Some fine, fine Canadiana on display in this collection of short films! Touching, funny, or just creepy, but most of all, very bilingual! I’m not exactly sure what amnesia has to do with Canada, and I didn’t see any particular theme amongst the films… But anyway, on to the reviews!
Moi non plus (Me Neither)
The first, and weakest, short. A Concordia (I think) student must deal with a relationship with a powerful politician, who seems to be tangled in shady businesses, and a surprise affair with a charming fellow student. Unfortunately the characters weren’t really developed, and the ending was anticlimactic and predictable.
Mind the Gap
But now we’re picking up steam! This hilarious little film pairs up a beautiful but seriously messed up young woman with a sweet older gentleman. Stuck together on a train, she talks his head off about whatever flashes through her tiny brain. We laugh, we cringe, we want to slap some sense into her. Good times.
Naissances
A teenager who just had an abortion and a lonely handyman bond over lies. Quiet, sad and beautifully done.
Transmission
A tow truck driver just struggling to get by finds his day getting worse and worse. A simple slice of life, with disturbingly believable characters.
La dernière rondelle (The Last Time Around)
An old hockey player suffering from Alzheimer’s goes on the ice one last time. Wordless, and deeply moving.
Au milieu de nulle part ailleurs (Nowhere, Elsewhere)
A little boy who can see the Virgin Mary, a grandmother who might see ghosts, and a mother who thinks she might join them. Weird, crazy, dizzying, creepy.
Original Sin
Choices, order, and control freakery. Weird but hilarious.
Chloe and Attie
An old lady who can… make people kill each other through their iPods? I don’t know what that was about, but it was pretty damn chilling.
A Fine Young Man
A hilarious parody of Cold War paranoia and jingoism (filmed on location in Vancouver! Didn’t recognise the street, though…) What’s more important that beating those dirty Commies to the Moon? The answer may surprise you…
The Closer You Get to Canada
And the black humour continues! In the year 2060, overpopulation is no longer a problem. Running out of animals to hunt used to be a problem, but not anymore…