PORCH STORIES (Sarah Goodman). 73 minutes. Opens Friday (June 19). Rating: NNNN
Watch online: iTunes
Shot a few blocks north of the Drake, Sarah Goodman’s Porch Stories is a delicate study of lives bouncing off one another on the side streets of downtown Toronto.
As Emma (Laura Barrett) and her fiancé, Stefan (Alex Tindal), get ready to move house, she unexpectedly reconnects with Gabriel (José Miguel Contreras), an ex just back in town. Next door, neighbour Brianna (Hallie Switzer) wrestles with a crush on a family friend, while down the street an older couple (Uerania Silveira, Sergio Sarmento) comment on all the activity.
Shooting in black-and-white widescreen, writer/director Goodman – best known for the documentaries Army Of One and When We Were Boys – invests the goings-on with a playful, sly energy, eavesdropping on passersby (including local author Shawn Micallef) to give us a sense of the larger city bustling around her characters.
An odd, sweet little social study that captures some really nice moments.
See our Q&A with Sarah Goodman.
normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner