By Judi McLeod
Monday, September 24, 2007
The lofty goal of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is "to transform the way people see the world." The vision of the charitable, not-for-profit, cultural organization is "to lead the world in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image".
Transforming the way young people see the world could have been the TIFF's 2007 slogan.
One of the films premiered at this month's Toronto Film Festival was Young People F*!@king, produced by Copperheart Entertainment.
Hollywood, it seems is becoming more depraved as it scrapes the bottom of its creative barrel, and Toronto, long ago moved into "Hollywood of the North" status.
But the big money men behind the production of Young People F*!@king don't smoke cigars or flash diamond pinkie rings. The moneymen who made it all possible are the Canadian government. In name, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
McGuinty's and Harper's names aren't up there in the rolling credits, but their funding helped bring Young People F*!@king to the big screen.
Ontario tax dollars come courtesy of the Ontario Media Development Corp (OMDC). Officially launched on Feb. 1, 2001. OMDC assumed the functions of the former Ontario Film Development Corp. It is the first government agency in Canada to focus specifically on building strategic partnerships among all the cultural media industries--film and television, sound recording, book and magazine publishing and interactive digital media.
The ODMC focuses on challenges within each section and identifies and supports the professional development needs of the Ontario cultural media industry both horizontally (no pun intended) between industries and vertically within each industry.
Young People F*!@king was trotted out on an OMDC press release as proof positive of the Ontario cultural media industry at work.
The film industry is also funded by federal tax dollars.
Touted as hilarious, the film masquerades as "romantic comedy". Martin Gero, Aaron Abrams, Michael Baker, Jeff Sackman, Lorne Abrahams and Glenn Cockbun are listed under Executive Producer category.
This is a film description and director biography from the TIFF: "The great New Yorker critic Pauline Kael once wrote that sex was the great leveler in life. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Martin Gero's clever, beautifully crafted romantic comedy, Young People Fucking, which casts a cold eye on modern love in its various permutations. Focusing on fie different archetypal relationships, the film demonstrates, with often painful accuracy, how all relationships are simultaneously specific and somehow bizarrely similar.
"The narrative shifts between four couples and one threesome. Abby (Kristin Booth), the sexually frustrated blond ingnue, and Andrew (Josh Dean), her toothy, ultra-caring boyfriend, are stuck in a domestic rut. Matt (Aaron Abrams, who co-wrote the script with Gero) and Kristen (Carly Pope), two longtime friends, have decided to have sex to get their previous disastrous relationships out of their systems. Exes Mia (Sonja Bennett) and Eric (Josh Cooke) are on a post-mortem date after their breakup. Ken (Callum Blue) a British migr and known player, and the innocent, much younger Jamie (Diora Baird) are on a first date. Rounding out the idiosyncratic cast of characters are Gord (Ennis Esmer), who seems permanently wired; his reticent and dour roommate, Dave (Peter Oldring) and Gord's--as he puts it--"impossibly hot" girlfriend Inez, (Natalie Lisinska).
"The narrative strands do not cross and the various couples (and the trio) never interact, but they are linked by their fear or ignorance of their own desires, their terror of expressing those feelings, and their crippling insecurities. Revealing anything further about the plot would probably be criminal (the relationships may be archetypal, but the resolutions aren't--everyone here has secrets); however, it would be remiss not to say a bit more about the unusual development of the final scenario. Gord and Lisa are about to move in together, as Gord has grown increasingly frustrated with Dave's obscenely slovenly habits. However, the bossy Gord--who begins every comment to Dave with "Look, I'm not trying to be a dick here"--suddenly proposes a mnage a trios, which for Gord, means sitting in an easy chair eating cookie dough while encouraging Dave in his efforts with Lisa.
"The performers in this fantastic ensemble are universally excellent, and Esmer's turn as Gord is particularly memorable. It's only one of the many good reasons to recommend this film, which is one of the sharpest, most entertaining debuts by a Canadian director in quite a while."
And to misquote, the famous Looney tunes ending, That's not all, folks. There will be plenty more films coming to a theatre near you soon, each one of them paid for with your tax dollars.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2018 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2018 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement