It’s safe to say that Paul Schrader is a very different filmmaker than he was early in his career. The angry guy who wrote Taxi Driver is finding reason to be hopeful later in life, while still carrying quite an edge, in films such as Master Gardener and First Reformed. It’s especially true for Schrader’s latest, Oh, Canada, a reunion with his American Gigolo star Richard Gere.
Gere plays Leonard Fife, a terminally ill man and one of thousands of draft dodgers who fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War. With his memory fading, he agrees to tell all to a documentary film crew.
Like all of Schrader’s recent trilogy (which includes The Card Counter), the film examines mortality, the idea of redemption, and taking stock of one’s life.
Euphoria and Saltburn star Jacob Elordi plays the younger version of Leonard. Also in the cast are Uma Thurman, Victoria Hill, Michael Imperioli, Kristine Froseth, and Penelope Mitchell.
Kino Lorber will release Oh, Canada in theaters on December 5th.
SYNOPSIS: Aging filmmaker Leonard Fife (Richard Gere), still fiery despite his battle with illness, wants to tell his life story, unfiltered, before it’s too late. As the director of acclaimed documentary exposés, he has much to be proud of, but his Vietnam War draft-dodging and his past relationships harbor thorny truths. Leonard sits for an extended interview with his former student Malcolm (Michael Imperioli), relating candid stories about his younger self (Jacob Elordi) in the tumultuous 1960s and beyond. At Leonard’s insistence, his wife and indispensable artistic partner, Emma (Uma Thurman), bears witness to it all. His successes are held up against his failings and, as the man is cleansed of the myth, Leonard must confront what is left. Paul Schrader’s adaptation of Russell Banks’s novel sees him reunited with Gere more than 40 years after American Gigolo, and together, they deliver a moving and deeply personal take on this story of an artist reflecting on a lifetime of storytelling.
