By Mathew Kumar

We wish we liked Monkey Warfare, we really do. There’s few films that we’ve seen that are more indelibly stained with Toronto than this, with enough shots of Parkdale it’s almost like going for a bike ride around it yourself. Also, Don McKellar! We love that guy!
He’s good in this too, as is Tracy Wright (previously excellent in the must-see You, Me, and Everyone We Know). We were less impressed with Nadia Litz, but we’ll get to that in a minute. It just all starts off so well, you see, with a security guard on fire, blazing loud rock music and an in your face credits sequence, then, suddenly, it withers.
Dan and Linda (McKellar and Wright) are scavengers with an unknown past, making a living turning other people’s crap into other people’s treasure on e-bay, while seeming to hate each other despite an inexorable and mysterious link. Their pot-dealer busted, Dan finds himself romantically inclined towards new dealer Susan (Litz), while Susan herself is revolutionarily inclined towards his collection of anarchist memorabilia…
The problem is that very little happens, despite an incredibly awesome and well picked soundtrack. Susan is played as too petulant and unknowing (seriously, this Torontoist is only 24 and he’d ostracise her for not knowing who the MC5 are) and this removes the conclusion of any sense of subtlety.
We didn’t stay until the end of the credits, so we missed the post credits sequence. Here’s the deal, though; Torontoist always stay right to the end of the credits of any movie they’ve enjoyed. I think that says it all. 2/5
Preceded by short film The Runner.