Canada is far from the only country that has a tradition of lovingly mocking some of its stranger, often poor and delusional, white-trash subcultures (I am looking at you Australia, New Zealand and Britain). However, the Canadian flavour often takes the form of a road movie or a faux- documentary, or both.
For half a century, every decade there is a breakout of this very specific “Hoser-Genre” of cinema emerges: Don Shebib’s indisputable 1970 classic Goin’ Down the Road, In the 1980s Bob and Doug Mackenzie got a feature film blow up (Strange Brew) that turned their ubiquitously quotable SCTV sketches into a cult classic. The 1990s saw Bruce MacDonald’s punk rock tour gone off the rails into comic surrealism with Hard Core Logo. In the early 2000s Michael Dowse’s Fubar was a hit that spawned several sequels. The 2010s saw Matt Johnson’s darker, but no less funny, The Dirties. (And somewhere in there, The Trailer Park Boys cottage industry seems to have been a part of the comedy and export media landscape forever.) Up until now, it has always been the lads and the man-children. With Tracy & Martina Goin’ Out West, the girls get their moment in the limelight, and make the most of it in their own fashion.
After years of gossiping about their neighbours and family (‘shootin’ the shit’ while drinking white wine, stale Caesars, and too much Tim Hortons), aging high-school burnouts and best friends Tracy and Martina have found a modicum of success on social media (“75,000 views on Youtube, B’y!”) Sharing their hard partying, rottweiler owning, scratch off tickets and doin’ laundry in the unfinished basement Cape Breton lifestyle. One that orbits around around events such as Big Garbage Day, cashing unemployment cheques, and the minutiae of small town rivalries of Glace Bay and New Waterford. The ladies can talk, and they will find something scandalous to say in just about anything, including each other, if one happens to be out of the room. Or just do a bit of silly fun out in public like feeding the local ducks in a decidedly unique fashion. No fucks are given, and all attention is good attention.
For half a century, every decade there is a breakout of this very specific “Hoser-Genre” of cinema emerges: Don Shebib’s indisputable 1970 classic Goin’ Down the Road, In the 1980s Bob and Doug Mackenzie got a feature film blow up (Strange Brew) that turned their ubiquitously quotable SCTV sketches into a cult classic. The 1990s saw Bruce MacDonald’s punk rock tour gone off the rails into comic surrealism with Hard Core Logo. In the early 2000s Michael Dowse’s Fubar was a hit that spawned several sequels. The 2010s saw Matt Johnson’s darker, but no less funny, The Dirties. (And somewhere in there, The Trailer Park Boys cottage industry seems to have been a part of the comedy and export media landscape forever.) Up until now, it has always been the lads and the man-children. With Tracy & Martina Goin’ Out West, the girls get their moment in the limelight, and make the most of it in their own fashion.
After years of gossiping about their neighbours and family (‘shootin’ the shit’ while drinking white wine, stale Caesars, and too much Tim Hortons), aging high-school burnouts and best friends Tracy and Martina have found a modicum of success on social media (“75,000 views on Youtube, B’y!”) Sharing their hard partying, rottweiler owning, scratch off tickets and doin’ laundry in the unfinished basement Cape Breton lifestyle. One that orbits around around events such as Big Garbage Day, cashing unemployment cheques, and the minutiae of small town rivalries of Glace Bay and New Waterford. The ladies can talk, and they will find something scandalous to say in just about anything, including each other, if one happens to be out of the room. Or just do a bit of silly fun out in public like feeding the local ducks in a decidedly unique fashion. No fucks are given, and all attention is good attention.
With precious little planning (notably in a meta-sense, this was also in the genesis of the film itself) beyond unconfirmed notions of couch surfing by way of distant family members, the pair cash in their empty bottles for the recycling money, toss their outfits and makeup into used Sobey’s bags (no need for expensive luggage), and park Tracy’s ailing beater-car on the outskirts of the Sydney, Nova Scotia airport (no sense in paying for longterm parking) to fly to Calgary for three live shows shows in Alberta. They bring along their cameraman (the film’s actual director, Brendan Langelle Lyle) both for the content and the confessional stress relief. If you look closely, you might catch him in a reflection of a window, or talking one of the ladies down off of a psychological ledge so he can get some sleep on the hotel room floor.
Greg Vardy and Justine Williamson have been building the characters of Martina and Tracy (respectively), with their cakes of make-up, and extended local lore for more than a decade now. The humour is built from observations around their two nearby towns and the funny characters that reside there. Their delivery, accents, and simply the intonation of each others names is vintage maritime provincial stuff, done is a loose, improvisational structure that works very well when shooting guerilla-style in public spaces.
Hyper-specific details like Martina’s pink faux leather handbag with the material from the handle worn off, or Tracy’s eyebrow/eyeshadow combo make the characters instantly iconic. While it would certainly help to know some of the duo's back story and history of Tracy & Martina going in (the movie is somewhat slightly pitched towards fans of their podcast and socials), what works is the dynamic and comic timing between the pair, who have perfected their craft to the point of being able to shoot most of movie during their down time while actually being on tour in Alberta. That is exactly the kind of thrifty filmmaking that warms the hearts of anyone from Canada’s East Coast. I suspect many will track down their ocean of online content if encountering the film for the first time with no prior knowledge. Their current and growing fan base is already pretty obsessive.
Tracy & Martina Goin’ Out West is a candid and colourful, high-strung (but somehow still casually nonchalant) string of girl-fights, shot handheld and zoom in mockumentary style. These are kind of situations that occur when unseasoned travellers on a non-existent budget try to figure things out on the fly — and do not ever want to admit they do not know what the hell they are doing. The hubris, emergency binge spending, credit card panics, and TMI grooming on display is both specifically Canadian, but universal in the way that any side of road trainwreck prevents even a casual audience from looking away.
One of the unspoken mission statements of Tracy & Martina is to smash any ‘postcard’ notions of Cape Breton (or Alberta for that matter). Most of the action takes place in downmarket hotel spaces, strip mall parking lots with grey heaps of snow, and back alley concrete spaces where smokers congregate to 'chuff a dart.' The colour is in the character and the language. This is to the benefit of the film, which foregrounds body language and passive-aggressive character dynamics, the later is (secretly) quite Canadian.
The world is as big as your imagination will make it, and Tracy and Martina have ‘thrived’ in their world being as small as possible. The comically tiny stakes in Tracy & Martina Goin’ Out West still seem huge for them, and therefore, us. Watching them muddle, preen, and mainly talk, talk, talk their way through a series of show-biz money mishaps, proves just how malleable T.S. Elliot famous line, “And the end of all our exploring; will be to arrive where we started; and know the place for the first time.” Maritimers will always come ‘ome for familiar streets they grew up on, and to share the local pizza.
Greg Vardy and Justine Williamson have been building the characters of Martina and Tracy (respectively), with their cakes of make-up, and extended local lore for more than a decade now. The humour is built from observations around their two nearby towns and the funny characters that reside there. Their delivery, accents, and simply the intonation of each others names is vintage maritime provincial stuff, done is a loose, improvisational structure that works very well when shooting guerilla-style in public spaces.
Hyper-specific details like Martina’s pink faux leather handbag with the material from the handle worn off, or Tracy’s eyebrow/eyeshadow combo make the characters instantly iconic. While it would certainly help to know some of the duo's back story and history of Tracy & Martina going in (the movie is somewhat slightly pitched towards fans of their podcast and socials), what works is the dynamic and comic timing between the pair, who have perfected their craft to the point of being able to shoot most of movie during their down time while actually being on tour in Alberta. That is exactly the kind of thrifty filmmaking that warms the hearts of anyone from Canada’s East Coast. I suspect many will track down their ocean of online content if encountering the film for the first time with no prior knowledge. Their current and growing fan base is already pretty obsessive.
Tracy & Martina Goin’ Out West is a candid and colourful, high-strung (but somehow still casually nonchalant) string of girl-fights, shot handheld and zoom in mockumentary style. These are kind of situations that occur when unseasoned travellers on a non-existent budget try to figure things out on the fly — and do not ever want to admit they do not know what the hell they are doing. The hubris, emergency binge spending, credit card panics, and TMI grooming on display is both specifically Canadian, but universal in the way that any side of road trainwreck prevents even a casual audience from looking away.
One of the unspoken mission statements of Tracy & Martina is to smash any ‘postcard’ notions of Cape Breton (or Alberta for that matter). Most of the action takes place in downmarket hotel spaces, strip mall parking lots with grey heaps of snow, and back alley concrete spaces where smokers congregate to 'chuff a dart.' The colour is in the character and the language. This is to the benefit of the film, which foregrounds body language and passive-aggressive character dynamics, the later is (secretly) quite Canadian.
The world is as big as your imagination will make it, and Tracy and Martina have ‘thrived’ in their world being as small as possible. The comically tiny stakes in Tracy & Martina Goin’ Out West still seem huge for them, and therefore, us. Watching them muddle, preen, and mainly talk, talk, talk their way through a series of show-biz money mishaps, proves just how malleable T.S. Elliot famous line, “And the end of all our exploring; will be to arrive where we started; and know the place for the first time.” Maritimers will always come ‘ome for familiar streets they grew up on, and to share the local pizza.