The chase for The Grey Fox wasn't as significant as the search was for Goin' Down the Road. Still, the film's spot on the TIFF Top 10 all-time Canadian films list in 1984 (tied for 5th with Les Ordres) and 1993 (8th) brought a lot of curiosity. The premise for The Grey Fox seemed simple: after 33 years, stagecoach robber Bill Miner leaves prison as an old man in 1901. Miner eventually gets to Canada where he then robs trains.
Bill Miner was a real person who went from the United States to Canada. American actor Richard Farnsworth is very well-cast as Miner.
The early part of the film focuses on how the world has changed around him: new technologies such as a mechanised apple peeler, automobiles, and movie theatres.
Miner and his new partner Shorty (Wayne Robson) hide out in Kamloops, British Columbia after robbing trains. There, Miner meets feminist and photographer Katherine Flynn (Jackie Burroughs). He doesn't seem like a hardened criminal in trying to woo Flynn but that is part of his charm.
Miner is inspired in the film to rob trains based on the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery. A younger ex-con needles Miner because there are no more stagecoaches after Miner says professionals have to specialise.
The time gap is a concern since you don't get the impression that 2 years have gone by within the film. Amusing that the only time we see snow is when Miner first crosses into Canada. Almost a secret message that Canada means snow.
The writing of John Hunter and direction of Phillip Borsos gives the audience a dry presentation. The slow pace and beautiful British Columbia scenery tell their own story. Farnsworth's charm as Miner helps the story go along.
The film debates whether an animal can change its stripes or is destined to keep doing what made them who they are.
Is The Grey Fox a Top 10 Canadian film? I've seen the top 9 Canadian films from both the 1984 list and the 1993 list. I wouldn't rank the film as high in either survey but a Top 10 finish for what Canadian film was back then is understandable. The standards were pretty low for a long time in Canadian film.
I've seen every film on the 2004 list; The Grey Fox would not have made my Top 10.
The Grey Fox is a heartily recommended film. The film tells a story in a way that is heartwarming but not in a corny way. Just not in a Top 10 kind of way.
photo credit: The Grey Fox film video credit: YouTube/kinolorber
National Canadian Film Day is about celebrating Canadian film. As we saw in 2020 and is still true in 2021, we get to celebrate Canadian film separately.
More Canadians got a chance to access the Toronto International Film Festival than ever before thanks to streaming. You might have been one of those Canadians who saw Inconvenient Indian from Michelle Latimer. Yes, we are aware of the controversy but difficult to imagine the Best Canadian Feature Film winner may never be shown again.
For those who have not participated in previous years, welcome and bienvenue. You can find so many options at the National Canadian Film Day site from the fine folks at Reel Canada. Peter Keleghan and Ali Hassan hosted Last year's #CanFilmDay Live; the hosts have been nominated for the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Host, Web Program or Series.
The #CanFilmDay Live Web experience proved last year that there isn't enough conversation about Canadian film. Understanding the relationships and why chemistry is often easier above the 49th parallel. Learning that Keleghan and Jay Baruchel live next door is pretty cool or that Keleghan and Gordon Pinsent are related through Keleghan's wife, fellow actor Leah Pinset.
Speaking of Baruchel, he spent the month of April tweeting out Canadian TV and film classics. Since you don't want to go back into Baruchel's @baruchelNDG Twitter feed, we happily compiled the list.
If you are really into Baruchel, we can recommend a film not mentioned on his own list. Celtic Soul is about Baruchel's obsession with Irish football. You get to see a lot of Ireland as well.
CBC filled a lot of time with Canadian films on Saturday nights without the NHL. Canadians can access these films via CBC Gem. The lists are a good collection of Canadian films to improve your knowledge.
If you pick Don McKellar, you can find Canadian films where he acts, writes, directs, or some combination of them. Last Night is a great go-to Canadian film where McKellar does all 3. Sarah Polley, who is in Last Night, hasn't done all 3 so far: she did write and direct Away From Her, Take This Waltz, and Stories We Tell.
We are modest in self-celebration but note we have reviewed a lot of films and written about even more films. There are plenty of good options to celebrate Canadian film.
We've written about Canada Now from Telefilm Canada since 2016. We love the idea of presenting Canadian film in the United States. The major drawback has been limited showings in a few select cities (New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans).
We have used over coverage to make Americans more aware of titles in case they have a later opportunity to see the film.
This year, Canada Now is online and available across the United States with CanadaNow.us.
Telefilm Canada is working with Telescope for people to search Canadian films and find a way to watch them online or streaming. Canada Now also involves the Consulate General of New York and the National Film Board of Canada.
The Telescope feature allows people to input film titles, actors, directors, and more. Canada Now offers categories such as new arrivals, Oscar favourites, in the spotlight, and NFB gems. The categories change each month; Canada Now encourages people to sign up for its newsletter.
We don't normally run random quotes from press releases. This one echoed a lovely sentiment from Khawar Nasim, acting consul general, Consulate General of Canada in New York.
"Beyond arthouse cinemas and film festivals, it is often a challenge to locate and watch Canadian film and television projects here in the US. This difficulty was the catalyst for Canada Now to build something new and we couldn't be more thrilled to support it and share!"
Finding Canadian film is a bit easier than what Nasim describes. Finding good Canadian film is closer to his quote.
Difficult to do a search if you aren't sure what you are looking for specifically. My search skills are above average with being a journalist. We do have Canadian film reviews and film coverage, good resources for tracking down Canadian film. If you like a Bruce McDonald or Patricia Rozema film, you can search for more films from that director.
This is what Canada Now needed: a wider U.S. audience for Canadian films. We do like the idea of having films in theatres in a few select cities when things are relatively normal. We just want more Americans outside a few select areas to have that access.
There is a similar parallel to Canadians and Canadian films: most significant films will come to a few select cities. Most Canadians (outside Quebec) don't have that opportunity.
Streaming a film can be a lot less expensive than driving to a theatre. Don't lose the theatre-going experience. Just share with as many people as you can.
#SeekMore #inclusion #cdntv is at its best when we all are involved in front of and behind the camera. Same for #cdnfilm
We tweeted this out yesterday when we first heard about the Seek More campaign from Made | Nous. Our regular readers know Made | Nous is set up to promote Canadian content, projects defined as Canadian and those shot in Canada.
Coming on the heels of the end of Kim's Convenience, the timing of #SeekMore is great in that there is so much Canadian content from people of colour. The campaign features the 3 Canadian stars in the video: Simu Liu, Shamier Anderson, and Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs along with the 3 other ambassadors: Mélissa Bédard, Adib Alkhalidey, and Cynthia Wu-Maheux.
"What every Canadian can do is realise that they can vote with their eyeballs and with their wallets and watch and support content that reflects the world that they live in," said Liu in the video.
Each of the ambassadors has Canadian content to recommend that ties back to the Seek More message. Their recommendations are a great guide to finding Canadian content that may be new to you.
Canada is a melting pot; the kind of country the United States thinks it is but isn't as strong in multiculturalism as compared to Canada.
As Made | Nous points out, "Canada’s home to some of the best talent in the world. Different perspectives are what set our content apart. But now is the time to push beyond what we know and seek a greater variety of voices. Seek More inspires Canadians to search out more content and creators from more backgrounds, cultures, and communities."
Your humble narrator has marveled at the excellent Indigenous films that Canada has produced. Jacobs has starred in a pair of films from Jeff Barnaby: Rhymes for Young Ghouls and Blood Quantum. The immigrant experience comes up often from Monsieur Lazhar to Kim's Convenience.
Clicking on a recommendation leads to other recommendations. I clicked on Rhymes for Young Ghouls and saw that Amanda Brugel recommendedTallboyz.
Other voices include Hamza Haq, Kaniehtiio Horn, Cassandra James, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Drew Ray Tanner.
As a film reviewer and sometimes TV reviewer, the skill set is to embrace cultures that are not your own and give them an objective — as objective as anyone can — perspective. I fail as every mortal human does, but I do try.
Kim's Convenience is a great example: an immigrant story, an Asian story, a Korean-Canadian story, a funny story, sweet and clever from people who may look like you or who don't.
Give some of these Canadian films and TV shows a good chance. Seek the rainbow of perspectives. Seek More.
One Pandemic Day dives into the early COVID-19 world on April 14 in Oakville, Ontario. The documentary explores the lives of Oakville residents about a month into the pandemic.
Oakville is west of Mississauga about halfway between Toronto and Hamilton on Lake Ontario. The town is about 200,000 people.
April 14, 2020 — a year to today — we see very few masks in the community. That is a bit of a surprise. The documentary is about how the lives of people are adjusting to the new "normal."
The residents film themselves. The quality of most of the video is shockingly good. The one resident who struggles with the video is Oakville Mayor Rob Burton with his “one-handed lifestyle for the day.”
Those without kids will see what online learning is like in 2020. The scene of kids in a hot tub for recess is a way for their mother to do her own homework for a writing course.
We see clips of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Rob Ford. We hear more from local politicians such as Pam Damoff, MP from Oakville North-Burlington.
Jeff Kroll, Oakville town & regional councillor, is pretty much the star of the film. We see Kroll in his role as a politician and his day job as the CEO of the Film.Ca Cinemas. You have to read the credits to find out Kroll is an executive producer on the film.
Kroll weighs in on the difficulty of getting financial help from his business during the film. Kroll does give an otherwise missing perspective, which is running a business and dealing with how to get the CEBA (Canadian Emergency Business Account) assistance. That said, the conflict should be upfront in the film.
The look back is fascinating yet incomplete. No one is mentally exhausted from the pandemic only being a month into what is happening. Current audiences might be wishful for that time as a more innocent time.
April 14 last year started out warm and sunny yet snow arrived by the afternoon. While that might seem abnormal in some areas of the North America continent, that was somewhat normal compared to the lives upended by the pandemic.
Too much emphasis is placed on those in great situations versus those struggling financially. Perhaps that is what Oakville reflected on that date. The news coverage has greatly emphasized the same type of people featured in the documentary.
Watching people go through the pandemic while we are still in the pandemic can be jarring for some. Others want to learn from the mistakes made a year ago.
Director/editor Mikelle Virey lets the residents speak for themselves. There isn't a sense of who was picked and why.
Canadian Movie of the Week sounds more like a title for a TV-movie from a bygone era. Telefilm Canada is using the moniker to promote Canadian films in a modern era through the Apple TV app.
These films are available in Canada for 99¢. A loonie for a Canadian film is a really good deal.
"Discoverability is key to making Canadian filmmakers and their works thrive in an increasingly crowded marketplace," said Christa Dickenson, Telefilm Canada executive director. "Hosting Canadian Movie of the Week on the Apple TV app makes it easy for viewers to explore Canadian films, from festival favourites to contemporary classics and much more."
There is a healthy mix of very new films and some older Canadian films. Here is the lineup:
March 30-April 5 The Rest of Us April 6-12 Les Boys April 13-19 Wander April 20-26 Canadian Strain April 27-May 3 Target Number One May 4-10 Maudie May 11-17 Crash (4K restoration) May 18-24 Gabrielle May 25-31 Nadia, Butterfly June 1-7 The Incredible 25th Year of Mitzi Bearclaw June 8-14 Porcupine Lake June 15-21 Starbuck June 22-28 1991 June 29-July 5 The Kid Detective
We have seen all of these films except for Wander; Target Number One; Crash; Nadia, Butterfly; The Incredible 25th Year of Mitzi Bearclaw; and The Kid Detective. All but Crash and The Incredible 25th Year of Mitzi Bearclaw have come out within the last year.
The release notes that these titles are subject to change.
Nadia, Butterfly has been an elusive film for your humble narrator. The border may not be open by then.
Target Number One aka Most Wanted in the United States is available in the U.S. on Amazon Prime Video. The Kid Detective is available in the U.S. for rent. Wander looks like a violent American film and is a Canada co-production.
There are a few French-Canadian films in the mix: Les Boys; Gabrielle; Nadia, Butterfly; Starbuck; and 1991.
Kayak to Klemtu is a simple story with a larger message. Ella (Ta'kaiya Blaney) is 14 with a mission. Her late Uncle Bear (Dave) wanted her to testify against oil tanker traffic running through the Inside Passage amidst the Great Bear Rainforest on the west coast of British Columbia.
To truly get the sense of the area in question and to spread the ashes of her late uncle, Ella wants to kayak up to Klemtu, where the hearing is and also a place that has family ties.
The trip starts out with Ella, Cory, who is Dave's widow (Sonja Bennett), and her son Alex (Jared Ager-Foster). Ella's other uncle Don (Lorne Cardinal) refuses to go at the start. When the group gets stuck early, he decides to come along on the journey.
In a story about Indigenous tradition and story, the opening dynamic of 2 white people and a Indigenous person was really awkward. Cory, who didn't want to cry over her husband's death, proves useless after a single day of rowing. Don ends up rowing his sister-in-law in what is known as a "divorce boat."
The group has various adventures. Ella and her step-cousin Alex have memories of spending time with Uncle Bear. Ella sprinkles some of her uncle's ashes throughout the journey.
You know somewhat how the film will turn out. The joy is in the journey. The area is really lovely. They encounter a lot of nature along the way.
Blaney gives a strong performance. Her character wrestles with doubt but also hope of pulling off the testimony.
Cardinal always seems to have fun on the screen. Bennett does her best with what has to be a highly frustrating character.
Zoe Leigh Hopkins, who directed and co-wrote the script, gives us a mostly good story that tells necessary truths. I did wonder in watching the film why oil tankers would take the inner passage instead of being out on the ocean. There are relevant real-life examples revealed right after the film ends. A nice touch. This film is fiction but based on real concerns.
Kayak to Klemtu is more of a family film but for more mature kids, given a scene or two. Definitely a film to watch with your kids. As Ella takes in the territory, the viewer sees why this area is so valuable.
The flaws in Kayak to Klemtu are relatively minor. The story is a bit cute but relevant and told well.
Kayak to Klemtu is available in the United States on Amazon Prime Video and should be in Canada on CBC Gem.
photo credit: Kayak to Klemtu film video credit: YouTube/Cine Las Americas
The Last Blockbuster is a documentary on Netflix where we are supposed to be nostalgic. The doc focuses on the last Blockbuster location in Bend, Oregon.
The documentary talks about the decline of Blockbuster: was it Netflix or incompetent management decisions. Fortunately, the documentary spends very little time on the topic. The wave is nostalgia but is that nostalgia about Blockbuster Video?
The nostalgia of the film is about Blockbuster as well as video stores and the small city of Bend.
The film paints a world (mostly) where people went to rent videos but could only do so at Blockbuster Video. This was sadly true for a lot of people living in small towns.
Your nostalgia being different than other people's nostalgia doesn't make your memories better or invalidate someone else's memories. Nostalgia aside, we do want to remind people of the limits of that Blockbuster legacy.
Blockbuster Video marketed itself as a video store for the whole family. This didn't include parents who wanted to see sophisticated films, such as NC-17 films. The chain banned NC-17 films in 1991. Since Blockbuster was a dominant chain that put many smaller video stores out of business, the decision meant a lack of distribution for such films. In many cases, films produced versions of those films that were more "Blockbuster friendly."
Unofficially, films that fell into more mysterious categories (foreign films, LGBTQ films) were much more difficult to find at a local Blockbuster. Renting a film with tons of violence? That was easy to find at Blockbuster Video.
Your humble narrator did frequent Blockbuster in its early days. Living in small towns meant Blockbuster or nothing for films. This meant seemingly a lot of choices, more than in smaller video stores, yet a lot of those choices were similar.
When I moved to the big city, I discovered real video stores. The one in the basement of a restaurant. Most of them were holes in the wall, staffed by people who wore dark clothes and didn't say much. Foreign films, lesbian films, Radley Metzger films. Blockbuster wouldn't know who Radley Metzger was.
I was in love. These films were the secrets that Blockbuster would never carry. These stores might have had staff picks but they were more authentic than the staff picks at Blockbuster. Small video stores were like the extra pages on a menu that were censored in small towns.;
When I watched The Last Blockbuster, I grew nostalgic for video stores. Nostalgic for Blockbuster? To be honest, I cheered when the company went down. The company imploded from within. The cheering came from its arrogant policies on shutting out good films and forcing the censorship of some of those films.
The documentary does have a few words from Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman; the major segment is called "112 seconds with Lloyd Kaufman." Kaufman comes across as bitter since Blockbuster wouldn't carry his films.
We learn about the revenue sharing plan where Blockbuster convinced the studios to sharply reduce the cost of the videos in exchange for giving them some of the revenue later on. This allowed Blockbuster to carry more of new products and helped eliminate its competition of small video stores. Small video stores could survive in the big city but harder to do in small towns.
The documentary never mentions the issue with NC-17 and censorship because that isn't nostalgic.
Independent video stores, smaller video stores had less space to show off films yet the films they carried had categories not seen in a Blockbuster films. Better Than Chocolate, a film that clicks the Canadian and LGBTQ boxes, almost certainly wouldn't have been found at a Blockbuster.
There was a time in the life of your humble narrator where Canadian films didn't exist as a category. Hard to believe. Canadian film isn't a category even in quirky independent video stores. I've found French-Canadian films under French in some places.
I found quirky wonderful films that happened to be Canadian. Le Déclin de l'empire américain looked like a promising film to rent as did The Sweet Hereafter. I didn't put together that they were both Canadian films right away.
I saw Léolo and Le Sexe des étoiles | The Sex of the Stars years before I thought of Canadian films. They happened to be the 1992 and 1993 entries to what was then the Best Foreign Language Film (now the Best International Feature Film) category. I also saw C.R.A.Z.Y., the 2005 entry to the Best Foreign Language Film category for the Academy Awards.
Those small video stores developed my love for Canadian film. If I had only access to Blockbuster films, my film world would be so incomplete.
Even in a world where you can stream films, I miss the local video store where you could find titles you still can't stream. That is my nostalgia.
I spent some of my Toronto vacation in 2016 hitting video stores to find more Canadian film titles. I even bought some used videos from those places. Most if not all of them are now gone.
Everyone in those stores were beyond nice and generous to an American wanting to learn more about Canadian film. Was fun to finally find an independent video store with a category marked "Canadian film."
video credit: YouTube/1091 Pictures photo credits: The Last Blockbuster film; me
Picture Claire is a Canadian film trapped in the body of an American film. Bruce McDonald directed a Semi Chellas screenplay and there are problems.
Claire (Juliette Lewis) is French-Canadian from Montréal. Claire runs into trouble and seeks out her old boyfriend in Toronto. Lily (Gina Gershon) has her own problems with shady people in Toronto. Both end up at a donut shop in Kensington Market in Toronto at the same time. The police are chasing after Claire for what Lily did.
The idea is that the actors look similar so there is mistaken identity. Claire's old boyfriend Billy (Kelly Harms) happens to live on the 3rd floor at 54 Kensington Avenue; Lily lives on the second floor in the same building.
Purses and film canisters are switched, adding to the mystery. People keep running into each other throughout the film.
McDonald produced Claire's Hat, a documentary where he goes over the problems of the 2001 film. Reportedly, the studio prohibited him from releasing the documentary. Let's dance through some of the issues.
Lewis is a very fine actor. Believing she is Quebecois is a huge problem since Claire knows virtually no English (having lived in Montréal) and doesn't speak that much French. Claire conveys a lot non-verbally when she doesn't speak. When she speaks, Claire comes across as someone with a limited vocabulary in any language.
Gershon is well-suited for someone who is in a scheme. Lily strangles Eddie (Mickey Rourke) in the first 15 minutes of the film. Lily is good at killing but bad at escaping the neighbourhood. She has the out that the cops aren't chasing after her yet she can't leave.
Cynthia (British actor Camilla Rutherford) is Billy's girlfriend. She is supposed to be a unsympathetic character. She is so unsympathetic that you don't know why she is in the story to start.
The fault doesn't lie in the non-Canadian actors. McDonald knows the only Mickey Rourke rule you need to know: use him in a single, very short scene. Lewis and Gershon are really good but the script isn't kind to them.
McDonald knows how to use Callum Keith Rennie in multiple projects. Here he plays Laramie who, along with Culver (Peter Stebbings) are chasing after Lily on behalf of Eddie. Laramie is a cliche and Rennie does the best he can with the character.
Tracy Wright and Raoul Bhaneja play fully fledged detective characters with honesty, reality, and warmth. Renowned Canadian filmmaker Charles Officer plays a cab driver who felt like a real person.
McDonald makes some smart choices. Split screens are used well. Kensington Market is used to full effect in the 2001 film. McDonald directed Twitch City in that same Toronto neighbourhood in 1998 and 2000. The chase scene in Union Station spoke to how everything is under one roof in the real Union Station.
A Bruce McDonald film usually has a great soundtrack. Picture Claire doesn't have that element.
We would love to see Claire's Hat to get McDonald's perspective. Our thought process was the film is a little too formulaic with some plot issues and other holes in the script. Most of the people who would see Picture Claire randomly might find the film sufficiently entertaining.
Picture Claire is not a great film or a good film but you have seen worse films. I would recommend this film more if we could get to see Claire's Hat. Such a Canadian thing to make a documentary explaining the making of the film. Terry Gilliam did something similar for his Don Quixote film; the difference was that Lost in La Mancha got released in 2002. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was eventually made and released in 2018.
McDonald makes good use of Toronto. The chase part with the mistaken identity makes for a decent film as long as your expectations are low. The film is bad by Bruce McDonald standards and slightly above average by Hollywood standards. Better than Hard Core Logo 2 but not nearly as good as Hard Core Logo.
video credit: YouTube/Millennium Entertainment photo credit: Picture Claire film
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television have released the nominations for the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards. This year's version won't have the huge crowds of past ceremonies but should be more lively than the 2020 version.
The 3 Canadian TV shows with the most nominations are also having their finale on the stage that is the Canadian Screen Awards. Schitt's Creek goes out with 21 nominations. Cardinal (CTV) and Trickster (CBC) each have 15 nominations.
On the film side, Blood Quantum has the most nominations with 10. Unfortunately, best picture is not one of them. Funny Boy came in with 9 nominations, including Best Motion Picture. Charles Officer's Akilla's Escape had 8 nominations. Beans and Violation had 5 nominations.
We are trying something different in 2021. Canadian television and Canadian film deserve to have their own individual stories, listing the wonderful nominations. You can click the options at the bottom of the page.
