Canadian Crossing

Canadian film review: Edge of the Knife

The journey to Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna starts with Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World, a documentary I saw in the 2015 Windsor International Film Festival.

"The scenery is amazing and well worth the price of watching, but you get a cool story about a place that is Canadian and aboriginal with majestic beauty."

I didn't even know about Haida Gwaii before the documentary. Haida Gwaii is an archipelago near Prince Rupert and Terrace in British Columbia. You might know Haida Gwaii by the settler name Queen Charlotte Islands.

The exciting part of Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna was the idea of an entire film in the Haida language. Like a lot of Indigenous languages, the Haida language is in trouble of becoming irrelevant.

The film takes place in the 19th century. One family has traveled over to the island of Haida Gwaii for the summer. We meet Gaas, a young boy with the family on the island. Kwa, father of Gaas, and Adiitsʹii are best friends.

One morning, Kwa can't find Gaas. Kwa finds out Adiitsʹii went off with Gaas. Kwa looks for Gaas and discovers that the boy has died.

Adiitsʹii is missing. He turns into Gaagiixiid, a supernatural being who is ravenous. The villagers go and look for Gaagiixiid to turn the being back into Adiitsʹii. Kwa is also angry over Adiitsʹii, feeling that he is responsible for his son's death.

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The cast had to learn the Haida language. The words are spoken in a cadence that feels like they are almost speaking phonetically.

After the death of Gaas, there are a lot fewer words in the story. The transformation of Gaagiixiid is essentially noises and eating.

The film is more about the language and the scenery than the story but understanding the relevance of the story is important as well.

Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna won Best Canadian Film and Most Popular Canadian Feature at the 2018 Vancouver International Film Festival. The film placed in the TIFF Top 10 Canadian films of 2018.

Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna is available in Canada on Crave.

video credit: YouTube/TIFF Trailers
photo credit: Edge of the Knife | SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna film

Canadian film review: The Kid Detective

The Kid Detective is a mix of a saga of a washed-up former child detective and an actual detective case that may turn his life back to his previous fame.

Abe Applebaum (American actor Adam Brody) was a celebrated kid detective whose luck hasn't been great of late. Abe is forlorned over the one case he couldn't solve: the kidnapping of his close friend Gracie Gulliver.

Caroline (Sophie Nélisse) comes to Abe with a case: find out who murdered her boyfriend.

Abe seems a bit over his head with the case. There are a few running jokes, like he always hides in closets, and the recurrence of the Red Shoe Gang. His life is so pathetic that Caroline, who is in secondary school, drives Abe around.

Evan Morgan came up with an intriguing full-length feature debut as a writer/director. Morgan is poking fun at the noir of the detective story while exploring a real case.

There are problems. Brody is cute and charming enough to pull off the lead. Even for a washed-up child detective, Brody is rather old (over 40). Nélisse is 21 playing a naive 17-18 year old so that works.

A sequence in the middle of the film where he is trapped in closets (plural) is a long, excruciating to watch scene that adds little to the plot. You don't want a simple detective case in a film but you also don't want the audience too perplexed. Once he gets a significant (to him) clue, he solves the case, complete with confession in about 10-12 minutes on film.

There is a clue in the process that led your humble narrator into a possibility that was much more interesting than the actual reality in the film.

Nélisse plays the naivete well. Wendy Crewson has a marvelous role as Abe's mother and Sarah Sutherland plays subtle as Abe's goth receptionist. Peter MacNeill and Maurice Dean Wint also excel in their roles.

North Bay, Ontario works quite well as the dreamy, small town of Willowbrook. While the film is Canadian, the film is meant to cross over easily to an American audience.

There are gruesome details in the solution to the case, without giving anything away.

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The film works as a straight ahead detective case, though the parts of his washed-up life are more entertaining. The Kid Detective is not a consistent film but overall enjoyable. The more you like Adam Brody, the more likely you are to enjoy the film.

The Kid Detective made the TIFF Top 10 list for Canadian films in 2020. The film received 4 Canadian Screen Award nominations: Best Original Screenplay (Morgan); Best Art Direction or Production Design; Best Original Score; and the John Dunning Best First Feature Award.

The Kid Detective is available on Crave in Canada and Starz in the United States.

video credit: YouTube/Sony Pictures Entertainment
photo credit: The Kid Detective film

Canadian film notebook: Netflix acquires first original English-language Canadian film

Based on Jusqu’au Declin | The Decline, Netflix would need someone who understands Canadian film, such as your humble narrator, to guide them through that world to make strong selections in that world. Netflix seems slightly smarter in picking its first original English-language Canadian film.

The upcoming sequel Code 8: Part II will be the answer to that trivia question. Code 8 (2019) was a surprise hit from Jeff Chan. The story is about a man with superpowers raising money to help his sick mother and doing so by working with criminals.

The original film stars Robbie Amell, Stephen Amell, Sung Kang, Alex Mallari Jr., and Aaron Abrams. The Amell cousins will continue their roles in the sequel and are also co-producers.

Code 8 is currently on Netflix.

I confess to finding out about Code 8 from Part I of the 3-part series Making the Case for Canadian Film from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

Jusqu’au Declin | The Decline wasn't really acquired to be a stand-alone Canadian film, adapting the film for multiple languages. There are so many good Canadian films that Netflix could choose. While there are some excellent titles on Netflix, a lot of the titles are Canadian in name only where quality isn't the highest priority.

Baby steps indeed. Babies do benefit from assistance. Our consulting services are available for a reasonable fee.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences aka Academy Awards has been really good in recent years about diversifying their membership. This includes Canadians.

Toronto International Film Festival co-head Cameron Bailey is the most prominent Canadian on this year's list to be a member-at-large.

The 395 artists and executives on the list include Quebec cinematographer Tobie Marier Robitaille (Night of the Kings), director Sean Durkin (The Nest), Montréal makeup artist Adrien Morot, and Toronto-based costume designer Lea Carlson.

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We are at the tail end of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival: July 6-15. The 2020 Cannes Film Festival featured a single full-length (non co-production) Canadian film: Nadia, Butterfly, which we reviewed last week.

The film with the most notice is Aline: The Voice of Love, a France-Canada co-production loosely based on the life of Céline Dion. French filmmaker Valérie Lemercier wrote, directed, and starred in the film. This is the only Canadian film to be an official selection of the 2021 festival.

Polaris shows promise, a dystopian film about a young woman trying to get home after evading capture from those trying to kill her mother. Kirsten Carthew, born in Yellowknife, wrote and directed the film set in the Yukon.

Blaine Thurier, a member of the Canadian music group The New Pornographers, is also a filmmaker with Kicking Blood — the story of a female vampire who quits her blood habit after she helps a human alcoholic get clean. Songs She Sings in Shadows is a debut documentary from Afghan-Canadian filmmaker Fazila Amiri. The film contrasts a reality singing talent show and peace negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban.

Other Canadian films include Esluna: The Crown of Babylon from Denver Jackson and The Island Between Tides from Austin Andrews and Andrew Holmes.

U.S. television turns to Canadian TV shows to fill gaps due to COVID-19

Daily Show shows how Canada is more mature about accepting Syrian refugees

Peace by Chocolate is the story of the Hadhad family, chocolatiers from Damascus, Syria. They were forced to leave Syria and went to Lebanon, lived for almost 3 years in a refugee camp. They were able to come to Canada, settling in Antigonish, Nova Scotia in 2015. They launched Peace by Chocolate in Nova Scotia in 2016.

The film celebrating this incredible story played at the Tribeca Film Festival last month. The Canadian release is scheduled for September 1.

We have pointed out the huge contrast between the acceptance of Syrian refugees in Canada versus the United States. Transplant, which ended up on NBC, was a way to show Syrian refugees on U.S. television through a Canadian TV show. The Daily Show in 2016 showed a more precise picture than a lot of right-wing news in the U.S.

While chocolate is the drawing card, the Canadian film can show other audiences that refugees want a fresh shot to show what they can do.

Canadian film review: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

We hear a bit about addiction in Canada, mostly the Downtown Eastside area of Vancouver. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers has a new film that takes an intriguing glimpse on the subject.

Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning Of Empathy is a documentary that features Tailfeathers' mother, a physician at the Kainai First Nation in the Blackfoot Reserve in southern Alberta. Tailfeathers spent 5 years on this project studying how this community deals with addiction.

You might recall The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, Tailfeathers film that was shot in and around that part of Vancouver.

Canadians are dealing with this topic on some level. Addiction is a huge concern in the U.S. but seems to be largely ignored.

TIFF selects Top 10 Canadian films of 2019

Nicole Dorsey from Black Conflux on Q (CBC Radio One)

The timing of the release of Black Conflux from Nicole Dorsey is why Canadians get confused about Canadian film. The film debuted at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, made the TIFF Top 10 list of 2019 Canadian films. The film is being released in some theatres and through the TIFF Lightbox digital series.

So why haven't most Canadians been able to see the film until 2021? The pandemic played a part. Those who follow film remember hearing about this film. You can't expect regular people to remember back to the 2019 TIFF list.

Black Conflux is the only film from the 2019 list that your humble narrator has not seen. I saw 6 of the films at the 2019 Windsor International Film Festival and one each in Chicago, Netflix, and an online festival.

The film isn't an easy watch from what we know, not like The Nest from the 2020 list. Can't be more difficult than Violation from TIFF 2020. This is also likely why there was a delay. Still, hard to champion a list if you don't know when you might see a film.

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Les Films Séville, and the streaming services Netflix Canada, Club Illico, the French version of Crave and Ici Tou.tv Extra have worked out deals to get more Quebecois films for English Canadians.

Netflix Canada has added Incendies, Cafe de Flore, Monsieur Lazhar, Laurence Anyways, Mommy, among others.

Perhaps your humble narrator is biased, but Quebec has produced some amazing films, Canadian or otherwise.

photo credit: Code 8 film
video credits: YouTube/Magnetic North Pictures; YouTube/NFB

Canadian film review: Nadia, Butterfly

The Olympics are good at showcasing athletes before they compete and when they compete. The life of an Olympics athlete after they compete? Not so much.

Pascal Plante (writer and director) explores this idea in Nadia, Butterfly. Nadia (Katerine Savard) is at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Her final race as an athlete is the medley relay where each of the 4 participants does a different swimming stroke. Nadia does the butterfly stroke.

The film starts out as they are preparing for this race. The majority of the film is about what Nadia is going through in the next couple of days following the swimming.

Her teammates are happy after the race but Nadia has a lot on her mind. She is retiring at 24 so she can pursue being a doctor, knowing she won't be a doctor until her 30s. Nadia is not in a celebratory mood.

She does hang out with her teammates. Nadia does a lot of drinking. They do go out to party in Tokyo. She is having a relatively good time but there is some anguish, a letdown of sorts.

Plante is savvy to use real swimmers. Savard won bronze at the 2016 Olympics. Canadian competitive swimmers Ariane Mainville and Hilary Caldwell form half of the 4-person medley team. Swimmer Cailin McMurray completes the group: she is an anglophone compared to the other 3 being bilingual (at least in the film). Mainville, who plays Nadia's best friend Marie-Pierre, is the sister of Savard’s Rio Games roommate Sandrine Mainville.

The film does have a documentary feel and an intimacy, like the audience is getting a peek into the lives of Olympic athletes.

Nadia proves to be very human in her reaction. After decisions being made for her all these years, she yearns to have a world where she is the decision maker. This doesn't mean she makes great decisions but she needs to figure that out.

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Olympic athletes rely on good timing. The film was set for release just before the scheduled time of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

There was some limited talk of Nadia, Butterfly being Canada's entry for the Oscars for Best International Feature Film. The film might have been a better choice than Funny Boy on some level; the language issue also applies though the film likely has more French than English.

You don't have to be a sports fan to appreciate the film. Olympics fans aren't always huge sports fans and the film is more about individuals who happen to be young and famous athletes. There are a few scenes where Nadia is lost in thought that slow down the pace of the film. Otherwise, the film is an intriguing insight into a world few people know.

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The film adds an extra bit of Canada when Nadia drunkenly sings Avril Lavigne’s Complicated at a party. The story is about the single-mindedness of the athletic process: Karen (Caldwell) defends her relationship with her husband while pointing out Nadia has never been in love. Even though Nadia makes a Web site's list of attractive Olympic athletes, Nadia hasn't had a boyfriend in part over not wanting to take birth control pills to not gain weight.

Nadia, Butterfly was named as an Official Selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. The film received 3 Canadian Screen Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Plante), and Best Cinematography. The film received a special mention for Best Canadian Feature Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Nadia, Butterfly made the TIFF Top 10 list for Canadian films in 2020.

video credit: YouTube/TIFF Trailers
photo credit: Nadia, Butterfly film

The case for Bill C-10 now goes before the Canadian Senate

Canadian senators might be intrigued to see Part I of the 3-part series Making the Case for Canadian Film from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. We profiled that video recently. 

As we noted last week in our Canada Day notebook, Bill C-10 passed the House but hadn't had a chance to be debated in the Canadian Senate. The bill to update the Broadcasting Act will need more consideration than the Liberals might wish would happen.

Bill C-10 was designed to have streaming services that operate in Canada ("Netflix tax") help fund Canadian television and Canadian film, just like Canadian companies. What can't be shaken is the idea that average people who make some money off of social media will also pay.

We want to celebrate the update of the Broadcasting Act. That has to be done properly.

Part II was about the impact of the film in the world. We learned some intriguing ideas from Mexico and the Philippines.

Claudia Hébert from Radio-Canada hosted this panel. The panel consisted of Mexican film producer Nicolás Celis, Quebec film producer and sales agent Anick Poirier, Liza Diño, actress and chairperson of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, and Rob Cousins, executive director, film programming at Cineplex Entertainment.

Diño spoke about a 2-week festival in December of Filipino films in all theatres, even interrupting the Star Wars type films, creating the need for people to see the films. Poirier noted that "countries are investing in their cinema because it's their culture" and a great way to export who they are. She said Quebec usually released 35 films per year. That number seemed small somehow.

Cousins talked about wanting to play Canadian films, but there is not enough marketing so people don't know the films. "We're a Canadian company, we want to play Canadian film." He also noted that the first weekend is a myth in terms of how long a film lasts.

Celis said the boom in Mexican films being made has gone up from 30 a year (15 years ago) to 220 a year (now). He did note that only 10% of Mexicans go to see Mexican films.

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Part III dealt with the wisdom of Canadians staying in Canada, going to the United States, or some combination of both.

Claudia Hébert from Radio-Canada hosted once again. The panel consisted of Michael Greyeyes, Tonya Williams, Jade Hassouné, and Emma Seligman. Greyeyes works plenty in the United States yet does not live there. Williams found that for her time and skin colour, working in the United States had distinct advantages.

Seligman made her debut film Shiva Baby in New York City in great part because she went to school at New York University and that is where her friends were. Hassouné went to the U.S. for work but now is working on a series back home in French in Montréal.

Actors who work on both sides have their reasons. Money vs. quality; telling the stories they want to tell. The fact that Dan Levy went to Los Angeles to do some casting for Schitt's Creek and ended up with Canadian actors Annie Murphy and Emily Hampshire tells a lot about a presence in both countries.

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There are 105 senators. There are no "Liberal" senators, a change done by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. There are 41 senators in the Independent Senators Group, 20 Conservative senators, and 12 each for the Canadian Senators Group and Progressive Senate Group. 5 senators are not affiliated and there are 15 vacancies.

The legislation could easily pass or get held up a bit. They will look at whether the changes affect large companies and regular people or just larger companies.

As we noted last week, the bill would have to be passed by the time a fall election comes (if there is one) and have royal assent to become law. Then again, Canada still doesn't have a permanent governor general.

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Canadian film can benefit the world; Canadians should be the ones to appreciate what they have. There are uphill battles in Canadian society to make that happen. Awareness is a huge factor. I might know about these films but average Canadians should be as familiar with them as the Hollywood blockbusters. Money smartly spent will help.

photo and videos credit: Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television

Canada Day 2021: A time for reflection and some celebration

Canada Day 2021 is about remembrance for those who suffered in the residential school system. Canada Day is multilayered in a time where John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, is remembered as the architect of the residential school system.

215 children at a Kamloops residential school was horrible enough. 751 is a number better suited for career home runs than unmarked graves of Indigenous children and perhaps adults; that is the number from the Marieval Indian Residential School, about 140 kilometres east of Regina, Saskatchewan on the Cowessess First Nation territory.

The newest discovery was 182 human remains in unmarked graves by the Lower Kootenay Band in British Columbia near Cranbrook.

Victoria (BC), Penticton (BC), Churchill (MB) and La Ronge (SK) are among Canadian cities not having Canada Day festivities in 2021.

This is the 154th anniversary of the founding of the Dominion of Canada with Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The day was called Dominion Day until 1982. A lot of Canadians will celebrate Canada Day with fireworks and food; a bit of acknowledgment about the horrors of the residential school system is a very small favour to ask.

Orange has become the colour of choice to wear to reflect on the lost souls at these residential schools. Canada's colours are red and white, but orange is the colour of Canada Day 2021.

The Indian Residential School Survivors and Family organisation has a 24-hour crisis line at (866) 925-4419.

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Canada Day 2021 is also about celebrations, especially with not having them in 2020. There is a lot of pent-up frustration given the COVID-19 pandemic. The last numbers I saw had Canada at 75% for the first dose but 23% for the second dose. The next 8 weeks speaks a lot about getting that second number higher.

Protests along the border of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were in reaction to loosening of travel restrictions followed by a quick reversal. Nova Scotia announced that travelers from New Brunswick will have to self-isolate upon arrival. This news came fewer than 24 hours after the province opened its borders with Prince Edward Island as well as Newfoundland and Labrador without isolation or testing requirements. Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin said the reversal came because New Brunswick opened its borders to Canadian travelers from outside the Atlantic region.

The Atlantic travel bubble was a lot better organised in 2020.

As for the national border with the United States, we still have no movement on when or how the border will reopen. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had mentioned a 75% fully immunized vaccine rate. While Canada shines on the world stage for first doses, the country is further behind the curve on fully immunized. Family, friends, and basic cross-border travel are waiting, perhaps, impatiently.

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Those in Western Canada are feeling the effects of the climate crisis. The heat is literally record-setting with Lytton, BC breaking the record Sunday with 46.6°C, according to Environment Canada. That was followed by new records 47.9°C (Monday) and 49.5°C (Tuesday). The town was literally on fire on Wednesday.

The previous record high temperature for the country was 45°C, set in Saskatchewan in July 1937.

The high in Vancouver, which conditions are normally cooler than the interior, on Monday was 41°C. Vancouver has been dealing with a lot of heat-related deaths.

For our American readers, factor that the normal body temperature of 98.6°F is 37°C. The Vancouver figure of 41°C works out to 105°F and the Lytton mark of 46.6°C works out to be 116°F. 49.5°C works out to 121°F.

Nahanni Butte, N.W.T. hit 38.1°C on Monday, a record for that region.

These numbers don't factor in the humidex (heat index in the U.S.).

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July 1 is more about moving apartments, especially in Montréal, in Quebec than celebrating Canada Day. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is the "equivalent" for the Quebecois.

One Quebec element that has most of Canada united is the Montréal Canadiens in the middle of the Stanley Cup final against Tampa Bay. The series is at 0-2 with the Habs only scoring 2 goals in 2 games. The teams are not playing on Canada Day or July 4. The 2020 NHL playoffs didn't start until August; in non-pandemic years, the season is long done before Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day.

Canada Day normally marks the opening of the NHL free agency season.

Newfoundland honours July 1 as Memorial Day for the extensive losses of about 700 soldiers at Beaumont-Hamel in 1916 during World War I.

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The Toronto Blue Jays are playing the Seattle Mariners on Canada Day in Buffalo, NY. The Blue Jays "home" game is a reminder that the MLB and MLS franchises are trapped within the United States waiting to play home games in their home cities and country.

The border opening and government approval might mean 2022 is the time they will shine on Canadian soil.

We thought MLB Network would pick up the Canada Day broadcast but we were sadly wrong. Canadians can watch on Rogers Sportsnet.

This also marks the second straight Canada Day without the CFL. August 5 is the designated day to start the 2021 CFL season. The federal government did agree to reduce the quarantine to 7 days for incoming American players.

Making the case for Canadian film in 3 parts

Bill C-10 gets to wait out the summer trapped in the Senate. The bill to update the Broadcasting Act passed the House but the Senate didn't have a whole lot of time to look over the fine details. 

There is a lot to like about Bill C-10 in having streaming services that operate in Canada ("Netflix tax") help fund Canadian television and Canadian film, just like Canadian companies. What has been a stickler in the process is the uncertainty of average people who make some money off of YouTube, for example, also paying into the process.

There are 2 thought processes: 1) the Conservatives are making a huge fuss and the bill doesn't go that far; or 2) the bill does go that far.

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault has done a terrible job at addressing the issue. The removal of Section 4(1) in April started the furor against the bill.

Mélanie Joly, who was Heritage Minister from 2015-2018 and is the current Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, seemed to have a better understanding of what needed to be done. Then again, the dynamic clearly has changed with Bill C-10.

The Broadcasting Act needs to be updated. That update shouldn't give broad powers to the CRTC to regulate the Internet.

The Senate and its committees would take up the bill starting the week of September 21, well, unless, the pundits are finally right and an election is called. Any legislation in limbo during an election would have to start from scratch.

We will go into more detail next week.

Mahmud Jamal would be Canada's first Supreme Court justice of colour

Today is the 75th birthday for former Canada Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella, whose retirement starts today. As we noted, the selection of Mahmud Jamal to replace Abella will be historical.

Matt Galloway from The Current on CBC Radio One did an outstanding interview with Abella looking back on her life and career.

Supreme Court justices and federal senators are required to step down when they reach 75.

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Bienvenue to Canada Day (2011)

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We noted on Victoria Day that Canada doesn't have a permanent Governor General and the United States doesn't have a permanent U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Still true on Canada Day.

The Trudeau Government has no control over the latter but can deal with the former. The political pundits are howling for a fall election. Having a permanent Governor General is a smart idea heading into a potential election. As we noted, "Canada Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner has been the acting governor general since January. Wagner is the head of Canada’s judicial, executive and legislative branches of government. That scenario should be tenuous at best, especially with a minority government." Still true.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did meet with Queen Elizabeth II at the G7 in Cornwall, UK last month. Technically, the Governor General pick needs the consent of the queen.

CBC Radio's The House is one of many who ask whether Canada should have an Indigenous governor general.

photo credit: CTV Vancouver

Canadian film review: Werewolf

Given the tremendous history of Canadian horror films, Werewolf would make a great horror film title. The film is about something scarier than the typical monster.

Werewolf is the story of Blaise (Andrew Gillis) and Vanessa (Bhreagh MacNeil). Writer/director Ashley McKenzie was inspired by a real-life couple in New Waterford, Nova Scotia. They were known for dragging a lawnmower through town hoping to mow people's lawns.

Blaise and Vanessa are strung out on methadone. Blaise is angry, assuming that everyone who could help him is out to get him. Vanessa doesn't say a whole lot.

As the film progresses, Blaise gets worse while Vanessa gets better, even getting a job. They become the dichotomy of the extremes of the struggle of drug addicts.

McKenzie shoots with great intimacy and doesn't try to hide the anguish of her subjects. There is a documentary feel to the film.

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We talk about intense films and Werewolf certainly qualifies. The film is well-made but hard to watch.

Gillis and MacNeil, the latter's film debut, are rather convincing in their roles. They play well the unflattering elements of their characters. We don't get to learn much about how or why they got there.

The subject matter is intense and the film portrays those realities. McKenzie stands strong with her characters to show them on complex levels.

Werewolf is worth the watch, provided you can handle the intensity.

Werewolf (2016) was McKenzie's feature film directorial debut. TIFF named the film to the Canada Top Ten list for the year. The film won the Toronto Film Critics Association prize for best Canadian film of the year. The film received Canadian Screen Awards nominations for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.

Werewolf is available in the United States via Amazon Prime Video.

video credit: YouTube/TIFF Trailers
photo credit: Werewolf film

Canadian film review: August 32nd on Earth

The plot of a film is one of the major windows for why people pick a film. An unusual plot can divide people into those who have no interest and others excited about the prospect.

August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre starts out with Simone (Pascale Bussières) at the wheel of a car that is going off the road as she is asleep. Simone survives the wreck. She gets a ride to the hopital from a stranger (Serge Thériault). When Simone asks the stranger what day it is, he replies August 32nd.

Simone was scheduled to be in Italy on a photo shoot as a model. Her desire to have a baby is heightened after the wreck.

Simone approaches her best friend Philippe (Alexis Martin) with her offer. Philippe has known Simone for years but has been in a relationship with Juliette (Évelyne Rompré) for 4 months. Philippe agrees to the deal but only if they conceive in a desert.

The pair travel from Montréal to Salt Lake City.

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You might be influenced if you knew that August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre is the feature film debut from a young Quebecois filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Good.

Villeneuve's impression on the U.S. market has been as a director not as a director and writer. Dune is the first exception. His early work in Quebec was as both director and writer.

Villeneuve uses these shifts in time and place to tell a simple story of people trying to figure out what they want for themselves from the world. Simone shifts focus after her accident. Philippe is close to being a doctor but has tried studying a number of different career pathways.

Philippe says the idea of a desert was a joke. The emptiness and isolation gives a visual element to what the characters are dealing with in real life.

They had made a pact about where they would be when they turned 30 though she is 4 years away.

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Un 32 août sur terre (1998) is a simple story that is beautifully shot. The story is a bit minimalist once they hit Salt Lake City but that speaks to the vastness of the space as a contrast to urban, crowded Montréal. Few directors, famous or not, have had this wonderful use of space, especially in the debut feature film.

Robert Charlebois, who appears as himself in Gabrielle, contributes heavily to the soundtrack in this film.

Your humble narrator has lost track of how many films he has seen with Pascale Bussières. This was nice to see a younger version of her in a film. True, she plays a model in the film but is a better actor in real life than a model.

The film is more than the sum of the plot and actors. See the film as early genius even if the plot might befuddle the viewer.

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Trying to find an English subtitled version of Villeneuve's debut feature film August 32nd on Earth has been très difficile.

The U.S. audience is quite aware of Denis Villeneuve from his post-Canadian films. Your humble narrator hoped that the curiosity of Villeneuve would lead to wider curiosity for his earlier works. That seems to be as open as the U.S.-Canada border has been during COVID-19.

The joy and charm of a young director is watching that person directed a film they wrote. This is often lost in big-budget "American" films where a studio can go through countless writers.

August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as Canada's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards but didn't make the shortlist. Alexis Martin won the Prix Jutra for Best Actor.

August 32nd on Earth is reportedly on iTunes.

photo credit: August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre film

Canadian film review: Good Riddance

Good Riddance | Les Bons débarras showed up #3 on the 1984 TIFF all-time list of Canadian films. The film fell to #5 on the 1993 list and #7 on the 2004 list and didn't appear at all on the 2015 list. That puts a bit of pressure on a Canadian film.

Good Riddance takes us to a struggling family. Single mother Michelle (Marie Tifo) lives with her intellectually disabled brother Ti-Guy (Germain Houde) and her rebellious daughter Manon (Charlotte Laurier). Manon is struggling to get her mother's love. Her uncle steals their money, gets drunk a lot, and likes to fight when he's drunk. She also doesn't like Maurice (Roger Lebel), the cop who is dating her mother.

Manon smokes, drinks, and smokes marijuana. She likes hanging out with Gaetan (Gilbert Sicotte), Michelle's former boyfriend.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Réjean Ducharme produces a sharp script as Manon and Michelle are trying to find love and security in their own ways. Their intimacy feels so real, you might wonder if you are watching a documentary in a good way. Cinematographer Michel Brault has influence on the tone and lighting, remnant of a dark, independent film. Francis Mankiewicz directs and builds on the intimacy of that script.

Laurier was 12-13 years old when this film was shot; she carries this film. She is the sun with the other actors; a careful balance between dominant without being obnoxious.

Learning a lot from lists of top all-time Canadian films

Canadian film review: The Grey Fox

As we noted with The Grey Fox Canadian film review, this film does pass the "does this Canadian film deserve to be on the list" test. Canada produces more of its share of quiet, intensive films. There is a lot going on even if that isn't obvious. This film will be hard to find but worth the search.

Good Riddance received 11 Genie Award nominations and won 8 trophies, including Best Motion Picture. The film was Canada's nominee to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, but didn't make the cut for the shortlist.

As for the TIFF all-time list of Canadian films. I've seen every film on the 2015 list and the 2004 list. The only film I have not seen from the 1993 list is The Adjuster (1991) from Atom Egoyan. The only film I haven't seem from the 1984 list is the The True Nature of Bernadette (1972).

photos credit: Good Riddance | Les Bons débarras film

Canadian film review: One Week

A young man without direction gets a severe cancer diagnosis. He decides to buy a motorcycle and take a long-distance trip to figure out a few things.

One Week features Ben Tyler (Joshua Jackson) is a would-be author working as a teacher. His bride-to-be Samantha Pierce (Liane Balaban) doesn't like motorcycles and wants him not to take the trip.

Tyler leaves his home in Toronto and drives westward.

The Canadian icons are sprinkled throughout the film. Tyler uses inspiration from the Tim Hortons Roll up the Rim contest. He runs into a couple of young men on a beer bet to cycle from Newfoundland to Vancouver. They are searching for a Canadian Tire in Parry Sound. Even in a Canadian road trip film, his trip misses eastern Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces.

These might seem like product placements like we've saw in the final season of Being Erica. They feel a lot more authentic.

Gord Downie plays someone who has had cancer. The Terry Fox statue in Thunder Bay, Ontario, the place where his run ended. The Stanley Cup.

Ben has a few adventures along the way. We get to see a lot of different areas of Canada.

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Michael McGowan takes us through the question of fight or flight and has us choose flight and then maybe, when he's ready, fight. Samantha is the beacon of fight. Ben doesn't necessarily want flight but finds that better than the prospect of fighting.

McGowan is focused on what one can learn through flight and perhaps how we need to think through everything else before engaging in the fight.

He uses a narrator, voiced by the calming Campbell Scott, son of the Canadian-born actor Colleen Dewhurst. The cast features musicians as actors such as Downie, Joel Plaskett, and Emm Gryner. The all-Canadian soundtrack includes Great Lake Swimmers, Wintersleep, Sam Roberts, Patrick Watson, Sunparlour Players, Stars, Lights, and Luke Doucet.

One Week can be seen as a simple travel film with mild adventures and gorgeous scenery. The 2008 film can also be seen as an exploration of someone finding out about themselves through travel and experience.

They say Canadians don't know their own country. One Week can help be their guide through most of Canada.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

One Week is serious enough to be engaging in its story yet easy enough to watch and take in the scenery. The acting is good and brings you into the conversation over fight vs. flight.

Joshua Jackson dominates the film. Jackson won Best Actor at the 2010 Genie Awards. Balaban was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

video credit: YouTube/Mongrel Media
photo credit: One Week film