You Might As Well Live (Director: Simon Ennis): When I first saw the “red band” trailer (embedded below), I have to admit I laughed out loud a few times, and so I was looking forward to seeing what promised to be a more foul-mouthed (and distinctly Canadian) version of Napoleon Dynamite. Sadly, the feature-length version was a little anemic on the laughs.
Josh Peace completely inhabits the role of Robert Mutt, a depressed loser who fails at everything he tries, even suicide. But after two years in the local mental asylum, he’s made friends and become successful at stuff like air hockey and hotdog-eating contests, so he’s released as “cured.” But the community still hates him, and his neighbour is even trying to pin a child porn charge on him. All Robert wants to do is “be a real somebody,” and inspired by mythical baseball hero Clinton Manitoba (an unrecognizable Michael Madsen), he sets out to acquire the three things he needs: a girl, a bit of cash, and a championship ring. The rest of the plot involves all sorts of contrived craziness, including a roller-skating tranny, a fetish-loving TV weatherman, chemical castration, a bar mitzvah, and not one but two catatonic characters. Like Napoleon Dynamite, the quirkiness is amped up just a little too much for my liking, though Robert maintains his sunny and innocent disposition, which helps a bit.
The best part of the film for me was hearing so many putdowns that I haven’t heard since grade school: douchebag, pervo, dildo, jag-off. There is something so juvenile in those that it brought a huge smile to my face everytime someone insulted Robert that way. It was also great to see Hamilton, Ontario being used as a location. That city’s gritty reputation made it a great place for Robert to pursue his modest dreams among some pretty far-out characters. The film is actually more reminiscent of the Trailer Park Boys, but without the benefit of a television season to “develop” the characters and situations more fully.
But even at a brisk 82 minutes, the film felt long to me. The rags to riches storyline is tired, which might have been forgivable if there were a few more laughs. Unfortunately quirky characters in crazy situations doesn’t always mean comedy gold. Someone still needs to write some jokes.
You Might As Well Live opens on Friday August 28th here in Toronto at the AMC Yonge-Dundas and at Canada Square. There is also a premiere screening at 7pm that night at the Bloor Cinema.
Official site of the film
(6/10)
Tagged as:
canada
Suddenly finding myself with a lot of time on my hands, I’ve decided this year to check out the Montréal World Film Festival. Now in its 33rd year, this mainstay of the Montréal film calendar is the vocation of Serge Losique. Each year, he curates a collection of auteur-driven films that will likely not find commercial success in North America. Because of its place in the calendar just before TIFF, that’s probably a good strategy, and the festival attracts a core of cinephiles who may find Toronto’s fest too celebrity-driven for their tastes. Best of all, this year, an all-you-can-watch passport is only $80!
Though the festival kicks off tomorrow night and continues until September 7th, I’ll only be there from Monday to Friday next week. Although that cuts down the possibilities substantially, I’m looking forward to rediscovering a wonderful city I haven’t visited in more than 15 years. Here are a few of the films I’m definitely trying to make time for:
Despite having a truly terrible website, the Montréal World Film Festival promises lots of value and a chance to see films that won’t be at TIFF or perhaps anywhere else on a large screen, and so I’m looking forward to checking it out. I’ll also be catching up with some friends while there, so dispatches may be frequent or infrequent, reviews or something else entirely.
Tagged as:
#mwff09,
Montréal
Today the full schedule was announced and I picked up my TIFF programme book. There are way more films than I’ll be able to see, but here are a few more that I’m hoping not to miss:
Mr. Nobody (Director: Jaco van Dormael): No recently announced film had me more excited than this one. Jaco van Dormael directed the incredible Toto le héros (1991) but has taken a very long sabbatical from filmmaking. This film, his first in 13 years, seems reminiscent of Toto, which makes me very happy indeed. Jared Leto plays Nemo, at 120 the oldest living man in the year 2092. He’s also the last mortal, since advances in stem-cell technology means nobody has to die anymore. But Nemo is dying, and coming to terms with a lifetime of memories, not all of which can be real. Or can they?
Official site of the film (French)
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Dogtooth (Kynodontas) (Director: Giorgos Lanthimos): A family where the teenaged children are not allowed to leave the house, are taught the wrong words for everything, and are sexually “relieved” occasionally by one of their father’s employees? This sounds like a social experiment gone wild, and the reviews from Cannes were puzzled but positive. It’s some kind of satire, probably about the fear of sex as a corrupting/liberating force, but the stills I’ve seen (and that poster!) have me curious just to look at it. Note: The embedded trailer below is not work-safe. There is some brief nudity.
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Hiroshima (Director: Pablo Stoll): From the co-director of Whisky (2004) comes a “(mostly) silent musical” about the director’s brother Juan, who is unable to communicate except through his music. As lead singer of a band, Juan has opportunities to express himself, but without music, finds himself cut off from the world and people around him. This promises to be quite moving, since Stoll’s longtime co-director Juan Pablo Rebello took his own life in 2006 and the film is being talked about as a tribute of sorts to him. The description doesn’t quite make clear whether Juan Stoll is acting or just playing himself, which adds another layer of poignancy to the story.
Tagged as:
#tiff09,
belgium,
greece,
uruguay
