Ontario born Shawney Cohen began his film career as a digital effects artist for James Issac’s underwhelming Jason X. Slowly he received greater work with much more respected films and filmmakers; in 2003 Cohen was the CG supervisor for Alexander Witt’s Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and in 2007 he became the 3D animator for David Cronenberg’s critically acclaimed A History of Violence.  

Cohen’s directorial debut, The Manor, is an intimate documentary about Cohen’s odd Jewish family. They have owned a peculiar strip club/hotel in Guelph, Ontario since Shawney and his brother were born.  We follow their days of mediating fights between strippers, changing the bottles in the liquor room and making sure the club isn’t run into the ground. We also see real soul shattering characters that will make your stomach quench in despair.

Cohen’s film is shocking in its honesty, having many moments and characters that are almost too melancholy to sit through. For instance, Shawney’s father Roger is a 400 pound man who is absolutely unbearable. He has a foul mouth and always needs to say the last word. Shawney’s mother Brenda is the exact opposite of this; a frail Holocaust survivor with anorexia who gains most of the audience’s sympathy. The director makes it clear that the club is the cause of their problems.

While watching the film I was thinking; what is the point?  Is there any redemptive quality? Then I compared Cohen’s family to my own and realized that maybe my family isn’t that terrible after all. There is great healing power in Cohen’s film because while your family may seem insufferable, they aren’t as bad as this family. What starts out as depressing eventually becomes inspiring.

Check winnipegcinematheque.com for listings.

Visit pissonit.blogspot.ca for more reviews from Michael Carlisle.

Published in Volume 68, Number 2 of The Uniter (September 11, 2013)