Highway 61

I loved this movie from beginning to end. There have been way too many predictable road movies made since the 60s. It's difficult to find one that surprises and entertains without being contrived. Highway 61 does it, and I admire the hell out of it for doing so. Wonderful script, superior acting, nice use of music throughout, this is pure delight. Hats off to Bruce McDonald and Don McKellar!

And remember - you can't cheat at Bingo!

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

more campy than roadkill (if that was possibly) and much lighter than dance me outside and hardcore logo, highway 61 is a great, fun film that fits perfectly on a snowy Saturday afternoon. the random plot twists as well as the off beat characters make this film truly unique and oddly Canadian. don mckellar proves here why he is Canada's most important actor - not because of any extensive talent, but because of his knack for playing the nervous, shy, eccentric who doesn't really fit in. this is one of those Canadian movies that totally could have gotten a bigger following if it had better distribution. now where's the DVD?

Surprisingly had only two written comments on this film, and then I can't help myself! This film has got some scenes which you'll simply never forget. A road movie with everything you want from one of it's kind.

It all starts off when a local Canadian barber one morning is asked by a strange woman if he can drive her and her dead brother, lying in a wooden casket, down from Canada into the U.S. - But is it really her dead brother??? On the way they meet all kinds of strange people.

This film contains so much - like the most fantastic bingo-scene in film ever, the devil's hijacking of a little girl's soul, and what about indoor chicken hunt with guns, or the dream of having U2 to play in your wedding!?

I can't wait to see this movie again, and I understand it's now on DVD. So go buy it, never mind the price! This is hilarious fun with death on the back wheels! Don't miss it! The best Canadian film I ever saw!