Wexford Plaza

Last updated
Wexford Plaza
Directed by Joyce Wong
Written byJoyce Wong
Produced byHarry Cherniak
Matt Greyson
Joyce Wong
StarringReid Asselstine
Darrel Gamotin
Cinematography Maya Bankovic
Edited byDarby MacInnis
Distributed bylevelFILM
Release date
  • November 23, 2016 (2016-11-23)(Torino)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Wexford Plaza is a 2016 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Joyce Wong and starring Reid Asselstine and Darrel Gamotin. [1]

The film centres on Betty (Reid Asselstine), a lonely young woman who takes a job as a security guard at a strip mall in the Scarborough area of Toronto, and becomes attached to Danny (Darrel Gamotin), a bartender in the mall. [2] Midway through, however, the film shifts to Danny's perspective, retelling the building of their relationship from his side. [3]

The cast also includes Francis Melling, Ellie Posadas, Mirko Miljevic, Mitchell Jaramillo and Ann Paula Bautista.

Although the mall in the film is similarly named to Toronto's real-life Wexford Heights Plaza, the film was actually shot at a closed strip mall in North York. [4]

The film premiered at the Torino Film Festival in 2016, [5] and screened at several film festivals throughout 2017 before having its commercial premiere in Canada in November 2017. The Toronto Film Critics Association named the film as a finalist for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2017. [6] It was a finalist for the John Dunning Discovery Award at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards. It won the Best Narrative Feature award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival 2017. [7]

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References

  1. "A near-miracle of writing, Wexford Plaza breathes life into a Scarborough strip mall". National Post , December 1, 2017.
  2. "Review: Joyce Wong’s promising Wexford Plaza is subtle, clever and sobering". The Globe and Mail , November 30, 2017.
  3. "Shifting perspective, clever writing and direction drive 'Wexford Plaza'". Los Angeles Times , October 26, 2017.
  4. "Big screen glamour touches Scarborough strip mall". Toronto Star , November 24, 2017.
  5. "TUTTI I SEGRETI DELLE RAGAZZE". La Repubblica , November 23, 2016.
  6. "The Florida Project named Best Picture by Toronto Film Critics Association". Toronto Star , December 10, 2017.
  7. "SDAFF Award Winners | Pacific Arts Movement". pacarts.org. Retrieved 2018-04-27.