The History of Future Folk – Movie Review Canadian Music Week 2013

TORONTO PREMIERE MOVIE REVIEW OF FUTURE FOLK FROM CANADIAN MUSIC WEEK CO-PRESENTED BY OUR GOOD FRIENDS AT TORONTO AFTER DARK

T-Mak World has extensive coverage of Canadian Music Week here

March 7 2013 – Canadian Music Week (CMW) is a multi-faceted festival that runs in Toronto, Canada every March. Last year T-Mak World saw and reviewed 34 bands and interviewed 10 more. This year we expand our coverage to movies! Yes it is true, CMW features a movie festival as part of its programming and this year it is entitled Canadian Music Week FilmFest 13. The three day film festival runs from March 21-23rd and features 8 films that all screen at the TIFF Lightbox. The full schedule can be seen here. Advanced tickets are priced at $10 each and can be purchased online at www.ticketfly.com or through www.cmwfilmfest.com. Day of screening tickets will be available at the TIFF Bell Lightbox box office. The movie plays March 22nd at 9:15pm.

Today we review The History of Future Folk . The description on the film’s CMW page reads:

General Bill Trius (Nils d’Aulier) from the planet Hondo has been sent to earth to destroy it, but upon landing he hears music and his evil intentions are diverted. He instead becomes a musician, gets married and has a daughter. Then the people of Hondo send over Kevin (Jay Klaitz) a half wit to try and kill General Trius. Kevin gets exposed to music which has the exact same effect on him as it did to Trius. They end up singing in a guitar/banjo duo called Future Folk. Trius spends his free time trying to find a plan to save the planet Earth from the impeding Hondo invasion while Kevin does his best to help (unsuccessfully of course). Kevin falls in love with a female cop and while he is supposed to be watching Bill’s house from the assassin Hondo has sent out, he goes and dances the tango with his romantic interest.

The film is described as a musical but it certainly is not – there are only a couple of songs in the movie that Future Folk perform. The film is also described as a comedy and although there are some generally funny scenes I would not classify it as a comedy either in the sense that it is not full of one liners or slapstick scenes.  Kevin does remind of Kyle Gass from Tenacious D (which I wonder how much inspiration the writers got from). The best way to describe the genre of the movie is a mashup of a light hearted comedy/ light action movie with some sci-fi undertones and a very Indie vibe. There are no special effects to speak of, and even the space costumes are very low tech, but that does not impede the movie.

The History of Future Folk succeeds in keeping the viewers attention. There is something rewarding about a small budget movie just working on all  cylinders, and characters that you actually care about. Overall a great way to spend an hour and a half, and even though the plot is 100% predictable it simply doesn’t matter. The movie is a fun time and that is all that does matter.The film also has a bit role by Dee Snider of Twister Sister fame who plays the bar owner that Future Folk play at. 

Verdict: 4 out of 5 – A very well done film that draws you in for an entertaining 90 minute ride. Some alien invaders are defeated by light, some by fire, and some by oxygen but this is the first movie that has music winning over the aliens. This movie is so fun that I kept thinking how cool would it be to see a rock-off between Tenacious D and Future Folk at a local open mic night.

www.futurefolk.com

Directors: John Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker

Running Time: 85 Minutes

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