Like many film festivals, the annual Whistler Film Festival is offering its selections online this year. Available across Canada for the first time, here are 14 WFF titles you can stream from the comfort of your home this December. Films are accessible for a limited time online as of the dates listed.
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Screening date: Dec. 9
Inspired by Leonard Cohen’s song and album of the same name, Gabriel Byrne stars as Samuel O’Shea, a professor who re-evaluates his life as a “ladies’ man” after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. Plagued by hallucinations, a strained marriage, and adult kids who are at their wits’ end with him, Samuel retreats to a remote cabin where he unexpectedly falls in love with a younger local woman (Jessica Pare).
Watch the trailer here.
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Screening date: Dec. 20
Hopper Penn (son of Sean Penn and Robin Wright) stars as Morgan, a mentally challenged 23-year-old virgin who shares his story of his true love…who just happens to be a crack-smoking, heroin-using prostitute named Carla (Paz de la Huerta). Filmed in Edmonton, Rosanna Arquette and Michael Madsen round out the cast in the sweet story about how love can take many forms.
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Screening date: Dec. 8
Ruby Barker gives a breakout performance in “How To Stop A Recurring Dream”, a wild British road movie about an older sister who kidnaps her younger siblings following their parents' bitter custody battle. Blending elements of a thriller and a kitchen-sink drama, the film is an unexpectedly charming and often funny look at the middle class.
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Screening date: Dec. 17
Emmy Award winner Tony Hale stars as Sid, a socially inept office worker who devotes himself to getting Elizabeth Banks to attend his college reunion. Though Sid means well, his phone calls, email and letters to the actress get the lonely man branded as a stalker. Slapped with a restraining order, the awkward Sid gets a goofball lawyer (Paul Walter Hauser) to represent him in court where he can plead his case. The screwball comedy also stars Elisha Cuthbert, Robbie Amell, Danielle Brooks, Alan Tudyk, and Sarah Chalke.
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Screening date: Dec. 2
Calling all dog lovers! The documentary “Stray” takes a look at the Istanbul street dogs' struggle for survival. The film won the Best International Feature Prize at this year’s Hot Docs Film Festival.
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Screening date: Dec. 1
Whistler Film Festival’s opening night film, “Sugar Daddy”, follows Darren (“Letterkenny”’s Kelly McCormack), a young woman looking to break into the record industry. Fired from her job, she starts working as a “paid dinner companion” for older men. Insisting sex isn’t part of the deal, Darren is at odds with her feminist friends over her new profession and newfound “sugar daddy”, played by Colm Feore.
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Screening date: Dec. 4
The timely indie drama “American Thief” blurs the line between reality and fiction as it deals directly with the roots of the Black Lives Matter movement and the heinous plot to undermine the 2016 U.S. election to benefit Donald Trump. Director Miguel Silveira put his multi-racial cast right in the middle of real protests for the thriller, which follows a number of points of view, including a teen hacker who is out to avenge the killing of his father at the hands of police.
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Screening date: Dec. 3
Prodigal son Jordie returns to his troubled roots in Malpeque, PEI, to reunite with his two brothers who have seem to have put their dysfunctional family past behind them. With an ailing and abusive father, Jordie struggles to find the peace his siblings have in this family drama set against breathtaking shots of the Maritimes.
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Screening date: Dec. 5
A mining disaster in Quebec serves as the basis for this thriller from director Sophie Dupuis. After five miners fail to emerge following the collapse of a mine shaft in the Val d’Or region, the troubled Maxime summons the courage to enter the rubble and rescue his friends in a thrilling race against time.
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Screening date: Dec. 7
The fun-loving, heavy-drinking Wayne never grew up. There’s just one problem: He’s the dad to a nine-year-old son named Tyler he’s about to lose in a custody battle. After lying to his ex, Wayne and Tyler head off on an epic road trip for one last adventure. Ill-equipped for the big city, the runaway father-and-son team find themselves in the middle of a comic intervention at Wayne’s sister’s house. Directed by Niels Mueller (“The Assassination Of Richard Nixon”), “Small Town Wisconsin” is executive produced by director Alexander Payne (“Election”, “Nebraska”).
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Screening date: Dec. 12
Talk about girl power: “Little Orphans” tells the story of three sisters from a uniquely all-female perspective, thanks to an all-female cast, director, writer, and producer. Three sisters reunite for a wedding in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where buried secrets, unresolved conflicts, and established jealousies cause chaos leading up to the wedding.
Based on a play.
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Screening date: Dec. 13
The documentary “The Decline” takes a stark look at Vancouver’s opioid crisis. Focusing on systemic problems, and the activists and residents who are striving to get the government’s attention, the doc also interviews users who are blunt when it comes to the possible outcome their usage may have on them in the future.
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Screening date: Dec. 18
“Marlene” is based on the true story of Steven Truscott, a 14-year-old Canadian boy sentenced to be executed for the rape and murder of a young woman in 1959 despite circumstantial evidence. The drama focuses on Truscott’s life after prison and his wife Marlene’s decades-long attempt to prove her husband’s innocence despite roadblocks at every turn, including the destruction of DNA evidence. Marlene devotes her life to justice and demanding the government apologize to Steven -- released from jail but never exonerated -- for locking him up for a crime he did not commit, “Marlene” is an inspirational drama in the vein of “Erin Brockovich”.
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Screening date: Dec. 15
High school can be hell, especially when you’re a teenage girl. Julia Sarah Stone stars as an introverted, angsty teen in this largely improvised comedy based on filmmaker Sophie Harvey’s own hellish high school memories.