Being Canadian (2015)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Let me first say that I am proud to be Canadian and I believe that am a funny guy who loves comedies and documentaries. I wanted to love this movie! Hell, I would have settled for 'liking' it! But this was a huge let down. The director and writer 'Robert Cohen' seem to phone this one in. I read his IMDb bio and he seems to have co-written a few episodes of TV shows that I like. So I believed that this movie would be informality funny! It was NOT! Robert Cohen seems to love hearing himself talk and seems to think that he is pretty funny, but is not. At least not in this movie. It did have a lot of interviews with famous Canadians, but each being brief and non-memorable. Sure parts of the interviews made me chuckle a little, but I'm not even sure if most of them were with the director. I believe he just salvaged them from the archives. Robert Cohen (director and writer) narrates through the entire movie with his droning on and on. It's like he was trying to be a funny Michael Moore, but failed miserably. There was very little actual content in this movie. I didn't learn anything new, didn't really laugh, and found myself wanting to turn it off, but stuck with it to be loyal and was hoping it would get better. Sadly it never did. I'm guessing the only reason why this movie became a reality is that it was funded partially or in full by the government or was given huge tax breaks because we require legally to produce and air a certain percentage of Canadian content. There are other movies and documentaries about Canada which are funny. This one is not and didn't need to be made. I am actually wanting to apologize to any non-Canadians who were forced to watch this. Robert Cohen reminds me of a high school chemistry teacher who tries to be funny so the kids will think that chemistry is cool and not boring.

I began this movie with high hopes. I mean, with all of those comedians, how could it miss, right? Although it was sometimes moderately funny in a very predictable manner, it really fell short of tapping into what it truly means to be Canadian and what makes Canada so special. I would say that if you are looking for a movie chock full of antiquated stereotypes told from people who do not live in Canada or have not lived in Canada for years, this is the movie for you. Put another way, if the year was 1982, this movie would be perfect. Aside from a few token minorities, this movie is as white as it gets and totally NOT what being Canadian is all about. Where was the depiction of our awesome multicultural, diverse nation? So disappointing.

Truth be told I didn't knew much about Canada until I watched this piece of Documentary...A bit surprised knowing not everyone in Canada lives in Igloos...Whosoever taking a shot at understanding Canada in quick fashion by watching this documentary would definitely like Canada more than before... Will wait for part 2 probably after a decade or so when Being Canadian mandatorily covers immigrants of past 20 years from other parts of world and their influence on Canadian culture and adding glory to the already shining establishment. (Not sure but 10 lines of text as an IMDb requirement for a documentary is like telling everything in the review itself).

While watching this movie it was very apparent early on in the movie that the number of comedians coming from Canada was astounding. Truth be told that there are also a lot more famous Canadians that weren't even mentioned (I'm also a hockey fan, but I won't even go there) but then this movie would have been too long.This movie has plenty of laughs to offer which is why I summarized it with the title "Strong 6.75". I found myself waiting for the next question and then the adventure Rob would go on to find his answers. The movie is creative, funny, ironic, informative and so much more, with a host of entertaining people.