Music

Watch Hey Happy tonight on AUX TV at 9PM ET

by Allan Tong

Watch Hey Happy tonight at 9:00 pm.

I say this with all due respect: Winnipeg is the Canadian capital of weird cinema.

There must be something in the water to produce the likes of Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World) and this 2001 film, directed by Noam Gonick. In critical cinematic terms, Hey Happy is a mess that strong drugs couldn’t fix (there are drug references galore here). This hallucinatory gay fantasy is shot in a hazy psychedelic swirl that immediately tells you that this ain’t no ordinary Prairie film.

Hey Happy’s protagonist, DJ Sabu, has a hyperactive libido and needs to sleep with 2,000 men. This storyline propels an over-the-top, campy romp that is bathed in early John Waters, and populated by drag queens, ravers and stoners. Expect gross-outs like dildo rape and intestine eating.

True, you’re not supposed to take Hey Happy seriously, and there is some fun to be found in its playful, anarchic style, but after watching this film, I still don’t know what to make of it.

This isn’t a movie review. It’s a warning.

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