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OH, CANADA

Starring: Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman, Victoria Hill, Michael Imperioli, Penelope Mitchell, and Kristine Froseth
Director: Paul Schrader

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QUENTIN

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Despite what other critics and Rotten Tomatoes might have you believe, director Paul Schrader hasn’t made a great movie in years. Sadly, Oh, Canada keeps that streak alive. The weird thing is that there are several things to like here, including a terrific performance from Richard Gere, poetic dialogue, and a great Americana-folk soundtrack, but all those things are squandered by lethargic and muddled storytelling that lacks passion. It wants so hard to be a melancholy treatise on life, death, and the regrets in between, yet it fails to make you care enough about the character to care at all about his remorse.

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NICK

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I keep giving modern Paul Schrader films a chance, but it seems his work just isn't for me. In fact, Oh, Canada may just be my least favourite yet. Although it's nice to see Richard Gere back on screen, and he's quite good in the film, Schrader has crafted something fairly boring, and every extra flourish he attempts in order to enhance things falls flat. Whether it's playing with timelines or colours (the black & white shots lack any vibrancy), I found myself waiting for the end, and even that wasn't very satisfying. I think Schrader may have run out of chances.

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ADRIANO

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Thank God, Oh, Canada is short because I struggled through this one. Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi are great, but writer/director Paul Schrader's meditation on life and taking into account one's regrets winds up being self-indulgent to the point where the film's thesis gets lost. Schrader’s approach is just too all over the place to even respect the ambition. Not every directorial and writing decision is awful, but the vast majority are a huge miss. On top of that, the ending is laughably bad. Granted, I haven't loved late-stage Schrader, but this is my least favourite from him.

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This film was reviewed by Quentin, Nick, and Adriano as part of Bitesize Breakdown's coverage of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, respectively.

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