City Cinema Classic of the Month: New Waterford Girl

Comedy/Drama.
14A.
Dir: Allan Moyle, Canada, 2000, 97 min.
Liane Balaban, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Andrew McCarthy, Mary Walsh, Cathy Moriarty.

“A gem… Set on Cape Breton in the 1970s, the film centres on 15-year-old Mooney Pottie, a sharp-witted, sharp-tongued misfit who laments her limited prospects within the small, conservative coal-mining town. She wants out, but in her cramped Catholic community, there’s only one reason that young women leave – and it isn’t to pursue higher education, if you catch my drift. Mooney’s teacher sees her potential as an artist and helps her secure an arts scholarship at a Manhattan high school. Alas, Mom and Dad fancy this idea about as much as a Saturday night without the hockey game on the tube. Mooney is stuck. Her restlessness grows with the arrival in town of 16-year-old Lou and her mother, Midge, who have their (unusual) reasons for selecting New Waterford as a suitably low-key alternative to their former place of residence, the Bronx… New Waterford Girl is funny and wry and winningly simple, the sort of picture that so amazes with its authenticity – both in terms of the specific geographic region and of adolescence in general – and its excess of colourful, memorable characters.” —Scott, Feschuk National Post

“A smart, incisive and enormously enjoyable film. Entertaining, polished and professional… With glee, it turns Canadian family cliches topsy-turvy… The film also captures the spirit and embodies the soul of Maritime Canada… This film is a treasure.” —Bruce Kirkland, The Toronto Sun