By Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com
originally published: 05/25/2020
It may seem strange to claim that an actor whose IMDB page currently lists 213 performing credits has been under-utilized throughout his career, but that’s the case with Canadian character actor Stephen McHattie. Thanks to the vast amount of American productions that shoot north of the border for tax reasons, the Canuck star has never been out of work, but meaty roles have largely eluded him, and he’s best known to casual viewers as “that guy” who crops up in baddy of the week roles in TV shows.
McHattie’s meatiest role arguably came courtesy of another stalwart of Canadian cinema, director Bruce McDonald, who cast him in the lead role of a gravelly voiced radio show host in his 2008 horror movie
Pontypool, perhaps the most interesting of the wave of zombie movies that proliferated during the noughties. McHattie reteams with both McDonald and Pontypool writer Tony Burgess for Dreamland, which offers him not one, but two lead roles. The movie will be available on VOD platforms June 5.
The first role sees McHattie play a heroin addicted trumpeter referred to only as “Maestro.” The musician is one of those classic noir archetypes, an artist trapped in a world of criminality because it’s the only place that allows for his temperamental idiosyncrasies. Living in a near future Luxembourg, Maestro is kept under lock and key in the castle cum hotel where he performs for a mix of gangsters and aristocrats, occasionally sneaking out for a fix. He’s made an enemy of local mobster and child trafficker Hercules (a miscast Henry Rollins), who tasks his top enforcer, Johnny Deadeyes (McHattie’s second role), with chopping off Maestro’s pinky finger before he performs at a special banquet to be thrown that night by the local countess (Juliette Lewis).
Johnny has turned against his master since he started dealing in child prostitution, and instead of taking the trumpeter’s finger he pays off a homeless man with a bottle of whiskey for his pinky instead. I guess he really likes jazz. When the young boy that lives next door to Johnny asks for his help in rescuing his 14-year-old sister from the clutches of Hercules, Johnny’s conscience kicks into gear and he accepts that he now has to go to war with his employer.
Something that many filmmakers can’t seem to grasp is that you can’t set out to make a cult film. History and the public decides whether or not a movie earns a cult status - it’s not something that can be engineered. Yet we see many movies that stink of a desperate attempt to appeal to a niche audience that doesn’t yet exist, and I’ve rolled my eyes at every press release that pitches an unreleased production as a “cult movie.”
Dreamland is a classic example of a pre-packaged, “just add water”, wannabe cult movie, filled with “quirky” and “eccentric” characters and low on story or thematic depth. McDonald throws in eccentricities like casting McHattie in dual roles for no real discernible purpose, having children play hitmen and pulling a vampire out of the film’s ass in a final act of desperation. But it all feels shallow and there’s no trace of an auteur at play here, simply a filmmaker aping the likes of David Lynch and in particular, Alan Rudolph, whose neo-noir masterpiece and proper cult movie Trouble in Mind this leans heavily on, right down to ripping off its climax and melancholic jazz score.
It’s nice to see McHattie given a role he can chew on, and his commitment to the film’s pseudo surreality keeps you invested up to the point where you realize it’s going nowhere of note. There are brief glimpses of McDonald’s black humor, like when Maestro’s attempt to win back his pawned trumpet at gunpoint takes a twist when the pawnbroker’s wife encourages him to kill her husband. But Dreamland is just trying too damn hard, constantly poking us in the ribs and begging us to find it all so crazy. It’s the cinematic equivalent of one of those workplace signs that reads “You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps.”
Dreamland 2 ½ stars out of 5
Directed by: Bruce McDonald; Starring: Juliette Lewis, Stephen McHattie, Henry Rollins, Tómas Lemarquis, Lisa Houle
About the author:
Eric Hillis is a film critic living in Sligo, Ireland who runs the website
TheMovieWaffler.com
Atonement
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 12:00pm
Teaneck International Film Festival - Teaneck Cinemas
503 Cedar Lane, Teaneck, NJAmidst the chaos of the Iraq War, the Khachaturian family is trapped in a firefight between U.S. Marines and insurgents, and one Marine’s split-second decision devastates the family. Years later, haunted by his time in Iraq and aided by a New Yorker journalist, the Marine seeks to reconcile with the Khachaturian matriarch. Anchored by unforgettable performances from Boyd Holbrook (A Complete Unknown, Narcos, The Morning Show), Hiam Abbass (Succession), and Kenneth Branagh, Atonement is a powerfully human true story about the immeasurable costs of war, exploring universal questions about guilt, redemption, and the nature of forgiveness.
The Dads - New Jersey Premiere!
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 2:30pm
Teaneck International Film Festival - Teaneck Cinemas
503 Cedar Lane, Teaneck, NJA group of dads building a movement to support their trans and gender expansive kids are forced to make an impossible choice amid a shifting political landscape: stay and fight or flee the country.
The Choice - New Jersey Premiere!
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 5:00pm
Teaneck International Film Festival - Teaneck Cinemas
503 Cedar Lane, Teaneck, NJ A haunting yet life-affirming film about reframing pain and the radical power of choice. It follows grieving mother Iris Haim as she mourns the loss of her son in the aftermath of October 7th and forms an unexpected bond with Dr. Edith Eger—a renowned psychologist, author, and Auschwitz survivor—whose hard-won wisdom guides her toward transformation.
Women On Trial - East Coast Premiere!
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 7:30pm
Teaneck International Film Festival - Teaneck Cinemas
503 Cedar Lane, Teaneck, NJ1972. A landmark trial shakes France as young Marie-Claire is prosecuted for having an illegal abortion with the help of her mother and two other defendants. In a courtroom governed by men, the verdict seems inevitable: prison for the women, while the rapist goes unpunished. Their last hope lies with Gisèle Halimi, a fearless lawyer known for openly challenging patriarchy and confronting the system that condemns victims and lets perpetrators walk free. Alongside the accused, Gisèle will not only change their fate, but, against all odds, transform the condition of women forever.
American Pachuco: The Legend Of Luis Valdez
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 2:00pm
Teaneck International Film Festival - Puffin Cultural Forum
20 Puffin Way, Teaneck, NJAgainst political resistance and industry skepticism, Luis Valdez pushes Chicano storytelling from the fields to the film screen with Zoot Suit and La Bamba, crafting iconic works that challenge, celebrate, and expand America’s story.
Far Out: Life On & After The Commune - New Jersey Premiere!
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 4:30pm
Teaneck International Film Festival - Puffin Cultural Forum
20 Puffin Way, Teaneck, NJFar Out: Life On & After the Commune traces fifty years in the lives of a group of New England writers, activists and artists. It conveys how the 1960s counterculture, embodied in two rural communes, transformed America. The story begins when a group of radical journalists leave New York for a new life in the country and follows them from the back-to-the-land movement to a new discovery of political commitment.
We Met At Grossingers - Teaneck Premiere!
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 12:00pm
Teaneck International Film Festival - Temple Emeth
1666 Windsor Road, Teaneck, NJWe Met at Grossinger’s is an immersive journey through the Jewish Catskills—once known as the Borscht Belt—reviving the iconic resort that inspired Dirty Dancing and defined an era of Jewish American life.
Dust Bowls And Jewish Souls
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 3:00pm
Teaneck International Film Festival - Temple Emeth
1666 Windsor Road, Teaneck, NJMany know Woody Guthrie as the quintessential Oklahoman balladeer who wrote “This Land Is Your Land,” but few are aware that Jewish culture had a hand in shaping his private life and career. From award-winning filmmaker Steven Pressman (
The Levys of Monticello),
Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls explores Guthrie’s moving relationship with his mother-in-law, prominent Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt, and the impact she had on his songwriting.
Jane Elliott Against The World - Weekend Closing Night - New Jersey Premiere!
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 7:30pm
Teaneck International Film Festival - Temple Emeth
1666 Windsor Road, Teaneck, NJA rural Iowa schoolteacher becomes a national voice against racism after leading a controversial 1968 lesson in discrimination with her all-white third-grade class. Now nearly 90, she refuses to hold back amid today’s fights about race, history, and power after a lifetime of speaking out.
EVENT PREVIEWS
Teaneck International Film Festival names first recipient of Sandi Klein Creative Woman in Film Award
(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Teaneck International Film Festival (TIFF) has named filmmaker Luchina Fisher the first recipient of the Sandi Klein Creative Woman in Film Award, a new annual honor celebrating an exceptional woman whose work reflects the creativity, curiosity, integrity and commitment to social impact that defined Klein's life and her nearly two decades with the festival. The award includes a $1,000 grant. Fisher will receive the inaugural award at the TIFF screening of her film, The Dads, on Sunday, November 8, 2026 at 2:30 pm at Teaneck Cinemas (503 Cedar Lane).
"Directors' Commentary" to have NJ Premiere at SModcastle Film Festival
(ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NJ) -- After its world premiere at Dances With Films LA (DWFLA), one of the nation's leading indie film festivals, Directors' Commentary will have its New Jersey Premiere at SModcastle Film Festival, hosted by filmmaker Kevin Smith. The film will screen on Sunday, November 8, 2026 at 12:00pm.
Teaneck International Film Festival Names Katie Camosy Recipient of 2026 Emerging Filmmaker Activist Award for "Gaslit"
(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Teaneck International Film Festival (TIFF) and The Puffin Foundation have selected director Katie Camosy as the recipient of the 2nd Annual Emerging Filmmaker Activist Award for her documentary Gaslit. The award includes a $5,000 cash prize and trophy and recognizes emerging filmmakers whose work embodies TIFF's guiding theme, "Activism: Making Change."
James R. Halsey Foundation Student Film Showcase to Take Place November 12th
(TRENTON, NJ) -- The James R. Halsey Foundation of the Arts (JRH), a 501c3 non-profit agency dedicated to providing quality arts education and mentoring to youth in the City of Trenton and greater New Jersey area presents the 2026 Student Film Showcase. Taking place on November 12th at the New Jersey State Museum Auditorium from 5:00pm - 8:00pm, this event features three films, written, directed, and produced by students, as well as a documentary focused on raising awareness on men's mental health, featuring authentic student voices and professional interviews.
Count Basie Center for the Arts to Celebrate Centennial with an immersive re-enactment of its opening night
(RED BANK, NJ) -- Count Basie Center for the Arts will cap its Centennial Celebration with an immersive re-enactment of its opening night on Saturday, November 14, 2026 at 6:00pm. Patrons can expect an immersive theatrical presentation from the moment they approach the venue – from 'stars' of the era arriving in classic cars, Gatsby-esque fashion and flair, an authentic speakeasy experience with custom, era-specific cocktails and mocktails, 1920s hot jazz and more.
Learn about producing films with "Producing 101: From Script to Set with The Gig Media"
(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Interested in filmmaking? You can learn how to produce a film like a pro at "Producing 101: From Script to Set with The Gig Media" on Saturday, November 14, 2026 at Miraley Studios in Jersey City.
The Clairidge hosts Indie Film Showcase on November 21st
(MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- On Saturday, November 21, 2026, The Clairidge hosts a film showcase featuring three indie films - Wedding Night, Lady in the Mirror, and End of the Line: Brotherhood. Dive into three epic tales, one screen, and endless vibes at The Official Film Showcase. Showtime is 1:30pm.
