Screens

Deaner ’89
Where: In theatres
What: Movie, 90 mins.
When: Fri., Sept. 6
Genre: Comedy
Rating: NNN (out of 5)
Why you should watch: Fubar co-writer and star back with another adorable, hosers-eye view of Canada, this time with flashbacks to the ’80s.

WRITER-ACTOR PAUL SPENCE  earned a special place in the hearts of Canadians as one of the creative forces behind and lead actor in Fubar (2002) and other Fubar projects. He’s back with Deaner ’89, a film about a hoser, hockey-playing, eventual heavy metal star, Dean Murdoch, Deaner, that Spence and the film’s publicists insist has nothing in common with his previous projects.

Uh, okay but, as in the previous now unnamed films, Spence charmingly captures the goofball optimism of his ultra-Canuck characters with his head bobbing enthusiasm a la Mike Meyers in Wayne’s World, a signature hoser stash and mullet-esque long hair. This time out, Deaner, is based in Manitoba with all its bleak charm. Through a series of flashbacks to the cheesy ’80s, we learn how present-day Deaner has achieved unlikely heavy metal success after his hometown hockey-playing days on the prairie.

He and his younger sister are raised by their adoptive ultra-white parents who offer pinched accents and a proclivity to proclaim “eh” with cliche-like frequency. We eventually learn the siblings are Indigenous, a fact hidden from them by their new family, a secret better understood when a mysterious trunk appears following the death of Deaner’s birth father.

In the process of exploring the trunk’s content, he discovers a love for two things from his deceased dad: heavy metal and his Indigenous heritage. These details are better told here than in the film where the Indigenous plotline feels a little pasted on the narrative, emerging later in the film and suddenly investing it with gravitas that feels like a bold transition or an awkward fit. Ultimately, it’s a bit of both.

The ’80s flashbacks are fun, the fashions hilariously awful and women’s hair majestically plumed and gelled. There are fart jokes, on-ice hockey chirping and lots of adorable goofiness in a film sprinkled with amusing scenes that can feel as real as a mouthful of butter tart to Canadians, though with a story that meanders as much as the Deaner’s career path, Deaner ’89 is never quite as good as its individual elements.