BARRY HERTZ
Firecrackers starts off with a burst of violence, and although there’s little blood in this micro-budget Canadian drama, the film is fuelled by delirious fury and often blinding rage. Its story is simple, following the increasingly desperate young friends Lou (Michaela Kurimsky) and Chantal (Karena Evans) as they try to escape the confines of their small, unnamed Ontario town. Their rural dot of a hometown is populated mostly by indifferent authority figures and men who want everything but offer nothing, or worse. As Lou takes a more forceful approach to independence and Chantal eases into a state of complacency, writer-director Jasmin Mozaffari paints a devastating portrait of young women stuck at a crossroads, where neither direction is particularly hopeful. Inspired by filmmakers as disparate as Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay and fellow Canadian Ashley McKenzie – but never stooping to imitating them – Mozaffari delivers a supernaturally confident feature debut. Firecrackers is not nearly as casually joyful as its title suggests, but it is absolutely as incendiary.