Thread of Canadian cinema.

I searched and didn't any thread on this subject. So let's discuss Michel Brault, Pierre Perreault, FUBAR, Zach Kunuk, the NFB, Denis Villeneuve, Guy Maddin, Patricia Rozema and let's ask ourselves countless questions like: when was the last time Egoyan made a good film? Is Porky's really the highest grossing canadian film of all time? or have I ever actually seen a canadian film? Perrault made a lot of great documentaries, which one should I watch?

Yeah, what happened to Egoyan? Last one I saw was "Where the Truth Lies," which was pretty good, iirc.

as good a place as any to plug my fave obscure QC film of all time, Vie d'Ange
http://elephantcinema.quebec/video/recherche/paule%20baillargeon/vie-dange/1241772353001

re: Egoyan, I actually liked Adoration for some reason

Egoyan's The Captive? More like The Craptive

Last few Canadian films I've liked has been Etienne Desrosiers documentary about Roger d'Astous, which, I know, is niche, but it's really really good. And he was great to do a Q&A with, smart guy. Also, the GYBE visual guy, Karl Lemieux, had his debut feature Shambles in competition at CPH:PIX, and it looked quite a lot like a GYBE video, but with an added crime plot that was kinda superfluous. Great visuals, though.

I too would love a guide to Perreault, btw.

re: Perrault, I've only seen La bête lumineuse but it rules

https://thewalrus.ca/how-indigenous-filmmakers-are-changing-contemporary-cinema/

I wish it discussed Searches a little more but it's a nice primer on the subject of First Nation and Canadian cinema.

I went to find out when this was released (a friend e-mailed me about it today), and it turned to be last night! You can watch it on YouTube already, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OMDsOTdJ3o

Like a lot of the people interviewed, Saturday Night at the Movies was an early influence on me. It debuted before VCRs hit the market (and years before TCM), so that was where I first saw a bunch of old movies. His Girl Friday sticks out in my mind, for some reason. I'm pretty sure Elwy came to speak to one of my film classes once...very informal, sitting around a table. I watched Magic Shadows, too, for a time, but didn't like the way films were chopped up over four or five nights. I wonder what TVO plans to do with all those interviews.

My brother watched this documentary; aside from growing up with Elwy Yost on the TV, we're both curious about him being born and raised here in Weston.

I never met him, but one of my professors did some kind of film review show with him in the 70s and was very dismissive about his critical acumen: "if a film had pictures moving on a screen, Elwy liked it".

I don't think he ever tried to pretend he was anything other than an unabashed fan--he embraced the term "movie buff." It was so genuine with him, he had a deep connection with his viewers. But there's a clip of him in the film, him being interviewed, where he defends the violence in The Wild Bunch, and the first three films shown on Saturday Night was the Bergman Trilogy; his enthusiasms led you to you interesting places.

Sure, he was an ideal host and interviewer for a show like Saturday Night at the Movies, which is why it's incongruous that he worked as a proto-Siskel/Ebert.

I just thought I'd drop in a plug for Before Tomorrow, the last film of the trilogy that began with The Fast Runner. We watched it a month ago and unlike most films we watch, this one stuck with me.

Atanarjuat...didn't know there was follow-up.

(xpost) I guess what I'm saying is that, while he wasn't a critic--and, no, didn't belong on a show that purported to evaluate films--I don't think he deserved a dismissal of any kind; he was better that that.

"than that"

Finally watched a Canadian film I would have first read about almost 50 years ago: Don Owen's The Ernie Game, his 1967 follow-up to Nobody Waved Goodbye (with some shorter NFB work between). There's a beautiful print on YouTube posted by the NFB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5G9pQ-1vCU

Two great musical bits: Leonard Cohen performing "The Stranger" at a party (17:30), four years before McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and, at 31:40, Judith Gault dancing around her apartment to a Kensington Market song I'm trying hard to identify. The film is completely of its moment: aimless wandering, frolicking in the snow, Godard-like detours, downbeat ending. Jackie Burroughs, the other woman, played Christopher Walken's mother in The Dead Zone. (There are a bunch of Owen films on YouTube: just started Notes for a Film About Donna & Gail from '66.)

There’s also this thread: Canadian Film in the house

I guess Van Horn Street missed that. I don't know if can bear the burden of two threads...

That Kensington Market song wasn't on either of their albums. Aardvark is quite a bit stronger than their debut, it's a well above-average psychedelic pop record with a bunch of memorable melodies.

I know, I checked...I ended up e-mailing some site called Cult Montreal earlier--they had a piece on the film--to see if they could help me. There's actually supposed to be a soundtrack LP, but it's not listed on Discogs.

This never works, but I did find one of the band's founders on Facebook--still living in Toronto--and messaged him directly. Said message will sit in an unread hidden folder for eternity.

That's why the Kensington Market never took off - too rude to their fans on social media.
The master tape of the songs for the film is undoubtedly sitting in the back of some NFB vault somewhere, to be released in 2067.

Found the Blu-ray that pairs Goin' Down the Road with Down the Road Again at a library sale today. I've never owned Goin' Down the Road on anything except a home-taped VHS. I'm not sure that I can bring myself to watch the sequel; I've studiously avoided it for years.

I was looking up Claude Jutra's À tout prendre because of the 1963 poll that's up (I think I've seen it but I'm not sure) and came across this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_10_Canadian_Films_of_All_Time

Had no idea they've been doing this every decade, S&S style, for 40 years. Next one should be a year or two from now. I'd be surprised if Atanarjuat held on to #1. Claude Jutra's personal issues probably rule out Mon oncle Antoine returning to the top, and I think regard for Goin' Down the Road has faded a bit (not with me). Has anything really prominent come out in the last decade? Could Stories We Tell make a Jeanne Dielman-type leap to #1?

I actually kept the results of this list on paper for years, but I can't say I've been living in anticipation for the next instalment.

I don't know if any Canadian film or filmmaker has really impressed themselves on the cognoscenti. Xavier Dolan (none of whose films I've seen) seems to be too divisive. Stories We Tell could have been a 20 minute segment on a CBC radio show and no worse for it. The top rated Canadian film on They Shoot Pictures, Don't They website is Wavelength, which frankly isn't going to draw much traffic into the Lightbox. There's an obvious disincentive to go back in film history and load the list with the works of dead or old white men. Is something like Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance likely to garner much support?

Sad to see Patricia Rozema's I've Heard the Mermaids Singing drop off the list since '93. Perhaps the recent exhibition of it on the Criterion Channel will give it a boost (I think it also got a bit of a theatrical redistribution last year?).

I really gotta see Les Bons débarras.

Forgot about Michael Snow--longshot, yeah, even with his recent death, although there are affinities between Wavelength and Jeanne Dielman. Cronenberg would seem like an obvious candidate, but Dead Ringers went down a notch last time.

kinda related but not really, but MDFF has absolutely been killing it with their latest releases. Queens of the Qing Dynasty and The Maiden both have a good chance of placing in my top 10, even top 5 depending on how things go, this year

I only watched I've Heard the Mermaids Singing last year; it's difficult for me to imagine that people who weren't there at the time will see its charms as more than modest.

I remember one of my film professors getting exasperated at Rozema squandering her industry goodwill with White Room.

Screened Mon Oncle Antoine for my class on The Child in Canadian Fiction this week. The recent revelations about Jutra had slipped my mind when I made the syllabus, though I don't think it would have stopped me from teaching it anyhow. That said, I'm glad no one brought it up.

Saw Mile End Kicks today--the second film ever about a rock critic? (Maybe Between the Lines should get partial credit for Jeff Goldblum.) Kind of a mess, but, to use the hokiest cliche imaginable, its heart is in the right place. Some of the 33-1/3 stuff is unintentionally laughable. (Hey, how come I never got a Skype call?) Grace's reading right at the end was moving. I undoubtedly would have liked it more if I knew Montreal at all (I did enjoy Grace giving the finger to Toronto as she headed out).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzaCmw_VrlI

Free screening of La Région Centrale (Michael Snow, 1971) last week in Vancouver. Apparently it formed the big inspo for Jeanne Dielman— Cinematheque is doing all Akerman this season— I’ve wanted to see The 80s for years and I missed it.

Mile End Kicks is generating opinions. Detractors feel it underlines (but doesn’t acknowledge or engage with) the “indie divide” of the era, whiteness and class elevating some and excluding others. I haven’t seen it but I loved I Like Movies so I’ll def be seeing it. A friend saw Kicks, someone who was super involved in that scene, and said its recreation of that scene and that era was precise enough to trigger strange a strange eerie pain, that it almost seemed too real to be a period piece

Very interested in hearing other opinions--I'm probably underrating it, in part because my equivalent moment was 1986, 25 years earlier. Plus, I'm male--I'm in that semi-circle Grace looks upon from the periphery.

that this thread got revived for Mile End Kicks but not for NTBTSTM or Blue Heron is v hilarious/depressing but feels about right for ILX

I saw Mile End Kicks at VIFF a few months ago and loved it. Definitely felt some nostalgia for the innocent period of 2010. I had a visceral reaction to some of the terrible decisions characters were making.

Nirvanna was great too, was it discussed on the board anywhere?

some uniquely Canadians forms of toxic bros in Mile End Kicks

that this thread got revived for Mile End Kicks but not for NTBTSTM or Blue Heron is v hilarious/depressing but feels about right for ILX

If you'd rather discuss these why not venture an opinion or observation about them as well?

Or: why didn't you revive the thread yourself for those two films?

Only now clicking in that Grace is played by the actress from Euphoria (she did seem familiar, but I probably put that down to the charactrer).

there was a little Nirvanna chat on the rolling media 2026 thread

saw MILE END KICKS today. apparently I was led astray by seemingly everyone I follow on LB who reviewed it being personal friends with the filmmaker lol. I liked what it was going for, sort of montreal’s take on FRANCES HA, but ultimately didn’t feel it had anything fresh to say

One of the more obvious problems, I'd say, is that of the two guys Grace is involved with, the good guy is too good and the other guy's too much of a creep--a little shading would have helped a lot.

i'll see mile end kicks but i generally don't want art to directly reflect my life to that degree

really blown away by how many 2010s canadian essay writers have made the pivot to directing movies (i'm aware of two, which is a lot imo)

i also don't know chandler directly but i was friends with one of her exes for a few years, one of the worst people i've ever known. it's all a little to close to me for comfort lmao

I've seen her photo, and I'm not sure if Grace could look more like her (which is what the actress looks like anyway).

that this thread got revived for Mile End Kicks but not for NTBTSTM or Blue Heron is v hilarious/depressing but feels about right for ILX
If you'd rather discuss these why not venture an opinion or observation about them as well?

― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 19 April 2026 22:42 (six days ago)

both of the movies are far better than Mile End Kicks and I'd rather people watch Blue Heron this weekend than Lena Dunham But Even Shittier, how about that

do I sound more abrasive than necessary yet lacking any substantive critique? yes

don't really care to venture my own thoughts on either beyond what I said bc people way smarter than me have written about Blue Heron at length and Chander Levack's movies don't deserve anymore critique or thought than "this is dogshit"

blue heron does look astonishing. looking forward to it

Happy to talk about Nirvanna. I thought it was wonderful. I somehow had never heard of the internet show, so it was entirely fresh for me. The Ottawa joke got a huge laugh at my screening.

murg otm blue heron is the goat

i haven't seen mile end kicks yet but the funniest thing about it is that the shoe store it's named after is easily the most banal non-hip and peripheral business in the neighborhood. just a complete nonentity. i'll defer judgment until after i've seen the movie, but i like to (meanly) imagine a young toronto transplant to the city for whom this void that hawks vans and blundstones was the fulcrum of the indie scene

tbf the character who works there seems pretty embarrassed to be doing so

seemingly everyone I follow on LB who reviewed it being personal friends with the filmmaker lol

this is kind of becoming a pre-requisite to being a successful indie filmmaker

I should have been tipped off by none of them actually giving a star rating and just giving a heart and saying my friend made a very nice movie lol

saw BLUE HERON today. a little overhyped imo. really liked the first half but the second was a little more conventional and sentimental than I’d have expected. didn’t do much for me

crowd was bawling at the scene with the daniel johnston song when i saw it

Opens in Waterloo next week--lobby poster looks good.

Watched Nirvanna last night and really wish I'd taken the chance to see it in a theater instead of streaming at home, just to be part of a crowd taking it in together. So fun. I thought the songs in the soundtrack were actually the guys themselves (just because it's set up as a kind of Flight of the Conchords), so I was surprised when the very good early-era Chicago-the-band turned out to be an actual early-era Chicago song; and same with the closing credits).

Have had a week highly relevant to this thread, seeing Nirvanna TBTSTM and Blue Heron and (for the first time since seeing it in the theater) Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould.

Gould holds up, Blue Heron pulled me in slowly and then blew me away, and already mentioned Nirvanna above but the contender for funniest split-second at the moment is the Jian Ghomeshi giant-billboard jump scare.

Thought Blue Heron was well done, but it felt like one of those films that is so single-minded about not having a false, movie-ish moment that for me it was a little too under-dramatized. I liked it more towards the end...and, typical of me, was quite confused (I think you'll know what I mean if you've seen it). I thought, "Oh, I get," followed by "I'm lost," followed by "I was right the first time." Anyway, it's a subject I don't ever remember a film taking on, and it seemed to be drawn from the director's life.

this thread got revived for Mile End Kicks but not for NTBTSTM or Blue Heron

Browsing through an old newspaper this week I was surprised to see all three of these made TIFF's Canada's Top Ten list, I was taking the poster's word that Mile End Kicks was subject to universal derision.

I liked the tension of Blue Heron's first half more, felt the second half let the audience off the hook a bit

Just a few minutes into Mile End Kicks and love how the promo copy of Have One on Me grounds it in such a specific moment.

Spoilers for Mile End Kicks (which I enjoyed a lot -- along with Nirvanna TBTSTM, it's fun to see 2010-ish nostalgia).

I was sure that the main character would bring bedbugs back to her apartment, which would make her even more of a terrible roommate than she already was. And then when she didn't, it made me think more about communicable diseases as a theme here instead of just a plot point, but that's as far as I got with that.

Glad I didn't read this Letterboxd review before seeing it: "so what was the point of being celibate due to oral herpes if he was gonna be passing around that walkie talkie weed pen like crazy"

Liked the audacity of the Horny Michael Clayton final shot.

I liked Blue Heron and straight-up had goosebumps at the end, but yeah I agree its second half was less and engaging. happy to hear I wasn't the only one confused too haha. Maybe I'll love it on a rewatch because some scenes are incredibly powerful

I worked at the same magazine as the Mile End Kicks director and was worried I would be *in* it, but fortunately no (I know who the Husker Du guys are, though)

I also wanna see "Roommates"-- Adam Sandler (and his daughter Sadie) liked "I Like Movies" enough to hire Chandler to direct a $30m norm-com

I just heard about that one this morning for the first time. Not many directors ever get to release two movies in one month! Still haven't seen I Like Movies but will get to that soon.