The traditional slacker-film suburban kids are trying their best to have a rockin’ time while confined to Scott’s parents’ kitchen. They’re hemmed in by the brilliant obsessive-compulsive vacuum-cleaner pattern which his mother has created on all the rugs. Meanwhile, at a dinner party, the kids’ parents walk a tightrope between revealing their pathetic neuroses and having nothing to say at all. The contrast is cunningly subversive, and director Gary Burns has succeeded in bringing the attitude of his no-budget “Suburbanators” (a film about kids driving around Calgary looking for pot) to a wider audience; designed by “Romeo and Juliet” art director Douglas Hardwick and co-edited by Hard Core Logo’s Reg Harkema, “Kitchen Party” is slick. But it has a few gritty moments, like the creepy souvenir collection one of the guys keeps to remember his girlfriends. Go see a Canadian film, for Pete’s sake!
