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Canada News.Net
6 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
'Better Than Chocolate' highlights lost 90s decade of lesbian Canadian cinema
"If coming out of the closet was really as much fun as it is for the sexually adventurous youths in Better Than Chocolate, then everybody would be doing it, even straight people." So wrote film critic Bruce Kirkland in his 1999 review of the lesbian romantic comedy by Canadian filmmaker Anne Wheeler. Kirkland pointed out that real life for queer and trans community members was "tougher, harsher and nastier" than portrayed in the 90-minute romp, but also wrote: "To hell with reality, at least for an hour-and-a-half. This movie is a little treasure and offers a lot of pleasure." The endearing rom-com won audience choice awards at a number of gay and lesbian film festivals, including in its hometown of Vancouver. Today, more than a quarter century later, with hate crimes against queer and trans people on the rise and legal protections, especially in the United States, being threatened or ripped away, the film's lens on romance - and the joy, safety and complications of being in community - may resonate with contemporary viewers and offer a brief reprieve from the heaviness of the political fight. Like many Canadian lesbian-driven films from the 1990s, it also serves as an example of filmmakers working in queer communities to highlight once-censored voices, and reflects the sheer ingenuity and creative force of community collaboration in this moment - something that has been underrepresented in broader histories of queer and Canadian national cinema. In Better Than Chocolate, bookstore employee Maggie (Karyn Dwyer) and nomadic artist Kim (Christina Cox) start a whirlwind romance, moving in together within a matter of hours (echoing the classic U-Haul lesbian stereotype). Their love story is complicated by the arrival of Maggie's mother Lila (Wendy Crewson), a judgmental woman fresh off a divorce who doesn't know her daughter is a lesbian. Comedic chaos ensues as the two young lovebirds navigate romantic, familial and community conflicts, all of which are neatly wrapped up by the end. Though Better Than Chocolate may ultimately be a feel-good comedy, the film captures a community under attack from outside and within. Skinheads harass Maggie and Kim, culminating in violence. Judy (Peter Outerbridge) is accosted for being transgender and is consistently misgendered by other lesbians. The Canadian Border Services Agency purposefully targets neurotic bookstore owner, Frances (played by actor, author, playwright and Canadian lesbian icon Ann-Marie Macdonald), for selling queer literature. Better Than Chocolate is only one in a wave of lesbian-centred 90s films made in Canada. In this decade, creatives produced at least 12 narrative feature-length lesbian-centred films, several documentaries and over 400 short films. Some echo Better Than Chocolate 's romantic tone, but the wave includes a diversity of genres - including erotic thrillers, family dramas and experimental dreamscapes. Some of these films are well-recognized in the Canadian film canon, including Deepa Mehta's Fire (1996) and Patricia Rozema's When Night is Falling (1995), while others have been largely forgotten and prove hard to access today, like Patricia Rivera Spencer's Dreamers of the Day (1990) and Jeanne Crepeau's Revoir Julie (1998). Canadian economic, social and artistic contexts offered a vital creative ecosystem that facilitated such a vibrant era of lesbian-driven cinema. Feminist filmmaking collectives in the 1970s - like Women in Focus (Vancouver), intervisions/ARC (Toronto) and Reel Life (Halifax) - alongside the launch of Studio D at the National Film Board of Canada in 1974 - provided dedicated space for training talent and for producing films about women's issues. Wheeler came up through Studio D, co-directing the studio's first film in 1975. Canadian artists also had access to several funding sources, including federal, provincial and local arts councils. Beginning in the late 80s, such funding sources were soliciting more diverse content, a result of community activism driven by marginalized artists. Importantly, a growing network of queer film festivals aided the development of an invested audience willing to pay to watch queer stories. From 1985 to 2000, at least 11 annual queer festivals were founded in Canada, including Reel Pride (Winnipeg, 1985); Out on Screen (Vancouver, 1988); image+nation (Montreal, 1989); London Lesbian Film Festival (London, 1991); and Inside Out (Toronto, 1991). With increasing venues to screen queer work and growing audiences came the demand for more films. Alongside the broader Canadian context, local contexts also encouraged more filmmakers to tell lesbian stories. Wheeler had long been committed to making films about lesser-represented Western Canada. While most of her films were set in Alberta, Better Than Chocolate moved her focus to Vancouver and its local queer politics. The dramatic subplot between bookstore owner Frances and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is a clear reference to the then-ongoing Supreme Court of Canada case involving Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium in Vancouver. Little Sister's, a queer bookstore, had been targeted for years by the CBSA, which would delay shipments while confiscating and sometimes damaging materials that it considered obscene. The film publicized the homophobia of the CBSA, with Frances comedically demanding to know why books such as Little Red Riding Hood had been confiscated. As we discovered in our archival research, Janine Fuller, the manager of Little Sister's, provided feedback on an early draft of the screenplay. A flyer from the film's production company was also used to raise the visibility of the court case. The film's community ties extended further. As noted in archival documents and the film's press package, Canadian trans activist and performance artist Star Maris inspired the filmmakers when crafting the character of Judy. Her song, "I'm Not a Fucking Drag Queen," was solicited for use within the film. Vancouver's lesbian community was invited to participate as extras in a bar scene, with an advertisement stating, "This is an excellent opportunity to meet new friends, party with old ones, have much fun being in a movie." Finally, as Anne Wheeler told Eye Weekly in 1999: "Right from the development phase on, we had a group of 12 young lesbian women whom we consulted with and they told us very specifically what they did and didn't want to see. ... So we set out very intentionally to break the mould and dispose of the old perceptions about gay women." In returning to Better Than Chocolate and other films, queer audiences may find entertaining gems, but may also be reminded of the power of survival of queer communities. Better Than Chocolate is now available on CTV. Don't stop there! In addition to films named above, check out these other Canadian lesbian-centred 90s feature films. Cat Swallows Parakeet and Speaks (1996) High Art (1998) 2 Seconds (1998)
Winnipeg Free Press
16 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Thunderous approval for pop star Tate McRae at Canada Life Centre
Even if you think you've never heard of Tate McRae, you've definitely heard Tate McRae. The 22-year-old Calgary-born pop star is having a supernova moment. Her 2023 single Greedy continues to have a chokehold on pop radio. She is one of the Top 50 most-listened-to artists in the world on Spotify. She has had 21 (!) songs chart on the Billboard Top 100. People might know her better — or at least first — as a dancer. McRae also has the distinction of being the first Canadian finalist on the American reality series So You Think You Can Dance. She started posting songs to YouTube in 2019 and the rest, as they say, is history. Now, McRae's out on her three-continent Miss Possessive Tour — in support of her third album, this year's So Close To What — which brought her to Canada Life Centre on Saturday night. Starting with plenty of pyro and smoke right out of the gate, McRae let the anticipation build before taking the stage in a teeny white outfit for a slinky, sexy performance of Miss Possessive, flanked by a crew of impressive dancers. For an arena pop show, the stage set up was surprisingly spartan: a large T-shaped catwalk with a circular B stage, backed by three giant screens that had a few video interstitials but mostly showed what was going on onstage (her videographers were absolutely excellent). This allowed McRae to be the focus — her face, her voice, her choreography. And her hairography, of course; McRae's honey-coloured mane is a main character, and she loves an expertly-timed hair flip. McRae draws a lot of comparisons to Britney Spears, perhaps because she's a pop star who can actually dance and perhaps because, like Spears, McRae's also big into the breathy baby voice, or so-called cursive singing — a term that describes a vocal style in which certain vowels are elongated while the consonants are clipped. (It gets its name because it sounds like cursive writing.) Both qualities were on full display on Saturday night, though her vocals had far more power behind them live than their recorded counterparts might suggest, especially on Siren Sounds, for which she commanded the stage. The show mostly felt like a relentlessly paced, 95-minute Y2K-era music video: a lot of crawling around the stage on all-fours, plenty of head snaps, a full-on stripper pole for the R&B-inflected Uh Oh. But she offered glimpses of her other sides as an artist, too, taking the mic on the B-stage in a black gown for performances of Greenlight and a soaring Nostalgia before sitting down at a keyboard for a little medley that threw back to her YouTube days. A note here on the crowd: I don't think even the Winnipeg Whiteout games got this loud. CHRIS PIZZELLO / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Tate McRae's vocals had far more power behind them live than their recorded counterparts. CHRIS PIZZELLO / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Tate McRae's vocals had far more power behind them live than their recorded counterparts. The energy ramped back up before the show ended with a bang: an explosive rendition of Just Keep Watching, followed by the definitely Britney-indebted Sports Car (which featured a waterfall of sparks) and, of course, Greedy. A lot of culture critics (especially Elder Millennial ones) have spent the past couple of years dedicating a lot of pixels and podcast air to parsing the 'why' of McRae's fame. For my part, I think it simply comes down to the idea that not everything is for everyone, and that's fine. She's part of a rich tradition of generic pop music that people like because they can dance and sing along to it. Don't overthink it. Swedish pop star Zara Larsson opened the show with a set stepped in clubby early-aughts dance pop — right down to a cover of Britney Spears' Gimme More that gives the original a run for its money. But as a vocalist, Larsson evokes Christina Aguilera more than Britney. She's got a big, acrobatic voice, which was given a workout on the 2015 banger Lush Life and this year's Midnight Sun, the title track from her forthcoming fifth studio album, due out in September. The latter is a sweet ode to Sweden's long summer days, but it's also yet more proof that the Swedes sure know how to write a pop song. Larsson closed with her titanic 2017 hit Symphony, which had big headliner energy. Wednesdays What's next in arts, life and pop culture. Jen ZorattiColumnist Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen. Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Toronto Star
a day ago
- Toronto Star
Toronto's Grizzly Bar, the Canada-themed tavern born amid Trump tariffs, to close months after opening
Co-owner Jessica Langer Kapalka and her husband Jason said they wanted to create a place where people could channel their Canadian pride. Giordano Ciampini/ The Canadian Press
