Uh, what city was this filmed in?

From time to time there are certain things that preoccupy me about a movie. It may have nothing to do with the plot or characters. Indeed, that was the case with the new film by Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli, screened this week by the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF), Dream Scenario. Sure, the plot was intriguing and fantastical, about a man who starts showing up in hundreds – nay, multitudes – of people’s dreams. Poor bearded Paul Matthews (Nick Cage), mild mannered biology professor at some obscure college named Osler. Learned, middle class and envious of colleagues’ professional achievements, Cage finds fame in today’s world of social media-like influencers, by benignly making guest appearances in an ‘I‘ll see you in my dreams’ sort of way. The film did and didn’t work for me. Quirky and interesting, yes. But pedestrian and predictable too. But, say what you will, what I’m really trying to get at here is that, watching it, I wanted more than anything to know where the movie was made. There were certain background or atmospheric scenes that raised the question. Obviously, it was set in the autumn but with astonishing maple tree colors, so it has to be in the North American Northeast. Massachusetts, Vermont? I thought I spotted a Massachusetts license plate. But there was something different about the streetscapes. They didn’t especially look “American.” Nor the houses. Where had I spotted streets like this before? But the greater giveaway was in the institutional college settings' emergency exit signs showing the international green running figure, which Canada adopted a few years ago. Even the house that the Matthews family lived in had a “Montreal or Toronto” look. And those deep leafy streets and vivid fall colors? Even the college’s name was a giveaway “Osler,” a TO institutional name if ever there was one. Sure enough, the movie was shot in The Big Smoke.

I re-subscribed to Netflix this summer, opting for the cheapest ad-based plan at only $6.77 (Cdn) a month. And what I got hooked on, for the first time, were binge-watching TV series, like Maestro in Blue (from Greece), The Tailor (Turkey), Catastrophe (UK) and Love and Anarchy (Sweden). While I watched a few movies – among them Despite Everything, Le Weekend and Fair Play - more numerous were all the ones I discarded as utterly unwatchable – slow-paced, derivative, cliched, losing the plot. Here they are: Do Not Disturb, Side Effects, The Age of Adaline, Forgotten Love, NYAD, Capitani, Rebecca, Crazy Stupid Love, Manifest, Transatlantic, Florida Man, Love is in the Air, Bodies, Sleeping Dog, Marcella, Love….Glad I’m only paying $6.77 a month!