''Bang Bang Baby'' is a Canadian

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

science-fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...

written and directed by Jeffrey St. Jules, which premiered in 2014 at

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

Plot

Stepphy, a teenager living in the small town of Lonely Arms, dreams of becoming a famous singer. Her alcoholic father, George, refuses to let her enter a singing competition in New York City. She believes that her fate may change when her idol, Bobby Shore, shows up in town after his car breaks down. Meanwhile, a dangerous leak at the local chemical plant is beginning to turn the local townsfolk into

mutant In biology, and especially in genetics, a mutant is an organism or a new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is generally an alteration of the DNA sequence of the genome or chromosome of an organism. It ...

Cast

Production

In March 2014, it was announced

Jane Levy Jane Colburn Levy ( ; born ) is an American actress. After attending the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, she debuted as the original Mandy Milkovich on the Showtime comedy-drama '' Shameless'' (2011). Levy left ''Shameless'' following its fir ...

Justin Chatwin Justin Chatwin (born October 31, 1982) is a Canadian actor. He began his career in 2001 with a brief appearance in the musical comedy ''Josie and the Pussycats''. Following his breakthrough role as Robbie Ferrier in the blockbuster ''War of the ...

and Peter Stormare will star in the film, with Jeffrey St. Jules directing from a screenplay he wrote.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began on February 12, 2014 in

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Awards

The film won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the

2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duv ...

, and was named the winner of the 2014

Claude Jutra Award The John Dunning Best First Feature Award is a special Canadian film award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the year's best feature film by a first-time film director. Under the earlier names Claude Jutra Award and Ca ...

. The TIFF jury remarked, "For its ingenious mixing of genres, sophisticated blend of tones and ability to create its own strange, tragicomic and original world without sacrificing any richness in regards to story, character and emotion, the jury recognizes as Best Canadian First Feature Film ''Bang Bang Baby'' by Jeffrey St. Jules." The award carries a cash prize of $15,000. The film garnered two

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) p ...

nominations at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards, for Best Supporting Actor (Chatwin) and Best Overall Sound (Christopher Guglick, Dave Mercel, Steve Moore, Justin Sawyer and Alex Turner).

Release

Bang Bang Baby premiered in 2014 at the

on September 8. The film was also screened at

Santa Barbara International Film Festival The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) is an eleven-day film festival held in Santa Barbara, California since 1986. The festival boasts screenings of over 200 feature films and shorts from different countries and regions. SBIFF al ...

on February 5, 2015 and Omaha Film Festival on March 11. The film opened in select theaters in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

on August 21, 2015 distributed by Search Engine Films. On November 10, 2015 the film was released in

U.S The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

through

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by Random Media.

Critical reception

''Bang Bang Baby'' received mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has a rating of 67%, based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. Bruce Demara of ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' gave the film a negative review writing: "St. Jules clearly has talent. What he needs is a story that maintains its consistent level of zany wit from beginning to end.". Glenn Sumi of

Now Toronto ''Now'' (styled as ''NOW''), also known as ''NOW Magazine'' is an online publication based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Throughout most of its existence, ''Now'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper. Physical publication of ''Now'' was suspen ...

, on the other hand, gave the film a positive review writing: "St. Jules's script takes too many detours, and many plot points aren't carried through. Sometimes the meta film jokes feel strained. But he gets strong performances from the cast, who all channel 60s archetypes while maintaining their individuality."

References

External links

* *
Bang Bang Baby
' at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...

{{TIFF Best Canadian First Feature 2014 films 2010s science fiction films 2010s musical films Canadian musical comedy films Canadian science fiction comedy films English-language Canadian films Best First Feature Genie and Canadian Screen Award-winning films Films directed by Jeffrey St. Jules 2014 directorial debut films Science fiction musical films 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films Canadian pregnancy films