Wexford Plaza

Wexford Plaza
Directed byJoyce Wong
Written byJoyce Wong
Produced byHarry Cherniak
Matt Greyson
Joyce Wong
StarringReid Asselstine
Darrel Gamotin
CinematographyMaya Bankovic
Edited byDarby MacInnis
Distributed bylevelFILM
Release date
  • November 23, 2016 (2016-11-23) (Torino)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Wexford Plaza is a 2016 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Joyce Wong and starring Reid Asselstine and Darrel Gamotin.[1]

The film centres on Betty (Reid Asselstine), a lonely young woman who takes a job as a security guard at a strip mall in the Scarborough area of Toronto, and becomes attached to Danny (Darrel Gamotin), a bartender in the mall.[2] Midway through, however, the film shifts to Danny's perspective, retelling the building of their relationship from his side.[3]

The cast also includes Francis Melling, Ellie Posadas, Mirko Miljevic, Mitchell Jaramillo and Ann Paula Bautista.

Although the mall in the film is similarly named to Toronto's real-life Wexford Heights Plaza, the film was actually shot at a closed strip mall in North York.[4]

The film premiered at the Torino Film Festival in 2016,[5] and screened at several film festivals throughout 2017 before having its commercial premiere in Canada in November 2017. The Toronto Film Critics Association named the film as a finalist for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2017.[6] It was a finalist for the John Dunning Discovery Award at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards. It won the Best Narrative Feature award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival 2017.[7]

  1. ^ "A near-miracle of writing, Wexford Plaza breathes life into a Scarborough strip mall". National Post, December 1, 2017.
  2. ^ "Review: Joyce Wong’s promising Wexford Plaza is subtle, clever and sobering". The Globe and Mail, November 30, 2017.
  3. ^ "Shifting perspective, clever writing and direction drive 'Wexford Plaza'". Los Angeles Times, October 26, 2017.
  4. ^ "Big screen glamour touches Scarborough strip mall". Toronto Star, November 24, 2017.
  5. ^ "TUTTI I SEGRETI DELLE RAGAZZE". La Repubblica, November 23, 2016.
  6. ^ "The Florida Project named Best Picture by Toronto Film Critics Association". Toronto Star, December 10, 2017.
  7. ^ "SDAFF Award Winners | Pacific Arts Movement". pacarts.org. Retrieved 2018-04-27.