WHOLE NEW THING - Various Movie Reviews
By JASON ANDERSON Special to The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Classification: 14A Rating: **?
The wry, engaging story of one adolescent's tempestuous coming of age in rural Nova Scotia, Whole New Thing also serves as a cautionary tale about the perils of home schooling. While some children are well-served by the practice, Emerson (Aaron Webber) has turned out to be advanced in some aspects and stunted in others. Then again, it's a wonder that this 13-year-old isn't more screwed up given his parents' eccentricities. Embittered by his failure to fix the world, Rog (Robert Joy) is an ecologically minded inventor with a professional interest in human feces. His wife Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins) is a free spirit who doesn't see the harm in letting Emerson grow his hair long and take a few tokes off a joint. Both parents are oddly proud when Emerson begins having wet dreams, though Dad recommends masturbation so as to cut down the number of stained sheets, noting that "too much laundry is bad for the environment."
Alas, the family that takes naked saunas together does not always stay together. Impressed that her son has already written a novel -- a gigantic, Tolkien-like tome named The Fire of Evermore -- but fearing that he's slipping behind in math, Kaya enrolls Emerson in a local public school. Most of the other students are hostile to this long-haired know-it-all. Having acquired his father's arrogance, Emerson holds the yokels in contempt but still makes a connection with his English teacher, Don Grant (Daniel MacIvor), a man whose sole extracurricular activity seems to be cruising for anonymous sex in a park washroom. Emerson inspires Don to challenge his students more and the class is soon discovering the wonders of As You Like It. The friendship between student and teacher takes a more complicated turn when Emerson starts writing Don courtly love poems. Things grow equally fraught at home when Kaya has an affair with a hunky local (Callum Keith Rennie).
As Kaya herself says to her son, grownups are often the ones who need to do the growing up. But the one major advantage the adults in Whole New Thing have over Emerson is that they can distinguish between the idealized forms of love he finds in Shakespeare comedies from the messy, painful varieties that are more common in real life.
Rich with ideas and nuanced characters, the script by writer-director Amnon Buchbinder is as skilled and intelligent as one could expect from a man who wrote a book called The Way of the Screenwriter (he also teaches the subject at York University). Yet with all the slow-building tension created by the numerous subplots -- and the many lustful Hidden Cameras songs on the soundtrack -- the climactic scenes feel more timid than they could be. Like such recent films as Michael Cuesta's L.I.E., Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl and Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, Whole New Thing is energized by the clash between amorphous adolescent sexuality and the more mercenary imperatives of adulthood. Yet Buchbinder shuts down that avenue of exploration when matters become too unsettling. While he's to be commended for incorporating so many provocative elements in what's essentially a light-hearted family drama, the result doesn't entirely satisfy. However, the performances -- especially Jenkins, who's clearly delighted to be playing such a vivacious woman, and first-timer Webber -- and the fine production qualities should make it easy for audiences to enjoy Emerson's difficult but overdue foray into public education.
WHOLE NEW THING - CAPSULE REVIEWS FROM CANADIAN FILM FESTIVALS, SEPT/OCT 05 PRINT REVIEWS:
NOW MAGAZINE (TORONTO) - Glenn Sumi
NNNN (4 stars): Here's a coming-of-age film that could become a Canadian classic. After being home-schooled by his eco-obsessed parents (Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy), brainy 13 year-old Emerson (Aaron Webber), on the brink of puberty, goes off to middle school. Once there, he fends off bullies but also finds himself drawn to his lonely middle-aged English teacher (MacIvor). Buchbinder doesn't have a great visual sense, but his script - co-written with MacIvor - is subtle and consistently surprising. The slightly androgynous Webber is a real find, and MacIvor is all nervous energy as a teacher who escapes through anonymous washroom sex. But look how slyly Joy steals the pic as an uptight ecoholic." "FILM FESTIVAL PICK OF THE DAY" FOR SEPT 12
METRO DAILY (TORONTO) - Norman Wilner
Amnon Buchbinder's Whole New Thing resists all easy classifications - it's a coming-of-age movie, a drama, a comedy and a bit of a social satire, all wrapped up in the story of a more or less insufferably confident 13-year-old named Emerson Thorsen (Aaron Webber), who forges an awkward relationship with his English teacher (Daniel MacIvor) when he's dropped into the merciless world of the East Coast public-school system after growing up home-schooled by his ecological activist parents. It could have been a bad sitcom, but it plays out with depth and wit, mainly because Buchbinder (who wrote the script with MacIvor) refuses to render any of the characters in less than three dimensions. FILM FESTIVAL PICK OF THE DAY FOR SEPT 12
EYE WEEKLY (TORONTO) - Kim Linekin
**** (4 Stars) This dramedy marks the engrossing debut of Aaron Webber as Emerson, a 13-year-old who lives with his eco-nudist parents (Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy) in rural Nova Scotia and has a confidence that is delightfully at odds with his asymmetrical hairstyle and fantasy-genre preoccupations. Emerson successfully negotiates the transition from home schooling to middle school, but fails to grasp adult sexual boundaries when he becomes infatuated with his teacher (Daniel MacIvor, who co-wrote the clever screenplay). The film sells out Emerson in the end, but the characters are all original and memorable
BOSTON GLOBE:
Amnon Buchbinder's ''Whole New Thing," a witty and well-acted comedy set in rural Nova Scotia, features an extremely poised 13-year-old (Aaron Webber) with a raging crush on his English teacher (Daniel McIvor, the film's co-writer). Wesley Morris
EXCLAIM (Jeff Musgrave)
Newcomer Aaron Webber plays Emerson Thorson, a home-educated adolescent sent to public school because of his poor math skills. His mother, Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins), instigates the change; his father, Rog (Robert Joy), is against it.
This is not your typical "closed" Maritime home. Emerson calls his parents by their first names, holds intelligent discussions with them and even has saunas - naked! - with them. The family even discusses his first wet dream at length.
Of course, our protagonist runs into problems, especially when he develops a crush on his gay English teacher Don (played by Daniel MacIvor). But that's where the predictability ends. MacIvor and Buchbinder (who shares the writing credit with MacIvor) make wise choices, defying typical "coming of age" conventions, negotiating sensitive (and potentially explosive) terrain with skill.
Don is portrayed as a human being with intimacy issues instead of an embarrassing stereotype, or worse, a predator, which could easily have happened if this story had been crafted by less enlightened hands. MacIvor is perfect as the 42-year-old teacher who chooses bathroom sex over rekindling his past relationship. And Weber's turn as Emerson makes it hard to believe this is his first starring role. In fact, the acting, directing and writing are in perfect balance.
The instrumental soundtrack is poignant, not unlike Mychael Danna's score for Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter. But the vocal tracks are awkward, especially "I Believe in the Good of Life" by the Hidden Cameras.
But this is a small problem and does little to taint the rest of the film. So mark my words: you'll be seeing more of MacIvor, Webber and Whole New Thing at Genie time. (Th!nk)
SEE MAGAZINE (EDMONTON) - Amy Fung
Precocious 13-year-old Emerson Thorsen has been home-schooled all his life by his hippie parents. Innovative environmentalist Rog and post-acitivist Kaya encourage their son to embracve his natural body, smoke pot, and talk openly about his new wet dreams. When they begin to worry that his upbringing may be too unbalanced, they enroll him in the nearby town's junior high school. A few violent teenage conflicts arise for Emerson, but his biggest preoccupation is his newfound infatuation with his english teacher, Mr. Grant. Shakespeare is read, the rules of comedy and tragedy are taught, and life imitates art as fortune's wheel begins to spin. Passion both requited and not begin to unravel in the sleepy small town. Lost love, new flames, and old lovers rise and fall in the inevitable spiral that comes and goes with change. With a stellar soundtrack by The Hidden Cameras and shot on location in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Whole New Thing warmly embraces the winter landscape and those who live through it.
VUE WEEKLY (EDMONTON) -Carolyn Nikodym
Whole New Thing (dir: Amnon Buchbinder) o Garneau Theatre o Tue, Oct 4 (9:30 pm) In this film set in Nova Scotia, you have a middle-aged hippie couple, their home-schooled adolescent son, and all the makings of a quirky Canadian film. And while Buchbinder delivers a film that is indeed uniquely Canadian, he also thankfully steers clear of making caricatures of his subjects. Soon after the couple's son starts having wet dreams, mother Kaya decides to send Emerson off to school. It is a whole new world for the smart young novelist and one full of sexual possibilities, though Emerson only has eyes for one-Don, his older male teacher. Buchbinder handles the subject matter exceptionally well, especially the matter of Don's promiscuity, making the events unfold believably but not harshly. But at the same time, he never gets gritty enough-all of the characters could end up faring much worse, considering the things that they do. What's left with is a better-than-average film with some good ol' Canadian politeness.
GEORGIA STRAIGHT (VANCOUVER) - Ken Eisner
A strong cast and unusual turns make this a very different kind of coming-out story. In fact, it's not clear that its 13-year-old main character (played by Aaron Webber) is even gay. Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy get the trickiest moves as the lad's battling parents, and Daniel MacIvor-who cowrote the script with director Amnon Buchbinder-is the closeted teacher who triggers some change in the family. There's a rush toward forced melodrama at the end, but that doesn't obscure the sharp observations that come before.
TERMINAL CITY (VANCOUVER) - Mariko Summers
***If you've never heard of Daniel MacIvor, check out his latest contribution as actor, co-writer and co-producer of Whole New Thing. University Prof Buchbinder had the good fortune to exploit MacIvor's magic in a coming-of-age tale based on the actor's own experiences in small-town Northern Ontario. Emerson Thorsen (Aaron Webber) is a one-time home-taught, sexually precocious lad who goes off to school and develops a passionate crush on his male teacher. He's cool with it, but everyone else? Classmates, parents, and his closeted tutor come apart at the seams. An engaging, sophisticated Canadian low-budget gem that will likely never see distribution.
VANCOUVER SUN - Katherine Monk
Amnon Buchbinder and Daniel MacIvor collaborate on this highly intimate script about a 13-year-old-boy moving through a delicate period in his life as hemakes the transition from home school to high school - and develops a crush on his English teacher.
Issues of sexuality, adolescent rebellion and parent-child bonding come into play over the course of this detailed and surprisingly compelling feature. Even when the characters run into the walls of cliché - which is bound to happen in a movie about kids and teachers, mentors and proteges, even without Robin Williams - the performances are layered enough to stick to the screen and hold your attention. MacIvor does a wonderful job as the befuddled teacher, and Aaron Webber rises to the occasion in the role of young Emerson, but it's really the supporting cast of Callum Keith Rennie, Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy who bring the real human dimensions to this story.
VARIETY (Dennis Harvey)
Pleasant, moderately offbeat "Whole New Thing" follows "Off the Map" and "The Ballad of Jack and Rose" in examining the growing pains of a kid raised in social isolation by aging-hippie parents. Beyond that basic framework, there's not much story overlap between those pics and this diverting latest from director Amnon Buchbinder and co-writer-thesp Daniel McIvor. Yet like the duo's separate prior projects behind the camera, "Thing" suffers the familiar curse of Canadian seriocomedy -- just nice enough in content and stylistically like a telepic. Prospects look mild.
The almost insufferably precocious Emerson Thorsen (Aaron Webber) has been home-schooled by parents Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins) and Rog (Robert Joy). But now that he's entering adolescence, mom worries his education and social skills have grown too far removed from the real-world.
Reluctantly enrolled in the local public high school, Emerson flaunts an intelligence, arrogance and androgyny that vex and intimidate his rural Nova Scotia classmates, resulting in bloody noses as well as grudging acceptance. His mature, well-versed intellect impresses English instructor Don (McIvor), even raising the level of classroom discourse.
But as the very forward, bisexually inclined (if still virginal) boy develops a crush on his teacher, he pursues it without grasping how even the appearance of impropriety might be enough to get Don fired -- or jailed. His parents' enlightened philosophies regarding love and sex haven't prepared him at all for mainstream rules.
Meanwhile, Rog, having a mid-life-crisis, discovers his neglect has nudged Kaya into an affair with a working-class local (Callum Keith Rennie). And closet-case Don, who has enough problems without adding an amorous 13-year-old male student to the mix, worries that his decision to leave his big city life (and a lover) some years back might have become a life-ruining misjudgment.
All figures are credibly drawn and played, with professional debutant Webber easily holding his own in a challenging role. But despite their surface quirks, characters are only modestly interesting, as are the situations they get into.
Ending stays true to form, in that it's at once mildly satisfying and a small letdown. There's a diligent, low-key craftsmanship at work throughout that seldom makes false moves, but doesn't take any major risks, either. "Thing" arguably reps a more smoothly drawn look at countercultural parent-child dynamics than either "Off the Map" or "Ballad." Yet both those uneven films leave a more lasting imprint.
Design and tech contribs are solid if undistinguished.
ON-LINE REVIEWS:
Craig James White (Blog):
Whole New Thing is a coming-of-age movie about a gifted and determined 13-year old in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, who is dealing with a growing crush on his English teacher. If you've watched much Canadian celluloid unspool in the last half dozen years, you've seen many of the cast members here: Rebecca Jenkins, Daniel MacIvor, Callum Keith Rennie. They're very good, and they are helped along by an excellent script, one of the best written Canadian social dramas I've seen in a while, one that never seems to take a wrong step (and good enough that I don't want to blow any surprises by describing the plot). The 13-year old, played by Aaron Webber, a Mahone Bay local and newcomer, was just perfect. Terrific film.
Aliant. Net: Ron Foley MacDonald:
Actor/Writer Dan MacIvor's latest feature is collaboration with Toronto director/writer Amnon Buchbinder. Entitled Whole New Thing and filmed in an around Mahone Bay and Halifax in the dead of last winter, it's an edgy and poetic ode to misplaced desire between a precocious teen and his slightly befuddled teacher. Surprisingly sweet and funny, Whole New Thing boasts a stellar cast (Rebecca Jenkins, Robert Joy, Callum Keith Rennie and MacIvor himself), a terrific soundtrack and a unexpectedly rich visual panache that catches Nova Scotia's snow season just about perfectly.
TORONTO LIFE:
Shot over 15 stormy winter days in Nova Scotia, this charming second feature by York University prof Amnon Buchbinder (The Fishing Trip) deals with the coming of age of one precocious, sonnet-spouting, home-schooled Emerson Thorsen (newcomer Aaron Webber). Raised by hippie parents in a straw bale house in the woods, the 13-year-old's world consists of potlucks, saunas, casual nudity and novel writing, until the fateful day when his mother, worried about his lacklustre math skills, ships him off to the local middle school. Once there, Emerson must deal with bullies, mind-numbing curriculum and his first real crush-on his lonely, middle-aged English teacher, Don (Daniel MacIvor).
"FILM FESTIVAL PICK OF THE DAY"
LyttleOne, September 14, 2005 09:32 PM
Hippies and their kids seem popular for Canadian films this year (Slow Curve and Whole New Thing both feature these), but Whole New Thing isn't just another hippy flick. Aaron Webber steals the screen from his older counterparts as the brilliant and too mature for his years Emerson in this film. His debut performance was a masterpiece worthy of actors twice his age. I look forward to seeing much more from him, and hope that other directors allow him the privelege of presenting his screen presence to other audiences. Sardonic, ironic, deeply emotional and intuitive he flips wonderfully between the supplanted genius and the stunted child who hasn't been socialized with his peers.
This film addresses the questions that many young teenagers struggle with in how much intelligence to show before ones peers, sexual identity, social mores, and attitudes about nudity, pot, and acceptable behaviours. This screenplay was wonderful, the location helped the film but wasn't overwhelming in its Canadiana touches, and the supporting characters were fantastic. I look forward to the music being made available from this film, and I look forward to much more from this young man and his wonderful director!
MOVIE CONTESTS.COM (Scott Hayes) 3.5 Stars
From the CanCon "Weird Sex" file comes this exploration of sexual awakening as experienced by characters of different ages, genders, and orientations. With a 13-year-old boy as the lead, Thing starts with a family of environmentalists enjoying a nice nude sauna together. They live in a hay hut shack in the rural area outside of some nondescript Maritimes town. The dad is an intellectual eco-warrior trying to discover a method to turn human excrement into a viable energy source. The wife just kind of goes along with everything because she craves his attention. And the son, Emerson (Webber), is home-schooled to excellent effect, has written a pretty thick book, and is just hitting his full stride of puberty as his parents decide to throw a curveball by having him go to an actual school.
Emerson, the mother, and the teacher go through their own melancholy transitional periods associated with their sexual stage of life. Things get messy when Emerson develops a bit of a crush on his new teacher. In this world though, even sheltered, confused teenagers still know more than their elders.
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By JASON ANDERSON Special to The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Classification: 14A Rating: **?
The wry, engaging story of one adolescent's tempestuous coming of age in rural Nova Scotia, Whole New Thing also serves as a cautionary tale about the perils of home schooling. While some children are well-served by the practice, Emerson (Aaron Webber) has turned out to be advanced in some aspects and stunted in others. Then again, it's a wonder that this 13-year-old isn't more screwed up given his parents' eccentricities. Embittered by his failure to fix the world, Rog (Robert Joy) is an ecologically minded inventor with a professional interest in human feces. His wife Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins) is a free spirit who doesn't see the harm in letting Emerson grow his hair long and take a few tokes off a joint. Both parents are oddly proud when Emerson begins having wet dreams, though Dad recommends masturbation so as to cut down the number of stained sheets, noting that "too much laundry is bad for the environment."
Alas, the family that takes naked saunas together does not always stay together. Impressed that her son has already written a novel -- a gigantic, Tolkien-like tome named The Fire of Evermore -- but fearing that he's slipping behind in math, Kaya enrolls Emerson in a local public school. Most of the other students are hostile to this long-haired know-it-all. Having acquired his father's arrogance, Emerson holds the yokels in contempt but still makes a connection with his English teacher, Don Grant (Daniel MacIvor), a man whose sole extracurricular activity seems to be cruising for anonymous sex in a park washroom. Emerson inspires Don to challenge his students more and the class is soon discovering the wonders of As You Like It. The friendship between student and teacher takes a more complicated turn when Emerson starts writing Don courtly love poems. Things grow equally fraught at home when Kaya has an affair with a hunky local (Callum Keith Rennie).
As Kaya herself says to her son, grownups are often the ones who need to do the growing up. But the one major advantage the adults in Whole New Thing have over Emerson is that they can distinguish between the idealized forms of love he finds in Shakespeare comedies from the messy, painful varieties that are more common in real life.
Rich with ideas and nuanced characters, the script by writer-director Amnon Buchbinder is as skilled and intelligent as one could expect from a man who wrote a book called The Way of the Screenwriter (he also teaches the subject at York University). Yet with all the slow-building tension created by the numerous subplots -- and the many lustful Hidden Cameras songs on the soundtrack -- the climactic scenes feel more timid than they could be. Like such recent films as Michael Cuesta's L.I.E., Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl and Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, Whole New Thing is energized by the clash between amorphous adolescent sexuality and the more mercenary imperatives of adulthood. Yet Buchbinder shuts down that avenue of exploration when matters become too unsettling. While he's to be commended for incorporating so many provocative elements in what's essentially a light-hearted family drama, the result doesn't entirely satisfy. However, the performances -- especially Jenkins, who's clearly delighted to be playing such a vivacious woman, and first-timer Webber -- and the fine production qualities should make it easy for audiences to enjoy Emerson's difficult but overdue foray into public education.
WHOLE NEW THING - CAPSULE REVIEWS FROM CANADIAN FILM FESTIVALS, SEPT/OCT 05 PRINT REVIEWS:
NOW MAGAZINE (TORONTO) - Glenn Sumi
NNNN (4 stars): Here's a coming-of-age film that could become a Canadian classic. After being home-schooled by his eco-obsessed parents (Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy), brainy 13 year-old Emerson (Aaron Webber), on the brink of puberty, goes off to middle school. Once there, he fends off bullies but also finds himself drawn to his lonely middle-aged English teacher (MacIvor). Buchbinder doesn't have a great visual sense, but his script - co-written with MacIvor - is subtle and consistently surprising. The slightly androgynous Webber is a real find, and MacIvor is all nervous energy as a teacher who escapes through anonymous washroom sex. But look how slyly Joy steals the pic as an uptight ecoholic." "FILM FESTIVAL PICK OF THE DAY" FOR SEPT 12
METRO DAILY (TORONTO) - Norman Wilner
Amnon Buchbinder's Whole New Thing resists all easy classifications - it's a coming-of-age movie, a drama, a comedy and a bit of a social satire, all wrapped up in the story of a more or less insufferably confident 13-year-old named Emerson Thorsen (Aaron Webber), who forges an awkward relationship with his English teacher (Daniel MacIvor) when he's dropped into the merciless world of the East Coast public-school system after growing up home-schooled by his ecological activist parents. It could have been a bad sitcom, but it plays out with depth and wit, mainly because Buchbinder (who wrote the script with MacIvor) refuses to render any of the characters in less than three dimensions. FILM FESTIVAL PICK OF THE DAY FOR SEPT 12
EYE WEEKLY (TORONTO) - Kim Linekin
**** (4 Stars) This dramedy marks the engrossing debut of Aaron Webber as Emerson, a 13-year-old who lives with his eco-nudist parents (Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy) in rural Nova Scotia and has a confidence that is delightfully at odds with his asymmetrical hairstyle and fantasy-genre preoccupations. Emerson successfully negotiates the transition from home schooling to middle school, but fails to grasp adult sexual boundaries when he becomes infatuated with his teacher (Daniel MacIvor, who co-wrote the clever screenplay). The film sells out Emerson in the end, but the characters are all original and memorable
BOSTON GLOBE:
Amnon Buchbinder's ''Whole New Thing," a witty and well-acted comedy set in rural Nova Scotia, features an extremely poised 13-year-old (Aaron Webber) with a raging crush on his English teacher (Daniel McIvor, the film's co-writer). Wesley Morris
EXCLAIM (Jeff Musgrave)
Newcomer Aaron Webber plays Emerson Thorson, a home-educated adolescent sent to public school because of his poor math skills. His mother, Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins), instigates the change; his father, Rog (Robert Joy), is against it.
This is not your typical "closed" Maritime home. Emerson calls his parents by their first names, holds intelligent discussions with them and even has saunas - naked! - with them. The family even discusses his first wet dream at length.
Of course, our protagonist runs into problems, especially when he develops a crush on his gay English teacher Don (played by Daniel MacIvor). But that's where the predictability ends. MacIvor and Buchbinder (who shares the writing credit with MacIvor) make wise choices, defying typical "coming of age" conventions, negotiating sensitive (and potentially explosive) terrain with skill.
Don is portrayed as a human being with intimacy issues instead of an embarrassing stereotype, or worse, a predator, which could easily have happened if this story had been crafted by less enlightened hands. MacIvor is perfect as the 42-year-old teacher who chooses bathroom sex over rekindling his past relationship. And Weber's turn as Emerson makes it hard to believe this is his first starring role. In fact, the acting, directing and writing are in perfect balance.
The instrumental soundtrack is poignant, not unlike Mychael Danna's score for Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter. But the vocal tracks are awkward, especially "I Believe in the Good of Life" by the Hidden Cameras.
But this is a small problem and does little to taint the rest of the film. So mark my words: you'll be seeing more of MacIvor, Webber and Whole New Thing at Genie time. (Th!nk)
SEE MAGAZINE (EDMONTON) - Amy Fung
Precocious 13-year-old Emerson Thorsen has been home-schooled all his life by his hippie parents. Innovative environmentalist Rog and post-acitivist Kaya encourage their son to embracve his natural body, smoke pot, and talk openly about his new wet dreams. When they begin to worry that his upbringing may be too unbalanced, they enroll him in the nearby town's junior high school. A few violent teenage conflicts arise for Emerson, but his biggest preoccupation is his newfound infatuation with his english teacher, Mr. Grant. Shakespeare is read, the rules of comedy and tragedy are taught, and life imitates art as fortune's wheel begins to spin. Passion both requited and not begin to unravel in the sleepy small town. Lost love, new flames, and old lovers rise and fall in the inevitable spiral that comes and goes with change. With a stellar soundtrack by The Hidden Cameras and shot on location in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Whole New Thing warmly embraces the winter landscape and those who live through it.
VUE WEEKLY (EDMONTON) -Carolyn Nikodym
Whole New Thing (dir: Amnon Buchbinder) o Garneau Theatre o Tue, Oct 4 (9:30 pm) In this film set in Nova Scotia, you have a middle-aged hippie couple, their home-schooled adolescent son, and all the makings of a quirky Canadian film. And while Buchbinder delivers a film that is indeed uniquely Canadian, he also thankfully steers clear of making caricatures of his subjects. Soon after the couple's son starts having wet dreams, mother Kaya decides to send Emerson off to school. It is a whole new world for the smart young novelist and one full of sexual possibilities, though Emerson only has eyes for one-Don, his older male teacher. Buchbinder handles the subject matter exceptionally well, especially the matter of Don's promiscuity, making the events unfold believably but not harshly. But at the same time, he never gets gritty enough-all of the characters could end up faring much worse, considering the things that they do. What's left with is a better-than-average film with some good ol' Canadian politeness.
GEORGIA STRAIGHT (VANCOUVER) - Ken Eisner
A strong cast and unusual turns make this a very different kind of coming-out story. In fact, it's not clear that its 13-year-old main character (played by Aaron Webber) is even gay. Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy get the trickiest moves as the lad's battling parents, and Daniel MacIvor-who cowrote the script with director Amnon Buchbinder-is the closeted teacher who triggers some change in the family. There's a rush toward forced melodrama at the end, but that doesn't obscure the sharp observations that come before.
TERMINAL CITY (VANCOUVER) - Mariko Summers
***If you've never heard of Daniel MacIvor, check out his latest contribution as actor, co-writer and co-producer of Whole New Thing. University Prof Buchbinder had the good fortune to exploit MacIvor's magic in a coming-of-age tale based on the actor's own experiences in small-town Northern Ontario. Emerson Thorsen (Aaron Webber) is a one-time home-taught, sexually precocious lad who goes off to school and develops a passionate crush on his male teacher. He's cool with it, but everyone else? Classmates, parents, and his closeted tutor come apart at the seams. An engaging, sophisticated Canadian low-budget gem that will likely never see distribution.
VANCOUVER SUN - Katherine Monk
Amnon Buchbinder and Daniel MacIvor collaborate on this highly intimate script about a 13-year-old-boy moving through a delicate period in his life as hemakes the transition from home school to high school - and develops a crush on his English teacher.
Issues of sexuality, adolescent rebellion and parent-child bonding come into play over the course of this detailed and surprisingly compelling feature. Even when the characters run into the walls of cliché - which is bound to happen in a movie about kids and teachers, mentors and proteges, even without Robin Williams - the performances are layered enough to stick to the screen and hold your attention. MacIvor does a wonderful job as the befuddled teacher, and Aaron Webber rises to the occasion in the role of young Emerson, but it's really the supporting cast of Callum Keith Rennie, Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy who bring the real human dimensions to this story.
VARIETY (Dennis Harvey)
Pleasant, moderately offbeat "Whole New Thing" follows "Off the Map" and "The Ballad of Jack and Rose" in examining the growing pains of a kid raised in social isolation by aging-hippie parents. Beyond that basic framework, there's not much story overlap between those pics and this diverting latest from director Amnon Buchbinder and co-writer-thesp Daniel McIvor. Yet like the duo's separate prior projects behind the camera, "Thing" suffers the familiar curse of Canadian seriocomedy -- just nice enough in content and stylistically like a telepic. Prospects look mild.
The almost insufferably precocious Emerson Thorsen (Aaron Webber) has been home-schooled by parents Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins) and Rog (Robert Joy). But now that he's entering adolescence, mom worries his education and social skills have grown too far removed from the real-world.
Reluctantly enrolled in the local public high school, Emerson flaunts an intelligence, arrogance and androgyny that vex and intimidate his rural Nova Scotia classmates, resulting in bloody noses as well as grudging acceptance. His mature, well-versed intellect impresses English instructor Don (McIvor), even raising the level of classroom discourse.
But as the very forward, bisexually inclined (if still virginal) boy develops a crush on his teacher, he pursues it without grasping how even the appearance of impropriety might be enough to get Don fired -- or jailed. His parents' enlightened philosophies regarding love and sex haven't prepared him at all for mainstream rules.
Meanwhile, Rog, having a mid-life-crisis, discovers his neglect has nudged Kaya into an affair with a working-class local (Callum Keith Rennie). And closet-case Don, who has enough problems without adding an amorous 13-year-old male student to the mix, worries that his decision to leave his big city life (and a lover) some years back might have become a life-ruining misjudgment.
All figures are credibly drawn and played, with professional debutant Webber easily holding his own in a challenging role. But despite their surface quirks, characters are only modestly interesting, as are the situations they get into.
Ending stays true to form, in that it's at once mildly satisfying and a small letdown. There's a diligent, low-key craftsmanship at work throughout that seldom makes false moves, but doesn't take any major risks, either. "Thing" arguably reps a more smoothly drawn look at countercultural parent-child dynamics than either "Off the Map" or "Ballad." Yet both those uneven films leave a more lasting imprint.
Design and tech contribs are solid if undistinguished.
ON-LINE REVIEWS:
Craig James White (Blog):
Whole New Thing is a coming-of-age movie about a gifted and determined 13-year old in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, who is dealing with a growing crush on his English teacher. If you've watched much Canadian celluloid unspool in the last half dozen years, you've seen many of the cast members here: Rebecca Jenkins, Daniel MacIvor, Callum Keith Rennie. They're very good, and they are helped along by an excellent script, one of the best written Canadian social dramas I've seen in a while, one that never seems to take a wrong step (and good enough that I don't want to blow any surprises by describing the plot). The 13-year old, played by Aaron Webber, a Mahone Bay local and newcomer, was just perfect. Terrific film.
Aliant. Net: Ron Foley MacDonald:
Actor/Writer Dan MacIvor's latest feature is collaboration with Toronto director/writer Amnon Buchbinder. Entitled Whole New Thing and filmed in an around Mahone Bay and Halifax in the dead of last winter, it's an edgy and poetic ode to misplaced desire between a precocious teen and his slightly befuddled teacher. Surprisingly sweet and funny, Whole New Thing boasts a stellar cast (Rebecca Jenkins, Robert Joy, Callum Keith Rennie and MacIvor himself), a terrific soundtrack and a unexpectedly rich visual panache that catches Nova Scotia's snow season just about perfectly.
TORONTO LIFE:
Shot over 15 stormy winter days in Nova Scotia, this charming second feature by York University prof Amnon Buchbinder (The Fishing Trip) deals with the coming of age of one precocious, sonnet-spouting, home-schooled Emerson Thorsen (newcomer Aaron Webber). Raised by hippie parents in a straw bale house in the woods, the 13-year-old's world consists of potlucks, saunas, casual nudity and novel writing, until the fateful day when his mother, worried about his lacklustre math skills, ships him off to the local middle school. Once there, Emerson must deal with bullies, mind-numbing curriculum and his first real crush-on his lonely, middle-aged English teacher, Don (Daniel MacIvor).
"FILM FESTIVAL PICK OF THE DAY"
LyttleOne, September 14, 2005 09:32 PM
Hippies and their kids seem popular for Canadian films this year (Slow Curve and Whole New Thing both feature these), but Whole New Thing isn't just another hippy flick. Aaron Webber steals the screen from his older counterparts as the brilliant and too mature for his years Emerson in this film. His debut performance was a masterpiece worthy of actors twice his age. I look forward to seeing much more from him, and hope that other directors allow him the privelege of presenting his screen presence to other audiences. Sardonic, ironic, deeply emotional and intuitive he flips wonderfully between the supplanted genius and the stunted child who hasn't been socialized with his peers.
This film addresses the questions that many young teenagers struggle with in how much intelligence to show before ones peers, sexual identity, social mores, and attitudes about nudity, pot, and acceptable behaviours. This screenplay was wonderful, the location helped the film but wasn't overwhelming in its Canadiana touches, and the supporting characters were fantastic. I look forward to the music being made available from this film, and I look forward to much more from this young man and his wonderful director!
MOVIE CONTESTS.COM (Scott Hayes) 3.5 Stars
From the CanCon "Weird Sex" file comes this exploration of sexual awakening as experienced by characters of different ages, genders, and orientations. With a 13-year-old boy as the lead, Thing starts with a family of environmentalists enjoying a nice nude sauna together. They live in a hay hut shack in the rural area outside of some nondescript Maritimes town. The dad is an intellectual eco-warrior trying to discover a method to turn human excrement into a viable energy source. The wife just kind of goes along with everything because she craves his attention. And the son, Emerson (Webber), is home-schooled to excellent effect, has written a pretty thick book, and is just hitting his full stride of puberty as his parents decide to throw a curveball by having him go to an actual school.
Emerson, the mother, and the teacher go through their own melancholy transitional periods associated with their sexual stage of life. Things get messy when Emerson develops a bit of a crush on his new teacher. In this world though, even sheltered, confused teenagers still know more than their elders.
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