From Toronto: Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg

On the latest from Canadian favourite son, Guy Maddin, as he looks homeward in the experimental nonfiction memoir MY WINNIPEG...

Eddie Cockrell at Variety says:

(M)ultilayered journey through the hometown in his head, Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg" is a vigorous caprice of fact and fiction. Employing the filmmaker's by now-familiar but no less unique fusion of silent film technique and pre-moistened melodrama, pic explores a version of his roots that may not be entirely true but sure is entertaining. Though it may feel undernourished to the faithful, "Winnipeg" is an easily digestible meal, for the uninitiated and fans alike, featuring Maddin's utterly individual worldview, suggesting receipts and ancillary on par with his recent work, if not modestly better.

Regular Toronto Blogger Crunchy Squirrel writes:

Maddin's latest is a pure joy, whether or not you're familiar with Winnipeg or Canadian history. Presented as a "docu-fantasia," Maddin takes the documentary form and makes it thoroughly his own--anyone who's seen one of his films will feel right at home here. He also manages to add a few new tricks to his usual form, particularly in a handful of scenes shot in the style of an overheated Sirkian melodrama (it will be surprising to none of his fans that he has a clear knack for it). It's also perhaps his most purely funny film. He's always had a sly, offhand wit, but never to this degree of directness. Great, original fun.

Todd Brown writes at Twitch:

This isn’t just a story about Winnipeg, this is a story about Canuck auteur Guy Maddin’s Winnipeg, his own very personal recollections and impressions of the place he has lived his entire life.  It is less a documentary than a memoir, less an exposition than a freewheeling, impressionistic rant that spins through Maddin’s own childhood and obsessions with a blend of his trademark black and white cinematography, absurdly hilarious recreations of key events of his childhood with his own mother a willing participant, and odd diversions into quirky facts about his home town, including the fact that it was once home to the world’s smallest park - until the lone tree was exploded with dynamite - and that it has a sleepwalking rate ten times that of any other city.  Hell, let’s be honest: My Winnipeg isn’t about Winnipeg at all.

Says Steve Carlson at the Film Experience Blog:

(O)stensibly a documentary portrait of his hometown, yet one glance will tell you that it's just another inspired entry in the ludicrous filmography of Maddin -- its historical worth is suspect, but its entertainment value is endless. Maddin's last couple films have been inexorably moving towards the personal as he refines his frenzied muse, and My Winnipeg might be his most ecstatically unfiltered slice of madness yet.

Updates September 16:  The film wins the Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film.  Also, it's picked up by IFC Films for distribution.