finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film for 2024 by the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) as well as 3 finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Documentary.
The TFCA announced the nominees yesterday. Shepherds | Bergers (Sophie Deraspe) and Universal Language (Matthew Rankin), the 2 major TIFF winners, are on the list along with the latest Guy Maddin/Evan Johnson/Galen Johnson film Rumours.
Maddin and Evan Johnson co-directed The Forbidden Room, the winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award for 2015. Maddin directed My Winnipeg, the 2008 winning film.
Sophie Deraspe was nominated for Antigone in 2019. This is Rankin's first nomination for this award.
The nominees for Rogers Best Canadian Documentary are: Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, Yintah, Your Tomorrow #TFCAawardspic.twitter.com/uxIZ0EeROG
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee), one of the WIFF Prize in Canadian film nominees, Yintah (Michael Toledano, Jennifer Wickham, and Brenda Michell), available on Netflix, and Your Tomorrow (Ali Weinstein) are the documentary contenders for Rogers Best Canadian Documentary.
Both awards have a cash prize of $50,000, courtesy of Rogers Communications. The runners up in each category receive $5,000.
We have seen Shepherds | Bergers and Universal Language and feel quite comfortable in seeing Rumours at some point soon. We have seen Yintah and look forward to seeing Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story as well as Your Tomorrow, which is about Ontario Place in Toronto.
I did think Matt and Mara might have had a shot at cracking the top 3 and a bit surprised that Sugarcane isn't on this list.
Félix-Antoine Duval from Shepherds | Bergers won Outstanding Performance in a Canadian Film.
All We Imagine as Light won Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay. The India film may do well in this category, except at the Academy Awards since India selected India Lost Ladies instead.
The TFCA also acknowledged Serena Whitney and the Revue Film Society for their advocacy for community-based independent cinemas.
The Toronto Film Critics Association will present the Rogers Best Canadian Film and Rogers Best Canadian Documentary on February 24, 2025, at the Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto. Canadian actor Amanda Brugel will be the evening's host.
We find out tomorrow as to whether Universal Language will make the Academy Awards shortlist for Best International Feature Film.
Twitter captures: @TFCA (x2); @HertzBarry photo credit: Universal Language video credit: Instagram yourtomorrowdoc
Better late than never definitely applies to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announcement of Canada's Top Ten. Based on previous patterns, the announcement would have already happened. We finally got an update that the announcement has been pushed back to 2025.
The January 8 full programming details would seemingly include the actual lists. The films will run later than usual — February 9 — at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto.
A good journalist with access to the festival would ask "why the delay?" yet we are grateful that there will be lists. TIFF already flaked out in 2024 for not doing the Rising Stars feature. Regular readers know the festival stopped giving away the prize for rising filmmakers — now known as the Best Canadian Discovery Award — from 2020-2023. The award was previously presented from 1997-2019 as Best Canadian First Feature Film.
One of December joys is @TIFF_NET top 10 list of #Canadianfilms of the year. I know they didn't do #RisingStars in 2024. Hopefully, the list is coming at some point.
We didn't panic. Not at all. Our anxieties are only climbing these days.
TIFF has done these lists since 2001. The lists included feature and short films through 2006 when TIFF put in Top 10 lists for feature and short films (20 in all). We've seen these films from that first list in 2001: Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (Zacharias Kunuk); Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett); Last Wedding (Bruce Sweeney); Parsley Days (Andrea Dorfman); and Soft Shell Man | Un crabe dans la tête (André Turpin).
The Top 10 list has been a guide for Canadian films, some of which we see at Windsor and some to track over the course of the upcoming year. We try to see as many as we realistically can.
We even speculated on the films we think might make the list: Matt and Mara; Universal Language | Une Langue Universelle; some combination of Rumours (Guy Maddin), The Shrouds (David Cronenberg) and Shepherds | Bergers, winner of the Best Canadian Feature Film.
Last year, 8 of the 10 feature films had played at TIFF. BlackBerry and Someone Lives Here were the exceptions.
Shook was a quiet, very pleasant film. Sugarcane makes a great argument for the list. We weren't thrilled with You Are Not Alone | Vous n'êtes pas seuls but the film came in second for the Best Canadian Discovery Award.
Sentimental film titles that played at TIFF that we have seen: Seeds; Paying For It; 40 Acres; and Can I Get a Witness?
A few TIFF titles that we haven't seen: Measures for a Funeral; Sweet Angel Baby; Young Werther; Really Happy Someday; Your Tomorrow; and Village Keeper.
Sentimental favourites from Windsor that could qualify for the TIFF list: The Players; Tell Me Why These Things Are So Beautiful | Dis-moi pourquoi ces choses sont si belles; Sugarcane; Lucy Grizzli Sophie; Tea Creek; and Singing Back the Buffalo.
The primary reason we don't do our own Top 10 list are the Canadian films we don't know about, including Quebecois titles that fall short of the Venn diagram that is TIFF and WIFF. The TIFF list is well-researched. This doesn't mean we agree with the whole list (Solo in 2023) but the list is a good starting point to discuss the year in Canadian film.
We will catch you up on where we are on recent lists when the announcement finally comes around. Provided we know on January 8, that will be 9 days before we find out if Universal Language | Une Langue Universelle; makes the Academy Awards Top 5 cut, provided the Canadian film makes the shortlist.
The Toronto Film Critics Association announces their 3 feature finalists and 3 documentary contenders tomorrow. We will have that story on Monday. The Oscars announces the Best International Feature Film shortlist on Tuesday.
Dear Santa; All I want for Christmas is the release of the 2025 #CFL schedule so I can plan my 🏈 life
Twitter had more people concerned about when the CFL schedule will arrive — even if the games won't start for 6 more months — than people wondering why the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) hasn't released its picks for Top 10 Canadian films for the year. I love the CFL but I would rather get the TIFF lists.
The Queen of My Dreams is definitely a story about family, imagining the struggles of a parent's life just as the child loses the other parent. Azra (Amrit Kaur) is in the outs with her parents after coming out as a lesbian. When her father Hassan (Hamza Haq) suddenly passes away, Azra goes back to Pakistan and as part of her grieving process, imagines what her mother went through when she was younger.
We go back and forth between the 2 worlds: Azra's frustration with the funeral process such as her brother being able to be part of things because he is a male and being denied that chance because she is female. We also go into the past when Azra, now playing her mother, being courted by the man who becomes her father.
We see the current dynamic of Azra with her mother Mariam (Pakistani actor Nimra Bucha) as well as her desire to find herself within her mother's world. There are aspects of Bollywood in the flashbacks. Her mother was a stewardess (they were called that back then) and got to fly around the world.
This is the third incarnation of this story for writer/director Fawzia Mirza. The 2012 short film The Queen of My Dreams came first followed by her theatrical stage play Me, My Mom & Sharmila.
We aren't sure why Azra feels this need to perform this exercise but the story is lovingly told. We also feel bad for her partner back in Canada, who is mostly ignored in the film. Sometimes, you just have to follow the story as told on the screen.
We are slightly amused at the idea of Azra, being a lesbian, a source of friction with the mother, also being a romantic partner for her father. Therapists will enjoy that aspect of the story.
The film is beautiful in the flashbacks and harsher in the modern time. Not a criticism but a reflection on how things are. Mirza makes sure we are engaged in both stories as a contrast.
We aren't usually good at enjoying a film without thinking about "why." The best way to watch The Queen of My Dreams is just to fall in this world and take this for what it is. Bollywood fans may want more Bollywood in this film. If you aren't a Bollywood fan, there is enough but not too much Bollywood. Those who want more Canada? Azra's questioning of her culture is in part because she is Canadian. Jump into this film with both feet and you will likely enjoy the ride.
The Queen of My Dreams won 2 Canadian Screen Awards in 2024: Best Lead Performance in a Drama Film (Kaur) and Best Original Song. The film also received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay (Mirza), Best Art Direction/Production Design, and Best Original Score.
The film was honoured with a selection to TIFF's annual Canada's Top Ten list for 2023.The Queen of My Dreams is currently available on Crave in Canada.
video credit: Cineplex Pictures photo credit: The Queen of My Dreams
There is a perception in the United States that Vermont is the only place to get maple syrup. Those from Quebec aka La Belle Province would challenge that assumption.
On the surface, you might think a 6-part series on maple syrup would be sticky and quite boring. Incompetent, small-time crime proves to be more interesting than you might imagine.
The Sticky is available on Amazon Prime Video in both Canada and the United States. This is one of the better attempts for the streaming services to produce Canadian content.
The disclaimer is clear: this is not the true story of the greatest maple syrup heist in Quebec. There really was a major maple syrup heist in Quebec.
The cast is Canadian with the exceptions of American actor Margo Martindale in a main role as Ruth Landry, owner of a maple syrup farm who is being hosed by Leonard Gauthier Sr. (Guy Nadon), who runs the association of maple syrup producers.
Ruth knows Mike Byrne (Chris Diamantopoulos) and Remy Bouchard (Guillaume Cyr) is the lone security guard of the maple syrup who challenges Mike to get back at his bosses.
Teddy Green (Gita Miller) and Detective Valérie Nadeau (Suzanne Clément) are the cops chasing after them. The Canadian cast includes Mickaël Gouin, Mark O'Brien, and Meegwun Fairbrother. Jamie Lee Curtis, an executive producer of the series, has a cameo appearance.
The series was created by Brian Donovan and Ed Herro with direction from Michael Dowse and Joyce Wong.
Jason Jones went to Quebec to "investigate" this story for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart a decade ago. Jones got to compare the whole matter to Pablo Escobar and cocaine. The actual smugglers got the maple syrup into Vermont and New Brunswick (an intriguing way to get Quebec maple syrup).
There are small Quebec details such as mentioning CEGEP, tabarnac, and incorporating a strip club into the series.
The series takes place at the end of the sap season so there is plenty of snow to be found. Ruth and Remy explain the maple syrup process to Mike that is entertaining and informative.
There are 6 episodes in the 30 minute range. Will not take long to digest. The series is entertaining and engaging.
The way they go about this reminds us of a great quote from Mickey Rourke in Body Heat: "any time you try a decent crime, you got fifty ways you're gonna f-ck up. If you think of twenty-five of them, then you're a genius - and you ain't no genius." These people are not geniuses.
Amazon Prime Video, with Three Pines and The Lake and now The Sticky, is definitely doing a lot better than Netflix in this race to produce Canadian content. The Sticky has some recognizable Quebecois and Canadian talent such as Cyr, Clément, Diamantopoulos, and Nadon.
The series is mostly in English with some French scattered in the script. The program is dubbed into numerous languages. We would be curious to watch the French-Canadian version, even if we couldn't follow that too well.
My Old Ass got some love from the Independent Spirit Awards. Megan Park (writer/director) has a Best Screenplay nomination and Maisy Stella has a nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance. We will have a review at some point.
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie — directors of Sugarcane — are nominated for the Truer Than Fiction Award. There are only 3 film nominations in this category. For our American readers, Sugarcane debuts tonight on the National Geographic channel and tomorrow on Disney+ and Hulu.
Sneaking some TV into a film notebook: Enrico Colantoni, heralded on both sides of the border, has a nomination for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series for English Teacher. Colantoni and his Canadian TV series Allegiance (with Supinder Wraich) head into Season 2 this winter on CBC.
The Independent Spirit Awards, with no inclination to reward films nominated for the Oscars, has an intriguing list of films for its Best International Film category. Here are the films with countries and director.
All We Imagine as Light (France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg) Payal Kapadia
Black Dog (China) Guan Hu
Flow (Latvia, France, Belgium) Gints Zilbalodis
Green Border (Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium) Agnieszka Holland
Hard Truths (United Kingdom) Mike Leigh
We saw Green Border a year ago and found the film to be very powerful. Poland picked a less "controversial" film for the Oscars because of its right-wing government. Heartily recommend this film. Flow played at WIFF 24. While we didn't get a chance to see this film, people we talked to really enjoyed the film.
The other 3 films were new to us once this list was announced.
The Golden Globes nominations came out this morning. Here are the noms in the Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language category:
All We Imagine As Light (USA/France/India)
Emilia Pérez (France)
The Girl With The Needle (Poland/Sweden/Denmark)
I’m Still Here (Brazil)
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig (USA/Germany)
Vermiglio (Italy)
The only repeat film on both lists is All We Imagine As Light. We found The Girl With The Needle the engaging and disturbing. Most excellent. The Seed Of The Sacred Fig is way too long with plenty of material to fast forward through in a 2 hour, 37 minute movie. The story is good but needed 90 minutes tops and that is a stretch.
We've heard terrible things about Emilia Pérez even if the film is supposed to be rewarded with nominations. Since the film is on Netflix, we aren't in too much of a rush to watch this right away.
On the Canadian side (none of these are remotely Canadian content), Pamela Anderson got a nomination for The Last Showgirl for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. Gabriel LaBelle has a rare moment for a Canadian playing a Canadian character — Lorne Michaels — in Jason Reitman's Saturday Night. LaBelle's nomination is for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy. Reitman is also Canadian.
Martin Short got a Golden Globe nomination for Only Murders In The Building for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series – Musical Or Comedy.
Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two is up for Best Motion Picture - Drama but didn't receive a screenplay or directorial nomination.
We reported last week that we thought we would see the TIFF Top 10 list at least by Friday. The Toronto International Film Festival has been consistent in its inconsistency on awards. We finally saw the festival reward relatively inexperienced filmmakers after a 4-year absence. Yet the festival didn't do the Rising Stars feature in 2024.
While we would be severely disappointed if TIFF flakes out and doesn't do the TIFF Top 10, we have to go on as if nothing is happening. we will report on this if they send out a list. If the TIFF Top 10 won't happen, that would be a huge loss for recognizing Canadian film.
We have huge vats of faith that the Toronto Film Critics Association will announce on Sunday about its finalists for Best Canadian Film and Best Canadian Documentary for 2024.
We found this video from back in September on TIFF 24. The CTV show Your Morning had Lindsey Deluce interviewing resident film critic Radheyan Simonpillai on Canadian films at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Simonpillai briefly went through the Canadian films at TIFF that also played at Cannes: The Shrouds. Rumours, and Universal Language. Appreciate that Rad spent little time on these titles to give space for other Canadian films of note.
Simonpillai focused on 5 Canadian films. We saw 2 of them: Seeds and You Are Not Alone. Our reviews were mixed on these films: liked the former and confused by the latter (not bad just odd). We were also intrigued about the other 3 films.
Measures for a Funeral with Deragh Campbell was compared to Tar, a high compliment. We would see Campbell in just about anything. Sweet Baby Angel is a Newfoundland film featuring Michaela Kurimsky (Firecrackers). The story sounded quite compelling. Village Keeper is set in Toronto and deals with Black mental health and finding community.
Some Canadian films grab more publicity than others so we appreciate a chance to learn about some films beyond a title and description. We hope you do as well.
We have seen 10 of the 12 films from the first link, all but The Three L’il Pigs 2 | Les 3 p’tits cochons 2 and Le mirage. Most of these films are a good basic introduction to le cinema du Quebecois. 3 of them belong to Xavier Dolan: Mommy, Laurence Anyways, and It’s Only the End of the World. 5 of the 12 were Canada's entries into the Academy Awards in what is now the Best International Feature Film: Gabrielle, Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar, along with the aforementioned Mommy and It's Only the End of the World. Louis Cyr, l'homme le plus fort au monde is more of a historical drama. The list finishes up with 3 well-known Quebecois films: Café de Flore (Jean-Marc Vallée), My Internship in Canada, and Starbuck. The latter 2 star Patrick Huard, whom you might know from Bon Cop, Bad Cop, and was also in Mommy.
The Montréal list is charming with some American films at the bottom of the list. The Whole Nine Yards (2000) was set and filmed in Montréal but didn't make this list. An odd but likable collection of stars: Bruce Willis, the late Matthew Perry (Canadian), the very underrated Amanda Peet, Michael Clarke Duncan, Rosanna Arquette (with a hilarious Quebecois accent), and Natasha Henstridge (Canadian).
The fun of these lists for your humble narrator is finding Canadian films I did not know. Funkytown is one of those films: taking place during the time of disco in Montréal. Didn't realize the city was known for its disco scene.
The only one of the first 5 we knew something about was La Femme de l’hôtel (1984) from Léa Pool. Those en Anglaise might find the film under the title A Woman in Transit. Consider that this film came 17 years before Lost and Delirious (2001).
We mentioned the retrospectives for Denis Villeneuve and Denys Arcand in a recent Canadian film notebook. Sign us up for a retrospective of Léa Pool's early films.
We are particularly interested in Desire in Motion | Mouvements du désir (1994) followed by Anne Trister (1986).
We have seen Set Me Free | Emporte-moi (1999), Lost and Delirious (2001), Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's | Maman est chez le coiffeur (2008), The Passion of Augustine | La Passion d'Augustine (2015), and Worst Case, We Get Married | Et au pire, on se mariera (2017).
The other films on this BFI list that we have seen are: When Night Is Falling (1995) from Patricia Rozema; C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) from the late Jean-Marc Vallée; J'ai tué ma mère | I Killed My Mother (2009), the debut from Xavier Dolan; and Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (2013) from Denis Côté. I really enjoyed the latter film but definitely not the ending.
The lone trans film on the list was My Prairie Home (2013) from Chelsea McMullan about trans singer Rae Spoon. We noted 2 films from WIFF 2024 dealing with trans stories that were up for the WIFF Prize in Canadian film: Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (Michael Mabbott & Lucah Rosenberg-Lee) and Really Happy Someday (J Stevens). We didn't see either one but that was coincidental. We hope to see both films at a later date. Our criticism of Something You Said Last Night didn't stem from a trans character just having a film about a trans character not be so boring.
Our Canadian readers should know that Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story should be available on Crave as of today.
Canadians and Americans can view My Prairie Home through the NFB Web site.
Regular readers know we love realism in films, at least where realism is an option. Reese Witherspoon has a wonderful take on the lazy use of "What do we do now?" for female characters written by male screenwriters. Witherspoon is absolutely correct that women in real life aren't asking that question. They take charge and I am impressed by that in real life.
I first encountered the work of Sudz Sutherland and Jennifer Holness through Shoot the Messenger on CBC from 2016. The show featured Elyse Levesque and Lyriq Bent that combined journalism and crime solving. I have seen Holness' documentary Subjects of Desire (2021).
I learned about Sutherland's debut feature film, produced by Holness (real life husband and wife), Love, Sex and Eating the Bones and was intrigued. The film had been difficult to find for your humble narrator.
The story features Michael (American actor Hill Harper) and Jasmine (American actor Marlyne Afflack). Michael is a photographer who thinks his work is ready as the world tells him it isn't. He hides behind being a security guard. Michael also hides his intimacy by his porn addiction.
Jasmine hides her intimacy by declaring she is celibate. She is in management yet she doesn't care about surface elements of a potential mate.
Peaches is Jasmine's cousin. She also gets a job at Pornucopia, a video store where Michael is the "best customer." Peaches is really not happy that Jasmine is dating Michael.
Jasmine seems unlikely to be in love with someone like Michael. Her patience at love is rather remarkable, especially for someone who had enough bad experiences with relationships. The movie takes awhile to get to the crux of the matter: his porn addiction gets in the way of their intimacy.
We get that a character with a porn addiction is rare to see on the screen and Sutherland handles the subject in a realistic fashion. The tension between Michael and Peaches is very real and fun to watch on its own merit.
Sutherland gives depth to his supporting characters: Kai Soremekun has a lot of juicy scenes as Peaches, an actor who takes the job at a porn store to help her acting career. Mark Taylor as Sweets brings a thicker Caribbean accent who is kind of a mama's boy. Karen Robinson as Heather, the hair stylist who also sells trashy lingerie.
A special shout-out to the 2 white characters. We often see the token black characters in an otherwise all-white film. Sutherland gives them small parts and has a little fun with them: Jennifer Baxter as Jasmine's trusted co-worker Trish and Ed Robertson as his trusted co-worker Kennedy. Sutherland uses One Week from the Barenaked Ladies in a scene as a nod to Robertson's day job with the band. Robertson holds his own as an actor.
Strong character development is a reason to see this film, even if you are turned off by the idea of porn being celebrated (up to a point).
Watching Harper in this film reminded us of a similar character in the American film Loving Jezebel (1999) which came out 4 years before Love, Sex and Eating the Bones. Harper is good at getting the audience to root for a flawed character looking for love. While the films are very different, you could put them together in a thematic double feature in your domicile.
A special shout out to Sutherland and the production for showing the Queen Street Bridge on Queen Street East. There is an art piece. The art piece from Eldon Garnet on the bridge has this phrase: "this river I step in is not the river I stand in." A small detail but one way I know this is definitely in Toronto.
Love, Sex and Eating the Bones is an above average, sometimes too over the top look at porn and relationships. Worth even the price of a rental if that is how you see the film.
Love, Sex and Eating the Bones won the Best Canadian First Feature Film award at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is available on demand in the United States.
video credit: Media Graveyard photo credit: Love, Sex and Eating the Bones
