Toy Gun Bandit

Smooth criminals have always been highly alluring for movie audiences. Yet this wildly energetic and entertaining second feature by Quebec’s Rémi St-Michel proves that a very different and far less suave variety of crook can be equally compelling.

At the centre of Toy Gun Bandit’s escalating mayhem is Félix (Félix Munger), an amiable but impulsive 15-year-old living in the suburbs of Quebec City. Though playing videogames and skateboarding with buddies are the teenager’s highest priorities, Félix’s life takes an unexpected direction after a prank unintentionally turns into a bona fide robbery.

Félix tumbles further into trouble when his exploits attract allies such as Dave (David Beaudoin), an aspiring gangster many years his senior, and Sara (Sara Montpetit), a young drug addict on a similarly worrisome downward trajectory. This motley crew’s considerable success as bank robbers in spite of their ineptitude brings them to the attention of heavier characters in the city’s seamy underbelly, thereby increasing the peril for the film’s hapless young hero.

That Félix remains such an engaging and even sympathetic figure is a testament to the warmth, humour, and authenticity that St-Michel and his cast bring to Toy Gun Bandit. Providing the film with much of its restless, reckless vitality, first-time actor Munger gets terrific support from more seasoned talents like Montpetit, seen here in a much different role than in past successes like Charlotte Le Bon’s Falcon Lake (TIFF ’22) and Ariane Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (TIFF ’23). St-Michel’s unconventional crime comedy feels just as fresh and surprising.

JASON ANDERSON

Content advisory: coarse language, drug use, sexual content, nudity, violence