White Lie (film)

Last updated
White Lie
White Lie Poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Yonah Lewis
Calvin Thomas
Written byYonah Lewis
Calvin Thomas
Produced by Karen Harnisch
Yonah Lewis
Calvin Thomas
Katie Bird Nolan
Lindsay Tapscott
Starring Kacey Rohl
Amber Anderson
Martin Donovan
Connor Jessup
Cinematography Christopher Lew
Edited byLev Lewis
Music byLev Lewis
Production
companies
Film Forge Productions
Lisa Pictures
Babe Nation Films
Distributed bylevelFILM (Canada)
Release date
  • September 7, 2019 (2019-09-07)(TIFF)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

White Lie is a 2019 Canadian drama film written and directed by Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas. The film stars Kacey Rohl as Katie Arneson, a university student who fakes a cancer diagnosis for the attention and financial gain, but gets caught up in having to maintain her lie.

Contents

It premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, [1] and had its international premiere at the 24th Busan International Film Festival. [2]

Plot

College student Katie Arneson has been faking a cancer diagnosis for ten months. She pops placebos, shaves her head and starves herself to appear more sickly to those watching. A minor celebrity on campus, Katie uses her fraudulent disease for both emotional and financial gain, raising money through crowdfunding campaigns, while collecting friends, supporters and an unsuspecting girlfriend, Jennifer Ellis.

Katie learns a university bursary she has been counting on is in jeopardy unless she can provide medical records of her illness by the end of the week. She enlists the help of a medical resident to forge the documents, but she struggles to produce the $2,000 he demands without raising suspicion. Desperate, Katie visits her estranged father and asks for the money, telling him that she will use it to visit a clinic for special treatment. However, her father sees through the lie; he refuses to give her the money and accuses her of lying about the cancer. It is revealed that in high school Katie also faked an illness before eventually being exposed. Her father pleads with her to come clean publicly, but she refuses, maintaining the lie.

With nowhere else to turn, Katie asks Jennifer, whose family is wealthy, and Jennifer agrees immediately to provide the money. That night, Katie searches Jennifer's phone and discovers that her father has called Jennifer, intending to reveal her lies. Katie deletes the message and blocks her father from Jennifer's phone.

Katie obtains and submits the falsified medical documents to the university; relieved, she visits Jennifer's family. However, during the visit she discovers that her father has written a tell-all post on Facebook, exposing her lies. Katie visits a friend whose mother is a lawyer. She hopes to sue her father to take the post down, but as the conversation progresses and Katie tacitly admits that she is faking the illness, she learns that if she is shown to be lying, she will face jail time for defrauding the public through her fundraising schemes.

In a frantic effort to contest the accusations, Katie descends into a spiral of misguided decisions that further entrench her deceit. With support from her community quickly fading, and determined to salvage her relationship with Jennifer, Katie overlooks an opportunity to come clean, and instead continues to betray and manipulate her devoted partner. Convinced yet again of Katie's lie, Jennifer accompanies her girlfriend to a radio program where Katie will attempt to regain the public's confidence. As they wait in the hall, Jennifer insists that she be with Katie at all her future medical and chemotherapy appointments. In response, Katie asks Jennifer to marry her, saying that if they are married "I won't lie, I won't be sick anymore." Katie is called to the studio, leaving a stunned Jennifer in the hall. Jennifer begins to cry, then stands.

Cast

Production

Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas began developing a film about a woman faking cancer for personal gain in 2012. "For the first time, we had a story based upon a character and not the other way around. We always envisioned it as a fast-paced procedural rather than a drama," they explained in an interview with Playback. [3] Lewis and Thomas spent several years considering possible narrative structures for the film, including the "rise and fall" of standard biopics. The first draft was written in 2015 and compressed the story into a five-day timeline. "We had to find a balance of not telling too much and telling just enough that you have enough insight into what happened over the past couple months of her life," said Thomas. [4] Films from the Romanian New Wave, including 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), influenced the plotting. [5]

The duo worked again with producer Karen Harnisch, who had recently brought the Canadian independent film Sleeping Giant (2015) to the Cannes Film Festival, and was able to help them secure a larger budget. “It was an aspiration for all of us to create a really polished film that graduated us from the mumblecore-y microbudget world,” Harnisch told The Globe and Mail . [6]

The film was shot in Toronto and Hamilton under the working title Baldy. [7] Principal photography began on November 14, 2018 and was completed one month later on December 14. [8]

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 24 reviews, and an average rating of 8.3/10. [9] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [10]

The Globe and Mail's Carly Lewis awarded the film four out of four stars and described it as "an incredible feat of showcasing the complicated scramble that is being alive." Adding that White Lie "unfurls to become an unexpected empathy inquest." [11] NOW Magazine's Norman Wilner called the film "a character piece that plays like a thriller." [12]

Calum Marsh praised the film's direction in a piece for Maclean's on the best Canadian films at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, writing "The directors calibrate the tension perfectly, and without moralizing indict an age in which, thanks to the internet and social media, the line between public and private lives has blurred, and we are all trying our best to keep up appearances." [13] The Hollywood Reporter's Stephen Dalton echoed the sentiment, stating, "Driven by nuanced, persuasive performances and shot with an urgent, jittery tension, White Lie is a compelling close-up character study of a recklessly needy anti-heroine caught in an impossible dilemma of her own making." [14]

Awards

In December 2019, the film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list. [15]

AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipient(s) and nominee(s)ResultRef(s)
Vancouver Film Critics Circle January 6, 2020 Best Screenplay for a Canadian Film Yonah Lewis, Calvin Thomas Won [16] [17]
Best Actress in a Canadian Film Kacey Rohl Nominated
Best Supporting Actress in a Canadian Film Amber Anderson Won
Miami Film Festival March 23, 2020Rene Rodriguez Critics AwardYonah Lewis, Calvin ThomasWon [18]
Canadian Screen Awards May 28, 2020 Best Motion Picture Karen Harnisch, Yonah Lewis, Calvin Thomas, Katie Bird Nolan, Lindsay TapscottNominated [19]
Best Director Yonah Lewis, Calvin ThomasNominated
Best Actress Kacey RohlNominated
Best Original Screenplay Yonah Lewis, Calvin ThomasNominated
Philadelphia Film Festival November 3, 2020Honorable Mention for PerformanceKacey RohlWon [20]
Toronto Film Critics Association March 9, 2021 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award Yonah Lewis, Calvin ThomasRunner-up [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto International Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in Toronto, Canada

The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, founded in 1976 and taking place each September. It is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Lightbox cultural centre, located in Downtown Toronto.

<i>The Oxbow Cure</i> 2013 Canadian film

The Oxbow Cure is a 2013 Canadian independent film directed by Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas. It stars writer Claudia Dey as Lena, a woman who moves away from the city to a remote cottage in an attempt to heal herself and escape from her past.

The Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film is an annual juried film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to a film judged to be the best Canadian feature film.

<i>Firecrackers</i> (film) 2018 Canadian film

Firecrackers is a 2018 Canadian drama film written and directed by Jasmin Mozaffari. An expansion of Mozaffari's 2013 short film of the same name, the film stars Michaela Kurimsky and Karena Evans as two teenage girls trying to escape their small town.

<i>Spice It Up</i> 2018 Canadian film

Spice It Up is a 2018 Canadian independent film directed by Lev Lewis, Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas. It stars Jennifer Hardy CK as a young film student attempting to finish her thesis project. The film-within-the-film tells the story of a group of teenage girls who fail high school and enlist in the army.

Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival and announced in December each year to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films. The list was first introduced in 2001 as an initiative to help publicize Canadian films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Toronto International Film Festival</span> 44th edition of the festival

The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019. The opening gala was the documentary film Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, directed by Daniel Roher, and the festival closed with a screening of the biographical film Radioactive, directed by Marjane Satrapi.

Jasmin Mozaffari is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. She won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019 for her debut feature film Firecrackers.

<i>Antigone</i> (2019 film) 2019 film

Antigone is a 2019 Canadian drama film directed by Sophie Deraspe. An adaptation of the ancient Greek play Antigone by Sophocles, the film transposes the story to a modern-day refugee family in Montreal. The cast includes Nahéma Ricci as Antigone, with Rawad El-Zein, Hakim Brahimi, Rachida Oussaada, and Nour Belkhiria. It was filmed in Greater Montreal in 2018.

<i>The Twentieth Century</i> (film) 2019 Canadian drama film

The Twentieth Century is a 2019 Canadian surrealist black comedy written and directed by Matthew Rankin in his full-length directorial debut. The film presents a fictionalized portrait of the rise to power of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King as played by Dan Beirne. It won three Canadian Screen Awards.

<i>Anne at 13,000 Ft.</i> 2019 Canadian film

Anne at 13,000 Ft. is a 2019 Canadian drama film. Directed and written by Kazik Radwanski, the film stars Deragh Campbell as Anne, a shy, socially awkward daycare worker whose attitude to her life and work is radically transformed after she skydives for the first time. It premiered in the Platform Prize program at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, and received an honourable mention from the Platform Prize jury. In December 2019, the film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list. After premiering on the festival circuit in 2019, the film's 2020 theatrical release was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

<i>Black Conflux</i> 2019 Canadian drama film

Black Conflux is a 2019 Canadian drama film written and directed by Nicole Dorsey in her feature directorial debut. Starring Ella Ballentine, Ryan McDonald, Luke Bilyk, Olivia Scriven, Sofia Banzhaf, and Lawrence Barry, the film follows a teenage girl from Newfoundland and Labrador whose quest for independence leads her into the orbit of a mentally unstable and potentially violent man in his twenties.

Yonah Lewis is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, who collaborates on most of his work with Calvin Thomas. The duo are most noted for their 2019 film White Lie, which was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Motion Picture, and garnered the duo nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards.

Calvin Thomas is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, who collaborates on most of his work with Yonah Lewis. The duo are most noted for their 2019 film White Lie, which was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Motion Picture, and garnered the duo nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophy Romvari</span> Canadian actress and director

Sophy Romvari is a Canadian film director, writer, and actress. She attracted widespread acclaim for her short film Still Processing (2020). The film premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival and was later released online by Mubi. A collection of Romvari's short films, including Still Processing, were subsequently released by The Criterion Collection on their streaming platform in 2022.

<i>Beans</i> (2020 film) 2020 film by Tracey Deer

Beans is a 2020 Canadian drama film directed by Mohawk-Canadian filmmaker Tracey Deer. It explores the 1990 Oka Crisis at Kanesatake, which Deer lived through as a child, through the eyes of Tekehentahkhwa, a young Mohawk girl whose perspective on life is radically changed by these events.

Thomas Antony Olajide, sometimes also credited as Thomas Olajide, is a Canadian actor and writer from Vancouver, British Columbia. He is most noted for his performance in the 2021 film Learn to Swim, for which he received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actor at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022, and as co-creator with Tawiah M'carthy and Stephen Jackman-Torkoff of Black Boys, a theatrical show about Black Canadian LGBTQ+ identities which was staged by Buddies in Bad Times in 2016. Olajide, M'carthy, and Jackman-Torkoff were collectively nominated for Outstanding Ensemble Performance at the Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2017.

Lina Rodriguez is a Colombian-Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter, most noted for her 2022 documentary film My Two Voices .

Karen Harnisch is a Canadian film and television producer, who is a partner with Andrew Cividino in the production company Film Forge.

References

  1. ↑ Hertz, Barry (July 31, 2019). "TIFF 2019: Toronto festival's Canadian lineup a mix of familiar faces, exciting rookies and a starring role for David Cronenberg". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  2. ↑ "White Lie Program Note". Busan International Film Festival . Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  3. ↑ Malyk, Lauren (February 26, 2020). "CSA best film race: How the young pretenders became the contenders". Playback . Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  4. ↑ Benardello, Karen (September 18, 2019). "Toronto International Film Festival 2019 Interview: Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas Talk White Lie". Shock Ya!. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  5. ↑ "How a "White Lie" Can Get You Ahead". First Weekend Club. March 9, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  6. ↑ Lewis, Carly (September 6, 2019). "TIFF 2019: White Lie producer Karen Harnisch on channelling her emotions into film". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  7. ↑ Malyk, Lauren (November 20, 2018). "Spice It Up duo bring cautionary cancer tale to camera". Playback . Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ IMDb Filming & Production
  9. ↑ "White Lie (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  10. ↑ "White Lie Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  11. ↑ Lewis, Carly (September 7, 2019). "The Globe's guide to TIFF 2019 movies". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  12. ↑ Wilner, Norman (August 27, 2019). "TIFF review: White Lie". NOW Magazine . Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  13. ↑ Marsh, Callum (September 13, 2019). "6 of the best Canadian films at the Toronto International Film Festival". Maclean's . Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  14. ↑ Dalton, Stephen (September 9, 2019). "'White Lie': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  15. ↑ Wilner, Norman (December 11, 2019). "TIFF announces Canada's top 10 films of 2019". NOW Magazine . Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  16. ↑ Mack, Adrian (December 13, 2019). "Marriage Story dominates Vancouver Film Critics Circle noms". The Georgia Straight . Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  17. ↑ "Vancouver film critics award 'The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open'". Tri-City News. January 7, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  18. ↑ Feinberg, Scott (March 23, 2020). "Miami Film Fest Unveils Winners Through Virtual Judging Process". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  19. ↑ "Canadian Academy Announces 2020 Nominations". Northern Stars. February 18, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Philadelphia Film Festival winners". The Philadelphia Tribune . March 23, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  21. ↑ Wilner, Norman (March 10, 2021). "Toronto critics name Anne At 13,000 Ft. the year's best Canadian film". NOW Magazine . Retrieved March 12, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.