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Randy Hughson in THE FEELER

SWEEP STRIKE ME Directed by Philip Hoffman and Sami Van Ingen, 1995, 32 min., 16mm SILLY One of Canada's most consistently Directed by Brett Bell, Big Dumb engaging and incisive experimental Films, Regina, 1995, 27 min„ 16mm filmmakers, Philip Hoffman's latest It's not Dwayne Axford's night. First, can be best described as an epis- his father gets sick; then he has the temological buddy picture/road mantle of managing the family bowl- movie. Made with Finnish filmmak- ing alley thrust upon him. This is no ing contemporary, Sami Van Ingen, mean feat at the Bolodrome, truly Sweep is also a hybridized updat- one of Canada's most bizarre bowl- ing of Hoffman's earlier films The ing establishments (that in itself is THE FEELER TENANTS AND Road Ended at the Beach (1983) no mean feat!). In addition to a and ?O, Zoo! The Making of a wisecracking assistant manager CanadianD Film'rect e""oCentre, 1995,ll"""""'LANDLORDS 25 min. Fiction Film (1986). They travel to and a decidedly disturbed clientele 16mm Directed by Cory Lussier, the northern , as Hoffman tells of cowboys, hairdressers and blind Long before the Exotica strip Winnipeg Film Group, 1994, 8 min., us, "to make a film about where accordion players, Dwayne's man- club opened its fictional doors, 16mm Sami's great-grandfather had agerial skills really get tested when Canadian cinema had been home Finally, a Canadian film that been." The great-grandfather's Satan himself arrives and chal- to legions of the lonely, the per- asks the eternal, transnational ques- name? Legendary Nanook of the lenges him to a Faustian winner- plexed, the troubled, the marginal- tion: "What do we need landlords North director, Robert Flaherty. take-all bowling match. Things get ized and the alienated. Produced at for, anyway?" When a cretinous, Along the way, the duo also even hotter when the staff learns the in cellular-toting landlord threatens to sojourns in Kapuskasing, where that their satanic visitor is actually , Colleen Murphy's The evict his struggling young tenant, Hoffman's mother's family first set- an escaped mental patient who's Feeler offers a perceptively kinky, Joe, and then puts the sweaty tled in Canada. Merging multiple wired with explosives. Although the erotically charged variation on squeeze on an elderly woman in the personal reminiscences with news- end credits proudly announce that those characteristically Canuck building, he encounters more than reel footage of the north, images of the production was shot in "Bowl- motifs of solitude and marginality. the usual Canadian deference to Flaherty, family photographs, home 0-Rama," Strike Me Silly is, visually This claustrophobic drama revolves authority and polite stoicism. A lot movies, and the ephemeral images speaking, disappointingly conven- around Danny (Randy Hughson), a more! Written and directed by new- of television, Hoffman and Van tional. The film's pedestrian style lonely blind man who likes inflatable comer Cory Lussier, this clever, Ingen weave together investiga- puts a drag on its game attempts at sex dolls and hires women to read brutally concise, and amusing short tions into documentary film prac- anarchic humour. Still, with self- to him, and Lina (Victoria Snow), a drama knows that its narrative and tice, the cinematic process itself, consciously witty lines like, "Boy, new reader who finds being in thematic ambitions are modest, and the intersections of personal and talk about your deus ex machinas!," Danny's presence strangely liberat- works effectively within them. collective memory, and the devas- it is hard not to give this promising ing. With each successive visit, Featuring assured and well-directed tating incursions of white Euro- writer-director his due. Even with its they discover that more than words performances by Bill Jarand as Joe, peans into northern Cree land- occasionally awkward perfor- are passing between them. Barbara MacDonald as the surpris- scapes and dreamscapes. Some- mances and sophomoric indul- Murphy's screenplay is intelligent, ingly savage senior, Ms. Crane, and what overburdened by its vast gences, Strike Me Silly remains a literate and darkly elliptical, and the Stu Levitt as the thoroughly thug- themes, Sweep is nonetheless a likable half-hour slice of prairie film features potent performances gish landlord, this short work from poetic, oddly exhilarating examina- absurdism. So, while Brett Bell's and an authoritative visual design. the fabled Winnipeg Film Group is tion of relentless processes of film may not be a strike, it's definite- Obsessive and strangely moving, a satisfying revenge fantasy for any- change and erasure which we can- ly a solid spare. The Feeler is an unsentimental, one who's ever had a bad landlord. not elude but whose outlines, with searching drama of two solitudes: Cinematic merits aside, that alone the extraordinary and limited pow- the one you can see and the one should guarantee this film a large ers of film, we can at least begin to you can't. audience • describe.

WINTER 1996 47