Waydowntown


1h 23m 2000

Brief Synopsis

Four friends bet a month's salary to see who can stay indoors the longest... It's lunch hour on day 24 of the wager and everyone's pretty much reached their breaking point. Marijuana-medicated Tom struggles through an illicit affair, flights of self-doubt and periodic superhero sightings, all the wh

Film Details

MPAA Rating
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
2000
Production Company
Cineplex Odeon Films
Distribution Company
CINEPLEX ODEON FILMS/LOT 47/LOT 47 FILMS; LOT 47/LOT 47 FILMS; Cineplex Odeon Films; Cineplex Odeon Films
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 23m

Synopsis

Four friends bet a month's salary to see who can stay indoors the longest... It's lunch hour on day 24 of the wager and everyone's pretty much reached their breaking point. Marijuana-medicated Tom struggles through an illicit affair, flights of self-doubt and periodic superhero sightings, all the while trying to ignore his cubicle mate, Brad, who spends most of the time playing a computer game when not plotting suicide. Go-getter Sandra, convinced toxic air is seeping through the building's vents, sniffs magazine perfume samples as she carries out her latest assignment--trailing her elderly kleptomaniac boss. Randy passes the time by assigning animal names to mall patrons while Curt, the perenially engaged office Lothario, makes his move on a vulnerable co-worker. By the lunch hour's end, the bet has prematurely unfolded, leaving all participants to re-examine what could possibly be worth more than their happiness and freedom.

Film Details

MPAA Rating
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
2000
Production Company
Cineplex Odeon Films
Distribution Company
CINEPLEX ODEON FILMS/LOT 47/LOT 47 FILMS; LOT 47/LOT 47 FILMS; Cineplex Odeon Films; Cineplex Odeon Films
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 23m

Articles

Waydowntown on DVD


A pair of very good, very dark comedies became casualties of the September 11 attacks when skittish distributors delayed their releases in misplaced shows of "sensitivity." The delays put an undeserved taint on the movies from which they never recovered. One was the service comedy Buffalo Soldiers, which Miramax mishandled; the other was the Canadian comedy waydowntown, which the gone-and-surely-forgotten indie distributor Lot 47 botched. Scheduled for a fall 2001 release, Gary Burns' sharp office comedy set in a high-rise opened theatrically in only a handful of U.S. cities with no marketing push in early 2002, by which point Lot 47 was practically out of business. Consequently, the movie has taken three years to reach DVD.

Amusingly absurd yet all too real, waydowntown takes cubicle angst and places it in a most unusual setting. That's Calgary, where the high-rise offices, shopping malls, food courts and residences in the downtown area are all interconnected by walkways. It's in the Alberta city that four young employees of the imposing sounding (yet humorously generic) Mather, Mather & Mather engage in a bet. Since they all live and work within the network of buildings, each puts up a month's salary, with the resulting $10,000 kitty going to the person who can stay inside the longest.

These characters' willful entrapment within the hermetically-sealed maze of interchangeable corridors, elevators and atriums - the movie takes place on Day 24 - has a particularly vicious effect on Tom (Fabrizio Filippo), the young narrator and protagonist. At the job just five months, the contest only accelerates his awareness of the dangers of staying within the maze, the dehumanizing effects of which are symbolized rather obviously but aptly in the ant farm Tom keeps in his cubicle.

Dependent on pot to keep the edge off during the contest, Tom never actually does any work. But nobody else at M, M & M does, either. His main task during the day in which waydowntown is set is to go to the glassware store in a connected building to pick up the retirement gift for the firm's founder. Even the founder does no work, and it's the job of Sandra (Marya Delver), the high-strung contestant with whom Tom has the most contact, to follow around the boss because he's a kleptomaniac who must be kept out of embarrassing situations. Also in the contest is Curt (Gordon Currie)- a slick bachelor whose romantic style has been cramped by the contest and who spends most of the day trying to seduce an amusingly indecisive co-worker (Jennifer Clement)- and Randy (Tobias Gordon), whose task for the day is to pick up the plaque for the retirement ceremony.

Like the shoplifting founder, the more experienced workers at M, M & M hardly present a picture of mental health to these newcomers. Especially unhinged is Bradley (the always-interesting Don McKellar), who's been at the firm 20 years and has a cubicle next to Tom's and Curt's, where he spends all his time with a Walkman on, playing video games. Bradley has just happened to bring a 2-liter plastic bottle full of coins to work this day, the sort of tool that one character says can "take you waydowntown" if you use it to break a sealed window before jumping out.

Bradley's tiptoe towards the edge of sanity is one of the hilarious threads cowriter and director Gary Burns keeps ping-ponging to and from. We usually bounce among the four contestants trying to make it through the day, and almost all of their dilemmas are memorably askew: Curt desperately trying to seduce Vicki; Sandra trying to keep up with the klepto boss, who repeatedly gives her the slip; and especially Tom trying to remember to pick up the retirement gift, in between pursuing the mall employee and walking soap opera that is Kathy (Tammy Isbell), who's as alluring as she is logistically complicated (her nervy boyfriend doesn't help Tom's quest, either).

Like much of the Canadian comedy we get in the U.S. - from Highway 61 and Hard Core Logo to McKellar's Last Night - the off-kilter powers of observation in waydowntown aren't just endearing, they're also disarmingly deep. Burns is a formidable comic voice, and he made another shrewd comedy before waydowntown called Kitchen Party, which had its belated U.S. DVD release in January. Though neither DVD offers a glimpse into the writer-director's head beyond the main feature (the waydowntown disc includes the Canadian trailer and eight minutes of raw on-set footage for extras), either is a fine intro to his work.

For more information about waydowntown, visit Home Vision Entertainment. To order waydowntown, go to TCM Shopping.

by Paul Sherman
Waydowntown On Dvd

Waydowntown on DVD

A pair of very good, very dark comedies became casualties of the September 11 attacks when skittish distributors delayed their releases in misplaced shows of "sensitivity." The delays put an undeserved taint on the movies from which they never recovered. One was the service comedy Buffalo Soldiers, which Miramax mishandled; the other was the Canadian comedy waydowntown, which the gone-and-surely-forgotten indie distributor Lot 47 botched. Scheduled for a fall 2001 release, Gary Burns' sharp office comedy set in a high-rise opened theatrically in only a handful of U.S. cities with no marketing push in early 2002, by which point Lot 47 was practically out of business. Consequently, the movie has taken three years to reach DVD. Amusingly absurd yet all too real, waydowntown takes cubicle angst and places it in a most unusual setting. That's Calgary, where the high-rise offices, shopping malls, food courts and residences in the downtown area are all interconnected by walkways. It's in the Alberta city that four young employees of the imposing sounding (yet humorously generic) Mather, Mather & Mather engage in a bet. Since they all live and work within the network of buildings, each puts up a month's salary, with the resulting $10,000 kitty going to the person who can stay inside the longest. These characters' willful entrapment within the hermetically-sealed maze of interchangeable corridors, elevators and atriums - the movie takes place on Day 24 - has a particularly vicious effect on Tom (Fabrizio Filippo), the young narrator and protagonist. At the job just five months, the contest only accelerates his awareness of the dangers of staying within the maze, the dehumanizing effects of which are symbolized rather obviously but aptly in the ant farm Tom keeps in his cubicle. Dependent on pot to keep the edge off during the contest, Tom never actually does any work. But nobody else at M, M & M does, either. His main task during the day in which waydowntown is set is to go to the glassware store in a connected building to pick up the retirement gift for the firm's founder. Even the founder does no work, and it's the job of Sandra (Marya Delver), the high-strung contestant with whom Tom has the most contact, to follow around the boss because he's a kleptomaniac who must be kept out of embarrassing situations. Also in the contest is Curt (Gordon Currie)- a slick bachelor whose romantic style has been cramped by the contest and who spends most of the day trying to seduce an amusingly indecisive co-worker (Jennifer Clement)- and Randy (Tobias Gordon), whose task for the day is to pick up the plaque for the retirement ceremony. Like the shoplifting founder, the more experienced workers at M, M & M hardly present a picture of mental health to these newcomers. Especially unhinged is Bradley (the always-interesting Don McKellar), who's been at the firm 20 years and has a cubicle next to Tom's and Curt's, where he spends all his time with a Walkman on, playing video games. Bradley has just happened to bring a 2-liter plastic bottle full of coins to work this day, the sort of tool that one character says can "take you waydowntown" if you use it to break a sealed window before jumping out. Bradley's tiptoe towards the edge of sanity is one of the hilarious threads cowriter and director Gary Burns keeps ping-ponging to and from. We usually bounce among the four contestants trying to make it through the day, and almost all of their dilemmas are memorably askew: Curt desperately trying to seduce Vicki; Sandra trying to keep up with the klepto boss, who repeatedly gives her the slip; and especially Tom trying to remember to pick up the retirement gift, in between pursuing the mall employee and walking soap opera that is Kathy (Tammy Isbell), who's as alluring as she is logistically complicated (her nervy boyfriend doesn't help Tom's quest, either). Like much of the Canadian comedy we get in the U.S. - from Highway 61 and Hard Core Logo to McKellar's Last Night - the off-kilter powers of observation in waydowntown aren't just endearing, they're also disarmingly deep. Burns is a formidable comic voice, and he made another shrewd comedy before waydowntown called Kitchen Party, which had its belated U.S. DVD release in January. Though neither DVD offers a glimpse into the writer-director's head beyond the main feature (the waydowntown disc includes the Canadian trailer and eight minutes of raw on-set footage for extras), either is a fine intro to his work. For more information about waydowntown, visit Home Vision Entertainment. To order waydowntown, go to TCM Shopping. by Paul Sherman

Quotes

Trivia

Miscellaneous Notes

Winner of the Fedex Award for Best Canadian Feature as well as the Rogers Award for Best Western Canadian Screenplay at the 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival.

Winner of the prize for Best Canadian Film at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival.

Released in United States Winter November 24, 2002

Released in United States on Video March 15, 2005

Released in United States 2000

Released in United States February 2001

Shown at Vancouver International Film Festival September 22 - October 5, 2000.

Shown at American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, California February 21-28, 2001.

Released in United States Winter November 24, 2002

Released in United States on Video March 15, 2005

Released in United States 2000 (Shown at Vancouver International Film Festival September 22 - October 5, 2000.)

Released in United States February 2001 (Shown at American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, California February 21-28, 2001.)

Nominated for the 2000 Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.