AGLIFF 2011: TRIGGER

Kat (Molly Parker) and Vic (Tracy Wright) in Trigger.

Bang up job

By Don Simpson

Vic (Tracy Wright) and Kat (Molly Parker) are best known for fronting Toronto’s famed 1990s grrrl rock band,Trigger. As is often the case with rock and roll, drugs, alcohol, sex and egos — in no particular order — were all to blame for the band’s thorny demise. In an instant, Trigger was gone.

Director Bruce McDonald’s Trigger finds the two fallen rock stars a decade or so later. After not speaking to each other since Trigger’s break-up, Vic and Kat find themselves facing off across a small table at a chic modern restaurant. Their reunion could not start off much worse. Kat shows up an hour later than Vic, then her cellphone rings (important business to which she must attend). Vic’s disdain for Kat’s fun, flighty and flirty personality promptly rears its ugly head. Both women flash their claws. A violent fight seems eminent. The question remains: Will it happen before, during or after the benefit they are both scheduled to attend?

Over the course of one single night, Vic and Kat regurgitate their history. A battle between ideologies and lifestyles commences. They judge their own pasts -- fluidly alternating between the romanticism and hatred of their memories -- while criticizing each other’s presents. A lot has changed since their days in Trigger. Vic is a recovering drug addict, who still resides in Toronto; she looks to a book titled The Spirituality of Imperfection for the answers to life’s questions, and is negotiating the release of a solo album. The “terminally unique” Kat is a recovering alcoholic; she long ago abandoned Toronto for Los Angeles (well, Silverlake) and works as a music supervisor for Lifetime. Eventually, Vic and Kat’s fiery philosophical clashes simmer down long enough for the two women to delicately discuss their fears and aspirations, as well as their unique perspectives on aging, dying, relationships and love.

On the surface, Trigger plays like a romantic stroll around Toronto at night, as Vic and Kam act as our guides, but the locations are far from romantic (other than Allan Gardens) or noteworthy. At its heart Trigger is a talkie. Trigger is all about screenwriter Daniel MacIvor’s uncanny command of the English language. Ranging from gracefully poetic to subtly rhythmic to downright spastic, the dialog twists and turns between mean, raunchy and bittersweet; yet despite the literary flourishes, every word and every phrase seems perfectly natural. It is completely believable that Vic and Kat would speak in these somewhat affected ways.

Speaking of… Wright and Parker’s performances are nothing short of amazing.Trigger finds both actors at the pinnacle of their craft, portraying characters that were seemingly custom crafted just for them. What reportedly started off as a sequel to McDonald’s punk mockumentary, Hard Core Logo (1996), Triggerquickly evolved into a farewell love letter to Wright, whose health was slipping due to pancreatic cancer. (Wright passed away in June 2010, at the age of 50.) I do not know if Wright’s portrayal of the world-weary Vic, accentuated by her sunken eyes and graying skin, is more amazing if you know she was dying when she shot Trigger or not. No matter what, I cannot imagine a more appropriate swan song for an actor.

FILM REVIEW: AMERICAN THE BILL HICKS STORY

Bill Hicks in American: The Bill Hicks Story.

Questions remain

By Don Simpson

There is a bloody good reason why this documentary by co-directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas is titled American: The Bill Hicks Story. Harlock and Thomas are British BBC veterans -- and we all know how much the Brits love the American comic Bill Hicks. In 2010 he was voted the 4th on the UK's Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups; and, though an American, he is certainly not held in the same esteem by most Americans. That is not to say that Hicks did not develop a dedicated cult audience in the U.S., especially after his premature death at the age of 32 from pancreatic cancer.

Hicks' dedicated fans claim that he is the most influential comedian since Lenny Bruce and, like Bruce, Hicks' unique style of comedy certainly challenged societal values, bluntly addressed political issues and just plain pissed people off. Hicks followed the credo: A true patriot questions the government. Students and leftwing politicos loved him (many of them still do). Often fueled by psychotropic drugs and/or alcohol, Hicks: criticized the media and popular culture, describing them as oppressive tools of the ruling class; confronted organized religion and consumerism; targeted the first President Bush's foreign policy, especially the Gulf war; made the Waco massacre easy fodder. All in all, Hicks was very upset by the rightward direction the U.S. was going under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. His untimely death denied us Hicks' ripe opinions on the election of George W. Bush, 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, the war on terror and the economic collapse.

American: The Bill Hicks Story is told via interviews with ten friends and family members who knew Hicks the best: Kevin Booth, Steve Epstein, John Farneti, Lynn Hicks, Mary Hicks, Steve Hicks, Andy Huggins, David Johndrow, James Ladmirault, and Dwight Slade. We are taken on a journey though Hicks' life, from growing up as a Southern Baptist in Texas in the 1960s, to playing small comedy clubs as a teenager in the 1970s, and then into the 1980s and 1990s when he seemed like he might be on the verge of breaking it big. There is not much in the way of family home videos of Hicks growing up; instead, Hicks' early years are recreated via an elaborate array of cleverly animated archival photographs with voice overs by the interviewees. There is, however, ample video footage of Hicks' stage performances, including some of his early performances at the Comedy Workshop in Houston, Texas.

Harlock and Thomas' documentary focuses on the memories of the people who knew Hicks best; this is by no means a vehicle to convince naysayers of Hicks' comedic (and political) genius. American: The Bill Hicks Story is more of an intimate and personal remembrance piece than a marketing tool for the Hicks' estate. (Hicks being a hater of advertising and marketing probably appreciates that from wherever he is looking down on us dumb Americans from.) It is certainly an intriguing approach to capturing the spirit of a man like Hicks, I just do not feel like it develops into an interesting film. Though I respect and admire Hicks, I am by no means a connoisseur of his work. I suspect real fans might be even more disappointed than I am. However, there is enough rare footage of Hicks to make this a worthwhile viewing for fans nonetheless.