J'ai Dis Salope

Texico Bitches - Broken Social Scene

I’d like to call them the godfathers of Canadian indie music, BSS fans are basically a cult, and this song makes me tingle with happiness. 

My first thoughts upon watching this Canadian ‘not-concert’ movie was that it’s like “Across the Universe” set it the 21stC, but alas, the similarities end with the film’s respective influence of music on a love story. For starters, “This Film” is far more hipster than hippie. 

Set in the summer of 2009, the scenes of the city brought me back to those stormy, chilly, stinky months, my first as a tax-paying Torontonian. City workers had gone on strike; and garbage was strewn from Broadview to Christie and back again. The garbage was the driving force of this concert, and the movie. I found myself longing for summer; the patios, live music, cold beer, friends and love. The story is classic; boy loves girl, girl doesn’t reciprocate - until she does, and then doesn’t again- boy fucks other boy, then girl comes running back. 

Alright - so maybe the story isn’t as old as time, but it’s a pretty conventional plot that is brought to life by the concert that interjects (seamlessly) with the story line. And while I may argue that at times, the presence of the band during the actual concert is a bit too much, watching Leslie Feist and Emily Haines do what they do best (rock out on stage, and prove that their friendship is beyond the music), could bring a tear to any Canuck music lover’s eye.

The concert is only secondary to the love story, and the love story is only secondary to the concert, but neither would be as strong on it’s own. Somehow, the filmmakers managed to keep the hour and a half film from looking like a bad home movie. And up until the closing scenes featuring what is arguably BSS’s most recognizable song, Lover’s Spit, you can see yourself taking the place of any one of the characters; it’s just that real, and safe to say, fully intact.