I have been living in Toronto (Ontario) for 23 years. Francophones in this province are famished for Quebec cinema because we see fewer Quebec films than are available, say, in Singapore. Ontario culture is not exactly welcoming to foreign films when those "foreigners" are Quebeckers and live just next door. Luckily, Radio-Canada showed this film three nights ago and I was pleasantly surprised. You see, I have a sister-in-law who works for Telefilm Canada, the government agency whose job it is to finance Canadian productions. She always tells me about the Canadian films that are chosen each year to represent our country in film festivals. I guess I couldn't count on her to tell me about this film which she has never even seen, of course. As far as I'm concerned, even though this film may be considered "a vulgar popular comedy unworthy to represent us in other countries", I think it is in fact a very well made comedy, well written, well acted and especially well directed. All the situations are certified clichés: a murder witness who has to be relocated to escape his enemies, dumb bikers, a hit man, the "fish out of water" angle (a cultured financial analyst who has to adapt himself to redneck culture in record time, etc.). But I find this film so well crafted and stylistically advanced that I can forgive the rest. To make a film like this one, one has to have seen, appreciated, studied and assimilated all the films of the Coen Brothers, the comedies of Barry Sonnenfeld, all the Tarantino horrors and even a good deal of popular Asian cinema (cf. "Kung Fu Hustle") and have retained only their positive aspects while eliminating their more sadistic, cruel and bloodthirsty elements. As one who has never understood (never!) the charm of Guy A. Lepage, I found him almost sympathetic and certainly a competent actor in this role. I also found that this film, in its technical aspect, is an important step towards the professionalism of Quebec films: photography, music, special effects, marketing. It allows us to look forward to the survival and even the prosperity of our regional cinema in the face of the certified imbecility of US films which are more and more preoccupied with the representation of sadism, violence, torture, war, cars, firearms, superheroes in long underwear, teenage body fluids, CGI, the adaptation of comic strips and video games and the sterile cult of celebrity.
