Weirdos

The screenplay of the film is very good and admirable, I just wish it had captivated me a bit more to be able to call it great, because the technical aspects here really are amazing. The cinematography is incredibly impressive and has a very controlled look. The performances are also really really good.

Sweet innocence, good acting, good story. A journey of discovery and acceptance. Beautiful cinematography. Beautiful message. So proud to be Canadian.

It was a very good and entertaining movie. I enjoyed the laid back atmosphere and environment of the '70s. Some people may be bored by the film, but it causes you to reflect upon life especially if you were born during the '60s and '70s. Highly recommend it to any movie buff.

Telling our own stories, avoiding the cliches--this is Canadian cinema at its best. Probably a bit slow for many movie goers, but heh, so was life then. Kids weren't monitored as much (no cell phones!) and we go up to a lot of stuff, most of which we don't want our kids to know. Coming out in seventies was possible, but still really tough. The kid in this movie was lucky, many weren't, but some managed it, brave kids that they were. According to my son kids don't even say "weirdos" anymore. Another word to avoid so as to not date one self.

In 1976 Nova Scotia Canadians watch TV coverage of the US's Bicentennial Celebrations. "It's not you," the Canadian teens are admonished by the Cambodian landlord whose back bears the scars of the Khmer Rouge oppression. The kids know nothing about that outside world. They're confused enough about themselves and their puzzling physical and psychological changes. There's something of a hollowness to that American flash of patriotism, however, even in the 1976 setting. All the Presidents Men, the Nixon exposure, is running in the Sydney movie house. Meanwhile, Antigonish gets Mother Jugs and Speed. But that's not why Kit and his friend Alice fib to their respective parents and hitch-hike to Sydney. Kit wants to go live with his mother, mistaking her lunch invitation for an offer to move in. Alice wants to seduce him in hopes he won't move away. Kit is abetted by the spirit of Andy Warhol, who embodies and endorses the weirdness that ennobles the human species. There are several "weirdos" here. A boy trying to seduce Kit backs away when Alice approaches; the boy calls Kit a weirdo. The high schoolers in the car and at the beach party play at being wild and weird. The old drunk who tries to steal the cop car is an unrepentant weirdo from earlier time, still crazy after all those years. So are our heroes' parents, all apparently old hippies. Alice's father is a drunk who's trying to inveigle himself back into her mother's graces and bed. Kit's dad Dave is a social studies teacher declared cool by the skylarking teens. But Kit overheard him refer to the French teacher as a "fag." As he's trying to come to terms with this own homosexuality, Kit decides to go live with his freer-spirited mother. When he finds her dissolved into looniness he has to call dad to come get him. Once Dave hears his son's concern he apologizes for his insensitivity and by implication suggests a family life that will be as warm and cozy as those delicious views of Nova Scotia. The film closes on inter-generational comfort, Alice and Kit together as platonic friends and Dave and his mother dancing to Country & Western. The title refers equally to the adolescent issues of the teenagers and the scars still worn by the survivors of the freedoms of the '60s. The latter is a psychological contrast to the Cambodian's physical marks. Here it's not the sins but the spirit of freedom that passes from the parents to the children, the fertile weirdness of Warhol. It carries its own costs.

+++Despite the title, the protagonists are not so much weirdos, just average teens and this is recognized in the movie-everyone is a weirdo in his own way. We have here a simple nice story that I bet it is not much different than what could have happened today-but for a reason that you realize after you see the movie it had to be set in 1976. Also, despite the story line, there is no politics involved, only a drop. It is a story about coming of age and responsibilities of parents. The movie is shot black and white which seems suitable and there is a nice 70s rock music line. Actors play very well (with a mention to Julia Stone aka Alice). I thought Kit's mother played overzelously, but later in the movie it is revealed why she had to play that way. --- As a Canadian touch point, there is a foreign element-an Asian man that is in a relationship with Kit's mother; in turn that seems odd because these adults have very different personalities. I wished there were more background revealed about the parents.

I went with some friends and we all really liked it! Some great scenery around Nova Scotia, some scenes that I think we all can relate to that just feel like high school parties. A lot of those scenes you can really feel for the characters, it all felt very real, even the less pleasant stuff. Well worth seeing!

Trailer—Weirdos

Weirdos