

So much so that you can see how she gets away with this sort of behaviour. What’s great about Elsie is that she’s something of a bitch, but she’s kind of sweet and charming too. Portrait Of A Serial Monogamist is about Elsie ( Diane Flacks), a middle-aged woman who refuses to get dumped by her girlfriends, so selfishly and shamelessly breaks up with them first. Well, I’m delighted to say that while Portrait Of A Serial Monogamist is not going to rock your world, it’s better and I would say surprisingly sweeter than the average unknown indie. The problem then is that curious people like me are unwittingly drawn to pretty bad, unknown, independently made films. Advance tickets for POASM.ĭandyARCHIVE: Get over it! Keith Cole mayoral candidate 2010īike spotting on King at Spadina: Would you support a King St.People like to tout the virtues of ‘unique’ and ‘misunderstood’ independent cinema, but sometimes a film is independent simply because it wasn’t good enough to obtain funding. POASM is at Carlton Cinemas, 20 Carlton, from February 12-29, with daily screenings.
#Portrait of a serial monogamist release date movie#
Portrait of a Serial Monogamist is a fun movie that is a love letter to Toronto with a healthy dash of babeliness. She really shouldn’t have trashed her bike like that just because it got a flat.and because she realized she'd found true love. In her race to confront her ex in the film's dramatic conclusion, Elsie throws her bike to the side of the road. Instead, she kind of gets what's coming to her. I’m thankful that this sappy rom-com didn’t have a happy ending. The cast includes notable Canadian actors, Gavin Crawford, Robin Duke, Grave Lynn Kung, Aurora Browne, Howard Jerome and Vanessa Dunn. Cameos by Regina the Gentlelady and Keith Cole ( who we profiled in our magazine) were notable, as is the excellent score by Don Pyle of Shadowy Men fame. Shrine to the deceased Charlie the cat at his funeral.or was it a wake?

One of my favourite scenes is the cat Charlie's funeral, where Elsie struggles to navigate social functions that involved her ex-girlfriend. It’s great that cycling is normalized as a part of a character's life in any kind of medium or story. So it's indeed very dandy to see people biking around Toronto (as Toronto) in a film.

We've also run into Christina riding her bike while doing our Bike Spotting streeters. dandyhorse has thrown a few really decent parties there in the past. But Parkdale is the real star of the film.Ĭo-writer/director Christina Zeidler is owner of The Gladstone Hotel, a Queen West landmark and home to an artsy bike-riding subculture of visitors and staff. The film features Kensington Market, West Toronto Railpath, the Toronto Islands and even the "Bellwoods bowl" dog park. “Portrait” (or POASM) is unabashed in it's love of Toronto: there's a break-up scene at Sneaky Dees, and another character works as a barista at Depanneur. It's refreshing to see a movie filmed here that shows Toronto as itself. She rides further and ultimately introduces us to her own enclave or "small town", a.k.a. When she hits Queen and Spadina, she says: "Toronto is a big city made up of many small towns – or maybe it’s a small town that wants to be a big city.”Įlsie continues to ride along, passing Queen West storefronts, girls laughing, smoking, a woman walking by wearing sparkly sequined hijab, more storefronts. Not the Toronto for New York or Toronto for Chicago, the real Toronto.”Īs Elsie rides the recognizable streets of Toronto on her bike, there are some stunning shots of the view of the city that's only available straddled on the saddle on top of two wheels. The film starts out with Elsie (played by Diane Flacks) evasively dumping her girlfriend and then taking off on her bike. She rides along Queen West through Parkdale and reflects: “I live in Toronto. The new Toronto-produced film, Portrait of a Serial Monogomist, portrays neighbourhoods and city life in Toronto with more tenderness than the main character Elsie shows to any of her love interests. Photos and video provided by the filmmakers New film puts bikes, Parkdale and heartache in the spotlight Portrait of a Serial Monogamist a love letter to Toronto

The "bike date" scene, above, is one of the many in POASM that involves riding bikes around our great city.
