Being Canadian (2015) User Reviews

Doc Has Some Humor & Interesting Factoids But Can Get Somewhat Repetitious

[larrys3 · 6/10 · 15 August 2016]

Comedy writer Robert Cohen, born in Calgary, Alberta directs this documentary which tries to delve into the Canadian psyche in various ways, including Cohen's perceptions of its love-hate relationship with the United States and the Canadian inferiority complex and apparent self-deprecation.

Cohen will try and put a humorous spin on those issues, as well as a number of others, as he travels by minivan across Canada, beginning in Nova Scotia and ending in Vancouver, British Columbia for Canada Day, some 9 days later. Along the way they'll be some interviews with various citizens in different milieus, as well as the perspectives of many famous Canadians, many of whom are household names.

As Cohen will come to learn, his original premise may have been rather faulty, and I can say that as an American, who's traveled to Canada a number of times, I've admired the Canadian lifestyle, and could easily see myself living there if circumstances warranted.

Note: there were no subtitles on my DVD copy and the sound quality could have been better.

Overall, I thought this film can be humorous and filled with interesting factoids about Canada.However, it can become repetitious, at times, perhaps with trying too hard to prove the premises of the filmmaker.

Could have been so much better

[maccas-56367 · 5/10 · 21 January 2019]

I had a love-hate relationship with this documentary, much like I did during the Canadian winters I experienced while living there.

As an Australian who lived there for almost 2 years, I often straddled that line between being 'tourist' and 'local' - many of the questions posed in this documentary were things I asked myself and Canadians during my time there!

It's basically a bunch of segments (questions) about Canadian culture and its identity, strung over a loose travelogue. Some segments were hilarious and a lot better than others - I was definitely laughing out loud, nodding my head in agreement and generally thought it captured Canadians quite well.

But the presenter, Robert Cohen really lacks charisma and comes across super annoying and self-indulgent. Part of me wishes the travelogue aspect of it (cross-Canada road trip) had been more involved. But the other part of me was just grateful for the film to end when stuff begins happening like Cohen driving to his former school to swear at it - what the hell?

The highlight was the $18 million maple syrup heist - HELLO MOST CANADIAN CRIME EVER!? As well as the often hilarious insights and anecdotes by the Canadian celebrities and identities.

After a while, each province just turned into "I still don't have an answer".. And he just seemed really bummed out at the end of it, before suddenly becoming proud of Canada. Sticking around was worth it for the "hippip hurray" though.

If others don't happen to agree with my review, "I'm really sorry, eh" ;)

More than Inuits and beer....You get to see many famous and entertaining Canadians...as well as Paul Shaffer!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 27 October 2016]

This is a charming documentary from Robert Cohen, a Canadian who writes and produces in Hollywood. The film consists of many, many, many interviews with mostly Canadians as well as footage of Cohen taking a roadtrip across the nation. It explores many topics including what it is to be 'Canadian nice', comedy, the cold, the country's love-hate relationship with the USA and why Canada doesn't suck. All in all, the film works well because Cohen was a nice host and there were so many famous Canadians who took part in the film. A gentle sense of humor and very enjoyable.

All this being said, I was shocked that the film had no captions of any sort. My deaf daughter could not watch the film but French- Canadians who do not speak English also cannot enjoy the movie--a very, very strange omission considering the subject matter!!

Strong 6.75

[garyrob2008-8-241713 · 7/10 · 4 December 2015]

While watching this movie it was very apparent early on in the movie that the number of comedians coming from Canada was astounding. Truth be told that there are also a lot more famous Canadians that weren't even mentioned (I'm also a hockey fan, but I won't even go there) but then this movie would have been too long.

This movie has plenty of laughs to offer which is why I summarized it with the title "Strong 6.75". I found myself waiting for the next question and then the adventure Rob would go on to find his answers. The movie is creative, funny, ironic, informative and so much more, with a host of entertaining people.

Funny and cute

[asage19 · 7/10 · 21 March 2020]

It's not a serious National Film Board of Canada documentary lol It's a short film, it's sweet and funny. He's right, however, in his conclusion. He didn't need to figure out what's different about Canada. He *is* behind the times. We know what's great and different about Canada and we enjoy the difference :) We just are Canadian. I haven't felt the need to wonder what makes us different in decades. So it was just kind of a funny, cute salute to Canada. My big beef with it is that he did *not* include the north, and c'mon guy, it *is* the true north, strong and free. Maybe 'cause he's lived away for so long, eh? ;>

Huge Disappointment. Robert Cohen Phoned It In!

[mr-roboto-kilroy · 2/10 · 18 August 2016]

Let me first say that I am proud to be Canadian and I believe that am a funny guy who loves comedies and documentaries. I wanted to love this movie! Hell, I would have settled for 'liking' it! But this was a huge let down. The director and writer 'Robert Cohen' seem to phone this one in. I read his IMDb bio and he seems to have co-written a few episodes of TV shows that I like. So I believed that this movie would be informality funny! It was NOT! Robert Cohen seems to love hearing himself talk and seems to think that he is pretty funny, but is not. At least not in this movie. It did have a lot of interviews with famous Canadians, but each being brief and non-memorable. Sure parts of the interviews made me chuckle a little, but I'm not even sure if most of them were with the director. I believe he just salvaged them from the archives. Robert Cohen (director and writer) narrates through the entire movie with his droning on and on. It's like he was trying to be a funny Michael Moore, but failed miserably. There was very little actual content in this movie. I didn't learn anything new, didn't really laugh, and found myself wanting to turn it off, but stuck with it to be loyal and was hoping it would get better. Sadly it never did. I'm guessing the only reason why this movie became a reality is that it was funded partially or in full by the government or was given huge tax breaks because we require legally to produce and air a certain percentage of Canadian content. There are other movies and documentaries about Canada which are funny. This one is not and didn't need to be made. I am actually wanting to apologize to any non-Canadians who were forced to watch this. Robert Cohen reminds me of a high school chemistry teacher who tries to be funny so the kids will think that chemistry is cool and not boring.

This is us 🇨🇦

[nancyldraper · 8/10 · 26 August 2020]

I was searching for a movie or TV series that truly demonstrated what being Canadian 🇨🇦 was all about. Who would have thought the answer was in the search. BEING CANADIAN 🇨🇦 hits all our idiosyncrasies dead on (and explains why whenever I do a TV or movie review I need to point out, with little 🇨🇦, the Canadian content). I give this documentary an 8 (great) out of 10. (See, in true 🇨🇦 style, I give a humble rating). {Documentary}

Terrible, insulting, shallow.

[this-impetus · 1/10 · 14 July 2022]

This "documentary" is a parade of inferiority complexes that belong to the idiosyncrasies of comedians that drive them to do comedy and not to Canadians. It was deprecating to the point of absurdity, made no sincere attempts to answer any of it's questions and didn't dare to tread near a critical answer except by accident when a few of our more philosophically minded celebrities happened upon an thoughtful answer. I was embarrassed and angered to have watched this, it felt like a mean-spirited American mockumentary about Canada.

It completely elided our native population, was wildly dismissive of our French population, and, frankly, displayed Alberta's particular brand of narcissism.

Again, I was embarrassed to have watched this episode of One Guy Musing About His Personal Inadequacies and flabbergasted that he dared to present it as representing an entire country. Literally, shame on Mr. Cohen for this lazy pastiche of clichés presented in exaggerations of their worst framing.

Good Watch....

[deveshick4 · 9/10 · 19 January 2016]

Truth be told I didn't knew much about Canada until I watched this piece of Documentary...A bit surprised knowing not everyone in Canada lives in Igloos...Whosoever taking a shot at understanding Canada in quick fashion by watching this documentary would definitely like Canada more than before... Will wait for part 2 probably after a decade or so when Being Canadian mandatorily covers immigrants of past 20 years from other parts of world and their influence on Canadian culture and adding glory to the already shining establishment. (Not sure but 10 lines of text as an IMDb requirement for a documentary is like telling everything in the review itself).

Stereotypes??!

[meegangiven · 2/10 · 6 October 2023]

You wanted to make this movie to shatter Canadian stereotypes? Then claim to be in Ottawa on June 24th and it's snowing!!! I looked it up. Has never snowed on that day. Average high 25.2 Celsius. 78.3 for you Americans.

So misleading and adding to the stereotype.

I actually can't say much more about the documentary as I actually turned it off the write this review.

Now I'm just filling in space because apparently you can't just make it short and sweet. Only 131 characters to go.

Hope you doing something fun and or different tomorrow. Always makes for an interesting day. Thanks for reading. Peace out.

Disappointing

[matsgary · 2/10 · 7 February 2016]

I began this movie with high hopes. I mean, with all of those comedians, how could it miss, right? Although it was sometimes moderately funny in a very predictable manner, it really fell short of tapping into what it truly means to be Canadian and what makes Canada so special. I would say that if you are looking for a movie chock full of antiquated stereotypes told from people who do not live in Canada or have not lived in Canada for years, this is the movie for you. Put another way, if the year was 1982, this movie would be perfect. Aside from a few token minorities, this movie is as white as it gets and totally NOT what being Canadian is all about. Where was the depiction of our awesome multicultural, diverse nation? So disappointing.

Very disappointing

[butlerm-98772 · 1/10 · 16 February 2017]

Just a bunch of quips from ex-pats complaining about Canada and promoting American stereotypes about Canadians. They know we're not like that but throw Canada under the bus again for the sake of a few cheap laughs.

If you're American, you won't watch this anyway. If you're Canadian, you already know what it is Being Canadian.

Stereotype everything, skip over half the provinces, and don't even mention the Territories.

[diablomix33 · 2/10 · 29 November 2016]

Stereotype everything, skip over half the provinces, and don't even mention the Territories.

Being Canadian was pretty terrible. The humour was lowbrow and all he ended up doing was glorifying every typical Canadian stereotype instead of dispelling them.

Why bother mentioning that you're making a cross Canada trip when all you show is Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, & BC. You very briefly mention Saskatchewan and Manitoba and completely skip PEI, Newfoundland, and the Territories.

As a Canadian, this movie about Canadians was embarrassing.

Not well made or presented at all.

One-sided and narrow minded representation of my country

[persian-belle · 2/10 · 18 August 2019]

First of all, I am a proud Canadian.

I liked the effort and the purpose that was put into the making of this film.

However I believe that apart from making jokes about the stereotypes, it doesn't teach much to non-Canadians.

Canada has a rich history and culture. Unfortunately there's little mention of the Canada before the Europeans, the real land belonging to our First Nations.

There's also little mention of the multiculturalism in Canada which is the essence of who we are. The filmmaker only interviews a few Americans and/or Canadian ex-pats who are mostly white and English-speaking.

When he himself hears that Canadian food is multicultural, he doesn't seem to accept it and is looking for one answer (hoping for something associated with "white English people"). He even goes on to say that when we include different cultures of our country as Canadian food we're merely being polite. He doesn't seem to appreciate that this "politeness" is a sense of connection and care that we typically have towards each other regardless of physical appearance, language, belief, gender etc.

He does not talk about or to many women, to noble prize winners, to famous researchers and....the list can go on and on.

This film seemed to me like a cheap, superficial and lazy work that's trying to compensate for the lack of information and depth by using F words. Luckily that gives me a reason to keep my child from watching it!

Robert Cohen's film taught me something: that unfortunately in Canada there still are people like him who don't know much about "being Canadian", let alone make a film about it to show the world.

Okayish. Disappointing

[MovieSoup · 4/10 · 4 October 2017]

"Being Canadian" is an okayish documentary but that is how far my praise goes. It is just okayish. Mildly entertaining, at times, and certainly not funny in the slightest. Now before I start I am English so I won't be approaching this from a Canadian perspective as I am an outsider. I do love visiting Canada though which is the main reason I watched this.

I have visited the great white north and it is a great place to go look around. Saying that, this documentary does miss a few provinces on its trip around Canada and it seems stupid to me that it misses the Yukon Territory, which is a stunning wilderness, and Prince Edward Island which is a gorgeous place. The journey they take in this film is so rushed that it doesn't feel complete and I can't help but think if they allowed more time to explore properly they would have made a better film.

The general question Robert Cohen asks is "what is it that makes Canada and its citizens great?" This is a pretty ambiguous question and one that is answered very poorly by Cohen. He comes to a pretty weak conclusion and to get there just simply mentions clichés about Canada and poses them to famous Canadians.

While it is quant to go "holy sh*t Mike Myers is Canadian!!" the amusement wears off very quickly and you start to think what the actual point of him being there is. Most of the famous Canadians don't really shed any light on national history, they just cop out going for the boring questions that people think of to ask a Canadian. Cohen does ask the help of some Canadian history experts but they have about 3 minutes of screen time….that's it!

I would have preferred a bit more about Canadian history, as an outsider looking in. The only thing that is really said is that "it is not taught in American schools" which is a bit of a stupid thing to say really. In English schools we aren't taught about Scottish history or Irish history. Just because two countries are attached doesn't give an obligation to teach each other's history.

The comedy in this falls so flat at times that it is actually destroying the tone of the documentary. I do understand that some documentaries can be funny as well as educational but in this film it just fails so hard it makes the people look dumb when they say something profound about Canada. For instance there is this stupid bit where Cohen is interviewing Dave Foley in bed with both of them half naked FOR NO REASON!??! It is such a crap joke and has no real context in anything.

I wish they had done better with this film as there are some things that were interesting and some interesting facts were presented in a fun way which was very entertaining. I did like the way it shouts Canada's achievements and it did, in places, make me think of the important contributions Canada has made to the world.

However most of the documentary was taken up with rehashing Canadian clichés and the input from all of the stars left me a bit underwhelmed. This documentary did not feel like a labour of love done by people who really loved the subject they were talking about. It is just a star studded mess. Sorry EH!

Cameos by some Cndn. celebs made it watchable.....just.

[llawlless · 4/10 · 9 October 2023]

The premise: Robert Cohen sets out to learn more about his country of Canada and to show the world a bit about who we are by filming as he travels from one coast to the other on a whirlwind tour.

A fine idea if you actually took the time to go to every province and territory! He skips PEI, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the ENTIRE NORTH, and for the provinces he does visit, I didn't learn a thing. I'm a proud Canadian and yes I too am irritated and dismayed by those moments we have all had with (ignorant) people from other continents who seem to think Canada looks like the area by the wall in Game of Thrones or like the Americans (inexcusably ignorant since they're our neighbours!) who ask us stupid stuff like the woman in the laundromat I met just across the US/Canada border on a camping trip once who found out I was from Canada and asked me "Do you hunt?" Me: "No, definitely not." Her looking shocked/confused: "Well how do you get your meat???" Me, resisting an eye roll:"If I ate meat, I would just go to Safeway or somewhere." Her, now really surprised, "Wow, y'all have supermarkets up there!" Me: ..... Polite smile.... "Yeah, but just 2."

Of course in touristy shops there are the usual culprits: beavers, moose, totem poles, Mounties, maple syrup & plaid fleece, but surely a movie that's supposed to show a wider view of our multicultural country that's more "mosaic" than "melting pot" should work a little harder not to reinforce some of the stereotypes he's supposed to dispel (and yes, it could be done through comedy!) ZERO mention of the First Nations! NOTHING about our urban culture or musicians, artists, athletes, scientists, dancers (Royal Wpg. Ballet, Cirque du Soleil, or Spandy Andy :D) And our history didn't start with Confederation.

Okay, on occasion, there's snow in May in some parts of the country but not in Ottawa in June!

True, he's right that we do seem to have a lot of comedians and it was great to see some of them (mostly why I kept watching until the end) and I did like the theories presented about why Canadian humour is unique and what makes us funny.

Another part when he talks about what is typical Canadian food he seems to disbelieve that the answer truly is a wonderful mixture of many flavours. Poutine is the pat answer for what's a typical dish since you now find it almost anywhere in Canada in some form (Merci, Quebec!) but even in smaller cities you can often find amazing curries, weird and wonderful fusions of several types of cuisine, or great hearty home-cooked meals served in humble locations that feature foods that rival the quality from the country they originated from. We Canadians like our food!

Ok, to be fair there are a couple of funny moments, some of the comments were a bit deeper (Geddy Lee & Kim Campbell) and I wanted to like this movie, I wanted to laugh (maybe self-deprecatingly!) but I was more irritated and indignant afterwards just like some of the other reviewers from Canada.

To sum it up if someone was to determine what ice cream flavour represents Canada based upon this film they would likely choose vanilla and that is probably what they'd have said BEFORE watching it too.

The most English Canadian non French Canadian thought documentary about Canada ever...

[louis-martinlandry · 4/10 · 19 November 2016]

I never ever took the time to write a review on a movie, but this movie, I could not help myself. This movie is a documentary exclusively thinking about English Canada. The author rode through Quebec asking about maple syrup and an underage little girl presenting a whole culture. We clearly see how English Canada does NOT understand Quebec. If the author would have been serious about presenting Canada, he should have thought about the following items presenting the second most important culture of the country: Humour: Just for Laughs Festival created by Gilbert Rozon, Andre Phillipe Gagnon (which went on the Tonight Show in the 80s). Jean- René Dufort, Infoman. Sports: Curling? Seriously: Basketball was invented in Montreal at McGill College. Baseball, we had Jackie Robinson. Beat that Toronto. By the way, we have the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada, one of the biggest events on planet earth every year. Hockey? What about the Montreal Canadien, the team that won the Stanley Cup most often in history, and how this team defined our emancipation as a people thanks to Maurice Richard? Music: What about Celine Dion, Arcade Fire, Murray Head? Celebrities: By the way, William Shatner is from Montreal. You could have asked him his thought when you talked about Quebec. Television: What about La Petite Vie, Biggest ratings ever in Quebec. Movies: Patrick Huard with Colm Feore (Bon Cop Bad Cop) = Biggest movie box office EVER in Canada. EVER, as in this movie producer can never expect to get to the level of what a Quebec movie did in ratings in all of Canada. This movie confirms the Canadian solitudes of French Canadian versus English Canadian. Not even talking about the fact that independence has been in the thoughts of more than 35% of the people for the last 40 years is quite insulting to saying that this is a documentary about Being Canadian. Also, bypassing any Native Amerindian reserve is also an insult to the whole of Canada. Definitely a movie thought to make Stephen Harper and political conservatives happy, with Western Canada thought process, not taking in consideration the duality and coexistence of two separate and truly distinctive societies living together. Don't expect to see the full picture of Canada thanks to this movie.