Weirdos – 4PM

Screening: Thursday, June 15, 2017 – 4:00 pm
Uptown Theatre, 55 Dunlop St. W., Barrie
Directed by: Bruce McDonald
Written by: Daniel MacIvor
Cast: Julia Sarah Stone, Dylan Authors, Molly Parker, Allan Hawco
Drama, 14A, 89 minutes, note: filmed in glorious Black & White (Canada)

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“one of Bruce McDonald’s sweetest films” – Toronto Star

“It’s ultimately Stone who walks away with the picture. Adding an impatient clarity to the old-soul watchfulness she displayed in Wet Bum, she slowly becomes Weirdos’ moral centre. And it’s something to see.” – Norm Wilner, Now Magazine

“What’s not to love about Canuck hipster Bruce McDonald’s return to a genre of which he’s a master – the indie road movie with a distinctly Canadian flavour and endearingly peculiar characters?” – Michael D. Reid, Victoria Times Colonist, British Columbia

Canadian master Bruce McDonald teams with veteran playwright and screenwriter Daniel MacIvor for a coming-of-age road movie with the perfect blend of magic and naturalism. It’s July 1976, and the USA is celebrating its bicentennial. But, north of the border in the small Nova Scotian town of Antigonish it’s a weekend like any other, which means not much is going on. Music-loving 15-year-old Kit (Dylan Authorsm) spends his time either alone in his room listening to Elton John albums, or hanging out with his platonic girlfriend, Alice (Julia Sarah Stone, a 2014 TIFF Rising Star for her performance in Wet Bum). Like Kit, Alice feels out of place, and her divorced parents have too many issues of their own to offer much comfort. Craving a turning point in their lives, the two decide to hitchhike to Sydney on Cape Breton Island to visit Kit’s glamorous but unstable mother, Laura (Molly Parker) — a journey guided, by a laconic Andy Warhol apparition (Rhys Bevan-John). Through their quest for something bigger and better — both on the road and at their destination — they’ll face some truths about themselves that will point the way to a more honest, fully lived future. Accompanied by a suitably killer ’70s soundtrack, and shot in softly sunlit black and white, this film is grounded in its quiet and life-affirming moments; the film’s offbeat sense of humour arises organically from the differences in the ways its characters express their love. These sweet weirdos are temporarily lost, but they’re about to help each other find out where they’re headed.

Awards:
Nominated, Generation 14plus BEST FILM, Berlin International Film Festival, 2017
Nominated, Performance by an Actress in Supporting Role (Molly Parker), Canadian Screen Awards, CA, 2017
Nominated, Performance by an Actress in Supporting Role (Molly Parker), Vancouver Film Critics Circle, 2017

Program is Sponsored by: