Don McKellar Movies

Based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's Oni Press comic book of the same name, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World follows the eponymous slacker rocker on his colorful quest to defeat his dream girl's seven evil ex-boyfriends. Twenty-two-year-old Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) may not have a job, but rocking the bass for his band, Sex Bob-omb, is a tough job unto itself. When Scott locks eyes with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), he knows she's the girl he wants to grow old with. But Ramona has some serious baggage; her supercharged exes rue the thought of her being with another man, and they'll crush any guy who gives her a second glance. Now, in order to win Ramona's heart, Scott will do battle with everyone from vegan-powered rock gods to sinister skateboarders, never losing sight of his gorgeous goal as he pummels his way to victory. Shaun of the Dead's Edgar Wright directs the film from a script he penned with Michael Bacall. Superhero veterans Chris Evans and Brandon Routh co-star in the action comedy as two of the seven ex-boyfriends. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director Bruce McDonald and screenwriter Don McKeller teamed up with noted indie rock band Broken Social Scene for this fusion of music and romantic comedy-drama. Caroline (Georgina Reilly) is a student spending a few days in Toronto who ends up staying with Bruno (Greg Calderone), an old friend from the town where they grew up. Bruno has long been infatuated with Caroline, and he can hardly believe his good luck when he wakes up in bed with her. However, the timing of his romantic breakthrough is flawed, since Caroline will be leaving for France the next day. On her last night in town, Caroline's all-time favorite band, Broken Social Scene, will be playing a big show, and she can't think of a better way to spend the evening. However, the show's venue has been moved at the last minute, and her friend Blake (Kjartan Hewitt) can no longer get her passes for the concert as promised. If Bruno wants to truly win Caroline's heart, he has to find a way to get her the tickets she's dreaming of. Director McDonald incorporated footage shot by amateur filmmakers of scene of Toronto in the summer into This Movie is Broken's staged scenes and concert material to help give the picture a more naturalistic feel; it received its world premiere at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A straight-laced chemist begins questioning society's standards and confronting his own darkest desires after falling for the all-American homecoming queen who joined a hippie death cult and made headlines for her murderous exploits. Perry (Gregory Smith) is your typical God-fearing American: A diligent academic who landed a good job at a chemical company before proposing to his Christian girlfriend Dorothy (Kristin Adams), he always did right by the Lord and his parents. But while Perry was always fortunate in life, Leslie was irreparably damaged by her parents' divorce, an abortion, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Following Timothy Leary's advice to "tune in, turn on, and drop out," the former cheerleader joined up with charismatic cult leader Charles Manson and helped his gang slaughter an upstanding citizen in her own home. Now Perry has been chosen to serve on the jury that will decide Leslie's fate. The moment Perry and Leslie lock eyes in the courtroom, the sheltered chemist is hopelessly smitten. Could their wildly divergent paths somehow converge? The more Perry learns about Leslie the stronger his infatuation grows, and the more he begins to question the rules that society has imposed on them both. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A pair of pot-smoking Toronto bohemians whose dealer has just been busted are shaken from their stoned complacency by a mysterious young radical in director Reginald Harkema's contemporary urban comedy. Dan (Don McKellar) and Linda (Tracy Wright) spend their days scavenging the local garbage dumps and garage sales for undervalued curiosities, and the nights smoking weed and gazing at the stars. When their usually-reliable dealer is suddenly, and unwillingly forced out of business by the authorities, the pair's momentary panic is soon placated by the arrival Susan (Nadia Litz), an enigmatic drifter with some especially potent British Columbia bud. It's not long before Susan becomes a familiar fixture around Don and Linda's home, and as the relationship dynamics between the three gradually evolves into something of a parent/child type of bond, the trio soon discovers that there are many secrets to be discovered. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A woman throws herself into a last-ditch struggle to conquer her demons in this gritty drama from director Olivier Assayas. Lee Hauser (James Johnston) is a faded rock star who lives with his wife, Emily Wang (Maggie Cheung), the former host of a European music video show, in a small town in Western Canada. Both Lee and Emily have been battling drug addiction for years, and when Lee finally dies of an OD, Emily finds herself charged with possession of heroin and ends up spending six months in jail. Lee and Emily's son, Jay (James Dennis), has been living with his paternal grandparents, Albrecht (Nick Nolte) and Rosemary (Martha Henry), and while Emily is eager to see her son after getting out of jail, Albrecht persuades her that she needs to get herself clean before she can reconnect with Jay. Determined to get off methadone, Emily relocates to France, where she scares up a job as a waitress and moves in with her old friend Elena (Béatrice Dalle). Emily's attempts to start a new career and stay off drugs prove to be an uphill battle, and she doesn't appear to be winning her fight when she learns that Albrecht and Jay will be accompanying Rosemary to London for medical treatment when Rosemary contracts a serious illness -- and that Albrecht is considering making a side trip to Paris. Clean was screened in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Canadian filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald directs the sentimental ensemble drama The Event. Nick (Parker Posey) is a district attorney investigating several deaths in the gay community of New York City's Chelsea District. It seems that many AIDS sufferers have died under similar mysterious circumstances. Each case suggest the use of assisted suicide, which is illegal in New York. HIV-infected cellist Matt (Don McKellar) has died of a drug overdose following a large party in Manhattan given by his family and friends. Nick first questions his lover Brian (Brent Carver), who runs an HIV support clinic. Still looking for answers, she interviews Matt's closest family members, including his mother Lila (Olympia Dukakis), his younger sister Dana (Sarah Polley), and his older sister Gaby (Joanna P. Adler). Meanwhile, Nick battles with her own past secrets involving her family back in New Jersey. The Event premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Based on the children's book by Philip Pullman, Laurie Lynd's I Was a Rat is a feature-length fable originally made as a three-part BBC miniseries. A reworking of a popular fairy tale, the story opens with a young abandoned pageboy (Calum Worthy) taken in by a childless couple: the aging cobbler Bob (Tom Conti) and domestic worker Joan (Brenda Fricker). Nicknamed Roger, the pageboy claims that he isn't human at all but a rat, which attracts the interest of the Daily Scourge newspaper, a mad scientist, and a carnival owner named Oliver Tapscrew (Don McKellar). The search for Roger's real home is accompanied by the story of Lady Aurelia (Katie Blake) and her prince (James Millard). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Office workers existing in varying states of disgruntlement/insanity, Tom, Sandra, Randy, and Curt bet a month's salary to see who can stay indoors the longest. Since their office is located in a downtown area, where almost all of the buildings are connected by a system of glass-enclosed bridges, this doesn't seem like such a difficult proposition. However, the longer they stay indoors, the stranger things get. Waydowntown, which was screened at the 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival, was directed and co-written by noted Canadian filmmaker Gary Burns, and features celebrated actor and filmmaker Don McKellar in a role as a cubicle drone.


~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg, who has long been fascinated by the ways new technology shapes and manipulates the human beings who believe they are its masters, is in familiar territory with eXistenZ, a futuristic thriller which combines elements of science fiction, horror and action-adventure. What is eXistenZ? According to the glossary Cronenberg put together for this film, it is a new organic game system that, when downloaded into humans, accesses their central nervous system, transporting them on a wild ride in and out of reality. What's more, it changes every time it is played, by adapting to the individual user -- you have to play the game to find out why you are playing the game. More than one person can plug into the same game and set out on a series of bizarre and surrealistic adventures together. The narrative takes place sometime in the near future, when game designers are worshipped as superstars and players can organically enter inside the games. Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the goddess among computer game designers whose latest invention, 'eXistenZ,' taps deeply into its users' fears and desires by blurring the boundaries between reality and escapism, is subject to an assassination attempt and forced to flee. Her sole ally is Ted Pikul (Jude Law), a novice security guard sworn to protect her. Persuading Ted to play the game, Allegra draws them both into a phantasmagoric world where existence ends and eXistenZ begins. Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is supposedly something of a computer nerd in real life, is hip and sexily alluring as Allegra Geller. When she and Pikul make love and are transported to the bizarre setting of a trout farm which has been converted to an assembly line production plant for games, they delve deeper into the dangerously intriguing game. Soon the forces of Anti-eXistenZialism will close in on Pikul and Allegra. eXistenZ marks the first time since Videodrome that Cronenberg has written a completely original screenplay. eXistenZ was inspired by the tribulations of the fugitive writer Salman Rushdie, author of the Satanic Verses. After interviewing the author for a magazine article in 1995, Cronenberg was struck with the idea of an artist who suddenly finds himself on a hit list for religious or philosophical reasons and is forced to go into hiding. The idea of a game came later on, for which he created a new vocabulary. According to Cronenberg, eXistenZ thematically connects to Crash, Videodrome, Naked Lunch and even M. Butterfly in terms of exploring the extent to which we create our own levels of reality and the idea of a creative act being dangerous to the creator. This is the second film on which Alliance Atlantis has been associated with Cronenberg, after Crash, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 International Cannes Film Festival. On the occasion of the presentation of eXistenZ, Cronenberg received a Silver Bear for his outstanding artistic achievements at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

Don McKellar wrote and directed this comedy-drama about the last night of the world, part of the 12-film Arte series of movies about the Millennium. Set in Toronto, Patrick (McKellar) endures a faux Christmas celebration with his family while Sandra (Sandra Oh) tries to get across town to commit suicide with her husband, a gas company employee Duncan (David Cronenberg). Meanwhile, Craig (Callum Keith Rennie) hopes to achieve sexual satisfaction with several women on his list. Still mourning his dead wife, Patrick plans his last moments alone, until he and Sandra crosspaths. Shown in the Directors Fortnight section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Writer/director Peter Wellington's Joe's So Mean to Josephine tracks the slow unraveling of a dysfunctional relationship. Josephine (Sarah Polley from Go), a smart but immature college girl living in Toronto, is out drinking with some friends when she sees Joe (Eric Thal) sitting at the bar. Joe is cute, wears a leather jacket, and seems quite unfriendly. Josephine is intrigued enough to smile at Joe as he leaves the bar. Joe ignores her. The next morning, Josephine wakes up to find Joe in her kitchen, arguing with her mother (Dixie Seatle). It turns out that when Joe's not earning an extra dollar illegally wiretapping phone lines, he works as a telephone repairman. Josephine approaches him and introduces herself. He doesn't seem particularly interested. Later, Josephine steps out of a bar and sees Joe waiting for his hapless partner-in-crime, Mike (Canadian indie superstar Don McKellar). Joe is pretty cold to her, but this time, he invites her out to eat. She's nervous, but delighted, and ends up going home with him. After their tryst, she shows up at his job, and then at his apartment, and she buys a goldfish for his empty aquarium. He seems sick of her, and treats her rudely. She tells him off and leaves, which he likes. When she returns later, he's nicer to her, and they start dating again. But when they run into some of her friends from the newspaper where she works, Joe's rude to them, and the two argue. Eventually, Josephine moves out of her parents' house, and in with her friend, Mona (Waneta Storms). Her budding writing career starts coming together, and Joe feels threatened by her success. She tries to break up with him, but finds he's not so easy to get rid of. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi