STAND ON SCREEN FOR THEE
Here are some Canadian films with enduring appeal
Apparently, Canadians are polite. We say sorry and eh and “aboot.” We eat brown bread not whole wheat like our American cousins. We also appreciate irony while living in a bilingual nation with a decent health-care system paid for by our modest selves.
Movies by us, about us and for us sometimes reflect variations on the theme of what it is to be Canadian. And sometimes they don’t, which is kind of Canadian, too, writes Bob Thompson.
Here are 10 films that demonstrate the Canadian spirit for comedy and drama and lots of stuff in between:
C. R. A. Z. Y. (2005)
Jean-Marc Vallee’s ambitious pop culture study of a teen coming of age in 1970s Quebec reflects on religion, shifting family values and the price to pay for being different. The comedy and drama are expertly accentuated by a talented cast and familiar rock tunes in case the uninitiated among us miss the droll point.
Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 (2017)
Colm Feore and Patrick Huard return as combative Anglo and francophone cops, but they save most of their rapier-like exchanges for the folks south of the border. They also join forces again to bust a car-theft-ring. But some of the most rewarding bits are the funny routines. One of the best has a Yank cop speculating that Huard’s Quebec undercover detective might be Swedish because he speaks fractured English just like the Swedish chef on Sesame Street.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993)
Vignettes piece together the celebrated classical pianist who lived his life in fragments with as many ups as downs. With François Girard’s sharp direction, Colm Feore portrays Gould with remarkable ease, making the cinematic assessment as enlightening as it is entertaining.
Goin’ Down the Road (1970)
Ragged and sometimes disjointed, Donald Shebib’s cinema verite production still cuts like a knife through the strangers-in-a-strange-land theme when two Maritimers head to the Big Smoke (Toronto) for action and adventure. What they find instead is discombobulation and the working-class disappointment they thought they had left behind.
Polytechnique (2009)
Powerful yet poignant, the movie is filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s time-shifting retelling of the 1989 massacre at Montreal’s École Polytechnique. His courageous procedural defines tragedy minus emotional overtness. That restraint and the dedicated actors combine to provide a compelling account of dysfunction as a senseless calamity.
Les Boys (1997)
Led by the outstanding Quebec talents of Marc Messier, Rémy Girard and Patrick Huard, the Louis Saia comedy pretends to be about an amateur hockey team in over its head, but it really counts as a notso-subtle assessment of getting by in La belle provence. The subsequent sequels and spinoff TV show pale in comparison to the original francophone gem.
The Rowdyman (1972)
Newfoundlander Gordon Pinsent is Canadian royalty and this is his crowning achievement. The actor wrote and starred in the account of Newfoundland lad Will Cole, a free-living, irresponsible rounder who soon finds out there is a price to pay when carefree becomes carelessness. The mix of light and dark only adds to the film’s climactic impact.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974)
Yank Richard Dreyfuss plays the lead. He’s the hustling summer resort waiter but Canuck filmmaker Ted Kotcheff adapts Mordecai Richler’s classic novel with the necessary care and attention to growing-up-Jewish-in-Montreal detail. The tone is helped along by a solid supporting crew of character actors, both Canadian and U.S.
Maudie (2017)
British actress Sally Hawkins plays Depression-era Nova Scotia artist Maud Lewis with Oscarworthy intensity. Only in Canada would a Brit play a Canadian directed by an Irish filmmaker (Aisling Walsh). But the raw result is an outstanding tribute to a special person.
Never Cry Wolf (1983)
Carroll Ballard’s committed translation Farley Mowat’s 1963 autobiography features Charles Martin Smith (Smith also cowrote the script) as a Canadian biologist sent into the northern wilderness to study caribou and wolves impact on the dwindling herds. The slow-build nature movie turns out to be a captivating examination of Dominion determination and self-discovery.