"Urban guerrillas?" asks Susan (Nadia Litz).
A cute, provocative wannabe bohemian in her early 20s, Susan still hasn't found what she's looking for although she is intrigued by the funky boho lifestyle of lapsed activists Dan (Don McKellar) and Linda (Tracy Wright).
"Once upon a time there were groups of kids with guns and bombs who wanted to overthrow the government and scare the (stuff) out of them," Dan explains.
He should know. He and Linda were hot for the cause (and each other) until a botched attempt at urban sabotage in Vancouver sent them into hiding fifteen years ago.
Now they live in a rundown section of Toronto and eke out an existence in a haze of pot smoke by cruising garage sales and curbside trash looking for junk to sell on eBay.
Things begin to change when Susan enters their lives and begins borrowing Dan's vintage books on '80s radicals and listening to old records by The Fugs and MC5.
Her enthusiasm acts as a wry counterpoint to Dan's jaded perspective. (SUSAN: "Wouldn't it be great if there were revolutionary groups today!" DAN: "Yeah, I hope they make buttons I can collect.")
When Susan develops her own modern take on radicalism and starts torching SUVs with a gang recruited through the Net, Dan is horrified and when she asks the couple how to make a Molotov cocktail it's time to sit down and have a long talk.
Writer/director Reg Harkema takes ruthless delight in poking holes in faded hippie ideals in scenes such as the one in which Dan snaps at Susan for clipping photos out of one of his valuable books on '80s radicals. The lifestyle she admires so much doesn't come with a pension plan. He was saving that book for his retirement. ("When you fight the system, you can't exactly count on the system to take care of you when you're older.")
Of course, the Toronto based Harkema can't resist taking a shot at West Coast lifestyles. DAN (describing Susan to Linda): "She's from Calgary ... she split there ... to go to the Coast. She tried the hippie Commercial Drive thing at first, but couldn't get into that flaky West Coast vibe, or the rain." The relationship between Dan and Linda has the scuffed familiarity of a couple that have been together for a long time and have learned more about each other than they cared to know. Perhaps it works so well because McKellar and Wright have been a real-life couple on and off since the 1980s although they have never starred in a film together till now. That was Harkema's idea. Primarily known as a film editor, he shot the movie in two weeks in Toronto's Parkdale area on a budget including $30,000 from his CIBC line of credit. In this viewer's opinion, it was money well spent.
A cute, provocative wannabe bohemian in her early 20s, Susan still hasn't found what she's looking for although she is intrigued by the funky boho lifestyle of lapsed activists Dan (Don McKellar) and Linda (Tracy Wright).
"Once upon a time there were groups of kids with guns and bombs who wanted to overthrow the government and scare the (stuff) out of them," Dan explains.
He should know. He and Linda were hot for the cause (and each other) until a botched attempt at urban sabotage in Vancouver sent them into hiding fifteen years ago.
Now they live in a rundown section of Toronto and eke out an existence in a haze of pot smoke by cruising garage sales and curbside trash looking for junk to sell on eBay.
Things begin to change when Susan enters their lives and begins borrowing Dan's vintage books on '80s radicals and listening to old records by The Fugs and MC5.
Her enthusiasm acts as a wry counterpoint to Dan's jaded perspective. (SUSAN: "Wouldn't it be great if there were revolutionary groups today!" DAN: "Yeah, I hope they make buttons I can collect.")
When Susan develops her own modern take on radicalism and starts torching SUVs with a gang recruited through the Net, Dan is horrified and when she asks the couple how to make a Molotov cocktail it's time to sit down and have a long talk.
Writer/director Reg Harkema takes ruthless delight in poking holes in faded hippie ideals in scenes such as the one in which Dan snaps at Susan for clipping photos out of one of his valuable books on '80s radicals. The lifestyle she admires so much doesn't come with a pension plan. He was saving that book for his retirement. ("When you fight the system, you can't exactly count on the system to take care of you when you're older.")
Of course, the Toronto based Harkema can't resist taking a shot at West Coast lifestyles. DAN (describing Susan to Linda): "She's from Calgary ... she split there ... to go to the Coast. She tried the hippie Commercial Drive thing at first, but couldn't get into that flaky West Coast vibe, or the rain." The relationship between Dan and Linda has the scuffed familiarity of a couple that have been together for a long time and have learned more about each other than they cared to know. Perhaps it works so well because McKellar and Wright have been a real-life couple on and off since the 1980s although they have never starred in a film together till now. That was Harkema's idea. Primarily known as a film editor, he shot the movie in two weeks in Toronto's Parkdale area on a budget including $30,000 from his CIBC line of credit. In this viewer's opinion, it was money well spent.