Shasha Nakhai

(On Cable TV, July 2022) It wouldn’t be exact to refer to the Toronto neighbourhood of Scarborough as a slum, but as Scarborough-the-movie makes it clear, this isn’t a place of stately mansions and expensive cars. Focusing on three kids following the same drop-in reading program at a community centre, it’s an ensemble drama of misery at the bottom of the social ladder, with kids not being protected by their parents and any overly empathic response being discouraged. Adapted from the novel of the same title by author Catherine Hernandez herself, it’s a gritty, depressing, often infuriating ensemble drama that doesn’t spare any misery for the innocent. It occasionally feels like a grab bag of every possible social issue—by the time gender dysphoria is introduced late in the film, it’s not as much a plot development as the last item to be checked in a specific list. Still, for all of its heaviness, grittiness and formulaic uplifting end, Scarborough has a few aces up its sleeves—most notably Aliya Kanani as an engaged young teacher doing her best to take care of kids despite a system that tells her not to care too much, and a street-level authenticity engineered by directors Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson. In a certain grand tradition of Canadian movies, it may not be fun to watch, but it’s respectable to have seen. Too long at two hours and a quarter, it’s often an ordeal but ultimately a very humanistic one.