Crackie Movie

Me and my friend Janet went to see the movie "Crackie" tonight. It is a film set in Newfoundland about a teenager who lives with her grandmother and she adopts a dog that she gets from a guy in her town who was going to put him to sleep. That is the disney version of the movie. The makers of the movie have an event page set up - here.

When I walked out of this movie - I haven't had the same feeling since I walked out of David Lynch's Eraserhead movie 25 years ago. And the feeling I had at that time was one that I had only experienced once before in my life - it was like when you've just gotten off a roller coaster, and you've been screaming the whole time you were on it, and your stomach lurched a bit and you might have thrown up a bit in your throat - so you've got that burning bile feeling - and now that your off the ride you still feel sick to your stomach and your throat is burning, and your voice is raw and you feel all jiggy and jaggy.


Well - that's how I felt leaving Eraserhead - and that's how I felt leaving the movie Crackie tonight.

I am sure that it's a really good movie - cinematically it's very nicely done. The pictuers are great, the editing is good, the acting is super - Mary Walsh at her finest - although I don't know why she always has to have her boobs hanging out all the time - and any movie shot in Newfoundland is going to be gorgeous - but it had to have to be the most unremittingly depressing movie I've ever seen. And it never gives up.

And the fact that it involves a dog - and the depressing part of it involved the dog - and the welfare of the dog was part of the storyline - just about killed me. I had to turn my head.

It's like - I've been to a groomer in the past who was being rough with Buttercup - but she was taking so long, and I just wanted to get out of there - that I had to turn my head and wait for it to be over - well that was how this movie was.


And then the ending - I'm not going to tell you how it ends - but it's not good. The congflagration of ugliness should give this movie the award for the most Canadian of all movies of any time, ever - because I remember when I was a child that it seemed like if a movie ended unhappily - you knew it was Canadian. Well - this movie is definitely Canadian.

I suppose if I was a Newfoundlander I would have saw the movie through a eyes of someone who was from there - but I'm a dog person, so I saw the movie through the eyes of the dog - so it was a long har slog - so if you go - pretend you're a Newfoundlander, and you'll probably come away from the theatre a lot happier - it's sure to be a much better movie for you that way.