By transposing Hurricane Fuck You Tabarnak!his cult short film from 2013, in feature film, Ara Ball (Love digs a hole for itself) risked watering down his character as a young delinquent, who breaks down the fourth wall by shouting his revolt to the viewer, or making him even more detestable. However, with the collaboration of screenwriter Tania Duguay-Castilloux, the director preserved the essence of the Hurricane, for whom the short film served as a powerful presentation, by attempting to lead it on the path to redemption. Or, at least, to find balance in chaos. Slowly but surely, the abrasive 11-year-old boy arouses empathy, even affection, from the viewer.
Delphis Denis (amazing Justin Labelle) comes from a disadvantaged background. Expelled from school, rejected by children his age, he expresses his rage for life and his helplessness in the face of social injustice by doing the rounds in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district. At home, the situation worsens when her father (Patrice Dubois, strong) is sent to prison and her mother (Larissa Corriveau, heartbreaking), deemed unfit to take care of Delphis and her little brother.
Wanted by the police and the DPJ, Delphis changes his identity and becomes Hurricane. It is then that he attracts the attention of Ben (Nico Racicot, nuanced), a punk at the head of a group of young people to whom life has not been kind, which he hosts in a huge premises nicknamed Cave. The boy with an explosive character agrees, not without some reluctance, to join the clan.
Family drama with a social content carried by a scathing black humor, Hurricane FYT never descends into miserabilism despite the dramatic and tragic situations that Ara Ball depicts with a concern for realism. Inspired by Streetwise (1984), Martin Bell’s documentary filmed in Seattle about street youth, he never looks down on his characters. On the contrary, we sense in the filmmaker’s humanist outlook a tenderness and respect for the marginalized and those left behind.
Evoking Gummo (1997), by Harmony Korine, and Sweet Sixteen (2002), by Ken Loach, this drama set in 1991, however, suffers from a story that starts off with a bang then transforms into a series of anecdotal scenes of uneven interest. Fortunately, the direction by Ara Ball, who also did the editing, the music by Julien Mineau and the photography by Ian Lagarde give this story told in color and black and white a resolutely punk dimension which delights at every moment. To make it all better, Hurricane FYT is defended by a cast in tune and remarkable lightning passages (cameos), including those of Martin Dubreuil, Pascale Montpetit and Julie Le Breton.
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Drama
Hurricane FYT
Ara Ball
Justin Labelle, Larissa Corriveau, Nico Racicot
1h50