At long last, my internalized aversion to Canadian Cinema has been cured. Despite growing up in the True North, I was never exposed to, or particularly intrigued by, ‘Canadian cinema.’ Those two words alone carried a connotation of being small-time, low-budget, and frankly, unable to break into the zeitgeist. I thought ‘famous’ Canadian media started and ended at the Trailer Park Boys.
I got older, my palette refined, and I discovered the heavy hitters—Cronenberg, Villeneuve, Maddin. I started to accept the cinematic offerings that my country was providing. My true awakening came when I saw the web-series Nirvanna the Band the Show and the film The Dirties. Writer/director/actor Matt Johnson radicalized me into believing that not only could Canadians make great art, but they could be wholly and unabashedly Canadian while doing it. An Ontarian upbringing is in the marrow of all of Johnson’s work, imbuing it with both a sense of neighbourly secrecy and universal resonance.
Opening the Johnson door led me to his CanCon (?) peers including Kazik Radwanski and Deragh Campbell—whose film Anne at 13,000 Ft has been bouncing around my brain since I saw it in 2019. Imagine my excitement when I learned that all three of them teamed up for a new film, Matt and Mara.
Radwanski makes filmmaking look easy—like simply saying action and letting the camera roll. Sometimes, something as uncomplicated as watching two old college friends catch up and redefine their connection can be as powerful and captivating as any blockbuster epic. Downtown Toronto acts as the Paris, Matt Johnson as the Ethan Hawke, and Deragh Campbell as the Julie Delpy in this Canadiana spin on Before Sunset.
A charming and quick (80 minutes, the perfect runtime) vérité watch that captures the all-too-relatable feelings of confusion, frustration, and intrigue of when an old flame shows up and disrupts your routine. The chemistry between the two leads is sticky and inescapable. Johnson is charisma personified, and Campbell demands your attention—especially in those plentiful extreme close-ups. She does for turtlenecks what Clueless did for tartan.
Even in the most tense moments, the ambiance of their world feels inviting and safe, warm but uncomfortable like a Toronto summer. Matt and Mara grazes the mumblecore genre and narrowly avoids pretension—a big accomplishment in itself, due to Radwanski’s dedicated eye for naturalism.
I can see the film becoming one of great comfort, something to turn on when I feel chilly or homesick. My only bone to pick with the film, is not so much a critique but a viewer discretion—Matt and Mara gives off the dangerous impression that men in Toronto can be both hot AND smart.
Matt and Mara is now streaming on Mubi