TKARONTO
OPENING THIS WEEK
Jonathan Busch / jonathan@vueweekly.com

Tkaronto
Written & directed by Shane Belcourt
Starring Duane Murray, Melanie McLaren
Fri, Jan 30, Sun, Feb 1 (9:15 pm)
Sat, Jan 31, Mon, Feb 2 (7 pm)
Metro Cinema (9828 - 101A Ave)
**** (out of five)

In an emotionally compelling, low-budget first feature, writer-director Shane Belcourt portrays two dangerously compatible thirtysomethings sharing a house in Toronto, both of whom are forced to confront their individualities the further they pursue a friendship. At the centre of their dilemma, they find difficulty expressing their mutual Canadian Aboriginal background in careers that demand them to do so. Tkaronto asks questions of cultural identity in a subtly investigatory manner that seduces and charms its audience.

Ray (Duane Murray) is enlisted for a television production in Toronto, taking temporary leave from his pregnant wife in Vancouver. Jolene (Melanie McLaren) is painting a series of portraits of First Nations elders. Sharing accquaintance with elder Max (Corner Gas’ Lorne Cardinal), Ray and Jolene become roommates. Ray’s job as an Aboriginal consultant gets frustrating when, on his first day, his Métis status is questioned as he doesn’t “look Indian.” Jolene’s research interview with Max offers kind, valuable advice on her potentially influential role in the Aboriginal community, but finds her lacking confidence in only knowing so much of cultural practice. Ray and Jolene both seek an ear to listen, quickly finding a common ground during quiet dinners and walks throughout the city. The result is a friendship that grows as confusing as it is charismatic—the freedom to share each other’s woes has them questioning their relationships back home.

Tkaronto is an awkward production, with fumbling edits and occasionally coldly synched dialogue. But it has an edge—Ray and Jolene are humble, sexy, and real, gracefully framed in familiar slacker-friendly settings. During a late night stroll, they stumble across a stern psychic (Rae Ellen Bodie) who outwardly mocks their pursuit of life’s meaning. After a tarot reading, they perch themselves on a sidewalk and unload their worries for several minutes in a scene that lasts a long time and goes hardly anywhere. But Murray and McLaren’s eager performances against the warm glow of the streetlights are so easy to get lost in, like a cozy waltz after midnight (which becomes literal near the film’s climax).

Equally refreshing about Tkaronto is an approach to Aboriginal issues through quieted domestic drama. Ray confides to a very attentive Max a particular worry over how his child will embrace his Métis status. Cardinal, with thoughtful, sympathetic eyes, delivers a wise, effective performance as Max, challenging the viewer via sturdy emotion. The scene results in as much a pondering of Max’s advice as Ray’s mere confessional anxiety. Tkaronto is as much about the influential aesthetic of faces, bodies and vocal timbre. While no means heavy-handed, it comes to the table with a firm agenda of the crisis of cultural subjectivity.

In the wake of a cutthroat awards season (I refer as much to the critics as I do to the audiences lined up around the block to see Slumdog Millionaire), Tkaronto pays mind to its modest Canadiana, where remarkable films are made and not often enough seen.