Carl Bessai Movies
- 2008
Producer/writer/director Carl Bessai mines the richly textured terrain of mother/daughter relationships to craft this ensemble comedy focusing on three distinctly different mother/daughter pairings. Micki (Babs Chula) is a high-strung writer of pulp romance novels whose actress daughter Rebecca (Camille Sullivan) finds her mother completely overwhelming. Meanwhile, dedicated housewife Brenda (Gabrielle Rose) is taken aback by her husband's announcement that he is leaving her for a younger woman, and can't understand why unsympathetic daughter Kate (Tiffany Lyndall-Knight) seems more devastated by the news than she. Lastly, self-sufficient Métis businesswoman Celine (Tantoo Cardinal) begins to suspects that her latest client, a young professional named Cynthia (Tinsel Korey), who was adopted into a white household as a young girl, may in fact be her long-lost granddaughter. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tantoo Cardinal, Gabrielle Rose, (more)
- 2008
A young man has to choose if his loyalties lie with his family or the woman he loves in this independent drama. Cole (Richard de Klerk) was born and lives in a small town in British Columbia, where he helps his sister Maybelline (Sonja Bennett) run the local gas station and looks after his mother (Rebecca Jenkins), who is slipping into senility. Cole also keeps an eye on Bobby (Chad Willett), Maybelline's live-in boyfriend who has a vicious streak and sometimes beats both her and Rocket (Jack Forrester), her young son fathered by a previous boyfriend. While Cole has plenty of drama to deal with at home, he dreams of becoming a writer, and he decides to hone his craft by enrolling in a college three hours away. In one of Cole's writing classes, he meets Serafina (Kandyse McClure), who is everything Cole isn't -- confident, wealthy and casually beautiful. Also unlike Cole, Serafina is black, but that doesn't dull the mutual attraction between them. But as much as Cole cares for Serafina, he's not sure if there's a place for her in his old hometown, and he's torn between his desire to start a new life in the city and his need to take care of his family and protect his sister and nephew. Cole was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
When a family of three returns to America for a family funeral after living in Shanghai for the past three years, a desperate mother races to save the life of her suffering child upon discovering that he has fallen victim to the wrath of a living corpse. Sarah, Jason, and their young son Sammy were living halfway across the world when they were summoned back home to pay their final respects to a beloved family member. Shortly after the funeral, however, an already grim situation takes a heart-wrenchingly bleak turn when Sammy falls mysteriously ill and appears to be on the brink of death. Failed by western medicine and desperate to save her ailing child, Sarah seeks out the assistance of a mysterious pharmacist who informs her that young Sammy is now in the grip of a living corpse. With precious little time left to appease the spirits before Ghost Month ends and their child is lost forever, the parents must now accept that fact that forces beyond their comprehension are at work and respond quickly to the demands of the dead before it's too late. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jaime King, Terry Chen, (more)
The massive fences designed to protect the unhappy suburbanites who populate a posh Vancouver neighborhood from the outside world don't prove nearly as effective as the psychological barricades they erect following a tragic accident in director Carl Bessai's simmering small town drama. After popular high-school student Nick is killed in a drunk driving accident, all those touched by the tragedy gradually find their lives beginning to unravel. Nick's grieving mother Catherine (Carrie-Anne Moss) simply locks herself away in her son's room and refuses to permit anyone else entry into her chamber of sorrow. For those directly involved in the accident, the pain is almost too great to bear as well. When Nick's best friend Jordie (Kevin Zegers) -- who was driving the car at the time of the accident -- returns home from juvenile detention, his overbearing stepmother clings to him with every ounce of her energy as his domineering father makes the boy a target for his unchecked rage. But Nick's friends and family aren't the only ones whose lives have been torn asunder by the accident, because as the other driver -- a failed writer named Walt (Callum Keith Rennie) -- gradually falls into an alcoholic haze, his already troubled marriage continues to disintegrate as he becomes unable to provide his autistic brother with the attention he so desperately needs. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carrie-Anne Moss, Kevin Zegers, (more)
The despair of Canada's native community in the 21st century dovetails with a story of mystery and murder in this moody drama from filmmaker Carl Bessai. Rebecca (Carmen Moore) is a woman in her early thirties of aboriginal heritage living in the rough and tumble East Side of Vancouver, where crime, drugs, and prostitution are common and many native Canadians have become caught in a downward spiral of self-destruction. Rebecca also looks after her ailing father, and shortly before he dies, he shares some startling news with her -- Rebecca's mother Rita (Tantoo Cardinal), who she has long thought to be dead, is actually still alive and living in Vancouver. Rebecca desperately wants to reconnect with Rita, but she begins to scour the East Side in search of her mom at a very dangerous time. Norman (Callum Keith Rennie) is a psychotic killer obsessed with aboriginal women who has been prowling the East Side looking for victims, and as Rebecca looks for Rita she unwittingly puts herself in the fiend's path. Based on an acclaimed stage play by Marie Clements (who also wrote the film's screenplay), Unnatural and Accidental received its world premier at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Callum Keith Rennie, Tantoo Cardinal, (more)
Independent Canadian filmmaker Carl Bessai directs Emile, the final entry in his identity trilogy that started with Johnny and Lola. Ian McKellen plays Emile, a retired university professor who travels from England to his hometown in Canada in order to accept an educational honor. Visiting the family farm in Saskatchewan, he recalls his childhood relationships with brothers Freddy (Tygh Runyan) and Carl (Chris William Martin). He stays with his grown-up niece, Nadia (Deborah Kara Unger), who still hasn't forgiven him for his misdeeds of the past. Trying to make up for abandoning her, Emile develops an emotional bond with her daughter, Maria (Theo Crane). Emile premiered at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McKellen, Deborah Kara Unger, (more)
Following up on his gritty Dogma-certified look at street life in Toronto in Johnny, Carl Bessai shifts gears to detail the suburb ennui in Vancouver. Lola (Sabrina Grdevich) spends much of her days on her therapist's couch, blankly wandering the malls and running the odd errand for her hard-driving husband Mike (Colm Feore). Their marriage has stagnated for so long that they can barely imagine another way of living together. One night after an ugly fight, Lola heads into the night. She runs into a hooker named Sandra (Joanna Going), who is fleeing a loan shark and who is heading home for the first time in 15 years after her father died. They strike up a fast friendship, adding a blush of real emotion to Lola's life that had been absent for years. When Sandra's loans catch up with her, Lola assumes Sandra's identity and goes to visit her mother. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Heralded as the first North American entry in the growing Dogma '95 canon, Canadian director Carl Bessai's riveting urban drama is raw, bare-boned, and bleak. Johnny (Chris Martin) is a street kid with an insatiable appetite to manipulate, charm, and coerce. After swiping a camera from his pal Albert, he soon becomes obsessed with making movies. He demands that his loyal gang of followers risk themselves and others for the sake of the dramatic scenes and for his own naked lust for power. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival and at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris William Martin, Gema Zamprogna, (more)
