Growing Op

Story aside, writer/director Michael Melski has put together a strong cast that also includes Alberta Watson and Daniel MacIvor. Her performance is energetic and funny in all the right places. Too bad the characters don't always have enough to do. ... Full Review

The plausibility of the high school scenes is impaired by the fact....Katie Boland's lively performance as Quinn's snarky sister and the soundtrack contributions by various East Coast indie rockers (Sloan's Andrew Scott also co-wrote the score) help to hurry the movie along..... ... Full Review

Growing Op is a poignant comedy about a teenage boy coming of age in a suburban grow-operation, where every day is paradise or fresh hell. ... Full Review

Getting plants back hard challenge, says Melski It was great to shoot in Moncton, with its supportive atmosphere, Melski said. We had a drug-free set because we knew the RCMP would probably come by to explore our set and the RCMP did come by in Moncton, but they were so excited by the movie-making process they just wanted to be in the movie. ... Full Review

Growing Op is a well-acted piece with enough charm and humour to make it an enjoyable viewing but writer/director Melski should have decided if he was making a comedy or a drama and balanced the script appropriately. It's kind of ridiculous but the affable quirkiness of Rosanna Arquette and Wallace Langham as Quinn's parents makes the lack of reality easier to swallow. ... Full Review

The Canuck writer-director joins Douglas Coupland (Everything's Gone Green), Seth Rogen (Pineapple Express), Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) and the screenwriters for Weeds and Horton Hears a Who? -- who made the villainess a kangaroo who home-schools her roos -- as... ... Full Article

"The one thing that we are so excited about this year is the fact that we're presenting five dramatic first features from the region, which is almost unheard of I don't think we've ever had a year with that many... ... Full Article

By Robert Bell Unable to escape its Canadian production trappings, with an over-lit television aesthetic and bland direction, Growing Op is amusing, if flawed, falling somewhere in between a theatrical release and straight-to-DVD, quality-wise, and is likely to find its... ... Full Article