FILM, ARTS ETC

BEST ART EXHIBIT #1: Cuba! Art and
History From 1868 to Today (MMFA)

Best Local Actor 1. Roy Dupuis 2. William Shatner 3. Jay Baruchel 4. Patrick Huard 5. Rémy Girard 6. Kiefer Sutherland 7. Derek Seguin 8. Tristan D. Lalla 9. Claude Legault 10. Adam Reid Honorable mentions: Brad Carmichael, Tod Fennell, Donald Sutherland No one can unseat perennial faves Dupuis and Shatner (who swap spots from last year), though local up-and-comer Jay Baruchel is hot on their heels (see story). Bon Cop, Bad Cop’s bad cop Huard is close behind, and comedian Derek Seguin joins the list for the first time. Best Local Actress 1. Elisha Cuthbert 2. Isabelle Blais 3. Victoria Sanchez 4. Holly Gauthier-Frankel 5. Karine Vanasse 6. Alison Louder 7. Pascale Bussières 8. Jessica Paré 9. Christine Ghawi 10. Michelle Boback Honorable mentions: Patricia Summersett, Céline Bonnier, Caroline Dhavernas, Laurence Leboeuf International hottie Cuthbert tops the list for the fourth year in a row, and Blais, who didn’t even make the list last year, makes an especially strong showing (see story). Also dear to our readers hearts are voice actor extraordinaire Gauthier-Frankel, “Save Parc Avenue” activist Louder, Celine star Ghawi and actor/musician/acting coach Boback. Best Local Filmmaker 1. Denys Arcand 2. Kidnapper Films 3. Yung Chang 4. Ziad Touma 5. Charles Binamé 6. Sv Bell 7. Andrew Ferrar 8. Denis Villeneuve 9. Faisal Lutchmedial 10. Jean-Marc Vallée Honorable mentions: Kevin Tierney, Robert Lepage Hall of famer Denys Arcand once again claims the top spot, with those rascally upstarts at Kidnapper Films climbing to number two, just in time for the premiere of their new film Who Is K.K. Downey?, opening this year. Up the Yangtze director Chang gets props for his acclaimed documentary, local shlockmeister Sv Bell is honoured once more and Faisal Lutchmedial (My Cultural Divide) joins the list. Best Play 1. The Elusive 2. Hedda Gabler 3. Quills 4. blood[claat] 5. Blasté 6. Jehanne of the Witches 7. Houdini 8. The Vagina Monologues 9. Broue 10. I, Claudia Tableau d’Hôte makes it to the top of the heap this year with The Elusive, while MainLine’s production of Ibsen’s classic Hedda Gabler is close on its heels. Sadists should be happy with Fallen Angel’s production of Quills making the top three. Also worth a mention is former Montrealer d’bi.young.anitafrika, who came back with a vengeance with her “one-ooman” show blood[claat]. BEST PLAY #2: Hedda Gabler Best Dance Company/Choreographer 1. Édouard Lock La La La Human Steps 2. Marie Chouinard 3. 8 Count 4. Les Grands Ballets Canadiens 5. Dead Doll Dancers 6. Dana Michel 7. Solid State Breakdance 8. Dave St-Pierre 9. Jack Fresno 10. Le Patin Libre Best Spoken Word Act 1. Kalmunity 2. Catherine Kidd 3. Lydia Lockett 4. Throw Collective 5. Alexis O’Hara 6. Katalyst 7. Euphrates 8. Ian Ferrier 9. Kyra Shaughnessy 10. Fortner Anderson Best Museum 1. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts 2. Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art 3. McCord Museum 4. Pointe-à-Callière 5. Canadian Centre for Architecture 6. Redpath Museum 7. Biodôme 8. Ecomuseum 9. Insectarium 10. Montreal Science Centre Best Gallery 1. Zeke’s 2. Galerie la Centrale 3. Le Kop Shop 4. Yves Laroche 5 . Parisian Laundry 6. Belgo Building 7. Ctrl Lab 8. Art Mûr 9. S.A.T. 10. Canadian Guild of Crafts Zeke’s cannot be stopped! The gallery closed for good last September but that didn’t hold it back from snagging top spot in this category for the umpteenth time. Long live Zeke’s! Galerie la Centrale, which features female artists, proves that the women are holding their own, while Yves Laroche and Art Mûr prove the weirder, the better. Montreal’s love of all things craft seems to be creeping into mainstream consciousness with the Canadian Guild of Crafts cracking the top 10 for the first time. Best Art Exhibit 1. Cuba! Art and History From 1868 to Today (MMFA) 2. Vik Muniz (MAC) 3. Art Matters (various locations) 4. Bruce Nauman (MAC) 5. Under Pressure

6. Yannick Pouliot (MAC) 7. Body Worlds 2 (Montreal Science Centre) 8. e-art (MMFA) 9. Geoffrey Farmer (MAC) 10. Sweet Calaveras (Yves Laroche) Fidel Castro’s stepped down and Cubans now have cell phones but that hasn’t decreased the allure of the communist nation. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts takes top spot with their exhibit of the country’s art, everything from Brando on bongos to a giant wooden grenade. Vik Muniz comes in second thanks in part to his peanut butter and jelly recreation of the iconic Mona Lisa. Concordia’s city-wide art fair Art Matters drops from second to third, while leading American artist Bruce Nauman’s Canadian and Quebec solo debut makes it in at #4. Quebec’s own Yannick Pouliot made a name for himself with his intricate absurdist interpretations of historical furniture and Yves Laroche Gallery gets props for its Day of the Dead-inspired show Sweet Calaveras. Best Local Living Author 1. Leonard Cohen 2. Heather O’Neill 3. Michel Tremblay 4. Yann Martel 5. David McGimpsey 6. Joel Fishbane 7. Isabelle Gaumont 8 . Dany Laferrière 9. Louis Rastelli 10. Nelly Arcan This year, we added the word “living” to the category, shifting the focus from proven dead geniuses (Richler, we love you, but it’s time to give the young guns some glory) to contemporary authors. Living legend Leonard Cohen takes the throne as king of Montreal writers, followed closely by Heather O’Neill (see story). Fish Piss editor Louis Rastelli makes it onto the list this year thanks to his debut novel A Fine Ending. Best Magazine/Zine 1. Nightlife 2. Vice 3. Lickety Split 4. Urbania 5. Maisonneuve 6. Elle 7. Black Heart Magazine 8. Worn 9. Actualité 10. Dressed to Kill It didn’t seem possible, but Nightlife has finally eclipsed Vice as best magazine. Sex still sells, though, with proud smut pushers Licktey Split and Black Heart Magazine making the top 10. Culture mag Maisonneuve holds strong in number five and Montreal’s newest fashion baby, Dressed to Kill , (which launched at Montreal fashion week at the end of March) makes its debut. As usual, the most votes were for the Mirror, and also as usual, we thank our readers but remind them we are not a magazine. Best Newspaper 1. Mirror 2. Gazette 3. La Presse 4. Le Devoir 5. Journal de Montréal 6. Voir 7. Hour 8. The Link 9. Metro 10. McGill Daily We win again! Hooray for us! Best Cartoonist 1. Aislin 2. Serge Chapleau 3. Theodore Radomski 4. Rick Trembles 5. Dstrbo 6. Billy Mavreas 7. Sinbad Richardson 8. Jack Dylan 9. Alex Fellows 10. Rupert Bottenberg The big two grab their spots again, with Theodore Radomski close behind. Perennial favourites Rick Trembles, Dstrbo, Billy Mavreas and Rupert Bottenberg make the list alongside newcomers Sinbad Richardson and Jack Dylan. Best Local Blog 1. Midnight Poutine (midnightpoutine.ca) 2. Pregnant Goldfish (pregnantgoldfish. wordpress.com) 3. Montreal City Weblog (w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/) 4. Spacing Montreal (spacingmontreal .ca) 5. Black Sheep Reviews (blacksheepreviews.blogspot.com) 6. Hastily Put Together (hastilyputtogether.com) 7. Drunken Stepfather (drunkenstepfather.com) 8. Fagstein (fagstein.com) 9. Said the Gramophone (saidthegramophone.com) 10. Invisible Cities Network (invisiblecitiesnetwork.org) Goodbye sleaze. Jesus Martinez’s smutblog, Drunken Stepfather has been ousted out of top place by about-towners Midnight Poutine and style blog Pregnant Goldfish, which unlike Drunken Stepfather, focuses less on tits and more on what covers those tits. Best Local Video Game Company 1. Ubisoft Montreal 2. EA Montreal 3. A2M 4. Gameloft 5. Kokoromi Not surprisingly the winner of the first-ever best local video game developer category is Ubisoft Montreal. The gargantuan studio—whose over 1,600 employees makes it one of the world’s largest—released the highly lucrative Assassin’s Creed in 2007. EA Montreal, makers of Army of Two and Boogie, place second. The city’s second-largest studio, A2M, came in third, despite releasing games skewed to a younger crowd. Gameloft is the only cell phone game company to crack the list, while indie gaming wasn’t ignored with fifth place going to Kokoromi. Best Fashion Designer 1. Philippe Dubuc 2. Travis Taddeo 3. Katrin Leblond 4. Lydia Lukidis 5. Dom Rebel 6. Nevik 7. Andy the Anh 8. Marie Saint-Pierre 9. Mackage 10. Mat & Nat Best Graffiti Crew 1. Kops Crew 2. Omen 3. NME 4. Team Autobot 5. Crazy Apes 6. HYH 7. DA 8. SAKE 9. Under Pressure 10. Urban Expressions Best Festival 1. Jazz Fest 2. Just for Laughs 3. Pop Montreal 4. Fringe Festival 5. Beerfest 6. Fantasia 7. Osheaga 8. Divers-Cité 9. FrancoFolies 10. Montreal Highlights

Jay Baruchel’s best

>>The Montreal-bred movie star and
funnyman talks about the city he loves

DOWN WITH NDG: Baruchel

by MARK SLUTSKY

With roles in films like Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, the highly anticipated upcoming Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder and regular roles in Judd Apatow productions (Knocked Up and the late, lamented Undeclared among them), Jay Baruchel is one of Montreal’s latest Hollywood breakouts. But unlike many of our town’s other actorly exports, Baruchel has chosen to remain in the city he loves, commuting to L.A. up to 20 times a year for his professional obligations but always returning to his beloved NDG.

This year Baruchel places in the Best Actor category just below those two unshakeable titans, William Shatner and Roy Dupuis, and he seems genuinely honoured to make the grade. “You have no idea how much I appreciate this!” he says, over the line from Pittsburgh, where he’s currently shooting She’s Out of My League. “This means a hell of a lot.”

Baruchel is an avowed Mirror reader, and as he reveals, he actually has a secret connection with the paper. “You should know that when I was 16 or 17, I had an ongoing thing in the Rant Line for about a month,” he says. “I think it had something to do with some girl that I thought looked like her skin was carved of porcelain. Some girl I saw somewhere. There was something of a correspondence. I do know that I had to reply, which was one of the nicer things that happened to me that summer.”

Baruchel seems to have no interest in leaving Montreal. “Number one, it’s my home,” he says. “I live with two of my best friends, who I’ve known since I was 15. I live one block away from my mother and sister in the house I grew up in. That’s my neighbourhood, that’s where I feel happiest. There’s also the added benefit that Montreal is the greatest city in the world. It’s got everything I could possibly ever want, and it’s got the best of everything. It’s where all my favourite restaurants are, all my favourite parks, it’s just got everything I love. There’s actually no reason for me to be anywhere other than there when I have free time.”

In that spirit, we decided to give the man an abbreviated questionnaire of his very own. Here’s Jay Baruchel’s own guide to the Best of Montreal.

Best Neighbourhood: “NDG. Without hesitation. It’s affordable, it’s got the best food, it’s got awesome bars if you like going to bars. But it’s also got a bit of a chutzpah, or swagger to it. It’s fuckin’ NDG! I just find that a lot of people who grew up there just kind of love it. For whatever reason. I guess it doesn’t hurt that I speak English and it’s an English neighbourhood!”

Best Watering Hole: “My answers for this one will be kind of lame because I don’t drink, but I guess it’d have to be either Honey Martin’s, on Sherbrooke in NDG, or Maz Bar, or I guess Bifteck. I’m just naming places that my friends go. I guess I grew up going to those places—I used to drink for a period, and when I did, it was at those places.”

Best Restaurant: “Oh God, there’s so many to choose from. It’d have to be either B&M Restaurant, Cosmos or Pasta Casareccia and I really do have to put Bofinger in there.”

Best Bagels: “Is Dad’s even a part of that issue? Obviously my answers are skewing a bit NDG, I should try to mix it up I guess! Well, my mother’s favourite was always St-Viateur, so I’ll say that.”

Best Musical Act: “Do they have to still be around? If not, then godspeed you! black emperor. 100 per cent.”

Montrealer Closest to Sainthood: “Pops, right? I can’t imagine who else it would be.” (Although, of another frequent nominee he says, “I sat across the aisle from Leonard Cohen on a flight to L.A. once and he ate a whole bag of Doritos. So note that however old and Buddhist he is, he still eats Doritos.”)

Best thing from Montreal to give as a gift to a non-Montrealer: “A bottle of spruce beer.”

Best French pick-up line: “Est-ce que vous parlez anglais?”

Best-looking clientele: “Bureau en gros.”

Best pick-up spot: “Oh shit! Oh God. I’ll say Bureau en gros again.”

Urban legend

>> Author Heather O’Neill does her own city planning

BOOK CITY: O’Neill

by SACHA JACKSON

Growing up, Heather O’Neill saw the city’s grittiest streets through rose-coloured glasses. “Even the seediest, most derelict places didn’t feel dangerous. Maybe I was just clueless,” she laughs, “I barely made it out of there alive.”

It’s this perception and fondness for the unsung glories of the lower Main, and similarly sleazy neighbourhoods, that worked as the setting for her 2006 debut novel Lullabies for Little Criminals. The book, which won CBC’s Canada Reads Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award, tells the story of Baby, a 13-year-old girl struggling with the temptations of adulthood while living with her father, Jules, in various low-rent apartments.

“I had written a short story about the characters, Baby and Jules, and I just really liked that story. And I liked the voice of Baby. I just figured I wasn’t going to get rid of that voice until I wrote a whole book,” she says.

Like O’Neill, Baby is charmed by the streets and although there’s an overt bleakness to the landscape, some of the darkest scenes have a sense of whimsy, a childlike nonchalance that has roots in O’Neill’s nostalgia.

“It was very much the Montreal that I remembered, so I was describing it from memory, as opposed to actually going and looking at it,” she says. “It definitely seems much more colourful and magical in my memory. If I went now and tried to describe it for a journalistic essay, I’d be like, ‘bleak, depressing.’”

When it comes to influences, O’Neill’s fond of Quebec authors Marie-Claire Blais and Gabrielle Roy, writers she discovered as a teenager in French immersion. “It’s funny,” she says, “because it never comes up. When people talk about being influenced by Montreal writers, they always bring up Mordecai Richler.”

Despite having other authors at the top of her “best of” list, Richler and O’Neill share a similar trait: both capture the essence of the city by pinpointing an area or demographic.

“When you know a place so well, you feel that you have the liberty to mess with it. I’ll even change where streets are to be convenient for my characters. Sometimes I see things in other cities that I like and I just move them to Montreal. Why can’t I put that building on St-Hubert? I just think, ‘Oh, what the hell, it’s my city.’”

Blais of glory

>>Isabelle Blais writes her own script
as acclaimed actress and rock chanteuse

TWICE TALENTED: Blais

by MALCOLM FRASER

When informed of her high standing in the BOM poll, Isabelle Blais seems pleasantly surprised. Her riveting performance in Lyne Charlebois’s Borderline, in which she plays a self-destructive, promiscuous woman at age 20 and 30, has won her accolades, but she hasn’t had time to let it get to her head—she’s too busy shooting the third season of Radio Canada’s C.A. and recording with her band, Caïman Fu.

The 31-year-old Montrealer has spent the last few years working steadily in local film, TV and theatre. Outside the insular Quebec industry, she’s best known for playing Rémy Girard’s world-travelling daughter in Les Invasions barbares. “People still talk to me about that little thing, even though it was only three minutes long, and it was a long time ago! I can’t get over it,” she says with a laugh.

Borderline is likely to supplant this cameo as the most memorable Blais performance to date. Adapted by local writer Marie-Sissi Labrèche from her two autobiographical novels, the film finds Blais delivering a courageous performance, explicit both sexually and emotionally. “It’s rare to read a script and see a role for a complex woman, not just the girlfriend or the pretty girl,” she says. “At the same time, I found it a bit dangerous. It was a mix of fascination and fear.”

Playing a 20-year-old, self-sabotaging trainwreck was a particular challenge. “Sometimes I really had to turn my brain off,” she laughs. “The character doesn’t reflect or analyze her actions, so I had to forget myself, my reflective and judgmental side. I couldn’t judge the character.”

During Blais’s already impressive acting career, she’s also managed to make time for Caïman Fu, a rock quartet with a dash of Queenly theatrical pomp. She met her bandmates at CEGEP in Trois-Rivières, where they started a project she describes as “more progressive rock, a bit n’importe quoi.” After graduation, she recalls, “we fell out of touch, and when I met them again, everyone had ended up in Montreal. So then in ’99, we started making music together again, but more pop. Right now, we’re in the studio finishing the third album.” The group is also touring France this June.

“I always make time for music,” she says when asked about balancing her two careers. “For the last three years, every fall from September to January, I just make music. When I’m shooting and I have gigs to do, I tell the production when I’m not available. And usually, it works out.”

With regard to future plans, Blais says, “I’m really open. I’m not super ambitious in the sense that I don’t feel like going and starting a career in the U.S. I have an agent in New York, but for the moment, she can’t do much for me because I never have time to go down there. But I’m not saying no!”

“In the world of actors, you’re as good as your last project,” she reflects. “Touch wood, I haven’t had any big flops so far, so I just hope to maintain that!”