Watch My Winnipeg For Free

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Am I Missing Something?

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

My Winnipeg is a pseudo-documentary/essay film/work of elaborate fiction that is arguably the best depiction of a person's complicated relationship with their birthplace ever committed to celluloid. In it director Guy Maddin mythologizes the city he's called home his whole life with surrealist tall-tales of Winnipeg's old hockey arena, the 1919 general strike and a rivalry between two warring taxi cab companies. At the center of it is Maddin (Fehr) who walks like a somnambulist through his snow-covered hamlet, interacting with actors who are hired to reenact half-remembered childhood traumas, most of which concern his shrewish mother (Savage).Somewhere between a waking dream and a Freudian melodrama, the amateurish reenactments only adds to the atmosphere, which conjures comparisons to early David Lynch. Always the neo-constructionist, Maddin employs a sloe of old-school effects and technical wizardry that enhances the experience. It has been said that Maddin's films always have the feeling of seeing pre-code talkies from another, warped dimension. A dimension where people of the thirties would accept fluid sexuality, incest and gore in their films. Granted while My Winnipeg sacrifices the gleefully salacious themes of Careful (1992) and the grotesqueness of Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988) the film stands as the director's most personal work. The same themes do remain but only on the fringes, subtlety weaved into a complex tapestry of nostalgia and surreal flights of fancy.Those seeing My Winnipeg for the first time may catch themselves wondering if the myriad of tall-tales are true. So many claims skate the edge between amusing peculiarity and improbable absurdity that it's hard to ferret out what's real and what's a product of docu- fantasia. While I can sympathize, asking such questions is comparable to asking how many angels you can fit on a match head. It's better to let the film wash over you and be regaled by stories of frozen horse heads, treasure hunts, aboriginal origin stories and other "facts" about the heart of the heart of the continent. That and be taken in by the crisp black and white cinematography that only adds to the city's macabre charm.Maddin states via narration that he must escape Winnipeg. "I must leave it now, but how to escape one's city?" Many people ask themselves that same question before taking that fateful step to (hopefully) greener pastures and opportunity aplenty. Even if you're the type of person who yearns to leave their small town, it seems, at least according to director Guy Maddin, that you can't really escape the smothering embrace of a world exaggerated in your own mind. Whether all is true or none of it is, My Winnipeg still remains an exemplary portrait of the Canadian "The Gateway to the West".

What is "My Winnipeg"? Sure, it's easy to dismiss it as an experimental film, but that's like blacklisting it to a future in some storage bin in a modern art museum, which would be a shame. The film claims to be a documentary about Guy Maddin's hometown, Winnipeg, MB. The footage shows what appears to be reenactments of Maddin's childhood, scenes from his family and a speckled history of the town. The narrative feels like it is being materialized just as Maddin thinks it, juggling arresting emotion and fleeting sentimentality. The repeating stock footage, circular cinematography and grizzly black and white tone make the film hypnotic to watch and add to its dream-like state.From the beginning it's obvious that this 'reality' is pure imagination, a fantasy concocted by Maddin, but for what purpose? Why is he trying to escape reality and his hometown that he loves so dearly? The best way to understand is to watch it, accept it as truth like Maddin has, and experience the world as it becomes a much more magical place.

Canada's Guy Maddin is certainly a film maker who's films are for some a joy ride into the unknown,while for others an acquired taste. His influences are (among others)some of the films of silent era Soviet documentary film maker Dziga Vertov (Kino Pravda),and Serge Eisenstein (Ivan The Terrible,Alexander Nevsky),as well as some of the pioneer experimental film makers of the 1950's & 1960's,such as Kenneth Anger (Scorpio Rising),Stan Brakhage (The Way To Shadow Garden)& Jack Smith (Flaming Creatures). In this entry,Maddin manages to evoke a love/hate letter to his hometown of Manitoba,Winnipeg. The film seems to be part documentary,part rant on whatever happened to his beloved hometown. Besides incorporating some original home movies,he re-enacts moments from his youth & adulthood with a cast of Canadian actors. Sequences of animation add to this cinematic fever dream that some will love,others will probably walk out on. Not rated by the MPAA,this film contains flashes of nudity,sexual content,rude language & some violent content. Best to leave the little ones home (who would probably be either very confused or bored by it all)

I don't "get" Guy Maddin's films. Actually that should read I don't like them. They are for the most part neo-silent films pretentiously melded with an artistic bent with a sense that Dwain Esper suddenly was crossed with Andy Warhol (thats not quite right but it'll serve as a place holder). They tend to be too knowing as well.It was with some trepidation that I plopped down to watch his My Winnipeg on IFC in Theaters on Cable.Essentially an autobiography of Maddin crossed with a history of the city where he lives this is film that has some of the most wonderful moments I've seen all year. Its not a perfect film, there is too much talk of trains and sleep and roads out at the start that I was ready to bail early on.The endless shots of the snow covered streets will make you want to move to Florida. There are other touches that may make you scream or want to hit the fast forward, and yet there are other times when the film spins such wonderful tales (the séance in the municipal building) that the film redeems its dull spots. Its also hauntingly filmed at times with a nice other worldly effect.I don't know what else to say. Its worth a shot on cable or DVD where you can control the flow of the dull bits. Probably the most accessible of all of Maddin's films.6.5 out of 10