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Essential Canadian Cinema

Wavelength (1967)
Michael Snow · 20 critic votes
Wavelength consists of almost no action, and what action does occur is largely elided. If the film could be said to have a conventional plot, this would presumably refer to the three “character” scenes. In the first scene two people enter a room, chat briefly, and listen to “Strawberry Fields Forever” on the radio. Later, a man (played by filmmaker Hollis Frampton) enters inexplicably and dies on the floor. And last, the female owner of the apartment is heard and seen on the phone, speaking, with strange calm, about the dead man in her apartment whom she has never seen before.
Videodrome (1983)
David Cronenberg · 14 critic votes
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.
Crash (1996)
David Cronenberg · 14 critic votes
A car crash victim inexplicably finds himself aroused by car accidents and becomes involved with an underground subculture of like-minded souls.
La Région Centrale (1971)
Michael Snow · 10 critic votes
A 1971 experimental Canadian film directed by Michael Snow. Shot in the Canadian mountains over a period of 24 hours using a robotic arm.
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993)
Alanis Obomsawin · 7 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Filmzie · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel
In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec, sets the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines and sear itself into the Canadian consciousness.
Exotica (1994)
Atom Egoyan · 7 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.
Begone Dull Care (1949)
Norman McLaren, Evelyn Lambart · 4 critic votes
Free on Filmzie
In this extraordinary short animation, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted colours, shapes, and transformations directly onto their filmstrip. The result is a vivid interpretation, in fluid lines and colour, of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio.
Crime Wave (1985)
John Paizs · 4 critic votes
Free on Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads, Amazon MX Player · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A young director intent on making "the greatest color crime movie ever" can't seem to finish his script--he has a beginning and an end, but he can't quite figure out the middle. The daughter of his landlord, excited to have a real "movie person" living nearby, tries to help by putting him in touch with a man who wants to collaborate on a script--the strange "Dr. Jolly"
The Fly (1986)
David Cronenberg · 4 critic votes
When brilliant, eccentric scientist Seth Brundle makes a huge technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.
Dead Ringers (1988)
David Cronenberg · 4 critic votes
Free on The Roku Channel, YouTube Free, Fandango at Home Free · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Night Flight Plus
Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire, but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.
Calendar (1993)
Atom Egoyan · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A photographer and his wife travel across Armenia photographing churches for a calendar project. Travelling with them is a local man acting as their driver and guide. As the project nears completion, the distance between husband and wife grows.
'Rameau's Nephew' by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (1974)
Michael Snow · 3 critic votes
Various unrelated vignettes, often juxtaposing sound and image.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
Zacharias Kunuk · 3 critic votes
Based on a local legend and set in an unknown era, it deals with universal themes of love, possessiveness, family, jealousy and power. Beautifully shot, and acted by Inuit people, it portrays a time when people fought duels by taking turns to punch each other until one was unconscious, made love on the way to the caribou hunt, ate walrus meat and lit their igloos with seal-oil lamps.
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005)
David Cronenberg · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Cinemax Amazon Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.
Stories We Tell (2012)
Sarah Polley · 3 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Lionsgate+ Amazon Channels
Canadian actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley investigates certain secrets related to her mother, interviewing a group of family members and friends whose reliability varies depending of their implication in the events, which are remembered in different ways; so a trail of questions remains to be answered, because memory is always changing and the discovery of truth often depends on who is telling the tale.
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019)
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy
When Áila encounters a young Indigenous woman, barefoot and crying in the rain on the side of a busy street, she soon discovers that this young woman, Rosie, has just escaped a violent assault at the hands of her boyfriend. Áila decides to bring Rosie home with her and over the course of the evening, the two navigate the aftermath of this traumatic event.
The Brood (1979)
David Cronenberg · 2 critic votes
Free on YOW.tv, Tubi TV, Fandango at Home Free · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, Brew
A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalised wife, amidst a series of brutal murders.
When the Day Breaks (1999)
Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis · 2 critic votes
Free on Filmzie · Streaming on Kanopy
A rooster has his last biscuit for breakfast and goes grocery shopping. A pig prepares her breakfast (potato peelings, with the potatoes thrown in the trash) and discovers she needs more milk. Their paths cross, a lemon falls into the sewer, and both lives are changed.
Pontypool (2008)
Bruce McDonald · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Philo
When disc jockey Grant Mazzy reports to his basement radio station in the Canadian town of Pontypool, he thinks it's just another day at work. But when he hears reports of a virus that turns people into zombies, Mazzy barricades himself in the radio booth and tries to figure out a way to warn his listeners about the virus and its unlikely mode of transmission.
Incendies (2010)
Denis Villeneuve · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel
A mother's last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed play, Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults' voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars and enduring love.
Neighbours (1952)
Norman McLaren · 1 critic vote
Free on Filmzie · Streaming on Kanopy, OVID
In this Oscar-winning short film, Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion to animate live actors. The story is a parable about two people who come to blows over the possession of a flower.
Pour la suite du monde (1963)
Michel Brault, Marcel Carrière, Pierre Perrault · 1 critic vote
At the instigation of the filmmakers, the young men of the Ile-aux-Coudres in the middle of the St-Lawrence River try as a memorial to their ancestors to revive the fishing of the belugas interrupted in 1924.
Take It All (1964)
Claude Jutra · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
A man struggles with his identity, his life choices, his interracial relationship, and his latent homosexuality. A portrait of some young intellectuals in early sixties Montreal.
Pas De Deux (1968)
Norman McLaren · 1 critic vote
Free on Filmzie · Streaming on Kanopy
Two ballet dancers perform a dance enhanced with surreal after-image visuals.
The Hart of London (1970)
Jack Chambers · 1 critic vote
"The Hart of London" is an endlessly layered tour de force. It explores life and death, the sense of place and personal displacement, and the intricate aesthetics of representation. It is a personal and spiritual film, marked inevitably by Chambers’s knowledge that he had leukemia. The late American avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage said of Hart, "If I named the five greatest films [ever made], this has got to be one of them." Even this high praise falls short of hyperbole. The Hart of London is at the centre of Chambers’s extraordinary achievement.
The Far Shore (1976)
Joyce Wieland · 1 critic vote
A young woman marries a wealthy man she isn't in love with, but finds romance instead with the couples' painter friend.
The Changeling (1980)
Peter Medak · 1 critic vote
Free on FlixHouse, Darkroom, Bloodstream · Streaming on Screambox Amazon Channel, Night Flight Plus, Midnight Pulp
After a tragic event happens, composer John Russell moves to Seattle to try to overcome it and build a new and peaceful life in a lonely big house that has been uninhabited for many years. But, soon after, the obscure history of such an old mansion and his own past begin to haunt him.
Eyes of Fire (1983)
Avery Crounse · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Shudder, Shudder Amazon Channel, FlixFling
In 1750, an adulterous preacher is ejected from a small British colony with his motley crew of followers, who make their way downriver to establish a new settlement of their own beyond the western frontier.
The Dead Zone (1983)
David Cronenberg · 1 critic vote
Free on YouTube Free · Streaming on History Vault, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel
Johnny Smith is a schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him but, after leaving his fiancee's home one night, is involved in a car crash which leaves him in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes, he discovers he has an ability to see into the past, present and future life of anyone with whom he comes into physical contact.
The Company of Strangers (1990)
Cynthia Scott · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Cineverse · Streaming on Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel, OVID
A busload of women become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives through a mostly ad-libbed script.
The Making of Monsters (1991)
John Greyson · 1 critic vote
Experimental musical based on a factual incident, the beating to death of a homosexual man in Toronto, 1985, by five teenagers.
Léolo (1992)
Jean-Claude Lauzon · 1 critic vote
The story of an imaginative boy who pretends he is the child of a sperm-laden Sicilian tomato upon which his mother accidentally fell.
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)
Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla
A film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media's role in modern propaganda.
Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould (1993)
François Girard · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work, and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.
Narmada: A Valley Rises (1994)
Ali Kazimi · 1 critic vote
Narmada: A Valley Rises is beautifully photographed, inspiring film. It documents a 200 kilometer non-violent Gandhian march involving 6000 participants. The film offers a compelling and intimate portrait of a unique movement while raises critical and universal issues of human-rights, social justice, and development within a democracy.
Fire (1996)
Deepa Mehta · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla
In a barren, arranged marriage to an amateur swami who seeks enlightenment through celibacy, Radha's life takes an irresistible turn when her beautiful young sister-in-law seeks to free herself from the confines of her own loveless marriage.
Kissed (1996)
Lynne Stopkewich · 1 critic vote
Over the years, a child's romantic ideals about death blossom into necrophilia, the study of embalming and the most profound relationship of her life.
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Atom Egoyan · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.
eXistenZ (1999)
David Cronenberg · 1 critic vote
Free on Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Howdy Amazon Channel
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
John Fawcett · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The CW, Plex · Streaming on Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, Philo
The story of two outcast sisters, Ginger and Brigitte, in the mindless suburban town of Bailey Downs. On the night of Ginger's first period, she is savagely attacked by a wild creature. Ginger's wounds miraculously heal but something is not quite right. Now Brigitte must save her sister and save herself.
Sea in the Blood (2000)
Richard Fung · 1 critic vote
Home movies and family photographs mixed with drawings and texts tell the story of a family that has lived with disease.
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)
Sacha Gervasi · 1 critic vote
Free on The Roku Channel, Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Hoopla
At 14, best friends Robb Reiner and Lips made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, hailed as the "demi-gods of Canadian metal" influenced a musical generation that includes Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. Following a calamitous European tour, Lips and Robb, now in their fifties, set off to record their 13th album in one last attempt to fulfill their boyhood dreams.
I Killed My Mother (2009)
Xavier Dolan · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla
Hubert, a brash 17-year-old, is confused and torn by a love-hate relationship with his mother that consumes him more and more each day. After distressing ordeals and tragic episodes, Hubert will find his mother on the banks of Saint Lawrence river, where he grew up, and where a murder will be committed: the murder of childhood.
Goon (2011)
Michael Dowse · 1 critic vote
Free on The Roku Channel, Fandango at Home Free, Xumo Play · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Hoopla
Doug Glatt, a slacker who discovers he has a talent for brawling, is approached by a minor league hockey coach and invited to join the team as the "muscle." Despite the fact that Glatt can't skate, his best friend, Pat, convinces him to give it a shot, and Glatt becomes a hero to the team and their fans, until the league's reigning goon becomes threatened by Glatt's success and decides to even the score.
Take This Waltz (2011)
Sarah Polley · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Fandango at Home Free · Streaming on Netflix, Kanopy, Hoopla
Twenty-eight-year-old Margot is happily married to Lou, a good-natured cookbook author. But when Margot meets Daniel, a handsome artist who lives across the street, their mutual attraction is undeniable.
Enemy (2013)
Denis Villeneuve · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Fandango at Home Free · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla
A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.
Maps to the Stars (2014)
David Cronenberg · 1 critic vote
Driven by an intense need for fame and validation, members of a dysfunctional Hollywood family chase celebrity, one another, and the relentless ghosts of their pasts. Their fragile ecosystem is disrupted by the arrival of Agatha, the scarred and estranged pyromaniac daughter.
Room (2015)
Lenny Abrahamson · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Cinemax Amazon Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016)
Brett Story · 1 critic vote
Free on Cineverse · Streaming on Fandor, Hoopla, DocAlliance Films
More people are imprisoned in the United States at this moment than in any other time or place in history, yet the prison itself has never felt further away or more out of sight. This is a film about the prison in which we never see an actual penitentiary. The film unfolds a cinematic journey through a series of landscapes across the USA where prisons do work and affect lives, from an anti-sex-offender pocket park in Los Angeles, to a congregation of ex-incarcerated chess players shut out of the formal labor market, to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of prison jobs.
Common Ground (2019)
Darren Emmerson · 1 critic vote
Explore the notorious Aylesbury Estate, concrete monument to the history and legacy of social housing in the UK, and home to a community affected by forces beyond their control.
Phantom Ride (2019)
Stephen Broomer · 1 critic vote
In Phantom Ride, Stephen Broomer permutates the home films of Ellwood F. Hoffmann (1885 – 1966), a self-made hosiery mill owner from Philadelphia, into a road movie.
Women Talking (2022)
Sarah Polley · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
A group of women in an isolated religious colony struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony's men.
The Shrouds (2024)
David Cronenberg · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel
Inconsolable since the death of his wife, prominent businessman Karsh Relikh invents a revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their dear departed in their shrouds. One night, multiple graves, including that of Karsh’s wife, are desecrated, and he sets out to track down the perpetrators.
Universal Language (2024)
Matthew Rankin · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, OVID, myfilmfriend
Winter. Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg. Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen deep within the sidewalk ice and try to find a way to get it out. Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists upon an increasingly-strange walking tour of Winnipeg historic sites. Matthew leaves his job at the Québec government and embarks upon a mysterious journey to visit his estranged mother.
Blue Heron (2025)
Sophy Romvari · 1 critic vote
Free on Criterion Channel · Streaming on Criterion Channel
In the late 1990s, a family of six settles into their new home on Vancouver Island, as internal dynamics are slowly revealed through the experiences of the youngest child, Sasha. Their fresh start is interrupted by the increasingly dangerous behavior of Jeremy, the family's oldest child.

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Essential Canadian Cinema

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