Preview
PHIL THE ALIEN
Starring Rob Stefaniuk, Nicole de Boer and Graham Greene
Written and directed by Rob Stefaniuk
Opens Friday, March 18
Uptown Screen
An alien who looks like a Northern Ontario hoser. A talking beaver. The CIA in hot pursuit. Lots and lots of cheap booze. You’d think it would have been done before, but it hasn’t. Phil the Alien is the first bona fide Canadian-alcoholic-alien movie.
In person, writer, director and star Rob Stefaniuk looks exactly like his binge-drinking protagonist, with his bed-head hairdo and soft-spoken manner. Since the film’s debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, Stefaniuk has been away from his home for weeks, just like Phil, but unlike his alter-ego, no one is drooling, barfing, passing out or levitating for Jesus.
Fast Forward: This movie focuses on rural Canada. Did you grow up there?
Rob Stefaniuk: No, I put in rural Canada because if a spaceship crashed in Toronto, it’s a terrorist attack. If it crashes in Northern Ontario, it’s funny. I poke fun at some small-town things, but not really. It’s more about small-minded people than small-town. Everyone’s a hard-drinking, self-destructive, homophobic, gun-toting kind of guy and then we drop an innocent in there. I’m just having fun with that mentality. I chose Northern Ontario because it just seemed appropriate.
Did you at least get to go on a research field trip?
We didn’t really have time. I didn’t spend a lot of time developing it. I wrote it in five days. My brother had a beaver and an alien and that was it, man. I just thought: Canadian alien. And that’s pretty much where it came from. I wish there was more to it. I was trying to make a comedy and put a bunch of funny people in it.... Everyone sort of had fun, we only had 17 days to shoot it. We just winged it and didn’t take ourselves too seriously.
There are a lot of issues of Canadian sovereignty there, plus it’s very recognizably a Canadian feature film. Rush is on the soundtrack.
People told me not to do that. They told me to make it a nondescript American town so we’d have a better chance at selling it. And I actually decided not to do that. I’m from Canada. I think Canada’s got a proud tradition of having very funny people. Trainspotting was allowed to be about Scotland, so I wanted to make a film about Canada. That’s where the humour comes from, that’s where the sensibility comes from. It seems right for the piece.
Is feeling like an alien a Canadian trait?
I felt alienated growing up and hung out with misfit types, my stuff kind of lends itself to that kind of thing. I think that’s sort of where that stems from, but you know the whole Canada-America-Quebec thing, I was having fun with that cultural identity stuff. The Americans I exaggerate as right-wing, fanatical, fur-wearing guys. But I’m not trying to teach anyone.
There’s no message?
The message is: drink! No, no. I’m not saying that. But I am trying to give people a break from messages. It’s a popular time for messages – religious messages and political messages – so I thought it might be a good idea to take 90 minutes off and have a laugh. I did not over-think the project at all. It was a comedy first. My main motivation was, is it funny? If it’s funny, then we move on. If it’s not, we try it again. If it’s still not funny, then too bad ’cause we only had two takes.
I especially like it when that kid asks Phil at the beginning, "Why are you here?" and Phil says, all scared, "Because my parents brought me."
For me, the common thing in the film is, where are you from? You’re not from around here and that’s what defines you. People can put you in whatever spot they want. Well, why does it matter? I’m here. ’Cause for me, I grew up in Ajax until I was 10, and then I was in Oshawa for a few years and came to Toronto for high school. So I moved around enough in my youth that I never really felt like I knew where I was from, as a defining characteristic of who I was. I think there are cool people everywhere and then there’s assholes everywhere.
But you’ve travelled quite a lot. You were just at Sundance?
I had a short at Sundance, and Phil was at Slamdance. I was going back and forth between the two festivals.
That’s quite a high degree of success.
This has been crazy. You make an alcoholic alien movie, you kind of assume you’re not going to get funding for it – get into the Toronto film festival. I didn’t know that people would like it. We’ve been really fortunate. Maybe we’re part of a new trend for Canadian filmmakers, ’cause Canada’s well-known for its comedians. I just want to be part of that. |
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