While our industry is undeniably eclipsed by the dream factory that is Hollywood, Canadians are more than capable of making damn good movies. The first credited Canadian film is Ten Years in Manitoba in 1898. But it wasn’t really until the National Film Board was set up in 1939 to produce propaganda films for the war that Canadian film truly became an industry. The peak of that industry in this podcast’s opinion was the 1990s (though that’s NOT to say there isn’t still great work being produced today).
If you’ve never watched a Canadian film before, we highly encourage you to check out the following three:
Whale Music (1994) is based on the novel by Paul Quarrington (which is in turn loosely based on the life of Brian Wilson). Maury Chaykin plays aging rocker Desmond Howl who wanders around his decrepit mansion obsessed with his past. That is until teenage runaway Claire comes into his life and tries to turn things around for him.
Bruce McDonald’s mockumentary Hard Core Logo (1996) is the Canadian spirit sister film to This is Spinal Tap (1984) and is regularly on lists of the best Canadian Films ever made. A punk band comes back together after their mentor is shot, they travel from Vancouver to Edmonton. Along the way, acid is dropped, and sanities are lost.
While the Don McKellar film Last Night (1998) has the grandiose theme of the end of the world, it doesn’t feel like a ‘big’ movie. Without a Hollywood budget, the film instead is usually no more than two characters as they quietly reflect on the end of the world. Everyone deals with reality differently; some want to fuck their way to the end, some want to pray, and others want to blow their brains out. Whatever their preferred method of dealing with it, the film is far superior to the Hollywood version of this story, Seeking a Friend for the end of the World (2012). The film also boasts an early Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy, Killing Eve) performance.
For those interested in learning more about Canadian Film:
- Wilner, Norm (2017, August 3rd) It was the end of the world as he knew it: Looking back at Don McKellar’s ‘Last Night”, cbcarts.ca
- Monk, Katherine (2001) Weird Sex and Snowshoes: And other Canadian Film Phenomena, Raincoat Books
https://www.amazon.ca/Weird-Sex-Snowshoes-Canadian-Phenomena/dp/1551924749
- Melnyk, George, (2004) One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema, University of Toronto Press
https://www.amazon.ca/One-Hundred-Years-Canadian-Cinema/dp/0802084443
- Liss, Sarah, (2022, May 17th) Who does Sarah Polley Think She Is? The Walrus.ca
- Johnson, Brian D. (1996, October 14th) Raw punk, Cooked Pop, Macleans Magazine
https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1996/10/14/raw-punk-cooked-pop