Canada's Top 10 at the Cinematheque

CANADA’S TOP 10 of 2009

Canada’s Top Ten was established in 2001 by the Toronto International Film Festival to honour excellence in contemporary Canadian cinema. Over the past nine years, Canada’s Top Ten has grown into a highly anticipated programme, bringing Canada’s most promising and acclaimed filmmakers together with enthusiastic audiences for a genuinely unique Canadian film experience. These extremely diverse and often groundbreaking films keep audiences coming back year after year.

Canada’s Top Ten features and shorts are selected by two separate panels comprised of filmmakers, critics, academics and industry professionals.
Find below capsule review of 7 of Cinematheque Ontario’s pick for Canada’s Top 10 Films of 2010.  Please note that a few are still awaiting release (J’AI TUE MA MERE, THE WILD HUNT, CARCASSES). 

Of the top 10 films, I find that one of my favourites, THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE has been left out.

The series runs from January the 14th to the 21st, 2010.

Please check screening times at the Cinematheque Ontario’s Website at:
http://www.cinemathequeontario.ca

Also note that a few screenings will be graced by attendance of the filmmakers.  Again, check the website for more details.

CAIRO TIME (Canada 2009) **
Directed by Rubba Nada

CAIRO TIME works if one would believe what is happening on screen could be true.  In Nada’s (SABAH) film which she also wrote, a diplomat’s (Tom McCamus) wife Juliette (Patricia Clarkson) lands at the airport in Cairo, Egypt where she is met by their long time friend Tareq (Alexander Siddig).  As Mark the husband is indisposed for some reason or other, Juliette eventually succumbs to the charm of Tareq and the Arab world.  She reaches the point of having an affair or to change her belief in the American way.  But Nada’s script gives nothing concrete that would otherwise convert Juliette, she being the strong-willed person she is.  For one, Juliette seems very set in her ways upon arriving at the airport and she has been hassled non-stop from her arrival at the hotel to no end.  The fact that Nada’s film moves along at a snail’s pace allows one to assume that Juliette is offered the time to consider a change.  Apart from the solid musical score and fine camerawork, and yes - the pyramids beckon at the end - CAIRO TIME still remains unconvincing for the most part. 

CARCASSES (Canada 2009) **
Directed by Denis Cote

Quebec indie director Denis Cote presents a story of an elderly man (Jean-Paul Colmor) who suffers collectionitis.  He has collected junk all his life living on his land in Saint-Amable near Montreal.  Living the life of almost a hermit most of the days of the week, he survives by selling spare auto parts, but does the odd traveling to the town or meet the occasional girl.  But when visited by a group of somewhat backward (seem more likely with the Downs Syndrome) youths, he is forced to decide how to react to the intruders.  Cote moves his film at a snail’s pace.  He often sets his camera still and films his subjects from a distance. There is nothing really wrong with a director taking his time to tell a story but in this case there is not much of a story to tell nor is there any interest generated by him.  The one senseless scene with him sitting down in the kitchen listening to a lesson on speaking Spanish says it all.

DEFENDOR (Canada 2009) ***
Directed by Peter Stebbings

Everybody wants to be a superhero.  DEFENDOR is the story of a simple man, Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson), a construction company worker who dresses up at night to become DEFENDOR, a vigilante who has his way (marbles, wasps and a huge truncheon) with the bad guys.  But when he beats up an undercover cop Chuck (Eli Koteas), the law steps in.  Poppington has to convince the court-appointed psychiatrist (Sandra Oh) that he is sane to stay out of prison.  Though DEFENDOR is a first film, Stebbings has created a remarkably dark (even the lighting) and humorous tale of a man fighting the system at all odds.  He is aided by hooker with a heart, Kat (Kat Dennings).  DEFENDOR is more drama than action flick.  DEFENDOR’s message is not thrown straight in the audience’s face which is a very good thing.  The biggest surprise of this movie is Sandra Oh’s moving performance.  On only wishes there is much more of her.  Stebbings’ film actually contains quite a number of superheroes.

J’AI TUE MA MERE (I KILLED MY MOTHER) (Canada 2009) ****
Directed by Xavier Nolan

A minor sensation winning 3 prizes at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, Xavier Nolan’s directorial debut is a must-see if not only for the talent of this 19-year old Montrealer who not only directed but wrote and starred in the film.  J’AI TUE MA MERE (direct English translation: I KILLED MY MOTHER) is a semi-autobiographical tale of a teen gay, Hubert (Dolan) coming to terms with a struggling relationship with his mother.  Though no real solid reason - perhaps this is Nolan’s intention not to have one - is offered to his inability to show maternal affection outwardly, the fights are totally credible primarily for the fact that the two keep adding fuel to the fights no matter how insignificant the cause of one might be.  The arguments alternate between hilarity and downright scary which shows how well Dolan can play his audience.  The film’s most touching scene is a real one – when the mother confesses her complete hurt at her son not coming out to her.  This is a fact of life only a parent of a gay child can fully understand! 
Besides all the brutality, Dolan’s film contains pieces of sensitivity and tenderness, especially towards the end.  J’AI TUE MA MERE already opened in Quebec in 2009 and caused some talk at the Toronto International Film Festival where it premiered English Canada.

POLYTECHNIQUE (Canada 2008) ***
Directed by Denis Villeneuve

POLYTECHNIQUE is a dramatization of the Montreal Massacre of 1989 for which several female engineering students were senselessly murdered by an unstable misogynist, Marc Lepine (Maxin Gaudette).  Directed by Quebec’s Denis Villeneuve (the excellent MAESTROM and UN32 AOUT SUR TERRE) who has proven his mettle at examining sombre subjects with profound mental states, POLYTECHNIQUE proves to be, as expected, a film that is disturbing yet moving in dealing with its topic.  Villeneuve follows the thoughts of the killer as well as two ‘surviving’ victims.  The film follows the shooting spree as well, demonstrating how incredibly unreal it looks on screen.  POLYTECHNIQUE has an uncomfortable shift in focus in its protagonists.  The last action of the male witness to the killing is unclear of its reasoning.  The audience assumes that trauma is most likely the cause of his suicide.  On the other hand, the victim Valerie’s (Karine Vanasse) actions and thoughts are more understandable, though difficult.  Shot in black and white, the film has a more authentic feel of a happening that actually took place in the past.  Another effect would be the less distraction due to the colour of blood allowing the audience to concentrate more on the events and not the deed.

THE WILD HUNT (Canada 2009) **
Directed by Alexandre Franchi

THE WILD HUNT is geek country from start to finish complete with a geek plot, geek horror and geek humour.  A group of so-called friends engage in a fantasy battle of role playing.  Predictably, they get carried away, do not know how to stop and blood happens.  Like they say, it is all fun and games till someone loses an eye.  Erik (Ricky Mabe) goes looking for his girlfriend, Evelyn (Tiio Horn), who has left him for the game. He will need the help of his brother Bjorn (Mark A. Krupa), who happens to be the Viking leader and owner of Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. (Erik has been storing the weapon on a shelf at his place.) Erik’s entry into the game angers the dedicated players when he refuses to role play, setting fantasy and reality on a collision course on the night of the enactment.  No one really cares what happens.  Franchi’s camera tracks his characters most of the time though he stages a few fight scenes impressively.  But the lighting is poor and one often can hardly determine what is happening on screen m- not that it matters!  Though set in Quebec in a venue near Shawinigan, the film only has one line of French spoken.