It’s been a few weeks, but I’ve moved roommates in and out of die Kommune, written my paper and generally run out of excuses. So it’s time for Indie Canadian Movie Night!
The time will be 7PM – 10PMish, Thursday June 15th. The place, the LCI lounge.
I don’t think I’ve ever shown any Canadian films at my movie nights. Time to fix that. I’m tempted to show some classic Old School David Cronenberg, like Scanners (greatest exploding-head scene in the history of cinema). But maybe I’ll save that. This week I feel like down-home indie Canadian cult road movies directed by Bruce Macdonald.
First, ROADKILL, a low-budget, black-and-white film about a woman (Valerie Buhagiar) learning to drive, a serial killer (Don McKellar), a confused film crew, Joey Ramone, and tons of circa-1989 grungy Canadian indie music. It’s cool and gritty and funy, and it reminds me a bit of Clerks (which came 5 years later). It’s not a movie with what you’d call “production values”, but it has something better. Heart. Yeah, that’s right: I said heart.
Roadkill is only 70 minutes long, so I wanna couple that with Bruce Macdonald’s much slicker 90-minute HARD CORE LOGO, a Spinal-Tap-like mockumentary about a punk band on a tour of western Canada. Well, not quite Spinal-Tap-like. It’s a <i>lot</i> darker, for one. Seriously. Very dark indeed. But it’s still pretty cool. And it’s the only movie I know of that has a scene set in Regina, Saskatchewan, where I grew up.
There’s two ways to look at it: Billy wants the models and limousines, while I’m happy with hookers and taxicabs.
– Joe Dick
People who have been in the department for a while might remember my occasional movie night notices, but it’s been a while now. But I thought I’d restart the tradition on a semi-regular basis.