In the lead up to the 7th Canadian Film Festival in Australia (August 2012), join us as we countdown the Top 100 Canadian Films of the past 30 years. We'll be posting one film a day leading up to Canada Day on July 1st 2012. Do you agree with our staff favourites? Let us know your thoughts!
#99 - Whole New Thing
Canadian coming-of-age drama Whole New Thing is written and directed by Amnon Buchbinder, the author of The Way of the Screenwriter (and also a lecturer at York University’s film Department in Toronto). Buchbinder’s inspiring book takes a philosophical approach to the craft. Anyone interested in the art of screenwriting but wary of easy formulas should not only read this fascinating guide but catch Buchbinder’s low-budget gem.
Talented newcomer Aaron Webber is Emmerson, a smart 13 year-old living with his back-to-nature hippie parents (Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy) in Nova Scotia. Like many of us before him, Emmerson has a crush on a teacher (played by co-writer Daniel McIvor). Unlike many of us before him, he chooses to do something about it.
This isn’t a coming out story. It’s a warm and witty portrait of adolescence and the foolishness of love, filled with authentic (if eccentric) characters. Like all good coming-of-age stories, it chronicles the ripple effect that one character’s journey can have on the quests for identity, maturity and self-actualisation of everyone around them. It does so through sharp characterisation and textured relationships which ring true without the need for clichés. The dialogue is pitch perfect and one of the film’s great pleasures.
- Matt Ravier
“Like a Canadian Six Feet Under, the indie dramedy Whole New Thing mixes characters who seem both completely plausible and capable of anything.” New York Post
To see the other films in the countdown so far, click here.