You wouldn’t expect one of the most intelligent, moving and resonant stories of female friendship to come from a man. But director Bruce McDonald’s Trigger – which follows two childhood friends and former bandmates as they clumsily reconnect years later – rarely hits a false note.
Molly Parker and the late Tracy Wright (in what might be a career-best performance) play dysfunctional former sisters-in-arms still struggling to find purpose years after addictions, detours and other small catastrophes drove them apart. Easier said than done, and as the two make their way through a long night packed with equal parts laughs, discomfiting memories and bitter recriminations, the shades of grey between their differences and similarities become apparent.
Fans of McDonald’s raucous earlier films such as Highway 61, Roadkill and Hard Core Logo will need to recalibrate their expectations with Trigger, which though just 78 minutes long, takes ample time to establish its characters and then stands back and lets them breathe. Absorbing, sharp-eyed and spectacularly well-acted, Trigger is near-perfect. Somewhere, Nancy Meyers is weeping into her chardonnay.
Rating: 9/10
TIFF Review: Amazon Falls
Hollywood is an ugly town full of beautiful people with blistered souls. And it’s uniquely capable of crushing expectations, friendships and especially dreams. That’s the sad, sad lesson learned by Jana (April Telek) a would-be movie star whose best role to date was as a B-movie Amazon and whose just-celebrated 40th birthday all but guarantees it will remain that way.
Jana struggles to remain optimistic, acting as cheerleader to a much younger cocktail waitress co-worker with movie star dreams of her own. But the savagery of the business, combined with Jana’s stubborn refusal to scream uncle and give up the game, guarantees more pain ahead. Add in a mean, druggy boyfriend, a sharp-tempered boss and a weirdly smitten stranger with designs on our girl and the result is… well, you’ll just have to see for yourself. This story has been told before, but seldom with such chilling, unadorned clarity. A cautionary tale for the ages.
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