Whoa Canada: 27 essential films from Canadian directors

Aliens (1986)

With Aliens, writer-director James Cameron faced the unenviable task of succeeding Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic. By going the action-horror movie route with the return of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)—armed this time with Colonial Marines like Apone (Al Matthews), Hicks (Michael Biehn), Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), and Hudson (the late Bill Paxton)—Cameron created a genre-defining sequel that is arguably better than the original. And who doesn’t love an ol’ fashioned, practical effects brawl between Ripley’s Power Loader and the Alien Queen?

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The movie that proved James Cameron is the living manifestation of the phrase “go big or go home,” Terminator 2 changed the way we make blockbusters. From its then-landmark use of CG on the liquid metal T-1000, to its “bigger is better” production values that don’t skimp on character, Cameron’s last Terminator film as director influenced everything from Jurassic Park to, well, pretty much any movie to feature a digital character. So many of your favorite blockbusters owe their existence to T2—a modern classic that still holds up more than 30 years later.

Titanic (1997)

Cameron’s first (and only) Best Picture winner is a staggering achievement in populist filmmaking and one of the last blockbusters to rely on practical sets and in-camera effects before Hollywood was consumed by the green screen revolution. Plagued with budget overages and bad pre-release press, Titanic weathered it all to tell a tragic “Romeo & Juliet”-esque romance aboard the sinking ship. The end result came with a much better replay value than that damn Celine Dion song. And it also taught us how to properly hock a loogie.

Avatar (2009)

The highest-grossing movie of all time tricked millions of moviegoers with its sophisticated digital effects as it raked in billions. It’s a movie about a guy, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who can’t walk but learns how to fly—who can’t get behind the wonder of that?! While love for Avatar cooled prior to the release of its successful sequel, The Way Of Water, Cameron’s sci-fi epic is still a thrilling, visual spectacle that delivers Cameron’s non-subtle brand of emotional storytelling alongside great set-pieces and timeless commentary about environmental conservationism. Sure, it’s Dances With Wolves in space—but when have you ever seen that before Cameron showed it to you?

This Is The End (2013)

The writing-producing duo has known each other since their high school days, which inspired Superbad, and This Is The End is arguably the peak of their R-rated comedy powers after many successful collaborations with Judd Apatow. For their feature directorial debut, Rogen and Goldberg went the supernatural comedy route with Rogen (and celebrity pals like Michael Cera, Danny McBride, and Jonah Hill) playing versions of themselves struggling to survive the oncoming Apocalypse. This Is The End is a highly quotable, very rewatchable summer comedy that further proves how fortunate audiences are to have filmmakers like Rogen and Goldberg here to entertain them when their unique brand of dick jokes.

Scanners (1981)

Weaponized telekinesis is at the heart (and exploding heads) of Scanners, a gritty sci-fi thriller about two “Scanners” and their ability to do to people’s heads—using only their thoughts—what Gallagher’s mallet would do to melons. Starring character actors Michael Ironside and Cameron Vale in the lead roles, Cronenberg explores with slow-burn fascination the moral and ethical cost of certain medical treatments and the explosive ends humanity will use to enforce or protect that cost.

The Fly (1986)

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

Blame The Fly for giving us that iconic line, along with an all-timer Jeff Goldblum performance. Director and co-writer Cronenberg elevates the film’s B-movie origins into a tragic, body horror cautionary tale that serves as a gory metaphor for the 1980s’ AIDS crisis. Science and the consequences of breaking its laws literally transform inventor Seth Brundle into a human fly; the more insect he becomes, the farther away from his humanity he gets—and the more terror the audience feels about his plight, which culminates in a bloody, heartbreaking sequence that ranks among the most haunting that Cronenberg has ever crafted.

A History Of Violence (2005)

Cronenberg and screenwriter Josh Olson adapted A History Of Violence, based on a little-known 1997 graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke. They shaped the story into a slow-burn, Oscar-nominated thriller about the slippery (and bloody) slope that connects violent acts with heroic origins. Starring Viggo Mortensen as a small-town diner owner who thwarts a robbery by two small-time crooks and, in the process, shines a light on his own shady past, Violence delivers film-noir thrills as Cronenberg explores the toll that the secrets of our past can take as they arterial spray all over our all-too-clean present.

Away From Her (2006)

Memory and our often fleeting grasp of it are at the beating heart of writer/director Sarah Polley’s underrated tearjerker Away From Her. Feature directorial debuts don’t get much better or more resonant than this story about an elderly couple (Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent) struggling to hold their marriage together when Christie’s character develops Alzheimer’s. While being cared for at a nursing home, her withdrawn husband is forced to accept a fractured “new normal” when his wife develops feelings for another resident at the home. Polley delicately dramatizes how the heart and mind work both for and against us when love is on the line, or when its moorings turn to quicksand and slip away, or compel us to hold on tighter.

Women Talking (2022)

Polley won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for her very faithful, and very powerful, adaption of Canadian novelist Miriam Toews’ book of the same name. Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, and Frances McDormand headline the film’s ensemble of American Mennonite women who must re-evaluate their future when they discover their colony’s history of rape. Polley lets the drama largely unfold like a stage play, her camera observing these women and empathizing with their plight as they struggle to make sense of it. Women Talking is a powerful, timely film that—like Away From Her before it—proves Polley is one of our greatest filmmakers.

Arrival (2016)

Sicario director Denis Villeneuve really put himself on the Hollywood A-list with Arrival, a 2016 Best Picture nominee and the rare sci-fi film to net such an honor. Starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner as the two people running point on first contact with an alien race, Arrival takes a grounded, Carl Sagan-esque procedural approach to what such an event would look like—which gives way to an emotional and deeply personal story about love, time, and how our species needs to start using the two to better communicate amongst ourselves before we try to talk to another species.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

This belated follow-up to 1982’s Blade Runner was a long time coming, but the wait was more than worth it. Picking up several decades after Ridley Scott’s landmark film, Blade Runner 2049 follows Ryan Gosling’s Agent K as he unravels a mystery that promises to reshape the fragile existence between humanity and androids. Sci-fi movies don’t get more gorgeous or atmospheric than this.

In The Heat Of The Night (1967) 

Norman Jewison takes on American racism in the South with In The Heat Of The Night, a compelling and complex neo-noir set in 1960s Mississippi and starring the late Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. The latter won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Bill Gillespie, a racist police chief who wrongly accuses Virgil Tibbs (Poitier), a Black police detective from Philly, of murder. When Tibbs not only proves his innocence, but that of another suspect, he and Gillespie join forces to track down the real killer. Tension flares as their partnership casts a deserved and, unfortunately, still timely look at race and how it is perceived through the justice system’s unblind eye. Poitier gives a career-best performance as Tibbs, who ranks up there as one of cinema’s greatest fictional detectives.

Moonstruck (1987)

If there’s anything better than Cher and ’80s Nic Cage in this Oscar-winning rom-com, we don’t wanna know about it. Jewison’s range was considerable and Moonstruck, one of his biggest swings, still connects more than 35 years after its original release. A movie that celebrates all things romance and Italian-American culture, Moonstruck is a charming comedy about Loretta Castorini (Cher), a recently widowed woman who reluctantly falls for her fiancé’s younger brother with one too many screws loose, played by Cage. The two actors’ chemistry could power a city block as they banter back and forth under Jewison’s assured direction of one of the most charming and witty films of the 1980s.

Juno (2007)

Juno, Jason Reitman’s Oscar-winning follow-up to Thank You For Smoking, fully helped the then-bourgeoning nepo baby filmmaker emerge from his dad’s considerable shadow. Elliot Page portrays the title character, a pregnant teenager coming to terms with her life and the life of the child she’s putting up for adoption. As coming-of-age films go, they don’t get much more clever or soul-searching than this one.

Up In The Air (2009)

George Clooney went from law firm “fixer” in Michael Clayton to boardroom hatchet man in Up In The Air, an underrated dramedy based on Walter Kirn’s book of the same name. As Ryan Bingham, the guy who companies call when they need to downsize a few salaries, Clooney plays against his mega-wattage Danny Ocean charm by wearing an almost permanent “it’s-not-personal-it’s-just-business” scowl. But it’s all a mask to hide that which he refuses to feel—especially when his “single-serving lifestyle” hits some turbulence in the form of a would-be romance with a fellow frequent flyer (Vera Farmiga) and a new relationship with a very untested trainee, played by Anna Kendrick in a star-making turn.

The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

The Sweet Hereafter, Egoyan’s haunting masterpiece, tells the chilling tale of a small Canadian mountain community rocked by a school bus accident. When more than a dozen children are killed, a big-city lawyer (a never-better Ian Holm) swoops in to galvanize grieving parents and their families to join a class-action lawsuit. Sarah Polley almost steals the film as a teenage survivor haunted by the accident and the innocence it took from her and her classmates. Egoyan invests most of Sweet Hereafter’s somber runtime on the fissures that spread from tragedy in ways that yield a collective catharsis.

American Psycho (2020)

Mary Harron takes on one of American writer Brett Easton Ellis’ most infamous works with her masterful and bloody satire, American Psycho. Thanks to Harron’s effortless handling of the tricky book’s unnerving tone and ’80s corporate bro-culture subject matter, Christian Bale’s career came roaring back to life as the vain and career-minded investment banker Patrick Bateman. His obsession with materialism boils over into a homicidal rage that would make slasher films blush. Is American Psycho a slasher film? Or a satire of the genre put through a very ’80s, “greed is good” lens? In Harron’s deft and snarky interpretation of the material, Psycho is often both simultaneously—and audiences are better for it.

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

One of Dmytryk’s most famous films, 1954’s The Caine Mutiny, is also one of classic cinema’s best. A riveting World War II drama based on Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, the film centers on the crew of a dilapidated vessel and their mutinous reaction to their new, unconventional commander, Queeg (Humphrey Bogart). Queeg’s irrational behavior sparks a mutiny, which leads to a court martial for his executive officer (Van Johnson). Hollywood has dined out on military-based dramas with a courtroom spin for decades, but Dmytryk delivers the movie equivalent of a fine feast with this exceptional, seminal work.

Free Guy (2021)

On the surface, Free Guy is essentially the movie equivalent of someone putting their thumb over the business end of a hose spraying IP. But in Shawn Levy’s hands, it invests its clever concept with more than just opportunities to feature Ryan Reynolds holding a lightsaber. Perfectly cast as the titular “Guy,” a background character in a popular video game who becomes increasingly self-aware, Reynolds brings a sweet and earnest edge to the film that prevents the CG fest around him from overpowering an entertaining blockbuster.

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

With Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey capped off his year-long “McConaissance” with a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Ron Woodroof, a real-life Texas electrician afflicted with AIDS who smuggled unapproved drugs into the U.S. in an attempt to save the lives of patients who had been shunned by the American health care system. Vallee’s almost documentarian approach to the compelling and heartbreaking material should have won an Oscar along with his star.

Wild (2014)

Vallee’s follow-up to Dallas Buyers Club is another stirring biographical drama, this time about Cheryl Strayed (played by the Oscar-nominated Reese Witherspoon), who undertook an arduous 1,100-mile hike in an attempt to heal from a personal tragedy. It’s those scars, plus the complicated and, at times, soul-crushing means Cheryl uses to expedite their healing, that elevate both Wild and Vallee’s direction.

Ghostbusters (1984)

The late Ivan Reitman made a considerable name for himself with Ghostbusters, the classic ’80s supernatural comedy about four guys with unlicensed, nuclear accelerators on their backs going after New York City’s spooks, specters, and ghosts. Reitman deftly balances the laughs with some genuine frights, leading to an all-timer third act where the Ghostbusters ascend a high-rise to battle the giant Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

Dave (1993)

Dave, a sleeper hit from Summer ’93, has spent the last 30 years becoming a modern classic thanks to its status as a cable TV staple. Helping endear it to audiences is this political rom-com’s talented and charming ensemble cast, headlined by Kevin Kline, who must impersonate the president of the United States when the real one suffers a health crisis. The Frank Capra-esque vibes of the plot build to what many consider to be Reitman’s most “adult” and character-driven film.

Elements Trilogy (1996 - 2005)

Deepa Mehta is arguably Canada’s most underrated filmmaker. Her Elements trilogy is a landmark work, a stirring collection of films that effortlessly tackle the simmering controversy of social reform within the Indian subcontinent. Fire, Earth, Water are completely satisfying cinematic powerhouses on their own, but together, they deliver profound examinations of such issues as arranged marriage, homosexuality, and misogyny.

First Blood (1982)

Filmmaker Ted Kotcheff captures the fraught sense of danger that Vietnam vet John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) faces in First Blood, arguably the best (and definitely the most grounded) of the Rambo movies. Based on the novel by David Morrell, First Blood is an unflinching survivalist thriller about what happens when a good soldier gives everything for a country that says they don’t want him back. His PTSD pushes him to the edges of what remains of his soul while the “NIMBY” ways of the local police hunting him drive him deep into the woods and to the brink of insanity. But what’s truly insane, Kotcheff’s film argues, is the way a hero like Rambo is vilified after sacrificing so much to defend his country against the very threats America perceives him to be.

North Dallas Forty (1979)

Very loosely based on the real exploits of the 1970s Dallas Cowboys, North Dallas Forty is a biting satire and a football movie classic. Nick Nolte stars as jaded wide receiver Phil Elliot, whose struggle with accepting the whole “there’s no I in ‘team’” thing put his career and his teammates through the wringer. Kotcheff doesn’t shy away from the influence that sex, painkillers, and alcohol have on Elliot and his team on and off the field, which is part of North Dallas Forty’s unvarnished charm. Once a world-weary Elliot realizes that both the party and his career may be careening to an end, the movie finds ways to make this sobering realization all the more endearing. Unevenly paced but brutally perceptive, North Dallas Forty offers a fascinating (and funny) look at the hard truths and painful realities of being a pro football player.