Three cheers for small gems
An above-average entry in the lovable-misfits comic sub-genre, Don’t Talk to Irene is the kind of low-budget gem that can lost in the glare of the Toronto International Film Festival, where it had its world première. Fortunately, it’s getting some non-festival screenings as well.
Michelle McLeod stars as 15-year-old Irene, living in the fictional-but-we’ve-all-beenthere town of Parc, Ont., an hour north of Toronto and home to kilometres of strip malls, a high school, a retirement home, a funeral home and not much else. (Hamilton, Ont., gamely steps up for the thankless task of playing Parc.)
Irene wants to join the school’s cheerleading squad, but the plussized
hopeful becomes the target of school bullies, and winds up assigned to detention in the retirement home alongside her tormentors.
Undaunted, she decides to teach the oldsters how to dance.
The result feels like Patti Cake$ meets the indie comedy Wet Bum, with a bit of Young@ Heart thrown in as the seniors sign up for a televised talent competition.
Scott Thompson shines as their indifferent warden: When one of his charges seems to have died, he sighs: “You were a special lady, Ruth ... (checks clipboard) ... Spencer.”
And kudos to writer-director Pat Mills (Guidance) for signing up Geena Davis as Irene’s imaginary god and confessor, handing down advice and life lessons guaranteed to perk up a disaffected teen: “Hey, I was in a movie called Earth Girls Are Easy, and I survived!”
The performances are fine, but it’s the writing that truly stands out in this comedy, whether it’s someone relating the sad, ancient history of Milli Vanilli (they were a thing before you were born, kids!) or the fabulously androgynous Tesh (Andy Reid) declaring: “Success is just failure in drag.”
There’s much more, but you should go see it yourself.