Friday, May 14, 2010

Lisa, Doug T and I went to see Jacob Tierney's hilarious student-revolution movie, THE TROTSKY, starring Jay Baruchel. This is a funny, funny movie, taking an improbable character down a very convincing and satisfying path.

It's such a joy to see Québec's and Canada's best actors given such meaty roles to chew on: from Colm Feore as the martinet school principal and Saul Rubinek as the long-suffering father, down to the always striking Tiio Horn as a rabble-rousing follower and Genevieve Bujold as a former radical turned bureaucrat. Oh, and Michael Murphy as a retired radical, and Jesse Rath as the spiteful student union prez, and David Julian Hirsh as the disdainful brother, and Al Goulem as the easy-going police chief, and the utterly effervescent Jessica Paré all perfectly cast, with sharply honed dialog, and directing that catches all their best moments. Tierney is a child actor, and that makes him an actor's director. I haven't seen a movie as strikingly well cast as this in a while. (Kudos to Rosina Bucci of Elite Casting there too.)

Normally when a Canadian director does a move this entertaining, I worry that we're going to lose them to the Big Nipple, as Bertolucci called LA. But this movie is firmly set in West Montreal. There are Actual French People in the movie, and bilingual families. "Montreal feeds you," Tierney's told me.

The movie is a bit of a vindication of the envelope system. If I remember correctly, it did not get all the funding it needed from the usual funding agency. But Tierney's producer, his father Kevin Tierney, had a guaranteed chunk of money to spend as a result of the box office smash he produced, BON COP / BAD COP, which broke the Canadian box office record for a Canadian movie. There's something to be said for rewarding success.

There was a pretty good crowd at the Forum at 7:35 pm, including a lot of (I'm guessing) high school and college kids, so I'm hoping this movie will have legs that will take it wide down south. Good luck, Jacob!

Labels: watching movies

11:35 PM

5 Comments:

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By  laptop battery, at 11:44 PM  

I said it to Denis. I'll say it here: Damn good movie, The Trotsky is. Saw it the first night at Silver City Gloucester here in Ottawa. Looked like a decent crowd, half the seats filled up.

And I still want Bon Cop, Bad Cop II. I'll shell out the $10-12 for the two hours when it's done and ready. Possibly more than twice.

By  Dwight Williams, at 10:54 AM  

Tierney is being interviewed on The Current on Monday (so I learn by listening to CBC Vancouver all the way from California -- go, go iTunes).

By  Alex, at 2:09 PM  

Looking forward to that interview!

By  Dwight Williams, at 3:30 PM  

I loved Bon Cop, Bad Cop (and ditto the request for a sequel), and will keep my eyes peeled for this! Here's hoping "The Trotsky" makes it to Australia.

By  Anonymous, at 9:11 AM  

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