official description
Kat (Molly Parker) and Vic (the late, great Tracy Wright) are two rock and rollers who once shared a friendship, a band and a whole lot of bedlam. A dozen years after the breakup of their band, Trigger, the lovable yet dysfunctional duo reunite to rediscover their friendship, relive their rock and roll memories and reignite bits of their wild past.
The pretext to the reunion is a benefit concert in Toronto. The nostalgic Kat, who now works as a music producer in Los Angeles, seems almost too thrilled about the event, while her sour ex-partner, Vic (a pitch-perfect performance by Wright as a kind of Toronto Chrissie Hynde) needs a little encouragement. McDonald – a longtime music fanatic who pitched a variation on My Dinner with Andre to screenwriter Daniel MacIvor – films their rendezvous at a hip, high-rise restaurant with great verve. The restaurant is too chic for the simple Vic, but perfectly reflects Kat’s oversized ego. Their difficult and sometimes spiteful discussion – which touches on punctuality, egoism, sacrifice and opportunism – resuscitates their rivalry and their long-dormant demons: alcohol and drugs.
Their conversation is so captivating that we could spend the evening listening to them, but there is a concert to rock, so the duo hits the streets: first to Vic’s apartment, where we meet her writer boyfriend (Don McKellar, in a playful appearance); then to the concert hall, where the women butt heads with the show’s blasé stage manager (the great Sarah Polley in a memorable cameo). Finally, they hit the stage for a performance that neither of them would have thought possible an hour earlier.
McDonald, who’s now expert at crafting genre-bending music and concert films, builds this captivating story from the foundation of its characters: Vic’s bohemian authenticity and Kat’s careerist opportunism. The third central character is the city itself. This is a Toronto with Queen Street West as its central meridian, tilting between glossy display and grotty corners of creative truth – just like these two remarkable women. Tracy Wright acted in McDonald’s very first feature, Roadkill, in 1989. She died as Trigger was being completed. Knowing that he was directing her for the last time, it is as if McDonald designed the film as a tribute to all the elements Wright brought to the screen – her heat, her light, her darkness and especially her cool.
Martin Bilodeau
Principal Cast: Tracy Wright, Molly Parker, Don McKellar, Callum Keith Rennie, Sarah Polley
Producer: Jennifer Jonas, Leonard Farlinger
Executive Producer: Bryan Gliserman, Callum Keith Rennie, Dany Chiasson, Hugh Dillon
Cinematographer: Jonathon Cliff
Editor: Matthew Hannam
Sound: Jane Tattersall, Lou Solakofski, Matt Chan
Music: Brendan Canning
Production Designer: Rob Gray
Canadian Distributor: eOne Films
Production Company: United Orange Inc.
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