Canada Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I have to admit, I have absolutely zero memory of the Canada Pavillion at Disney's Epcot World Showcase. Granted, that's because I was super-schmoozed by England's audience-participation Shakespearian performances and Mexico's delicious restaurant. But apparently, I wasn't missing much, at least where the introductory Canadian film is concerned. The CBC has reported that after years of complaints, the film is finally being re-done.

The first contains footage shot from 1979, and has been criticized for it's focus on Canadians as lumberjacks, fishermen and Mounties. Gisele Danis of the Canadian Tourism Commission says: "I'd say that in the last 10 years ... we got a lot of complaints from Canadians who said, 'I don't think this is reflective of Canada. We're not just about geese. We're not about flannel jackets and we're definitely not about just great, wide-open landscapes." After years of lobbying, the CTC has gotten the change, one they've been involved in.

The new face of Canada will be none other than Martin Short, who says: "It's more of a comedic look ... it's, shall we say, a lighthearted examination of Canada. It's little vignettes and things, and I narrate it as well." Being familiar with Short's work, it's not surprising that this will include him playing a number of characters that range from a cowboy to a member of Cirque du Soleil. I don't know about you, but that sounds better to me than 70's landscapes.

Ah, where are the boys from South Park when you really need them? Upset over the fact that an increasing amount of movie piracy is originating in Canada, Warner Bros. has decided to take immediate action. No, they haven't sent Trey Parker and Matt Stone to wreak havoc on our friends from the north; instead, they've decided to place a ban on all future "promotional and word-of-mouth screenings." This tactic, they hope, will put pressure on Canada to introduce some sort of legislation that makes "camcording of films for trafficking around the world" an illegal offense. Apparently, as it stands right now, any moron can walk into a Canadian theater, record a movie, sell it, and suffer no consequence.

This new ban will begin with the upcoming release of Ocean's Thirteen and continue with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The good news for all those who enjoy reading your local Canadian critic is that it doesn't appear that this ban will affect press screenings. The Hollywood Reporter story clearly points out that only promotional and word-of-mouth screenings are being cut off for now. Here's what I don't get about this whole thing -- if the studios are so worried about international movie piracy being born out of these early screenings, then why are they releasing, say, Spider-Man 3 in a number of countries around the world weeks before it was set to arrive here in the states? How is it that a film like Danny Boyle's Sunshine gets a worldwide release this spring, yet will not hit here until winter? Although I refuse to download anything off the internet and watch it, I know for a fact that Sunshine is already available online. While Canada certainly needs to step up and join the fight against piracy, I also think we need to evaluate these ridiculous trickling release schedules. What do you think?

It took me several minutes into Sk8 Life to realize that the film wasn't a documentary about skateboarding but rather a narrative feature. Well, sort of. Most of the characters have the same names as the actors, who aren't actors but skateboarders portraying variations of themselves. If this doesn't make sense to you, imagine how I felt trying to puzzle it out while watching the movie. Fortunately, while I was trying to figure it out, I could watch lots of amazing skateboarding moves, which is the real attraction of Sk8 Life.

Sk8 Life, which was shot in Canada, is about a group of young skaters (the term used for people skilled on skateboards) who spend the summer trying to unite in filming a lot of challenging skateboard routines. Their leader is Kris (Kris Foley), who needs money to pay the steeply increased property taxes on his house, The Crash Pad, to avoid foreclosure. Everyone wants to save The Crash Pad because it's a place where skaters are welcome when they need a place to crash (thus the name), plus it has a big skateboard ramp in the backyard. Kris is hoping that the footage of the skaters can be sold for enough money to pay the taxes.

The indie drama Who Loves the Sun, which screened at AFI Dallas last weekend, is a good example of a low-key relationship movie, with just five characters and a single large setting -- an island where the family of characters has its summer home. The Canadian island setting is so lush and varied that you forget at times that this is a low-budget film limited to one location.

Will (Lukas Haas) returns to the Bloom family home after being away -- in fact, it turns out that he simply vanished five years ago and Mary and Arthur Bloom (Wendy Crewson and R.H. Thomson) don't know why. They persuade their son Daniel (Adam Scott), a successful NYC magazine editor who was formerly Will's childhood friend, to come for a visit, but the guys just bicker and yell like brothers gone sour. Then Will's wife Maggie (Molly Parker) turns up and we learn that before Will disappeared after catching Maggie and Daniel in flagrante. Now the trio needs to reconcile with one another, including figuring out which guy will end up with Maggie (if any). Mary and Arthur are inevitably drawn into the situation as well.

I've never lived in Canada, so I haven't been able to enjoy the TV series on which the movie Trailer Park Boys is based. I can't tell you how faithful the movie is to the TV show. I watched the movie, which had its U.S. premiere at SXSW, as an American being exposed to the gang for the first time. So I can tell you that you don't have to be Canadian or a fan of the show to get a kick out of Trailer Park Boys. However, you do have to enjoy drug, alcohol and strip-club humor.

I feel like I could essentially recycle my Smiley Face review for this movie: it's the same overall tone and has similar lightweight humor, although Trailer Park Boys pretends to have more of a plot. Ricky (Robb Wells), Julian (John Paul Tremblay) and Bubbles (Mike Smith) reunite after Ricky and Julian are released from jail for trying to rob an ATM. They all live in Sunnyvale Trailer Park: Ricky lives in his barely functional car next to his girlfriend Lucy's trailer, and Bubbles lives in a shed with innumberable adorable cats. Julian reveals his great criminal idea: robbing parking meters and other change dispensers because they can't get jail time for robbing change. Ricky, however, wants to go for "the big dirty," an enormous heist that will give them enough money to retire, so Ricky can enjoy life with his longtime girlfriend Lucy and their daughter Trinity, and grow weed on the side. While they're debating over their next job, the trailer-park manager Mr. Lahey is plotting to evict them so he can have a trouble-free community.

I'm very fond of dysfunctional family comedies -- Home for the Holidays, Slums of Beverly Hills, and even the ultra-dark Where's Poppa? are all films I've enjoyed. So it was disappointing to discover that the Canadian dysfunctional family film The Hamster Cage, which played at Fantastic Fest this week, was only sporadically funny or entertaining.

The Hamster Cage is an over-the-top attempt at dark comedy: a family reunites for a special dinner to celebrate the father winning the Nobel Prize. As daughter Lucy (Jillian Fargey) and son Paul (Tom Scholte) enter their parents' home, we notice that Mom (Patricia Dahlquist) doesn't talk to Lucy, and Paul avoids Dad (Alan Scarfe) but engages in overly long embraces with his Mom. When Lucy learns that Uncle Stan (Scott Hylands) is expected, she flies into a rage. Uncle Stan shows up with Candy (Carly Pope), a 22-year-old writer dressed like a 12-year-old, and a stack of presents. You know how relatives sometimes use gifts as sly weapons to hurt or embarrass family members? Uncle Stan's gifts take that to extremes.

With James, Martha and Kim doing a fabulous job covering the Toronto International Film Festival, I figured we would focus strictly on Canadian films this week on Eat My Shorts. Sure, Canada seems to get a bad rap (especially from those South Park boys), but it hasn't stopped them from producing some outstanding shorts over the years.

While browsing around the internet recently, I noticed (via Boing Boing) that The National Film Board of Canada has put 50 of its greatest animated shorts online for all to see. And yes, for free! With a collection that spans 60 years and features 41 directors, you'll find a ton of excellent shorts, with some Oscar-nominated works thrown in.

As always, if you'd like to see a short film featured on a future edition of Eat My Shorts, simply email all links, tips and suggestions to shorts AT Cinematical DOT com. Okay, and now it's aboot time we check out some Canadian shorts, eh ...

I grew up near here, but at the time it wasn't near at all; Toronto was just stations on the TV, voices on the radio, where the Sunday paper came from. It was an hour-and-a-half drive, or a well-planned afternoon on a terrific transit system, and it was a world away. Coming to Toronto for the Film Festival is, for me, always a bit disconcerting -- I remember how awestruck I felt at age 14 seeing the inside of Toronto's retail landmark Eaton Centre for the first time. Bear in mind, the Eaton Centre is a mall with one thing going for it: It is enclosed during winter. But I was easily impressed. In many ways, I still am, and grateful for it.

And Toronto never leaves my mind. How could it? I watch the trailers for movies I wouldn't watch in a thousand years and, yes, there's Milla Jovovitch running down Toronto 's City Hall building, as it explodes about her. Or I perk up during a dull action film for two things: Brian Cox and the moment Chow-Yun Fat strides by a Toronto Sun box. Or the music of Broken Social Scene playing counterpoint to Ryan Gosling's imploding life in Half Nelson. These things crop up everywhere.

Or they do if you look for them, and all Canadians are cultural critics at heart -- early on you're told That culture is not you. It's not you because it's American, French-Canadian, English-Canadian; spinning the TV dial was an act of cultural roulette. And you went to the movies at a big movie palace, The Tivoli, and for a few dizzy Star Wars-Indiana-Jones-Aliens years, you would be part of a line that stretched down the block past the funeral parlor.

Last July, Karla Homolka was released from prison after serving twelve years for several killings in Southwestern Ontario. A movie based on Homolka and her husband, Paul Bernardo, was filmed in 2004. Canada, however, has been less than receptive of Karla. Christal Films in Montreal acquired distribution rights, but at least one TV station has stopped running ads for the film, despite the insistence of the filmmakers, who claim the movie is not exploitative and owes much to the film Monster. That doesn't exactly make me want to run out and see it, but I see their point. Canadians were so against the film, in fact, that it was forced to shoot in Los Angeles. There is currently no distributor for the film in the US. If your lifelong dream was to see "Donna" from That '70s Show play a Canadian serial killer, you may have to work a lot harder to follow that dream.  

Three different agencies in Canada (two advertising/broadcast regulators, and one TV network) have received complains about the television advertising for Eli Roth's extra-violent, little-discussed flick, Hostel. The complaints, which number less than two dozen altogether, stem mainly from concerns that the ads - which "are extremely graphic and showing people being tortured," in addition to warning that "at advance screenings, paramedics were called in response to theatergoers' reactions to the intensity" - might be seen by young children. (It remains unclear whether the complainers are worried about their kids being damaged, or that the little rugrats might end up wanting to see the movie.)

Though the spots apparently can't run before 9PM, it's hard to argue that they're not being shown during programs watched by Canadians of all ages, namely Hockey Night in Canada. However, the noncommittal response from investigative agencies makes it seem unlikely that the complaints will amount to anything more than further publicity for the movie. Say it with me now: "Any publicity is good publicity."