Pubdate: Thu, 25 May 2006 Source: Georgia Straight, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 The Georgia Straight Contact: http://www.straight.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1084 Author: Ken Eisner Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada) ESCAPE TO CANADA Featuring Jean Chretien, Bill Maher, and Marc Emery. Rated PG. Plays Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, May 29, 30, and 31, at the Vancity Theatre In Escape to Canada, Albert Nerenberg--the writer-director of Stupidity (about you know who, who's probably listening to us breathe by now)--picks 2003 as Year Zero in the life of the new, post-Trudeau Canada. You see, that summer saw a curious trifecta, with gay marriage and pot-smoking normalized and war pushed back into the shadows. Our refusal to kowtow to the Iraq-minded he-men royally pissed off the Swift Boat crowd down south, typified by harridan stick figure Ann Coulter, here seen warning Canada that it remains in North America only at the indulgence of the United States. "We might roll over and accidentally crush you," she threatens, thereby exhibiting poor neighbourliness as well as an abysmal (if typical) grasp of geography. But the movie doesn't only snap at American incivility; it trumpets the growing number of Yanks who are fleeing here, at least temporarily, for the opportunity to, among other things, have stoned gay weddings with people not shipped off to combat in the morning. These days, that's a lot of goodness in one tidy package. Of course, as Nerenberg points out, the package isn't really all that neat, since some aspects of the new social contract have been unravelling in the past few years. The movie was finished before the less-than-steep ascension of Stephen Harper--a disciplined, well-groomed model for quiet killer fruits everywhere. But it does address sporadic attempts to recriminalize marijuana. The director juxtaposes the relatively mild treatment of pot activist Marc Emery (before his arrest at the behest of American drug warriors) versus the mind-alteringly expensive persecution of Canada's Tommy Chong in the States--although there are frequent hints of Ottawa's complicity with reactionary forces south of the border. (As Steve Carell recently sermonized in The Office, "Think how funny Cheech and Chong would have been if they didn't take drugs.") Ultimately, the 80-minute Escape to Canada can't really weave its anecdotal evidence into a thoroughly convincing tapestry. (Let's avoid the word mosaic, shall we?) On the other hand, if you watch it in what he dubs Stonervision, well What were we talking about? - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake