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Mark Rendall scores in Victoria Day.

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VICTORIA DAY written and directed by David Bezmozgis, with Mark Rendall, John Mavro and Holly Deveaux. An E1 release. 89 minutes. Opens Friday (June 19). For venues and times, see Movies.

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Movie Reviews

Victoria Day

Here’s a tender slice of the life of Ben Spektor (Mark Rendall) and his friends, students at Toronto’s Newtonbrook Secondary in 1988.

When Ben, emerging as a star hockey player, lends teammate Jordan $5 to complete a drug deal, Jordan disappears. Ben’s guilt only grows when he begins a relationship with Jordan’s sister (Holly Deveaux).

Ben’s parents are new Russian immigrants, a circumstance we rarely see in T.O.-set movies, and you’ll love the detail in the high school’s morning announcement segments.

Most of the performances, especially Rendall’s, are excellent. But why are all the guys addressing each other as “dude”? That wasn’t an 80s thing. And Deveaux, trying to evoke tentativeness, sounds like she doesn’t know her lines.

But director (and skilled short story writer) Bezmozgis finds just the right tone in this welcome antidote to dumb, predictable teen pics.

NOW | June 16-23, 2009 | VOL 28 NO 42

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Comments

Posted by The Dude on 06/18/2009, 12:25 AM

Re: "But why are all the guys addressing each other as "dude"? That wasn't an 80s thing." Beg to differ, dude: 1985 - Less Than Zero (a novel by Bret Easton Ellis) includes the first published usage of the now-common phrase, "No way, dude!", and the first mainstream display of "dude" having crossed the gender barrier. In a noteworthy scene, a young woman tells her mother, "No way, dude." "I love you to death" (shot in '89, released in 90) by Lawrence Kasden has 2 stoners hitmen played by William Hurt and Keanu Reeves who constantly use the term: "If were gonna kill the dude we? might as well get paid for it... it's the American way. I mean... we're not communists". The Dude has been abiding for longer than you think.

Posted by Pedant on 06/18/2009, 04:58 AM

Sorry, but Dude was in use in Toronto in 1988. I was living there in 88 while at university and me and one of my friends routinely called each other dude. Still do...sad, I know.

Posted by bonesbrigade on 06/19/2009, 05:19 PM

see also: The Search for Animal Chin (1987) - teenagers said 'dude' in the eighties.

Posted by Debbie on 06/24/2009, 01:49 PM

I was just coming in here to make the comment - I was in Grade Six in 1988 and I definitely remember "Dude" being widely used. I also remember my elder siblings using the expression as well. When did "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" come out again? It been in use before then in Toronto, but it probably exploded after that

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