I recently saw the Broken Social Scene movie, This Movie Is Broken, at the Art Gallery of Hamilton's World Film Festival. Now, for anyone that knows me they know that I am genuinely addicted to all things BSS. Unfortunately though, the movie fell short of my expectations.
The film, directed by Canada's own Bruce McDonald, is a love story meets concert footage movie. It was filmed during the Toronto garbage strike in the summer of 2009 at a free Broken Social Scene concert at the Harbour front centre. Originally BSS was to play a concert on Toronto Island. Due to the strike, the concert was rescheduled because no ferries were going to and from the island. I attended this concert (did I mention it was free?)
The narrative of the movie follows two twenty something year olds - Bruno and Caroline. Caroline is Bruno's childhood crush and after they finally hook up he becomes obsessive about becoming exclusive with her. The problem is, Caroline is only in town for one night before she returns back to her studies in Paris. This one night is the night of the Broken Social Scene concert. Caroline and Bruno attend the concert along with one of Bruno's friends, Blake. As the concert goes on, you can barely make out what Caroline and Bruno are trying to say over the music and eventually it is clear that they have argued about something. Caroline rushes away from her 'favourite' band and wanders the streets of Toronto instead. Bruno is left sulking as he tries to enjoy the rest of BSS. Bruno and Blake also mysteriously end up at an after party with the band. The narrative spirals out of control and Bruno and Blake end up making out in Bruno's dirty apartment. (Sorry I gave away the twist but it's not like any of you will see the movie after this review). Eventually Caroline shows up at Bruno's apartment (with naked Blake in his bed) and they somewhat make up. There is also a strange short film at the end of the movie which seems completely separate from the rest of the project.
As much as I love Broken Social Scene, this movie was not worth the price of the AGH ticket. The narrative to the movie was completely pointless. The film had so much potential of being an 'art' film in which they could have incorporated concert footage with band interviews and maybe some fan submissions of why BSS inspires them.
After the screening, the actor who played Bruno (Greg Calderone) came out to answer a few questions from the audience. It was clear that I was maybe one of three people in the audience who had known about the film and the band before entering the theatre. I was also probably one in three who has a film degree (not to sound pretentious or anything) because some girl asked Greg how he felt about kissing another guy (gee, thanks, we really want to know). Aside from telling us that sometimes actors have to do different things, Greg informed us that he was cast just ONE day before shooting was to start. I asked Greg about the script and if any of the film was improvised. He admitted that some of it was. From this, I feel as if the twist of the film was just thrown into the movie because the makers of the film did not know what to do with the already pointless plot.
Despite the lack of intriguing narrative, the film does create an exceptionally exciting concert experience. (But did I mention that I already attended the actual concert?) Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Leslie Feist, Emily Haines, Amy Milan and the other 13 plus members of BSS bring so much energy to the stage and the silver screen. Included in the footage was an exclusive duet played at the concert (it was my favourite part) and you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6NLkioP3ks During this duet, Kevin and Leslie cleverly combine two of their solo songs. It was lovely but as a whole This Movie Is Broken is not.
This Movie Is Broken - it truly IS broken.
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