Philadelphia: At the Movies: My Winnipeg

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At the Movies: My Winnipeg
June 26, 2008
By: Gary Kramer
gkramer@aroundphilly.com

PICK OF THE WEEK: My Winnipeg

“Conceived and directed” by Guy Maddin, My Winnipeg is a poetic and characteristically idiosyncratic meditation on the filmmaker’s hometown and childhood. This playful mélange of black-and-white silent film-like images, and avant-garde cinematic styles—all set to a repetitious narrative that Maddin himself voices—will either hypnotize viewers, or induce sleep. A series of tableaus depict life in the wintry Canadian city before Maddin decides to “vivisect his own childhood.” Renting out the apartment where he grew up (over his mother’s beauty shop), he casts actors in the roles of his family. (The great Ann Savage, of Detour fame, plays his mother). Thus, Maddin mixes his nostalgia with whimsy, creating some odd episodes. Was the filmmaker born in a locker room during a game as suggested, and is there really a bizarre animal head graveyard? Viewers will have to decide for themselves. My Winnipeg is elegiac, and extremely personal, but it provides dreamy insight into the filmmaker’s life—however feverishly imagined it is.

ALSO OPENING:

Finding Amanda

Matthew Broderick is an “ex” alcoholic/gambler who is sent to Vegas to retrieve his niece, who is working as a prostitute. It’s a comedy.

Gunnin’ for the #1 Spot

A basketball documentary about high-schoolers prepping for an all-star game.

Refusenik
A documentary about the Jews emigrating from the Soviet Union.

Surfwise

A documentary about Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, a surfing guru who teaches his nine kids about life by taking them off the map.

WALL-E

This summer’s Pixar animation project about a robot that makes a wild discovery.

Wanted

James McEvoy and Angelina Jolie star in this action-adventure film about a man who gains superhuman powers.