Required Canadian Content is a blog dedicated to showcasing the best (not necessarily the most popular) entertainment Canada has to offer - whether that’s film, television, comedy or the talented actors, writers and directors working in our entertainment industry!  There’ll be posts about old favourites, hidden gems and demands for you to immediately turn on your television or rush out to your local cinema to help support some home-grown talent. 

Follow the blog to keep up to date, discover something new or - if we can get enough followers - a contest here and there to win some hot Canadian swag (“DVDs”). Tell your friends! Let me know what you’d like to see more of! Let’s spread the love a little. 

Apologies for not updating here in a while - I spent a couple weeks helping friends move back to the UK and haven’t quite got back into film marathoning yet. I WILL get around to some updates in the next few days. However, in the mean time, I wanted to promote a side-project (or, more of my main project) here - my first passion has always been Canadian cinema and television, so, if you’re interested in checking out some possibly more obscure entertainment - head on over there and take a peak. :)

When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss. (trailer)

Character actor Thomas McCarthy’s directorial debut sees introverted, train-loving dwarf Fin (Peter Dinklage) move to a sleepy New Jersey town after he inherits property from his late (and only) friend. There, despite Fin’s reluctance, he soon becomes friends with Joe (Bobby Cannavale), a talkative streetside vendor, and Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), a woman struggling in her marriage after the death of her son. The trio make for an unusual grouping, a sort of Lonely Hearts Club Newfoundland, but their friendship is nonetheless endearing.

McCarthy’s film is an absorbing and humorous meditation of life in all its mundane glory. Its charm will creep up on you, helped by McCarthy’s excellent script and the performances of the leads, particularly Peter Dinklage as the Meursault-esque anti-hero. Look out also for Michelle Williams, in one of her first Indie roles, as Emily the librarian.

For fans of: slow-burning character studies, Patricia Clarkson and Peter Dinklage’s understated genius, trains (i.e. this writer and 2 other people).

Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break. (trailer)

Shot in black and white and presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, The Artist is a sweet and delightful silent movie that will surely entertain you. Right from the beginning you can see that the film’s strong point is actor Jean Dujardin and his timeless movie star quality.

Hazanavicius makes a nostalgic film recreating the charming era of old school Hollywood and at the same time he makes a movie about the evolution of film-making, the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. The level of authenticity is exceptional, the costumes, the sets and the score are remarkable. I know that it may seem a bit too long for a silent film but trust me, it’s not. It has enough charm to keep you focused and interested throughout. Dujardin and Bejo are marvelous together, their chemistry is off the charts, their scenes are a joy to watch.

The Artist is entertainment at its finest and it will warm your heart with its playful mood and magical atmosphere.

For fans of: silent films, Tati films, Jean Dujardin’s goofy and endearing smile, beautiful photography.

Based on Jane Rogers’ acclaimed novel, Island is a tale of yearning and retribution. Abandoned at birth, Nikki Black has spent most of her life in care sustained only by fairy-stories. Incapable of love, fearful and desperate for revenge, she decides to find her birth mother, confront her, and bitter enough to consider murder. She travels incognito to a remote Hebridean island where Phyllis now lives as a recluse with Calum, her son. (trailer)

I’ll admit up front: I chose to watch this film for Colin Morgan. I didn’t expect much in return, but then again that’s how I seem to stumble upon most films I serendipitously enjoy. I hadn’t read the book prior to watching, so I can’t speak for how well it was adapted. But if it’s anything like this film—gently paced, yet brimming with supsense—then it’s something I’d recommend reading.

Island has the elements I’m a sucker for: wind- and sea-worn landscapes, isolated cottages, all sorts of baubles (from Phyllis’s colored glass medicine bottles to the pearly seashells in Calum’s shack), and heavy analogy to fairy tales, fairy tales, fairy tales. Hand-in-hand with the fairy tale theme were Press and Morgan’s performances. Calum and Nikki don’t react in the way you’d expect adults to. They’re forceful, sincere, and fragile all at once, both suffering at the hand of their mother, whether directly or no. Calum’s compulsion to collect “treasures” (“You’re like a magpie,” Nikki remarks at one point) and Nikki’s blunt, impulsive comments find harmony in each other. They become ageless, genderless little spirits desperate for escape, akin to Hansel and Gretel or any number of fabled siblings, and just as compelling.

For fans of: the kind of intimate close-up and colors you’d find in a Jane Campion film, isolation and mutual fears building relationships, Colin Morgan’s fey features and innumerable accents, storytelling and fairy tales.

IT IS FESTIVAL SEASOOOOOON. Or: it is festival season for one of us here at Been Watching! As a local of the “T-Dot” (I promise I am cringing at my own use of this) I am going to be hitting up as many films as I can at the Toronto International Film Festival over the next ten days. 

If you’re interested in my complete festival coverage (anecdotes of awkward celebrity encounters!) and as-they-happen updates, you can follow me on twitter. And, inbetween not-sleeping, not-eating and films films films! I will try and marathon-review as many of my favourites while the festival runs! 

Do we have any followers checking films out this week? Let us know what you’re seeing! 

Walter “Gib” Gibson is heading across the country in pursuit of the mythical “Sure Thing” hookup his best friend has promised him. Straight-laced would-be-lawyer Alison Bradbury is heading across the country to spend Christmas with her straight-laced would-be-lawyer boyfriend. Shenanigans ensue. (trailer)

People will tell you the best John Cusack/uptight high-achieving love interest film of the 1980s is Say Anything. Those people are wrong, sadly blinded by the cultural impact of the boombox-over-the-head moment, and overlooking the witty charms of this beautiful It Happened One Night rip-off. But that’s okay. You don’t have to be one of them.

Look, The Sure Thing is not revolutionary filmmaking; you know exactly where Gib and Alison are headed the minute they end up together in the backseat of Tim Robbins’ (Tim Robbins!) showtunes-infested hellcar, but it’s tremendously satisfying to see a simple story told well, with smart dialogue, appealing leads, and chemistry fizzing everywhere. The verve and delight with which Gib tackles everything in his life – essaying on pizza, falling into swimming pools, rescuing ladies from the clutches of sleazy drivers – is contagious, catching up Alison and the audience both, and Cusack really is disgustingly charismatic considering he’s not even out of his teens at this point. These are likeable people, and watching them open up to liking each other is a cinematic joy. Plus, they make shotgunning a beer sexy. That’s talent.

For Fans Of: John Cusack’s pale teenage beauty, that bit in films where they have to share a bed, sexy towel action, those misty faraway days when Anthony Edwards had hair.

(view on wordpress)

A strait-laced French student moves into an apartment in Barcelona with a cast of six other characters from all over Europe. Together, they speak the international language of love and friendship. (trailer)(dvd)

Ultimately a story about growing up, new experiences and friendship, set to Radiohead’s No Surprises. The film follows Xavier (Romain Duris), a young French student who leaves his eccentric mother and girlfriend Martine— played by everyone’s (except this writer) favourite doe-eyed doyenne of French cinema, Audrey Tautou—behind to embark on a Erasmus exchange trip to Barcelona. There, he moves into a sharehouse with six others from all over Europe. Along the way he experiences lust, heartbreak and self-discovery.

Aside from its literal meaning, the film’s title is also an idiom in French, equivalent perhaps to ‘potluck’ in English and meaning roughly “you only get what you put in”; Xavier comes to realise and apply this not only to his time in Barcelona but also to his life overall. L’Auberge Espagnole is a poignant and realistic depiction of life as a foreign exchange student and the ups and downs of youth. It doesn’t shy away from serious themes like national identity, alienation, and infidelity but remains an intelligently funny and lighthearted film. Well worth checking out.

For those interested, there is also a sequel les Poupées Russes (Russian Dolls) and the yet-to-be-released threequel Casse-Tête Chinois (Chinese Puzzle).

For fans of: coming of age films done well, jokes about la fac and French bureaucracy, beauty shots of Barcelona, Romain Duris’ slightly odd but endearing diction

A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer, and that he has a young male lover. (trailer)

This is a moving, profoundly human film about life, loss, acceptance and as the title suggests, fresh starts. Oliver is trying to make sense of his life after his father reveals to him that he is gay shortly before dying of cancer. When he meets Anna, a French actress, they are instantly attracted to each other but the ghost of past failures and the struggle to come to terms with his parents’ history and his father’s death haunt Oliver. He shares his thoughts and anxieties with Arthur, an adorable Jack Russell terrier he inherited from his father.

As the past intertwines with the present through colorful pictures, drawings and graffiti the film manages a perfect balance between melancholy and happiness. Mike Mills directs the movie with a playful mood and a touching emotional honesty that can’t leave anyone unaffected. The acting is superb, Christopher Plummer especially gives one of his best performances as the vibrant and so alive Hal, he brings such compassion and charisma to the role.

Beginners will definitely bring a smile to your face. And if you happen to leave the theater with a bit of a heartache, don’t worry, it’s all worth it.

For Fans Of: adorable animals, beautiful cinematography, charming, dysfunctional characters, simple films that give you feelings.

A couple in their mid-thirties decides to adopt a rescued cat—but with the realization that the commitment could take them well into their middle age they re-prioritize. In trying to make their lives more fulfilling (all before “Paw Paw” is placed in their laps) they play with time and fate, testing their faith in each other and themselves. (trailer)

When humor, strangeness, and melancholy meet in the mind of someone like Miranda July you know it’s going to be good. With two doe-eyed, wild-haired leads and a narrating cat, there’s simply no way The Future could disappoint. Sophie and Jake are characters exploring their own helplessness in the face of something many familiarize with: the cycle of tedium and work until opportunities pass you by. The way they cope with it is surprisingly touching, full of tender, self-doubting lines that could make the emotional viewer quite misty-eyed. Not to mention Paw Paw’s soliloquy on feeling loved for the first time in his life…

For Fans Of: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (and Michel Gondry in general), surrealism, intimate reflection, and writer/director/actor Miranda July’s particular brand of eccentricity.

Will, Simon, Jay and Neil go on holiday, and it’s exactly as awkward as you’d expect. (trailer)

The BAFTA-winning E4 comedy makes the transition to the big screen, appalling gynaecological euphemisms intact, transplanted to Malia for a supposed fortnight of hedonistic debauchery - only so many times those boys can be humiliated on British soil, after all. And opportunities for humiliation are rife; the film’s cracking laugh rate takes in comedy sunburn, spectacular dance routines, pathetically underpowered fistfights, and, of course, the gang’s continued failure to be anything approaching smooth as they lust after ladies who are far too good for them. What separates the film from the series is that this time round, their love interests seem to actually like them as people (Simon’s tragic Carli fixation notwithstanding), the (admittedly low-key) dramatic tension arising from the lads’ inability to grow the fuck up and stop getting in their own way.

The Inbetweeners has always had an odd, inherent sweetness; it’s a testament to the writers and performers that we care about these terrible people as much as we do, and all four leads are given room in the film. Will’s bespectacled neurosis benefits hugely from having someone equally verbose to play off, Simon maintains a perplexing wide-eyed charm in spite of (because of?) Joe Thomas not being very good at acting, Neil emerges as an unlikely purveyor of anagrammatic spiritualism, and James Buckley once again shows the vulnerability and insecurities that underpin Jay’s ludicrous bravado. Bizarrely enough, we have come to genuinely root for the tenuous friendship-by-default of these four losers, and the very real threat of its collapse proves unexpectedly touching.

All that, plus a cheeky in-joke cameo from Anthony Head, and a poo in a bidet.

For fans of: idiotic boys making dicks of themselves, contemporary dance, snorkel-based erotica, things that are better than Kevin and Perry Go Large