Highway 61

What can be said about this bizarre little gem of a movie? As a Canadian I have a soft spot for truly good homegrown film, and Bruce McDonald really delivered with this one. The "rock 'n' roll road movie" seems like a cliched category to put this in, for yes, it does involve a journey (physical and spiritual of course), and great musical atmosphere, and yet there's just something completely different. Maybe it's Valerie Buhagiar's ethereal yet calculating performance as Jackie, the roadie whose friends are far weirder than yours. It might be Don McKellar's small-town trumpet-playing barber who finds a dead man behind his shop one morning. Maybe it's the Devil chasing them in his pickup truck, claiming souls with his Polaroid camera. Oops, perhaps I've given away too much already...

At any rate, I loved this movie. It was unconventional without being consciously "arty", and was just fun to watch. Your corner video store probably won't have it (especially in the States) but if you're lucky one of the big chains will have a copy.

The goof is a barber and frustrated trumpet player with no life, no love and no prospects.

With the coffin strapped to the roof of his vintage car, manipulated by the wiles of the anti-heroine our anti-hero finds himself motoring from Thunder Bay to New Orleans along old Highway 61, the thoroughfare made famous in song.

Toronto filmmaker Bruce McDonald brings his gonzo rock 'n' rock style to what is obviously not your conventional love story.

But it is a hell of a wild ride that invokes motorcycle gangs, wacko farmers and Jello Biafra in a strange and wonderful cameo.

An off-beat delight.

Comment written by Liza Levchuk

I have to disagree with the other review on this movie... the Satan character MADE the movie, in my opinion. Two of his scenes stick out in my mind - the one where he convinces the little girl to sign over her soul for fame and the end scene where he explains when he discovered he was "the dark one." This movie is a little known gem and it's a bit off the beaten path, being a Canadian film and all, but if you have a strange, wry sense of humor like my friends and me, you'll definitely love it. I would recommend this movie for anyone that's open-minded to the indie-type flicks.

I actually know the township where this movie was filmed the first 15 minutes or so. The place is called Virginiatown and it is in Ontario, they also filmed in Larder Lake, Ontario.

I decided to watch the movie(we have it on display where I work) and it is surprising how the place has changed. We also even have the barber chair and all his equipment that was owned by the actual owner of the barber shop, who appeared as a customer in the movie.

Even though this movie fits the typical "weird" movie, I actually liked it, but then again, I am a fan of those old 80's style movies. The only thing I have to say negative about it is that I don't recommend it to kids, this movie still contains things that should not be seen at a younger age.

This is one of my favorite movies of all time (the other one is The Purple Rose of Cairo). If you haven't seen this movie yet then I envy you, because I can never watch it again for the first time like you can. It is the story of Pokey, the small-town barber who has never left his home of Pickerel Falls (well - he hasn't travelled further than Thunder Bay), and his awakening into adulthood one summer as he travels down highway 61 with a mysterious red-haired woman who asks him for a ride. Their adventures along the way as they race for New Orleans with Satan close behind, are often riotous (as in my favorite scene in the bingo hall), and always kooky.