“Crackie is a small masterpiece of Canadian realism. This feature debut by writer-director Sherry White is set in a bleak Newfoundland that might as well be Siberia, so remote is it from polite, middle-class Canada. Teen Mitsy (Meghan Greeley, in her first and astonishingly good performance) lives with grandmother Bride (Mary Walsh), having been abandoned by her drifting, drunken mother. She needs a home, hearth and love, the same needs as the dog, Sparky, she adopts. Mitsy wants to be a hairdresser but can barely keep her little life together. She falls hard for a predatory, moronic lothario (Joel Hynes) and recognizes the bleakness of her existence. The only transcendence is in bonding, reluctantly, with Bride. (Mary Walsh gives her finest ever dramatic performance here.) Gorgeously made, this hushed, intelligent movie has no sentimentality and marks the arrival of a major filmmaking talent.” - John Doyle, The Globe and Mail
Screenings:
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Toronto International Film Festival, Scotiabank Theatre September 15th 9:30 pm
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival July 6th, 2009
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Perspective Canada
Marché du Film at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival
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Atlantic International Film Festival, Park Lane September 21st 7:30 pm
Vancouver International Film Festival
Calgary International Film Fetival
Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Montréal from October 7-18th 2009
St.John’s International Women’s Film Festival
Written and Directed by SHERRY WHITE
Produced by JENNICE RIPLEY and RHONDA BUCKLEY
SYNOPSIS
MITSY, seventeen, lives in a ramshackle house in a small town, with her grandmother, BRIDE, who has raised her since she was four. Bride spends her days scrounging in the local dump and her nights entertaining men in her bedroom.
Mitsy is accepted as a student at the local college, studying hair design. Her harsh-tongued grandmother is secretly proud of her. She wants Mitsy to elevate her life. She has no idea that Mitsy secretly plans to move to Alberta to live with her real mother, GWENNIE, after graduating.
Mitsy has a crush on smooth talking DUFFY, who convinces her to adopt his old ratty mutt. Mitsy hopes the pathetic dog is a quick answer to her lonely prayers. She looks for stability in her new responsibility as a dog owner.
But when Gwennie shows up unexpectedly and stirs up trouble, Mitsy’s world starts to unravel. She must decide whether the woman who raised her is her enemy, or her strongest ally.
