critics consensus

My Winnipeg is a charmingly irreverent 'docu-fantasy' from the unpredictable mind of Guy Maddin. Read critic reviews

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My Winnipeg Photos

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Movie Info

Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin conducts a personal tour of Winnipeg, Manitoba, the town where he grew up and still lives, in a film he calls a "docu-fantasia." By combining archival footage and interviews, dreamlike camera work and recreated scenes -- including several with actress Ann Savage playing the part of Maddin's mother -- the filmmaker builds a portrait of Winnipeg that manages to be historical, intimate, surreal, entertaining and entirely his own.

Genre:

drama, comedy, documentary
Original Language:

English
Director:

Guy Maddin
Producer:

Jody Shapiro, Phyllis Lang
Writer:

Guy Maddin, George Toles
Release Date (Theaters):

Jun 13, 2008 limited
Release Date (Streaming):

Nov 18, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA):

$156.6K
Runtime:

1h 20m
Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Cast & Crew

Guy Maddin
Narrator

Ann Savage

Louis Negin
Mayor Cornish

Amy Stewart
Janet Maddin

Darcy Fehr
Guy Maddin

Kate Yacula
Citizen Girl

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for My Winnipeg

All Critics (92) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (5)

More an abstract hallucination than a photo-realist portrait, My Winnipeg would be out of place on the "documentary" shelf at the video store. But it deserves prime placement in the Guy Maddin canon.

December 6, 2018 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Judy Berman
Tiny Mix Tapes
Maddin mixes personal reminiscences with elaborate fantasies of Masonic rituals and collectivist brothels, to construct a vision of Winnipeg as a city of sleepwalkers.

January 26, 2015 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Noel Murray
The Dissolve
Quote not available.

November 18, 2011 | Rating: 4/5

Ben Kenigsberg
Time Out
Quote not available.

November 17, 2011 | Rating: 4/5

Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out
Maddin is a real film-maker with a confident, fluent movie language that is evolving in fascinating directions.

October 18, 2008 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
Guy Maddin docu about his hometown gives fans everything they'd expect, plus a few moments of unexpected sincerity.

October 18, 2008

John DeFore
Hollywood Reporter
Beautiful, strange, and endlessly intriguing, there's a nostalgic bite to the film which lasts well after its bizarre visual poetry subsides from view.

October 29, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
Occasionally uneven and often opaque and aimless, but it is clear Maddin knows what he's doing. And by the time it is over, he has transported us not just to Winnipeg, but into the heart and soul of an artist.

July 7, 2019 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Matthew Lucas
From the Front Row
There's some genuine archival history threaded through the fantasy.

December 16, 2017 | Full Review…

Brian D. Johnson
Maclean's Magazine
...there is no denying that Maddin is pushing not only himself as an artist...

November 17, 2017 | Full Review…

Daniel Kasman
MUBI
Guy Maddin has never tipped quite so far in the direction of autobiography as he has with My Winnipeg, and the effect is unexpectedly charming.

August 21, 2017 | Full Review…

Annie Wagner
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
With his thrilling new documentary portrait of his hometown -- or rather, his new "docu-fantasia" -- Guy Maddin proves that you can go home again.

May 16, 2016 | Full Review…

José Teodoro
Stop Smiling

View All Critic Reviews (92)

Audience Reviews for My Winnipeg

Aug 21, 2011

One of the most inventive, unique, surreal, contemplative movies I have ever seen.

Dillon L Super Reviewer
Dec 12, 2010

Easily my favourite Guy Maddin film that I've seen thus far. I guess I'd classify this as a documentary, albeit one like you've never seen before. The narration is great. There's some animated segments as well. Some very funny dark humour humour throughout (I havent laughed so hard at movie in a really long time) That vintage old tyme, surrealist look. I suspect some inspiration from 50's/60's Cold War Era propaganda films. Really can't think of anything negative to say about this one. Probably one of the best films to come out in the past 10 years or so.

Ed Fucking H Super Reviewer
Mar 05, 2010

What might amount to Guy Maddin's own 8 1/2 is a ''docu-fantasia'' alright : passionate and playful, it is brimming with marvelous cinematic flashes and it carries quite an emotional resonance; a very surprising feat since it is an unabashedly subjective work of art. This is, like most of the director's work, a love-it-or-hate-it affair-- so I'm not going to hide the fact that am completely head over heels about this affectionate and delirious dream diary. One to add to your shortlist for sure.

Laurence C Super Reviewer
Nov 27, 2009

The director's concept brings us into a world of fantasies, with surreal pictures in black and white. Bunuel, Lynch, Hitchcock, Bergman... I don't know actually where did he get his inspiration from, but this film is a blast of expose.

quentin t Super Reviewer