Bernard White, left, and Saamer Usmani, right, in a scene from Shook.Peter Hadfield/Elevation Pictures
Shook
Directed by Amar Wala
Written by Amar Wala and Adnan Khan
Starring Saamer Usmani, Bernard White and Shomari Downer
Classification 14A; 113 minutes
Opens in theatres Aug. 8
Critic’s Pick
Maybe you noticed the Scarborough renaissance over the past few years. I’m referring to the wave of Canadian films centring on Toronto’s east-end suburb that for too long has been ignored on our screens. Scarborough is the immigrant hub where all the diversity the city – and the country – tends to boast about actually lives, represented recently in films like Wexford Plaza, Scarborough, Brother and, most recently, Morningside.
Shook, Amar Wala’s intimate, affectionate and surprisingly funny character study, drawn from personal experience, is the latest evolution in this trend (if we can call it that). It’s also a sign that the Scarborough movie is maturing – with a growing nuance and self-consciousness in how it proudly wears its identity, like any love letter to a city, while also being wary of how that can be received.
The film’s lead Ashish (Saamer Usmani), who goes by Ash, is an aspiring writer stuck in a rut. In a meeting with a publisher early in the movie, he draws connections between where he (alongside popstar The Weeknd) grew up and other underserved locales like East L.A., East Vancouver and East Oakland.
“The east is reserved for a certain few of us,” Ashish says, in a bid to sell literature from Scarborough as both poignant and broadly appealing. “The ends are hot right now,” is the pandering assurance he gets from just another fixture from an industry that can be both predatory and superficial when dealing with marginalized voices.
Wala likely shares in his spiritual onscreen doppelganger’s frustrations. He’s also more successful at absorbing his hyper-local considerations into something that’s not only remarkably universal, but also accessible and entertaining – hell, this movie has sex and comedy, with a recurring bit about baristas spelling out South Asian names on takeout coffee cups that’s legit hilarious.
To put it simply, Shook is a coming-of-age story. Sure, Ashish is in his 20s. But in this economy, with housing prices being what they are and young adults having a harder time leaving the nest, development tends to be delayed. For Ashish, who spends his days staring at a blank screen in coffee shops or grabbing Hakka with his boys, success and adulting are as seemingly out of reach as the Toronto skyline, which he looks at forlornly from his mom’s Scarborough balcony.
Ashish is also having a hard time processing his parents’ separation. He refuses to speak to his father (Bernard White, charming), whose infidelity caused the break. But, in ways that lean toxic and backward, Ashish also harbours some irrational resentment toward his mom (Pamela Mala Sinha, captivating).
That tension is further complicated when his father is diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and the family needs to learn how to adjust to yet another obstacle thrown in their path.
Wala handles it all delicately and confidently, balancing the heaviness with comforting doses of warmth and humour – walking a fine line between a drama about hardships and regrets, and a rom-com.
There are gags here that can be earnest, but they work wonderfully because the stellar cast can sell them. That’s especially true of Usmani – whose handsome leading man looks are led by a rock-hard jawline but betrayed by an immature grin – and Amy Forsyth as Claire, the girl who can see through all the tropes Ashish dishes out, and romances him anyways.
Their chemistry is infectious throughout, as Ashish attempts to impress Claire by taking her out to lounges that rank high on a BlogTO listicle, or partying in the city with her before he races to catch the last subway train back to Scarborough.
There’s also a rich tension in their relationship, stemming mostly from Ashish’s unspoken hang-ups. He has a way of alienating himself, as if self-imposing the isolation he feels because he’s a brown guy from Scarborough.
Claire is an outsider, too. The character moved to Toronto from Victoria. But she’s feeling far more comfortable owning whatever space she inhabits, enjoying a social mobility that Ashish quietly envies and aspires to, and maybe even harbours a bit of contempt for.
As cliché as the sentiment might be, Shook is a love letter to the city, an unreservedly charming one at that. But things can get thorny and uneasy. That’s what makes it feel so Scarborough.
