I couldn’t imagine a better outcome for Asphalt Watches, which premiered in the Vanguard section at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film skips the “true patriot love,” and is instead likely to be the most honest portrayal of our country I’ve ever seen committed to fiction.
Asphalt Watches is an autobiographical cartoon musical about a ghost and a skeleton, Actually, the film’s creators Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver, the ghost and the skeleton respectively, use the musical concept very loosely; it’s more of a hip-hop-heavy odyssey/oddity.
For all the bizarre, candy-coloured imagery and twisted, sometimes disturbing shifts in plot, Asphalt Watches makes for a pretty straightforward—and hilariously clever—road trip comedy.
Based on the film, it would seem that Ehman and Scriver didn’t do anything particularly interesting on their journey from Canada’s West to East in 2000. The sharpness of their debut feature comes from how they portray every character they met along the way to show us, well, Canada.
Yes, the film is mighty psychedelic, but never remarkably absurd when it comes to the exchanges. If you look at the movie’s various encounters as simple metaphors, you’ll come out of the film with a pretty strong idea of exactly what went down.
My guess is Ehman and Scriver spent much of their money on something, before the journey began. They met some pretty predictable albeit vaguely terrifying characters along the way. Five years later, they got to work on their cartoon, which spent eight years in production, and with the use of their artistic minds, refined their story to its most basic elements.
There’s what I consider to be a red-neck Prairies truck driver, a burnt out mother, and a washed-up, older gentleman in the mix. Ehman and Scriver strike hard and find gold in these souls, heightening the experience of Canada on film to unimaginable degrees.
Ehman and Scriver screened their film for York’s Canadian Cinema class this past week, and had some interesting things to say. The guys are certainly quirky, but they take their work seriously and suggest that Asphalt Watches may be the start of a career in film.
Asphalt Watches is a must-see for anyone who’s waited to see our nation’s liberal thinkers challenge the Canadian film mold. Ehman and Scriver aren’t afraid to show our nation’s dark side; they’re glorious and free.
Dustin Dyer
Contributor
