''Werewolf'' is a 2016 Canadian
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
directed by
Ashley McKenzie
Ashley McKenzie (born 17 July 1989) is an English judoka competing at the men's 60 kg division. He was a member of the Great Britain Olympic Judo Team at London 2012 but was defeated in the second round by Hiroaki Hiraoka of Japan. He a ...
and starring
Andrew Gillis and
Bhreagh MacNeil.
It marks McKenzie's feature film
directorial debut
This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...
. The film premiered at the
2016 Toronto International Film Festival
The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 8 to 18 September 2016. The first announcement of films to be screened at the festival took place on 26 July. Almost 400 films were shown.
Awards
The festival's final awards were ...
, and subsequently received numerous accolades, including several
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 ...
nominations,
and the
$100,000
Toronto Film Critics Association
The Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) is an organization of film critics from Toronto-based publications. As of 1999, the TFCA is a member of the FIPRESCI.
History
The Toronto Film Critics Association is the official organization of Toron ...
prize for best Canadian film of the year in 2017.
Premise
''Werewolf'' centres on Blaise (
Andrew Gillis) and Vanessa (
Bhreagh MacNeil), two drug addicts living in
New Waterford, Nova Scotia
New Waterford (Irish language: ''Port Lairge Ùr'') is an urban community in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Geography
Formerly known as Barrachois (from barachois, meaning small port, lagoon or pond), its present nam ...
.
Production
The film was shot on
Cape Breton Island for 26 days, and was funded through various
government grants, including from
Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in ...
.
The story was inspired by a real-life couple in New Waterford; McKenzie learned they were referred to as "the
lawnmower
A lawn mower (also known as a mower, grass cutter or lawnmower) is a device utilizing one or more revolving blades (or a reel) to cut a grass surface to an even height. The height of the cut grass may be fixed by the design of the mower, but g ...
crackheads" because they went from house to house offering to mow people's lawns.
Release
After premiering at the
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 perman ...
in 2016, ''Werewolf'' went on to screen at festivals across Canada including the
Vancouver International Film Festival
The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October.
The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Fest ...
and
Festival du nouveau cinema. Its international premiere was at the
67th Berlin International Film Festival
The 67th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 9 to 18 February 2017 with Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven as President of the Jury. '' Django'', directed by Etienne Comar, opened the festival. The Golden Bear was awarded to the ...
. The film was released theatrically across Canada in 2017.
Reception
Critical response
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
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 an approval rating of 88% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
gave the film a score of 73 out of 100 based on 9 critical reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'' called it a "cruel story of Canadian youth". Barry Hertz of ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' gave the film a four star review and called it "one of the summer's best movies." Chris Knight of
''The National Post'' gave the film a three and a half star review and called it "an assured piece of storytelling." In an article called "A Generational Shift in Filmmaking",
Richard Brody
Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999.
Education
Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He firs ...
of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' wrote "McKenzie fuses a documentary-like observational precision with a creative imagination that endows her characters' struggles with a quietly monumental grandeur."
In less enthusiastic reviews, Linda Barnard of the ''
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 pa ...
'' wrote that "McKenzie has effectively drawn us in, although lack of narrative makes the film frustratingly slow in spots," and Joe Leydon of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote that "the familiarity and predictability of its scenario about co-dependency in the lower depths make the relatively short Canadian indie seem longer than it is."
Accolades
At the 2016
Atlantic Film Festival
FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival (known as The Atlantic International Film Festival until 2017) is a major international film festival held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1980. FIN is the largest Canadian film festival ...
, ''Werewolf'' won several awards, including Best Director (McKenzie), Best Actress (MacNeil), and Best Actor (Gillis).
On 16 October 2016, the film won the Focus Canada Grand Prize at the
Festival du nouveau cinema in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
. On 7 December 2016, the film was named to TIFF's annual "Canada's Top 10" list.
At the
5th Canadian Screen Awards
The 5th annual Canadian Screen Awards were held on March 12, 2017, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2016. Nominations were announced on January 17, 2017.
Awards in many of the technical catego ...
, the film received nominations for
Best Actor,
Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...
,
Best Cinematography, and
Best Editing.
In 2017, ''Werewolf'' won the $100,000
Toronto Film Critics Association
The Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) is an organization of film critics from Toronto-based publications. As of 1999, the TFCA is a member of the FIPRESCI.
History
The Toronto Film Critics Association is the official organization of Toron ...
prize for best Canadian film of the year.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Werewolf
2016 films
2016 drama films
Canadian drama films
English-language Canadian films
Films set in Nova Scotia
Films shot in Nova Scotia
Films about heroin addiction
Films directed by Ashley McKenzie
2010s English-language films
2010s Canadian films
English-language drama films