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waydowntown
Mar. 1st, 2026 08:30 amBoy, my Evernote movie folder is dusty! I forgot to LJ this. Originally, I was going to post the trailer, but someone uploaded the whole movie to YouTube.
February 10, 2025
We did something fun yesterday and went downtown for a free screening of a Calgary-made indie film called waydowntown, directed by a local filmmaker, Gary Burns. I'd watched his other movies, such as Kitchen Party and Radiant City, but somehow waydowntown always escaped me. I always thought it was a movie about people living in Calgary's Plus 15 skywalk system, which is similar to the Minneapolis covered walkway system.
Instead, it's more about office culture, which the late 90s loved skewering. It's a little bit Fight Club, little bit Office Space, a little bit this and a little bit that, and it all seems to come together and works really well. It's basically about four co-workers who work in a downtown office building.
Although Calgary is never explicitly identified as the city, the narrator, Tom, says the co-workers all live in apartments that connect to this building or to the Plus 15, which wasn't which wasn't quite true at the time. Some of the humor is a little juvenile, and I would have been so in love with this movie if I watched it when it was released. In some ways it is amazing--it was shot for $750k using local talent and was filmed a bit on the fly in some areas where they didn't have permission to film. This results in a neat voyeuristic effect, and it was a total trip down memory lane--the old skylines, old buildings, old colours, lots of warm tones, and pink granite. The movie is also Caucasian as heck (Calgary has been a top three destination for New Canadians for some time). There are things I'd forgotten, like how magazines used to have perfume ad inserts in them. One of the odd things that emerges is that a lack of fresh air causes the main characters to fatigue. The color grading in the film was a little hard to watch as it was very blue and orange, which was kind of the style at the time. Instead of looking beautiful or healthy, all the characters take on this sickly look that perhaps reflects their inner turmoil and anxiety.
The film's title actually takes its name from the idea of going "way downtown", which is to eject yourself from a building. The film is a critique so many things--interpersonal relationships, the built environment, corporate culture, etc. At the after-show panel, Gary Burns said he actually never worked in an office, but knew enough about it to make it feel authentic (TBH it's quite a broke ass office). It was quite a treat to spend time with a very engaged audience that wanted to see the film and ask urbanism questions. The audience could have stayed there asking questions all day! Bonus--we also saw our friend Lone Howler and Mom, so we sat with them and caught up!
February 10, 2025
We did something fun yesterday and went downtown for a free screening of a Calgary-made indie film called waydowntown, directed by a local filmmaker, Gary Burns. I'd watched his other movies, such as Kitchen Party and Radiant City, but somehow waydowntown always escaped me. I always thought it was a movie about people living in Calgary's Plus 15 skywalk system, which is similar to the Minneapolis covered walkway system.
Instead, it's more about office culture, which the late 90s loved skewering. It's a little bit Fight Club, little bit Office Space, a little bit this and a little bit that, and it all seems to come together and works really well. It's basically about four co-workers who work in a downtown office building.
Although Calgary is never explicitly identified as the city, the narrator, Tom, says the co-workers all live in apartments that connect to this building or to the Plus 15, which wasn't which wasn't quite true at the time. Some of the humor is a little juvenile, and I would have been so in love with this movie if I watched it when it was released. In some ways it is amazing--it was shot for $750k using local talent and was filmed a bit on the fly in some areas where they didn't have permission to film. This results in a neat voyeuristic effect, and it was a total trip down memory lane--the old skylines, old buildings, old colours, lots of warm tones, and pink granite. The movie is also Caucasian as heck (Calgary has been a top three destination for New Canadians for some time). There are things I'd forgotten, like how magazines used to have perfume ad inserts in them. One of the odd things that emerges is that a lack of fresh air causes the main characters to fatigue. The color grading in the film was a little hard to watch as it was very blue and orange, which was kind of the style at the time. Instead of looking beautiful or healthy, all the characters take on this sickly look that perhaps reflects their inner turmoil and anxiety.
The film's title actually takes its name from the idea of going "way downtown", which is to eject yourself from a building. The film is a critique so many things--interpersonal relationships, the built environment, corporate culture, etc. At the after-show panel, Gary Burns said he actually never worked in an office, but knew enough about it to make it feel authentic (TBH it's quite a broke ass office). It was quite a treat to spend time with a very engaged audience that wanted to see the film and ask urbanism questions. The audience could have stayed there asking questions all day! Bonus--we also saw our friend Lone Howler and Mom, so we sat with them and caught up!
