New Waterford Girl | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Allan Moyle |
Written by | Tricia Fish |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Derek Rogers |
Edited by | Susan Maggi |
Music by |
|
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Odeon Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Box office | $774,469 [1] |
New Waterford Girl is a 1999 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Allan Moyle, and written by Tricia Fish. [2] It stars Liane Balaban as Agnes-Marie "Mooney" Pottie, [2] a teenager in New Waterford, Nova Scotia, who dreams of life beyond her small-town home. She is inspired and fascinated when Lou Benzoa (Tara Spencer-Nairn), an idiosyncratic girl from New York City, moves into the house next door. Agnes learns Lou has a talent for boxing, leading to her taking Lou in as "muscle" in an attempt to make some changes around town.
The film's cast also includes Mary Walsh, Nicholas Campbell, Cathy Moriarty, Andrew McCarthy, Mark McKinney, Bette MacDonald, Ashley MacIsaac, Krista MacDonald, Cassie MacDonald, Darren Keay, Patrick Joyce, and Jeff Ryan.
Agnes-Marie "Mooney" Pottie is a 15-year-old girl and black sheep of her family who is sick of her life in the isolated coastal community of New Waterford. She is considered an exceptional student by her depressive, semi-alcoholic English teacher, Cecil Sweeney, who also nurtures an inappropriate crush towards Mooney that is not reciprocated. Based on her talent, Cecil suggests she should attend an arts school in New York City. Mooney manages to get a scholarship at one school, but her religious parents, Francis and Cookie, refuse to let her go.
When a family from New York City moves in next door, Mooney quickly becomes friends with the eldest daughter, Lou. Lou is the daughter of a jailed boxer, and though she is of modest stature, she is able to knock men out when they are lying, something the devoutly Catholic townspeople consider as something of a religious miracle. Lou develops a side hustle, knocking out the unfaithful men of the town in exchange for money from their wronged girlfriends. Meanwhile, Mooney concocts a plan to leave town. She begins to openly kiss different boys in town in order to gain a reputation for promiscuity, though she never actually has sex with any of them.
Not wanting to be left out, many boys claim they have slept with Mooney. Mooney then tells her parents she is pregnant, which she knows will cause them to send her away where she can then escape and run away to Manhattan. However, the plan backfires as the boys of the town, having wised up to Mooney’s plan, threaten to reveal the truth about never having slept with Mooney. Though Mooney orders Lou to punch them out to show they are liars, they do not fall down when she hits them which shows they are telling the truth. Joey, one of the boys, gives the girls an ultimatum—Lou must face off with New Waterford’s reigning boxing champion in a match, or Mooney’s secret will be made public.
Lou ends up winning the match, but Mooney sees Joey outing her to her father anyway. Her father now believes she lied about being promiscuous primarily to cover up the fact that the father of her baby is Cecil. Francis goes to confront Cecil at his trailer, which sits on the edge of a cliff. Cecil, grasping what is going on, claims he is the father and kisses Mooney. Mooney's mother, arriving in time to see the kiss, gets in her car and rams it several times into Cecil's trailer, causing it to topple over the cliff and land on the beach below.
Later, Mooney boards a train to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where she is to spend the rest of her supposed pregnancy. After exchanging goodbyes with her family, Mooney is given a letter by her mother just before leaving. Seeing her tearful family, she announces she wants to stay. Her mother orders her to get back on the train. On the train, Mooney reads the letter which reveals that her mother knows what her plans are and wishes her luck.
At the time of production, lead actress Liane Balaban was not an actress. She met producer Julia Sereny at a relative's Seder and was invited to audition for the role. [3]
"Only Way", a song by singer-songwriter Blaise Pascal, is featured at the end of the film. [4]
New Waterford Girl has a rating of 92% based on 12 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. [5] A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote the film "is not exactly a new story, but the filmmakers' sense of local color, their springy, disjointed narrative style and a general refusal on their part or the actors' to stoop to caricature give this version a freshness and intensity that recall the television series " My So-Called Life " of blessed memory." [2]
Writing for The Village Voice , Amy Taubin said the film is "a tender and hilarious vision of female adolescence," and praised Allen Moyle's direction, commenting "New Waterford may be a one-street town, but the Nova Scotia coast has a rough, romantic beauty, and the closer Mooney comes to getting out, the more she feels the pull of the place. Moyle shows us Nova Scotia through Mooney’s eyes—a gray sky softly edged with pink at sunset, a brilliantly blue wooden house." [6]
In 2001, an industry poll conducted by Playback named it the seventh best Canadian film of the preceding 15 years. [7]
Marion Bridge is a 2002 Canadian drama film directed by Wiebke von Carolsfeld. The film won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. Based on a dramatic play by Daniel MacIvor, the film is notable for being Elliot Page's first performance in a feature film.
North Sydney is a former town and current community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
Margaret's Museum is a 1995 Canadian-British drama film directed by Mort Ransen and based on Sheldon Currie's novel The Glace Bay Miners' Museum. It stars Helena Bonham Carter, Clive Russell, and Kate Nelligan. The film won six Genie Awards, including acting awards for Bonham Carter and Nelligan.
Times Square is a 1980 American drama film directed by Allan Moyle and starring Trini Alvarado and Robin Johnson as teenage runaways from opposite sides of the tracks and Tim Curry as a radio DJ. The film is set in New York City. The plot embodies a punk rock ethic of misunderstood youth articulating their frustrations toward adult authority through music.
For Love or Money is a 1993 American romantic comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Michael J. Fox and Gabrielle Anwar.
New Waterford is an urban community in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Shauna MacDonald is a Canadian television and film actress, director, producer, writer, voice actor, and radio announcer. She became known for her role as the national continuity announcer for CBC Radio One.
Davis Day, also known as Miners' Memorial Day is an annual day of remembrance observed on June 11 in coal mining communities in Nova Scotia, Canada to recognize all miners killed in the province's coal mines.
Allan Moyle is a Canadian film director. He is best known for directing the films Pump Up the Volume (1990) and Empire Records (1995).
Liane Balaban is a Canadian actress. Her film debut was in New Waterford Girl (1999) as Agnes-Marie "Mooney" Pottie. She has since appeared in the films Definitely, Maybe (2008), Last Chance Harvey (2008), and the independent drama One Week (2008). She has guest-starred on the television series NCIS: Los Angeles, Covert Affairs and Alphas, and joined the cast of Supernatural for its eighth season.
Spliced is a 2002 Canadian supernatural slasher film directed by Gavin Wilding and starring Ron Silver, Liane Balaban and Drew Lachey. The film was released on December 1, 2002, in Canada.
Helen MacDonald is a Canadian politician. She represented the electoral district of Cape Breton The Lakes in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1997 to 1999. She was a member of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party.
One Week is a 2008 Canadian drama film written and directed by Michael McGowan and starring Joshua Jackson, Liane Balaban, and Campbell Scott. The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2008, and was released theatrically in Canada by Mongrel Media on March 6, 2009.
Pit Pony is a 1999 CBC television series which tells the story of small-town life in Glace Bay, on the island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1904. The plot line revolves around the lives of the families of the men and boys who work in the coal mines.
World Traveler is a 2001 Canadian-American drama film written and directed by Bart Freundlich, and starring Billy Crudup and Julianne Moore. It was screened at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival.
Frankie MacDonald is a Canadian amateur meteorologist from the Whitney Pier area of Sydney, Nova Scotia. MacDonald, who has autism, is known for his boisterous online weather forecasts. Frankie records meteorologist reports which he then posts to his YouTube channel, under the handle of dogsandwolves.
Faces Places is a 2017 French documentary film directed by Agnès Varda and JR. It follows the pair as they travel around rural France creating portraits of the people they meet. The film was screened out of competition at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the L'Œil d'or award, and released on 28 June 2017 in France, and on 6 October 2017 in the United States. At the 90th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature.
Major Margaret Clothilde MacDonald, was a Canadian military nurse, serving in the Second Boer War and the First World War. MacDonald held the title of Matron-in-Chief of the Canadian Army Medical Corps Nursing Service, the first woman promoted to the rank of major in the British Empire and was awarded the Royal Red Cross (1916) and the Florence Nightingale Medal (1918).
You Can Live Forever is a 2022 Canadian romantic drama film, written and directed by Sarah Watts and Mark Slutsky. Set in the 1990s, the film stars Anwen O'Driscoll as Jaime, a teenager who is sent to live with her aunt Beth after her father's death; Beth is married to Jean-François, a devoutly religious Jehovah's Witness who aspires to be a leader of his congregation. Jaime soon develops a romantic relationship with Marike, another young woman in the Jehovah's Witness community.
Mass for Shut-Ins is a Canadian drama film, directed by Winston DeGiobbi and released in 2017. The film stars Charles William McKenzie as Kay Jay, an aimless slacker living with his grandfather Loppers in New Waterford, Nova Scotia and navigating his fraught relationship with his delinquent older brother September.