The Canadian film industry, well, the English part of the Canadian film industry in 1979 was filled with tax write-offs and odd American leads. Hollywood North (2003) dives into this bizarre, yet sadly real, existence.
The film is an exaggerated version of this world. The film cleverly casts Matthew Modine (American) as the lead in this film given how the film his character is making has to have an American lead. Canadians do dominate the cast, including Saul Rubinek, Joe Cobden, Deborah Kara Unger, Alan Thicke, Lindy Booth, Fab Filippo, Clare Coulter, and Jennifer Tilly.
Bobby Myers (Modine) wants to adapt Lantern Moon, a low-key story about a Canadian schoolteacher who goes to teach children in Cuba. To get the American lead they need, Michael Baytes (English actor Alan Bates) wants script approval that blends in with his patriotism and paranoia. They also recruit a famous director Henry Neville (English/Canadian actor John Neville) who hasn't directed a film in 15 years. The Lantern Moon script suddenly becomes Flight to Bogota.
Part of what makes the film within a film Canadian is the source material, which has been completely ignored.
The fun part of the film is filmmaker Sandy Ryan (Unger) who films a behind the scenes approach to this film but intertwines her own serious film Human Voices. The indie film is more of a true Canadian film without the big budget.
As the overall film goes on, the film within the film loses control with pressure from the investors, of which Alan Thicke's character is in charge.
The making of the film(s) is the plot of the film. The writers (Barry Healey, John Hunter, Tony Johnston) and director Peter O'Brian take us through the slightly exaggerated twists and turns of the film; we imagine similar situations happen quite often.
Hollywood North might be more informative than entertaining. The film could be considered a bit inside ball where some of the jokes are highly subtle. People who appreciate the filmmaking process — trust us, we see this at film festivals — will enjoy this film.
Even if you are not a film geek, there is a rather good story here. Ambition, ego, lots of suffering to try and get some reward: good enough for this Canadian film about Canadian films.
If The New Romantic gave us a very fake presentation of the sugar daddy world, Shiva Baby presented the sugar daddy concept as the fortune cookie of a young woman's world, Sugar Daddy comes as close to telling a true story as long as the woman isn't having actual sex.
We wrote awhile back on the sugar daddy concept used in Canadian films, before we have seen all of the films. The New Romantic is one of those bad Canadian films in the Netflix queue. Shiva Baby is a really good film with no sugar daddy essence and barely Canadian. Sugar Daddy is definitely Canadian in a lot of respects and gives you, by far, more of what happens but not enough.
The scene where Darren (Kelly McCormack) talks about this sugar daddy world with her friends is worth the price of admission. The fact that McCormack wrote the screenplay is extra special. Darren is a struggling musician who can't sum up what her music is about at the moment. She is clearly talented but struggles to figure it out.
She find a "dating" service where older men pay to have dinner with her and spend time with them. The going rate is $300 Canadian and that includes dinner. "Can I get an order of beef carpaccio, steak tartare, a burger medium with blue cheese, and a basket of bread. And can you bring hot sauce, please." This is Darren's order at the first dinner with Gordon (Colm Feore).
She spends time with Gordon and on other occasions, Jim (Nicholas Campbell). Gordon is as cool as Jim is creepy. The scene where her friends ask Darren about her "career choice," the focus is on sex and whether women are property. Darren says she isn't having sex. Her friends don't believe her but the audience does.
Wendy Morgan directed the film. We noted that the three films had female directors and writers, pretty much necessary when dealing with this topic. Morgan sets up scenes where music tells part of the story, not quite like typical music videos.
The film features a number of familiar Canadian actors, including Amanda Brugel, Ishan Davé, Kaniehtiio Horn, Jess Salgueiro, Rob Stewart, Michelle Morgan, and Andy McQueen.
We could focus on why older guys would pay $300 to have dinner with a young woman who struggles to stay relevant in a fancier world. The film is really about financial survival while you try and figure out what you are doing.
Darren is a messed up character. McCormack writes her as being part of a group where most of them know more of where they are. Her writing is far beyond her years. The film chooses to not focus on the ramifications, good and bad, in exchanging sex for money. That is the worst flaw in an otherwise good film.
Accept the film will go in its own direction instead of maybe where you think it should go. Think of it as taking similar missteps as Darren takes in the film. There are plenty of really good moments in the film.
The film received 3 Canadian Screen Award nominations. Colm Feore won for Best Supporting Actor. Marie-Hélène L. Delorme won a Best Original Song CSA for her song Timid Joyous Atrocious. Christine Armstrong was nominated for Best Editing.
Sugar Daddy is available on Amazon Prime Video in the United States.
video credit: YouTube/Movie Coverage photo credit: Sugar Daddy film
We love Bruce McDonald. We loved Pontypool. Dreamland incorporates Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, writer Tony Burgess, and McDonald in the director's chair.
Pontypool was wonderful at building suspense about an unknown force. Dreamland is a chaotic mess.
McHattie plays a dual role as a strung-out heroin-addict jazz trumpet player and a hitman who works for Hercules (American actor Henry Rollins). Hercules, who is into child trafficking, wants the pinky finger of the trumpet player.
The hitman doesn't like the child trafficking element. This includes his neighbour Olivia, whom Hercules has kidnapped. The hitman attacks Hercules and rescues Olivia for the moment.
American actor Juliette Lewis, who worked with McDonald in Picture Claire, plays the Countess, whose brother is the vampire who will be Olivia's soon-to-be husband. Olivia is all of 14. Lewis is great in an oddball role but doesn't have a lot to do here.
The oddball and disturbing elements might be okay if the film was more endearing as a cohesive work. Dreamland is a smattering of scenes designed to be gross without being effective or interesting. No one is having fun in this film, not even McHattie in a dual role. The trumpet player barely functions as a human being in the film.
Tony Burgess, who wrote the original novel Pontypool Changes Everything and the screenplay for the Pontypool film adaptation, co-wrote the Dreamland screenplay with Patrick Whistler.
Even if this is not your scene, the question to ask whether this is still a good film even within this genre. Those fans deserve a better written fate. Dreamland is lost in a drug-induced world of torture for no apparent purpose.
We've waited 4 years since McDonald's last film Weirdos (2016), which remains a charming film. Dreamland (2020) is not charming on any level.
If you are looking for a gross, inconsistent, not terribly interesting Canadian film shot in Luxembourg and Belgium, you are in for a treat. As for Bruce McDonald, you can't win them all.
Dreamland is available on Amazon Prime Video and on demand in Canada.
video credit: YouTube/ReelSuspects photo credit: Dreamland film
Though Night Raiders is set in a future dystopian world, the story is really about the reality of residential schools told in a way that may seem more approachable for a film.
Harbouring any minor is a crime in this dystopian world. The age to start in the faceless academy has gone from 5 to 4 years old. This doesn't stop Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) and her 12-year-old daughter Waseese (Brooklyn Letexier-Hart) from surviving in the bush for years. When Waseese gets her foot caught in a bear trap, Niska has to decide whether to surrender her daughter for her health.
They rename Waseese as Elizabeth, which relates back to the reality Indigenous people had in Canada. Niska works to get her out of the academy. She runs across Cree people, of which she is one, who are working to help kids find a better life.
The fact that Niska struggles with her Cree language is entirely relevant to the reality of those taken away to residential schools.
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Brooklyn Letexier-Hart are tremendous on screen. The cast features Violet Nelson, who co-starred with Tailfeathers in The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, and Gail Maurice, who was in Trickster, a show Goulet worked on as a consulting producer.
The film also features New Zealand actor Alex Tarrant and American actor Amanda Plummer. Night Raiders is a Canada-New Zealand co-production. Taika Waititi is one of the executive producers on the film.
Night Raiders succeeds mostly when you are aware of the history of Indigenous people in Canada. Danis Goulet, who wrote and directed her first feature film, has a lot to say, and most of it works.
The dystopia part of the film is where the film struggles. The whole kidnapping of children in a dystopia society is handled poorly in the script. Everything is so gray so the impact gets lost. They are bad and that is all. Level 16 and Code 8, very different Canadian films, each gave some logic behind a dystopian world, something where Night Raiders fails.
Niska is given a choice, a second opportunity. This point in the plot feels hollow and 1-dimensional, serving as a very unneeded distraction.
Goulet does pound home some points in case you don't know the history. Still, a good sized section of the audience is not going to know the symbolism before or during the film.
The film struggles as a pure dystopian film, but is better if you know the background of Indigenous children in residential schools.
Night Raiders made the Toronto International Film Festival Top 10 list for 2021. The film has been featured in theatres in Canada and available on demand in the United States.
video credit: YouTube/Movie Coverage photo credit: Night Raiders film
Denis Villeneuve pays tribute to Jean-Marc Vallée: “Hey old man, what made you leave so early? How must I forget these lonesome tears in my eyes? As you already told me: go out there and shine, crazy diamond. I love you, my friend.” pic.twitter.com/vQgjrrql56
The American obituaries for Jean-Marc Vallée acknowledge his recent U.S. TV and film work. Vallée was known for his American TV work as a director on Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects. He also directed American films such as The Young Victoria, Dallas Buyers Club, Wild, and Demolition.
A proper obituary for such a great filmmaker is to point out 2 rather amazing films where he was a writer and director: C.R.A.Z.Y. and Cafe de Flore. Of the 9 full-length films Vallée directed, these were the only 2 where he was a writer.
C.R.A.Z.Y. was his breakthrough film. Vallée co-wrote the film with François Boulay. The story was a coming of age film with 5 brothers, one of whom was gay. The initials were the first names of the brothers with Zac being the 4th of 5 brothers. Vallée brilliantly incorporated music into this film like it was a fellow co-star.
The 2005 film won 11 Genie Awards and 13 Jutra Awards in the spring of 2006. C.R.A.Z.Y. was the Best Canadian Film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was the Canadian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not nominated. In 2015, C.R.A.Z.Y. placed number 8 on the Top 10 Canadian films of all time.
Cafe de Flore was 2 films in one that are connected with love: a 1960s France setting with a developmentally challenged young boy and his mother and a modern Montréal DJ and his wife.
The film did get 13 Genie Awards nominations and 3 wins, either acting or behind the scenes.
Then Vallée turned his attention down south, only doing directing. Dallas Buyers Club did get Academy Awards for Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. Vallée did get an Oscars nomination for Best Film Editing under his alias, John Mac McMurphy.
Like his fellow French-Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, we knew Vallée wasn't going back to Quebec to create films. Villeneuve finally got back to writing, well, sort of. Vallée could have lived 20 more years and he wasn't going to use those writing muscles again.
Still, he was contributing to "natural filmmaking" as many called his style. We could imagine what he would have done for the last decade if he wrote those stories that were in his head.
We recognize that finding Vallée's American work is easier to find on both side of the border. These 2 films are worth the hard work to find them. There should be more of these works but Vallée ran his career the way he wanted. Shine on you, crazy diamond.
Twitter capture: @filmupdates photo credit: C.R.A.Z.Y. film
Our happy holidays message also applies retroactively to Hanukkah, which ran from November 28-December 6.
A new season of Letterkenny is a wonderful way to end 2021, a year with a few setbacks. This is one Christmas gift Canadians will get on Christmas Day as Season 10 of Letterkenny will be on Crave. Those on the U.S. side with Hulu have to wait until Boxing Day.
This follows the release pattern we saw in 2020.
There will be 7 episodes in Season 10. We know they shot Seasons 10 and 11 this summer.
Season 9 of Letterkenny was a highlight of the holiday season in 2020.
Shoresy is a spinoff of Letterkenny coming to Crave in the next few months. Fans of the show know Shoresy is an unseen character voice by Jared Keeso, star and creator of Letterkenny. Shoresy will move to Sudbury to work with a struggling minor league hockey team.
We have some doubts since Shoresy wasn't that interesting of a character and we presume the gag is that we still won't see him. Maybe that will change. We don't know if Hulu will pick up the show, though that should be a no-brainer. Hulu is carrying NHL games through its sibling streaming service ESPN+.
I am eager to hit the ground running and start meeting Canadians from all walks of life across this incredible country. Until I get to your neighborhood, you can learn a little bit more about me and my priorities as U.S. Ambassador here. pic.twitter.com/VPXT85fKfW
— United States Ambassador to Canada (@USAmbCanada) December 7, 2021
David L. Cohen has been serving as the U.S Ambassador to Canada since December 1. That news was as quiet as a church mouse. Cohen took over for Arnold A. Chacón, who was the third and final interim pick since the long ago departure of Kelly Knight Craft. Craft left officially on August 23, 2019 but in terms of work didn't do much when she was around.
You could almost, almost feel sorry for Cohen. Between electric vehicles, Five Eyes, pandemic, border crossing problems, China, CUSMA/USMCA and countless other issues, Cohen will be busy.
We really hope Cohen will be effective in his job. We had little faith in David Jacobson and Bruce Heyman, but they turned out to be good picks. They didn't have the incoming troubles that Cohen has in front of him. Bonne chance!!
Fatemeh Anvari recently became the face of the ongoing concerns over Bill 21 in Quebec. The law prohibits certain people in positions of authority to wear religious symbols while on the job in the province.
Bill 21 has been the law since June 2019 while the case works its way to the Canadian Supreme Court. Anvari accepted a position teaching a Grade 3 class at Chelsea Elementary School. Chelsea is just north of Gatineau, a very short distance from Ottawa, the national capital. She wore a hijab in class and was removed from that classroom in accordance with Bill 21.
The law is clearly a violation of Canadian law. The Quebec government invoked the notwithstanding clause.
Justin Trudeau (prime minister, Liberals) and Erin O'Toole (opposition leader, Conservatives) have dipped a few more toes into the pool of weighing in on Bill 21, which became law in June 2019. Both major parties have had to balance the need for votes in Quebec with responding to the law. We know justice moves slow in Canada but the Supreme Court should have had to render a decision long before now.
With respect to Fatemeh Anvari, hundreds if not thousands of people have been directly affected by Bill 21. In the English language media at least, the plights of those people have been ignored. People who couldn't apply or move up in their positions are more difficult to write about. They exist, despite being ignored by the English language media in Canada.
Anvari was teaching in English, which is relevant because the Quebec Superior Court struck down part of the law this spring, making an exception for English language education. However, that exception hasn't been allowed to go ahead since the Quebec government is appealing that decision.
The law applies to orthodox Jewish men and Sikh men but is really targeted at the hijabs and niqabs of Muslim women in Canada. The argument, as such, is that Quebec is a secular state and that visible religious symbols violate that principle. This is a backlash for how the Catholic Church dominated Quebec society until the 1960s. The people who are most likely to support the law are also most likely not to run into the people directly affected by the laws.
Perhaps Anvari's story will elicit more sympathy for the horrible law, though that sympathy should have been there front and center before the bill was signed into law.
Quebec will have a provincial election in 2022, on or before October 3. We'll have more on that election in our 2022 Canadian politics preview in a couple of weeks just after the first of the year.
You may have missed yesterday's news about the Academy Awards shortlist for the Best International Feature Film. Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds is reportedly a good film; the competition was really tough. If you are up to going out to a theatre and a top Canadian film is playing, you should give that a shot. If you do have an in-home option, go for that. To each their own comfort in watching Canadian films.
We know the siren of American films is really loud in the holiday season. Night Raiders (above picture) is supposed to be really good. I saw it the other night from the comfort of my home. Really good. Just saying. The film made the top 21 films of the year from Eli Glasner of CBC. There are a few Canadian films on his list.
The World Juniors tournament will take place in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta starting on Boxing Day. The tournament runs through January 5. The games will be at Rogers Place in Edmonton and Westerner Park Centrium in Red Deer.
TSN (Canada) and NHL Network (United States) will carry the action. The pattern has been for the U.S. network to produce coverage of U.S. games and take TSN feeds otherwise. Canada is in Group A while the United States is in Group B.
Alberta finally became the last province (with NHL) to introduce a 50% capacity. No eating or drinking either.
We don't really cover this tournament anymore but you should know the basics if you are tuning into the tournament. All of this is subject to change thanks to COVID-19.
The new Omicron COVID-19 variant has taken its toll in real life as well as Canadian sports. We wrote a special story on Saturday with the latest. The Canadian teams have been shut down until December 27. This is subject to change. Be careful in your holiday travels.
.@NFL Announces International Home Marketing Area Teams and Markets
Canada loves the NFL. The NFL love for Canada? Working on it.
The recent announcement of international home marketing area teams and markets was met with a lot of confusion. Minnesota and Seattle would be a natural fit for certain parts of Canada. Buffalo and Detroit, kilometres away from Canada, not so much. New England makes a lot of sense in Atlantic Canada.
The Oakland Raiders preseason game in Winnipeg was not handled well by the NFL in terms of marketing. The Buffalo Bills in Toronto was poorly handled by Rogers and the NFL didn't do much there.
CTV and TSN embrace the NFL in their coverage. Canadians with cable get access to way more NFL games than most U.S. households. A key section of season tickets in Buffalo and Detroit (outside a pandemic) comes from Canadians. The NFL would be wise to appreciate how much Canadians love their sport.
Check out our border crossings coverage and dream of a lot more travel in 2022. We also have other categories on the right-hand column in case you want to catch up in a category important to you.
The fine folks at CanadianCrossing.com are taking a holiday break. The CBC winter schedule preview runs a week from now. The NHL month in preview is on January 1. The year to come in travel and politics will run that first full week in January. Breaking news will run as needed. We have a lot of archive material to read over the holidays, including many film reviews.
photo credits: Letterkenny/Bell Media; Night Raiders film video credit: Letterkenny/Bell Media Twitter capture: @USAmbCanada; @PR_NHL; @NFL345
2022 Academy Awards shortlist for Best International Feature Film
Country
Film
Austria
Great Freedom
Belgium
Playground
Bhutan
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Denmark
Flee
Finland
Compartment No. 6
Germany
I'm Your Man
Iceland
Lamb
Iran
A Hero
Italy
The Hand of God
Japan
Drive My Car
Kosovo
Hive
Mexico
Prayers for the Stolen
Norway
The Worst Person in the World
Panama
Plaza Catedral
Spain
The Good Boss
Based on experts and feedback, the solid core would be Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Norway.
This is an amazing story. Before the Oscars in 2020, no film had ever been nominated in this category as well as Best Documentary Feature. Flee could be the 3rd film in the last 3 years to pull off this feat. The Danish film made the shortlist in both categories. Honeyland (North Macedonia) and Collective (Romania) made both finals lists in the last couple of Oscars seasons.
Your humble narrator has only seen the film from Norway on that list, which was a very good film.
Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds did not make the list. I did see the film as an honourable mention from at least one outlet. 15 films make the list and another 10-15 get mentioned in contention.
Some of the films that appeared to come close to making the shortlist were Argentina (The Intruder); Chad (Lingui, or the Sacred Bonds); Colombia (Memoria); France (Titane); Romania (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn); and Russia (Unclenching the Fists).
This year, the lack of recognition wasn't as much about the Canadian entry but the superiority of the nominated films. Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds has to be better than Funny Boy or 14 Jours, 12 Nuits. Let's just be thankful Telefilm Canada only nominated a single film for the 94th Academy Awards.
Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds will be in the lineup at the 2022 Palm Springs Film Festival.
As we noted yesterday, your humble narrator has seen every Canadian film contender (not including this year's entry) since 1997 (film year) with 2 exceptions:
Emporte-moi | Set Me Free Léa Pool (1999)
Un crabe dans la tête André Turpin (2002)
There is an impressive list of Oscar contenders that your humble narrator has loved.
The 2022 Independent Spirit Awards released its Best International Film nominated films:
Compartment No. 6 (Finland) Drive My Car (Japan) Parallel Mothers (Spain) Pebbles (India) Petite Maman (France) Prayers for the Stolen (Mexico)
Hopefully, they will be back inside the tent on the beach in Santa Monica, CA.
The Golden Globes were lame and odd. Then they became somewhat legitimate. Then someone figured out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association didn't have any Black members (sadly, not a shock).
The 2022 Golden Globes will not air on NBC. We are listing the Best Motion Picture — Foreign Language nominees for perspective compared to the Academy Awards.
Compartment No. 6 (Finland) Drive My Car (Japan) The Hand of God (Italy) A Hero (Iran) Parallel Mothers (Spain)
The Critics Choice Awards will also be on January 9 but these awards have a U.S. TV home (CW and TBS). These are their nominees for Best foreign language film:
A Hero (Iran) Drive My Car (Japan) Flee (Denmark) The Hand of God (Italy) The Worst Person in the World (Norway)
Your humble narrator loved The Worst Person in the World. The title isn't very helpful; a more delightful film than the title infers.
The films in both lists are the country's nominated films for the Oscars for Best International Feature Film, except for Parallel Mothers from the legendary Pedro Almodóvar and Petite Maman.
Your humble narrator has seen a lot of Canadian entries to the Best International Feature Film for someone who doesn't live in Canada and doesn't speak French really well. With the announcement tomorrow of the Oscars shortlist in this category, we wanted to take a look back at the films Canada has nominated.
Canada first submitted a film to the Academy Awards in what was the Best Foreign Language Film category with Mon Oncle Antoine (1971). Canada skipped a few years in the 1970s; the country has submitted a film every year since 1979.
Your humble narrator has a current streak seeing every entry since 2003 with Les Invasions barbares, the only Canadian film to win this Oscar.
There are 16 Canadian films on the list (not counting the newest entry) that I have not seen: 7 of them before Le Déclin de l'empire américain (1986), the first Canadian film to reach the Oscars shortlist, 7 of them between that film and Cosmos (1997), and 2 since 1997.
Year
Title
English title
Director
1972
La Vraie nature de Bernadette
The True Nature of Bernadette
Gilles Carle
1979
Mourir à tue-tête
A Scream from Silence
Anne Claire Poirier
1981
Les Plouffe
The Plouffe Family
Gilles Carle
1982
Les Fleurs savages
Wild Flowers
Jean Pierre Lefebvre
1983
Bonheur d'occasion
The Tin Flute
Claude Fournier
1984
Sonatine
Sonatine
Micheline Lanctôt
1985
Jacques et novembre
Jacques and November
François Bouvier and Jean Beaudry
Gilles Carle has a strong reputation as an early force in commercial Canadian film. La Vraie nature de Bernadette has been high on my list of Canadian films. Sonatine is also high on the list being a huge fan of Pascale Bussières.
Older Canadian films, such as from this era, are really difficult to find. Have been quite surprised to find the ones that I have seen from this time.
Canadians should be able to find some of these films somewhere.
Year
Title
English title
Director
1987
Un Zoo la Nuit
Night Zoo
Jean-Claude Lauzon
1988
Les portes tournantes
The Revolving Doors
Francis Mankiewicz
1990
Une histoire inventée
An Imaginary Tale
André Forcier
1991
A Bullet in the Head
A Bullet in the Head
Attila Bertalan
1994
Mon amie Max
My Friend Max
Michel Brault
1995
Le Confessional
The Confessional
Robert Lepage
1996
Sous-sol
Not Me!
Pierre Gang
Le Confessional is intriguing in that Kristin Scott-Thomas is in the cast. She is fluent in French. That film is the first of 2 on the list from Robert Lepage along with La face cachée de la lune | Far Side of the Moon (2004).
Subtitles aren't as much of an issue for A Bullet in the Head since the dialogue is from an invented language.
Jean-Claude Lauzon, director of Un Zoo la Nuit, also directed Leolo (1992) on the list. Lauzon only directed 2 feature films, both on the Oscars list, before his fatal plane accident in 1997.
Michel Brault, one of the Quebecois film greats, is also on the list with Mon amie Max as well as Les Ordres (1975) as well as his cinematography work on such films on the list as Mon Oncle Antoine (1971) and Les Bons débarras (1980).
Year
Title
English title
Director
1999
Emporte-moi
Set Me Free
Léa Pool
2002
Un crabe dans la tête
Soft Shell Man
André Turpin
Your humble narrator has seen a few Léa Pool films. Would love to find more of her older work. We've seen Lost and Delirious (2001), Maman est chez le coiffeur | Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's (2008), La Passion d'Augustine | The Passion of Augustine (2015), and Worst Case, We Get Married (2017). Pool directed Karine Vanasse as the daughter in Emporte-Moi and the mother in Worst Case, We Get Married.
Un crabe dans la tête falls into the category of odd, quirky Canadian films that draw my interest. I might not like it but want to see the film for myself.
There isn't a realistic hope of seeing all 16 films on the list. Living in Montréal or Quebec City with access to film archives would give me a chance at some. The top 5 of earnest interest to watch would be:
La Vraie nature de Bernadette (1972)
Sonatine (1984)
Un Zoo la nuit (1987)
Emporte-moi (1999)
Un crabe dans la tête (2002)
Lists are great but you shouldn't watch a film just because that film is on a list, even one for the Oscars. War Witch was good but hard to watch. Chien de Garde was a terrible film. Hochelaga terre des âmes had good intentions but a lot of disconnect. J.A. Martin photographe was slower than a 1970s bottle of Heinz ketchup.
There have been some really great films on the list: all 4 from Denys Arcand, 3 from Xavier Dolan, the 2 from Denis Villeneuve, C.R.A.Z.Y., Monsieur Lazhar, The Necessities of Life, and so many more.
Here is a full list of the Canadian entries for Best International Feature Film that I have seen.
1971 Mon oncle Antoine Claude Jutra 1975 Les Ordres Michel Brault 1977 J.A. Martin photographe Jean Beaudin 1980 Les Bons débarras | Good Riddance Francis Mankiewicz 1986 Le Déclin de l'empire américain | The Decline of the American Empire Denys Arcand* 1989 Jésus de Montréal Denys Arcand* 1992 Léolo Jean-Claude Lauzon 1993 Le Sexe des étoiles | The Sex of the Stars Paule Baillargeon 1997 Cosmos Jennifer Alleyn, Manon Briand, Marie-Julie Dallaire, Arto Paragamian, André Turpin, Denis Villeneuve 1998 Un 32 août sur terre | August 32nd on Earth Denis Villeneuve 2000 Maelström Denis Villeneuve 2001 Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner Zacharias Kunuk 2003 The Barbarian Invasions Les Invasions barbares Denys Arcand+ 2004 La face cachée de la lune | Far Side of the Moon Robert Lepage 2005 C.R.A.Z.Y. Jean-Marc Vallée 2006 Water Deepa Mehta* 2007 L'Âge des ténèbres | Days of Darkness Denys Arcand** 2008 Ce qu'il faut pour vivre | The Necessities of Life Benoît Pilon** 2009 J'ai tué ma mère | I Killed My Mother Xavier Dolan 2010 Incendies Denis Villeneuve* 2011 Monsieur Lazhar Philippe Falardeau* 2012 War Witch | Rebelle Kim Nguyen* 2013 Gabrielle Louise Archambault 2014 Mommy Xavier Dolan 2015 Félix et Meira Maxime Giroux 2016 It's Only the End of the World | Juste la fin du monde Xavier Dolan** 2017 Hochelaga, Land of Souls | Hochelaga terre des âmes François Girard 2018 Family First | Chien de garde Sophie Dupuis 2019 Antigone Sophie Deraspe 2020 14 Days, 12 Nights | 14 jours, 12 nuits Jean-Philippe Duval
Enemy qualifies as a Canadian film, even though the film is one of Denis Villeneuve's post-Quebec films.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Adam Bell, a mild-mannered professor, and Anthony Claire, a hyper small-time actor. If you love Jake Gyllenhaal, you should see this film regardless of anything else we say.
Mélanie Laurent plays Adam's girlfriend Mary and Sarah Gadon (Canadian) plays Anthony's very pregnant wife Helen. Isabella Rossellini, who has done a few Canadian films, plays Mother.
Anthony is a member of a secret sex club. Adam is curious about this once he finds out about it. There is the curiosity about being with each other's partner. The implication, given Helen 6-month pregnancy status, is that Anthony is running around because his wife is pregnant. No one ever says this in the film but that is an easy and yes, lazy, conclusion.
The women in this film have little reference. That is particularly sad given Villeneuve's earlier work such as Maelstrom and Polytecnhnique. Hollywood isn't kind to women on screen. Mary and Helen (and Mother) have really interesting stories, but Villeneuve isn't interested in those stories.
The music throughout the film implies tension, but the film suffers from a lack of tension. You kind of know what will happen and nothing seems too much of a shock or surprise. The film is surprisingly short at about 90 minutes. The story has potential but needed a wider portrayal than just obsessing about the dual Gyllenhaals on screen.
This often happens when a film gets rewarded for the premise introduced, not what the filmmakers do with the premise. Villeneuve wrote and directed his acclaimed Quebecois films but did not write the screenplay for Enemy. Javier Gullón wrote the screenplay, loosely adapted from the José Saramago 2002 novel The Double.
The key difference for Villeneuve and Jean-Marc Vallée and other Canadian directors who cross over is that they don't write their own scripts. Directors in Hollywood type films don't have as much creative control unless they reach a certain level. Quentin Tarantino does writes his own scripts, but that is rare in Hollywood.
The 2013 film did shoot in Toronto and doesn't pretend otherwise. Anthony and Helen live in Mississauga. Other actors are likely Canadian but they are mostly less than background scenery.
Enemy isn't a bad film, just way below what Villeneuve had done previously. Any above-average director could have done this picture. Villeneuve is a more talented director than what we saw in Enemy.
Despite our review, others found more positive elements within the film.
Enemy won 4 Canadian Screen Awards out of 5 nominations. Villeneuve (Best Director), Gadon (Actress in a supporting role), Nicolas Bolduc (Cinematography), and Matthew Hannam (Editing) won awards.
The film lost out for Best Motion Picture to Gabrielle. The other nominees that year were Empire of Dirt, The F Word, The Grand Seduction, Tom at the Farm | Tom à la ferme, The Dismantling | Le Démantèlement, and Maïna. We've seen all but the last 2 titles. Would rank Enemy above The F Word and maybe The Grand Seduction but below the other Canadian film titles we've seen.
Enemy won Best Canadian Film of the Year at the 2014 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. The film edged out The F Word and Xavier Dolan's Mommy.
photo credit: Enemy film video credit: YouTube/Movieclips Trailers
Guest of Honour seems to be about Jim, a health inspector who used to run a restaurant in Hamilton, Ontario. Jim is meticulous in his role and is well-suited to his new profession. Unfortunately for viewers of the film, the story drifts elsewhere.
Jim's (English actor David Thewlis) story is compelling but a little confusing. His story feels real. When the story shifts to Veronica, his daughter (Laysla De Oliveira), we get this storyline that feels very fake and unauthentic.
How disturbed Veronica might be would matter if her story had any credibility. She served time for a sexual assault where she doesn't seem to be guilty. She asked for the maximum time. Yet her prison time seems to have made no impact on her as a person.
Her guilt stems from a time in her past. Veronica's telling of the story doesn't have much actual guilt and her memory doesn't seem to be clear as to what might have happened. She is angry at Jim.
Since the story is told as past and present, Veronica can't confront Jim on some of these issues. Veronica ends up telling this story to a local priest (American actor Luke Wilson).
The film plays out with the audience learning more about Veronica's story and Jim trying to understand what is happening. The parallel father-daughter stories should tell us something about them yet they don't. They might as well be separate stories.
Even when the audience learns more about the stories, the questions remaining are now about "huh" as opposed to wondering about the motivation.
Atom Egoyan is one of the best filmmakers in the world, Canadian or otherwise. Thewlis is marvelous in his performance; if the film had been more about him, the film would be better. De Oliveira's performance feels a bit stiff but likely due to not knowing any more of what makes Veronica tick. Wilson has little to do in his role. Egoyan gives him knowledge of certain facts that feels unbelievable and might be a violation of priest confidence. What might seem suspenseful is more shock and not in a good way.
The cast also features Rossif Sutherland, Alexandre Bourgeois, and Tennille Read as well as Egoyan's wife, Arsinée Khanjian.
