I've been hesitant with Maddin, but this was pretty darn special.

Maddin's dream-like fantasy documentary on his hometown of Winnipeg is one of the more compelling essay-ish films I've ever seen. The film's poetry, visual inventiveness, and ambiguous affection on the part of Maddin for his hometown are its strong suits. Though we may desire it, the film suggests, we cannot escape our past--it helps to define who we are, placing certain limits while making other things possible.

I'm sure Maddin had to do this very personal work as a form of unbridled self-expression and artistic release, which I believe is immune to criticism. It's something every artist needs to do. So in order to grade this one, I have to do it arbitrarily based solely on my viewing experience. I found My Winnipeg to be an undoubtedly unique and interesting experience but also a tedious and frustrating one as it felt a little too self-indulgent.

Whether what is shown in Guy Maddin's film about his home town is true or false is not the main concern, but instead it's a docu-fantasia (on the DVD box) which expresses his concerns and memories of his home with far more sincerity and depth than a straight forward documentary, almost always charming or hilarious because of his narration, and a smorgasbord of visual images. This avoids self-ego completely, which could have easily happened, and is completely heartfelt.

Accomplished and highly original. I haven't found Maddin's films funny before but his narration in this doc-meets-mockumentary-meets-autobiographical essay film is quite hilarious.

killer pug

Bad poetry in motion. DNF

"A unique creation from Maddin that combines documentary, personal diary and exploration, and fantasy, creating a collage of nostalgia, tall-tales and surreal snippets of autobiography. You're never quite sure what is true in this movie but that is part of its charm."

This was just all around brilliant.

I wasn't entirely enthused by the story of the film, but the technical prowess on display made it enjoyable. Many different techniques of trick photography are on display here, even including Indian shadow puppets.

This is a weird film that I only enjoyed parts of it. I assume I would enjoy the movie more if I had ever been to Winnipeg.

A shining example of film as poetry. Once you're fully drawn in, you're swept along in the film's dreamy current.

"The dominant Maddin is the narrating filmmaker, more palpably present than usual in the sound of his voice, bemoaning a lost golden age of his hometown faced absurdities of the tall tale." - Bill Weber

Maddin tries to "escape" his hometown of Winnipeg by filming an absurbist, alternate history of it. Whereas Herzog's documentaries sometimes reach for an "ecstatic truth", Maddin seems to be aiming for a "poetic truth". As he does it with his usual brand of humor. Compared to some of his other work, it's not as visually idiosyncratic, but still unlike anything else out there, with stylistic nods to film noir (casting Detour legend Ann Savage earns some bonus points) and Soviet cinema.

maddin fervently, unsuccessfully tries to escape his winnipeg, the heart of the heart of the continent, a sinister dreamscape suspended in memory by an ever-present drape of snow, populated by psychic mothers, sad architecture, a cadre of dead hockey veterans playing on inside a half-demolished stadium. an ode to home both tongue-in-cheek and implicitly sad, its bizarre, dreamy anecdotes and reconstructions universalise its nostalgia as a waking dream we flee and cling to simultaneously.

Morbidly funny but unmistakably melancholy, My Winnepeg finds Guy Maddin trying desperately but, inevitably, failing to escape the memories of his youth. It's a movie primarily concerned with the perception of the past, presenting nostalgia as both repellent and attractive, presenting the hazy dreamscape of memory as both minefield and cage. Blurring fact and fiction, it suggests that truth isn't found within those disparate realms but within their molten amalgamation in the psyche.

O Canada

Strange sort-of-documentary (except Maddin cheerfully makes things up throughout the film) is often funny and sometimes quite nice to look at, but overall there's not enough there to justify the feature length.

"The forks... the lap... the forks... the lap!"

Just plain good cinema, the first avant-garde film that I've ever left completely satisfied. Maddin seems like the friendliest man on earth.

A bizarre, and tedious exercise.

The poetic equivalent of a documentary as Guy Maddin presents his feverish dream-like look at what is Winnipeg. We believe every word from Maddin's mouth not because they're true but because Maddin makes them sound true. His narration is so full of passion, kindness, humour, anger, that by the end we are in love with this strange, wonderful town at the heart of the heart of Canada.

A look at Winnipeg through they eyes of Guy Maddin is a unique and mesmerizing experience. He throws out factoids that may or may not be true and weaves around them a history of both the city and his life to create a film unlike any other I've seen.

Guy Maddin is a hit/miss affair for me. He aims high with artistic pretense, and while sometimes he achieves something fresh, something more than the sum of its parts, other times it falls flat despite the bells and whistles. My Winnipeg, as its name suggests a personal portrait of the city of Winnipeg, is mostly the latter kind.

Cute. I like how the fickle audience necessitates the stylish pretense. There's something smart-ass and revolutionary about that.

For sure it's very very interesting and original. The narration becomes a bit much and sometimes seems forced, like it has to be more poetic than it should be, but then other times he's right on, mixing fact and fiction to create a work that explores memory, nostalgia and ultimately, the difficulty to truly leave your town/city (who you are) and the oppressive nature of this. Really liked the images and the cinematography as well. Also enjoyed his stuff about hockey rinks when he gets angry.

My first expierence with Mad Maddin will for sure not be the last. Far from being flawless, My Winnipeg is constantly compelling, impossible to predict and quite simply unlike ANYTHING I have ever seen or experienced. Poetry meets documentary, German expressionism inspired aesthetics goes post modern, and... well - you gotta see it for yourself!...

Not bad, not great. I don't know if the color shots work within the context of what Maddin establishes, and I find that Maddin's style can quickly become too repetitive. The two scenes where there was almost no voice-over narration (The seance, deer hitting the car) work the best. This would be a great companion piece with Sans Soleil, which I would bet money Maddin had seen and drew inspiration from. Worth a look.

It's a visual poem more than anything else. I've never seen anything like it before, it's great. At one point Maddin says that he's inventing a new genre of film, which is clearly true. On the whole it's a completely new and invigorating movie experience.