FUNKYTOWN - REVIEW

Won't you take me to... "Funkytown" ...that was exactly where I wasn't headed for today. I was actually on my way to review another film and fortunately for moi, as fate would have it, I ended up being invited to FUNKYTOWN. What a pleasant surprise! I had no idea what to expect of this movie, I only knew that the music would probably be really good. I LOVE 70's disco! Filmed in Montreal, I was in heaven already. Set in the 70's - BONUS!

Based on true stories, this movie takes you back 4 decades to a Montreal that most of us would recognize in a "New York" or should I say, in a "Montreal" second. The discos, the dancing, punk rockers, beautiful people at "Hotel de la Montagne's" pool, fast girls, fast cars, Quebec politics, the sexual revolution, closet busting, and the complete decadence of it all.

A time when the "Limelight Disco" (renamed the "Starlight" in the movie) ruled, was the place to be and you had to line up for hours to get in - unless you knew someone... This club attracted stars such as Elton John, Gloria Gaynor and more. A place that was so "Avant Garde" that it had three floors of different dance action including an entire floor dedicated our gay disco dancing population. The "Limelight" was the forefather of it's time and the beginning of great things to come. It was here, in Montreal, 4 years before New York's "Studio 54" opened, that Montreal made it's mark.

What made "Funkytown" so fascinating is that there were so many stories intertwined and all of them, engaging and laden with character. There was not one dull moment, not one.

Patrick Huard plays Bastien, a disco dance show host who collapses from being consumed with the debauchery of the era. He carries the movie with tremoundous strength.

Justin Chatwin plays the part of Tino, a young restaurant owner and disco dancing Italian, confused (as we Montrealers say) in his own skin.

All of the acting is superb and all the characters rich. This movie is in "Franglais" so if you are a true Montrealer, you will understand. It is totally a Montreal, Quebec movie.

Opens this Friday, 28th January, 2011 - In a theatre near you.

Click on the link below to see the trailer.
http://remstarfilms.com/en/catalog/funkytown/videos/74/en/