The classic coming-of-age story gets the Canadian treatment in
My American Cousin (1985), a comic drama written and directed by Sandy Wilson, who drew from her own experiences growing up on a ranch in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. Margaret Langrick stars as the 12-year-old Sandy Wilcox, whose dreary summer prospects on her rural family farm are suddenly opened up with the arrival of her 18-year-old cousin Butch (John Wildman), who arrives from California in a red convertible, a jean jacket and an aura of cool. Wilson shot the film in and around Penticton, a small city in the Okanagan Valley, in the 1980s, before Vancouver had become a hub of movie and TV production. Film crews were hard to come by, so she filled her crew with friends and neighbors. "There were a lot of other people who had never been on a crew before... none of us really knew the rules," recalled Wilson in a 2017 interview. "Once you get on location, you become like a circus family. It's like we're here to make a movie and the rules, we'll consider them if we have to. That kind of attitude is no longer allowed really."
My American Cousin was a success in both Canada and the U.S. "It's an amazing job of evoking through specific detail, costumes, props and attitudes a period many of us still blush to remember," wrote film critic Nina Darnton in
The New York Times. It went on to six Genie Awards (Canada's answer to the Oscars), including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor (Wildman) and Actress (Langrick) and spawned the sequel
American Boyfriends (1989), which reunited Wilson with stars Langrick and Richard Donat. It remains one of Canada's best-loved coming-of-age films and was selected for the Canada on Screen project to restore and screen 150 essential Canadian films as part of Canada's 150th anniversary celebration.
By Sean Axmaker
Sources:
"Penticton film cemented in Canadian history," Dale Boyd.
Penticton Western News, April 9, 2017.
"My American Cousin filmed in Penticton; movie goes on to sweep Genie Awards," Heather Glebe.
Penticton Herald, October 16, 1985.
"The Screen: My American Cousin," Nina Darnton.
The New York Times, August 19, 1986.
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