Director: Guy Maddin
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 2.5
Another sliced-and-diced flight of fancy by Canadian Maddin, this time turning his shaky, grainy camera(s) on his home town of Winnipeg, mixing in flat truth with gross exaggerations, like the poor kid trying not to get laughed at during show-and-tell. Much of this is familiar territory for the director, rehashing components of Brand Upon the Brain! and (especially) Cowards Bend the Knee (childhood memories/fantasies, Mom as hairdresser, the surreal hockey game) once again: a lot of his work, to a degree, is based on his own life, so making a film about his hometown strikes me as being a little redundant. The collection of images is held together thinly, and part of me is finding his schtick a little tiring, but then he turns around and presents a sequence so inspired I can't help but grin (especially the horses trapped in the ice and the TV show featuring a suicidal man and Maddin's testy Mum). Actually, now that I think of it, shipping the Jets to Phoenix was a raw deal....
