(Canada, 80 min.)
Written and directed by Pat Mills
Starring: Pat Mills, Zahra Bentham, Tracey Hoyt, Kevin
Hanchard, Alex Ozerov, Eleanor Zichy
Everyone needs a little guidance, so local filmmakers searching for inspiration should look to
Ottawa native Pat Mills. Mills, an ex-pat of the 613 now living in
Toronto, makes his solo feature directorial debut with the upbeat black comedy Guidance. This Toronto-shot film boasts
a great sense of character as Mills plays an actor moonlighting as a guidance
counselor at a Parkdale high school. There’s a little bit of a bad teacher in
everyone, but Mills’ saucy substitute is no rotten apple.
“Let’s do a shot,” says David Gold (Mills) to one of his students. David, an actor, gives this advice as he plays the role of guidance counsellor Roland Brown to make some quick cash for the rent, but he seems like the last person fit to provide guidance to teens. He’s an alcoholic actor who can’t hold down even the lowliest of voice-over roles (usually because he’s too drunk before noon) and he's about to lose his crappy apartment. He also denies his sexuality, since everyone but David thinks he’s gay—and Mills’ colourfully flamboyant performance makes David a walking finger snap—and he pays no heed to the skin cancer that marks his arm. Oh, and he lives in the shadow of his former life as a child star on TV. (A ballsy play on art-imitating life, since Mills is a former child star of You Can’t Do That on Television.) There's enough pressure to find success at thirty, even more so when one peaks at thirteen. No wonder his favourite advice in the guidance office is to say cheers.
In the office, David/Roland gives students a push where mentors usually raise a flag. He encourages students to own their sluttiness, or to go for
the easy lay, or he’ll even test the weed of an expelled student before finding
a better school in which the student may thrive. He becomes the most popular
teacher in the halls by aligning with the kids and not the grumpy faculty. As
David tells another of his students, “I think this world is pretty shitty, and
if you fit into it, you must be pretty shitty too.” He’s a misfit and an
outsider. More than any of their teachers or parents, David knows what it’s
like to fail to conform and feel inadequate for being a black sheep.
Maybe David is actually the right person to guide these
students since he shares their anxieties. Even one of the fellow teachers at
school seems intent on dragging David out of the closet, since the actor can
immerse himself in Roland’s dorky clothes, but can’t hide his “gay voice” or
flamboyant sparkle. David hilariously avoids confronting aspects of himself
with the help of various coping devices (re: booze and more booze), and the
actor finds himself playing two characters—Roland and David—who both need
allies. Mills contrasts this awkward head-to-head between David and his
colleague with a storyline in which Roland takes a struggling student,
Jabrielle (Zahra Bentham), under his care. This thread with Jabrielle takes the
film in an unexpected direction as David hits his stride by recognizing signs
for help that he fails to see in himself. The pair of misfits band together
like Bonnie and Clyde and their escape from the school leads to the revelations
that both David and Jabrielle need.
Mills makes a promising debut in his first solo effort as
writer/director. (He previously co-directed the feature Secondary High and has a handful of shorts in his credits.) This
consistently funny and charming dark comedy plays with our conceptions of
success and normalcy, but while Guidance celebrates
those of us who take a different path, Mills avoids cynicism. The film takes
the path of acceptance and uses the absurdity of David’s charade to normalize
the eccentricities that make us who we are. It’s a warmly funny film despite
the dark humour and sadness that underlies David’s sessions with the students.
A funky indie score keeps the atmosphere light when the action grows dark, and
balances the satirical tone of this lo-fi satire.
If Guidance shines
thanks to Mills’ hand behind the camera, though, it’s most memorable for his
gutsy turn as the flamboyant, dorky, and endearing David. This larger-than-life
performance gives Guidance just the
right spunk to suspend audiences’ disbelief, but also to invite viewers to
embrace the misfits of Guidance for
who they are. This more outrageously David encourages them to go against the
grain, the more Guidance professes an
affinity for people who see through the bullshit and take pride in their
uniqueness. This heartfelt dark comedy re-introduces a voice that’s right at
home in a league of offbeat intimate filmmaking.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Guidance opens in Toronto on August 14 at TIFF Lightbox.
