levelFilm Film Review - Firecrackers

Lou (Michaela Kurimsky) and Chantal (Karena Evans) are desperate to get out of their small Canadian town. Lou literally lives on the wrong side of the tracks as first time director Jasmin Mozaffi continually hammers home with several shots of Lou consumed negative thoughts near the ever-present rails. The girls work at the only dive motel in town, cleaning rooms while Lou's mom Leanne (Tamara LeClair) a recovering drug addict who recently found god works the night shift in a video store. The opening frantic scene hits the audience like a punch in the mouth. Lou is in a girl fight with a posh adversary at school ringed by a circle of girls as vulgar insults debasing each other's female body parts are thrown followed by serious punches. After a winning TKO Lou heads home with Chantel greeted by the formers younger brother Jesse (Callum Thompson) who has a propensity for wearing his sister's clothes and donning her make up. Mom is passed out in bed in the middle of the day but none of this phases the pair as they have saved their money from cleaning toilets and changing soiled bed sheets for the last year having enough to head to New York. Their pal Josh (Scott Cleland) just got a pickup truck and is willing to drive mistakenly thinking that he has an in with Chantal.

Jasmin Mozaffi's maiden outing is raw and exposed as a frayed nerve mirroring her lead character. Kurimsky is constantly on high burn. She's combative, angry and impulsive focused like a laser on the moment thinking nothing of the consequences of her current course of action. Mozaffi employs an abundance of handheld camera work. The frame dances around the main characters bouncing and shifting as if its a third member of the crew raging alongside the two female leads. Cinematographer Catherine Lutes displays a rich palette of oranges, greys, and blues especially at night to drive home that eerie deserted small town feel. Karena Evan's Chantal is the introverted foil to her friend Lou. She has suffered both overt and subtle racial abuse as a mixed raced teen in a have not small town. We don't see any of her family or her home during the film and sleeps often to in vacant rooms at the motel.

The original plan crashes starting when Chantel ex Kyle (Dylan Mask) crashes a beach party and literally carries Chantel off souring Josh on the trip. The Kyle/ Lou feud grows resulting in an act that derails their plans further. However, the girls are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to make their plan a reality the results of which will have a long lasting deep-seated impact on the pair.

***1/2 Out of 4.

Firecrackers  | Jasmin Mozaffari | Canada | 2018 | 93 Minutes.

Tags: Girl Fight, Small Town, Motel, BB Gun, Cam Girl, Vandalism, Baptism, Shopping Cart, Car Wash.