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| Don't Talk to Irene, Rumble, Dim the Fluorescents, Long Time Running, Adventures in Public School and Hochelaga are the year's best Canadian films. |
It’s been a quietly respectable year for Canadian film. I
realise that statement might not read like a compliment, but I’m still caught
off guard by how hard it was to see Canadian movies this year. In the seven
years that I’ve been writing this blog and covering the Canadian film beat, or
at least trying my best to do so, 2017 posed the biggest struggle for finding
Canadian content. It just wasn’t out there as much as it’s been in previous
years, or, if it was, it was far less visible.
Maybe let’s go back to the “quietly respectable thing.” The
majority of the films here are very small personal films, but their
independence and autonomy makes them strong. In some way, the best Canadian
films of 2017 gave us one great character to which we could relate, identify,
and spend two hours immersed in the experiences of others. Maybe that great character
was a plus-sized high schooler, the poet of Canadian rock, a young Afghan girl,
or a site of history, but the best Canadian films this year used singular
experiences to tell stories that zoomed back to teach us more about ourselves
and find universal resonance within a unique tale.
Here are my picks for the ten best Canadian films of 2017.
Please note that, as always with the list for the best Canadian films of the
year, this list considers both theatrical releases and festival screenings. (So
Window Horses, Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves and Maudie all made last year’s column.)
The Top 10 Canadian Films of 2017:
10. Rebels on Pointe
(Dir. Bobbi Jo Hart)
Bobbi Jo Hart does a
grand jeté with the wonderfully inclusive dance documentary Rebels on Pointe. The film goes
backstage to profile Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, the successful New
York based company that knocks the stuffy art of ballet off its pedestal with
its all-male, all-gay, and all-drag ballet. Hart presents the usual sequences
of choreography, practice, physiotherapy, and make-up application, but Rebels on Pointe gives them a
distinctive spin as the dancers have a laissez-faire attitude that one doesn’t
often see behind the scenes. Plus, it features the best un-ironic use of Jann
Arden’s “Good Mother” you’ll ever hear.
9. A Skin So Soft
(Dir. Denis Côté)
Why not do a double
feature with A Skin So Soft and the
#8 selection A Better Man? Toxic
masculinity is a trending topic these days and this hybrid film from Denis Côté
(Joy of Man’s Desiring) playfully
observes half a dozen bodybuilders with an eye for manliness. Côté asks the
audience to consider the measure of a man as A Skin So Soft features these robust Adonises (Adonii?) in scenes
of weightlifting, training, dieting, and grunting, but it also captures them in
the delicately effeminate toils of their trade, like manscaping, bronzing, and
posing. When the film imperceptibly oscillates between documentary and drama,
Côté challenges the images that define “real men.”
8. A Better Man
(Dir. Attiya Khan,
Lawrence Jackman)
This invaluable film
offers an incredibly brave risk in Attiya Khan’s idea to revisit her abusive
ex-boyfriend about the farm he inflicted years ego. Equally brave is the choice
of said ex-boyfriend Steve to sit down with Khan and confront the sins of his
past. A Better Man shows the
possibility of finding closure and resolution through dialogue as the
conversations and therapy sessions Khan and Steve share offer a healing process
for them both. This film needs to be in classrooms, workplaces, university
campuses, and screens everywhere for its positive and productive conversation
on gender-based violence. It’s difficult, but necessary viewing.
7. The Breadwinner
(Dir. Nora Twoney)
Screenwriter Anita
Doron introduces a brilliant stroke to her adaptation of Deborah Ellis’s novel by
adding the fable of the Elephant King within the larger story of a young girl
named Parvani who finds strength and independence in Taliban-controlled
Afghanistan. These scenes contrast classical compositions with paper cut-outs
that draw upon the folklore and mythology that inspires Parvani’s quest. The Breadwinner gradually introduces the
story of the Elephant King as Parvani cautiously goes out into public dressed
as a boy and the film intercuts them more frequently and quickly as the tale
inspires her to defy convention and reach heroic heights. The Breadwinner is a visually striking fable with a grand
international scope that tackles complex subjects of family, identity, and
belonging.
6. Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked
the World
(Dir. Catherine
Bainbridge, Alfonso Maiorana)
Not one but two great
music docs define the year in Canadian film! These entries into the most
popular sub-genre of non-fiction are long overdue in Canadian film, since, we
don’t have nearly enough definitive music docs to honour the artists who add
some CanCon to the airwaves. This immaculately assembled film uses the talking
heads approach to inject a flavour of oral storytelling into the unsung history
of Indigenous musicians in the annals of rock and roll. Canada finds its 20 Feet from Stardom in this energetic
music doc as Rumble features an
admirable cast that ranges from Buffy Sainte-Marie to Martin Scorsese to pay
tribute to the unheralded legacy of Indigenous musicians.
5. Adventures in Public School
(Dir. Kyle Rideout)
Judy Greer finally
receives the great performance we all knew she had in her, but never had the
chance to give. She plays an utterly endearing helicopter parent named Claire
in Kyle Rideout’s upbeat and funny Adventures
in Public School (né Public Schooled)
about a mother who lets her son, Liam (Daniel Doheny), out into the wild after
16 years of home schooling. Greer’s performance should help this little comedy
find an audience both here and in the States, and it’s refreshing to see Adventures in Public School hit a
similarly sweet note as Don’t Talk to
Irene and deliver an offbeat voice like Dim
the Fluorescents to prove that Canadian films can do comedy really, really
well. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and sweetly irresistible.
4. Dim the Fluorescents
(Dir. Daniel Warth)
Dim the Fluorescents might be the Canadian hidden gem of the year.
(Okay, one of many.) The film features two powerhouse performances by Claire
Armstrong and Naomi Skwarna as best friends/roommates/co-workers/aspiring
actresses Audrey and Claire. The pair has the peculiar business of staging
brief but important demonstrations for companies and human resources
departments about subjects like conflict resolution and combatting sexual
harassment in the workplace. (Timely!) They deliver these sketches with the
utmost seriousness, played in pitch-perfect deadpan by Armstrong and Skwarna,
and thrive as professionals. This authentic film rings true in the friends’
struggle to break through Toronto’s competitively rigged arts scene, and Dim the Fluorescents finds in these
starving artists the plights of creatively minded millennials in Canada. The
final scene in which the friends confront their insecurities on a stage for all
to see is easily the single most brilliant feat of acting in any Canadian film
this year.
3. Long Time Running
(Dir. Jennifer
Baichwal, Nick de Pencier)
What a bittersweet
film to celebrate this year. The passing of Gord Downie just a month after Long Time Running premiered revived the
collective Canadian pride and gratitude for the poet of Canadian rock. This doc
ends with an equally poignant tribute to Downie and the Tragically Hip as it
cuts together images of Canadians from coast to coast, singing in unison and joining
in song. The film masterfully evokes the Hip’s legacy of giving a voice to
Canadians when their airwaves remain oversaturated with American music. Downie
ends each concert by enthusiastically thanking music lovers, but Long Time Running, which deserves to be
seen on the biggest screen with the volume set to the highest possible decibel,
is just one way to thank the biggest music lover this country ever saw.
2. Hochelaga, Land of Souls
(Dir. François
Girard)
X marks the spot for
an epicenter of Canadian history as Hochelaga
explores the many lives that have crossed this corner of Montreal throughout
the ages. Hochelaga spans from the
pre-contact years to present day, and the expansive scope of the film puts
Canada’s settler history under the microscope. The souls of the Iroquois haunt
the land with a breathtaking narrative that Girard intercuts throughout the
film and shows Hochelaga with the original inhabitants of the territory. This
film is shot so beautifully and the production values are simply outstanding,
so I really hope that Hochelaga finds
an audience for its important and haunting tale. Girard laudably balances a highwire
act of onscreen representation deliver a sweeping historical epic that is
politically correct, rich in its period details and research, and sensitive to
the diverse multicultural audience of contemporary Canada. It’s a fine film to encapsulate
all the pride and shame entailed within Canada 150.
And the best Canadian film of 2017 is…
1. Don’t Talk to Irene
(Dir. Pat Mills)
I don’t think any
movie made me smile as much as Don’t Talk
to Irene did this year. The sophomore comedy from Pat Mills is an
infectiously feel good coming of age tale as misfit Irene (Michelle Macleod)
quietly rebels against her mother and convention by rallying residents of the
local retirement home to be her dance team / posse. Macleod gives a fantastic
performance full of spunky energy—and she really shines in a year that featured
several outstanding breakthrough roles on the Canadian film scene. She anchors
the film as a loveable outsider who relates to all the anxieties and
insecurities one faced during the horribly awkward high school years. Featuring
a marvellously self-deprecating cameo by Geena Davis, a buoyant poppy
soundtrack, and a swan song of a performance from late actor Bruce Gray, Don’t Talk to Irene is fun, positive,
upbeat, and inclusive—it’s the one film on this list I’d unreservedly recommend
to anyone. Cheers to Pat Mills for
providing a ray of sunshine this year desperately needed.
Honourable mentions:
The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches, Manic, Our People Will Be Healed, Porcupine Lake, The Road Forward, Sundowners, Thereis a House Here, Unarmed Verses
Previously in Year in
Review:
Up next: The Best
Performances of 2017