By Manori Ravindran
There’s a scene in Everyday Is Like Sunday where the film’s central character tries to pick up a girl in a dimly lit Toronto dive. “I’m really looking for something unconventional right now,” he begins. “Just a never-ending sleepover deal, weekends….” Has a piece of dialogue ever so perfectly encompassed dating for twentyomethings in Toronto?
Emerging adults be warned, Everyday Is Like Sunday hits close to home. Real close. Directed by Pavan Moondi — also of Toronto film collective The Seventh Art — and written by Moondi and Michael Sloane, the drama focuses on a group of friends wedged too comfortably between just-graduated bliss and the ennui of adulthood: the years when you’re at Sneaky Dee’s eating nachos and maybe trying to get laid when the glow of youthful optimism around you becomes too much to bear. Or when you use your degrees as coasters.
The film’s protagonist is Mark (David Dineen-Porter), a ne’er-do-well Torontonian whose life has been on a tailspin since quitting his job. Mark goes on numerous job interviews but can’t seem to land a position — a fact he’s overly enthusiastic to share. Six months into unemployment, he spends most daylight hours on his couch, where he’s occasionally joined by friends Jason (Adam Gurfinkel) and Flora (Coral Osborne), who are dating. Kind of. They’re in love, but the ambitious Flora is unhappy Jason works at a pizza joint – an annoyance that becomes a dealbreaker all too soon.
‘Minor-key moments are what populate people’s lives’: A Q&A with Everyday is Like Sunday director Pavan Moondi
One night, Mark meets the gorgeous Anelie (Bo Martyn) at a bar and can’t believe his luck when she’s interested. After one night together, the guy is in raptures (apparently this happens, even in TO). But what does he do about it? “You’re supposed to wait eight weeks and then send her a Facebook message saying, ‘I like the way you move your body,’ ” advises Jason. For a time, Mark is transformed by love (or something), but timing is everything, and our protagonist soon realizes it takes more than a girl to change your life.
Millennial angst in gritty urban centres could warrant its own section in The New York Times. We’re poor, we’re jobless, we’re lonely, we get it. But there’s an honesty and whip smart humour to the micro-budget Everyday Is Like Sunday that separates it from similar fare, and Moondi and Sloane have expertly distilled the disillusioned charm shrouding Toronto youth into snappy dialogue. If only every film about this doomed generation could be so smart.
Source: National Post