Things I Do for Money: Kooky Canuck Family Crime Drama Saved by Blissful Music
By Liam Lacey
Rating: B+
The new film from Warren Sonoda (Trailer Park Boys) is a pile o’ wackiness called Things I Do for Money, in which a multicultural assortment of characters shoot, steal, and talk trash. Walking a broad line between generic entertainment and a personal film, it features a pair of cello-playing brothers who, like the director, grew up in a Japanese-Canadian family in Hamilton, Ontario, where the film is set.
Things I Do for Money (named after a sardonic Northern Pikes song) might easily slide under the tide of quirky crime comedies were it not for its unique use of music. The first-time leads, brothers Theodor Aoki and Maximillian Aoki, gained national attention in 2018 — the same year the movie was shot — when they won a contest to interpret the CBC’s As It Happens theme song. They created the cello-based score for the film.
Theodor Aoki plays sensitive, 17-year-old Eli Yaguchi, and Maximilian his brash older brother, Nick. The two are preparing for an audition to gain admission to the Banff Centre, when they find themselves embroiled in a criminal conspiracy. Sonoda and co-writer Gary Nolan throw a few too many balls in the air for this to make much sense, so it’s very much a case of going along for the absurd ride.
Let’s start with Eli’s crush on ice-skating star, Laura (Yodit Tewoderos), who also has dreams of heading West, to Winnipeg. Unfortunately, her guardian is her Jamaican grandmother Brenda (Colette Zacca), a potty-mouthed wheelchair-using crime boss who thinks skating is immoral.
Brenda’s chief enforcer is Alexi (Dax Lough), your basic language-mangling Russian goon, who manages the bar where Nick works. When Alexi injures Eli and Nick’s father, their mom secretly makes a call to bring in their estranged Uncle Jimmy (Edward Aoki, the acting brothers’ real-life father), who is a hitman from Vancouver. There are shoot-outs, a bag of cash, a painting theft and, of course, the all-important audition.
Midst the caricatures and busy action, there are some grace notes here and there. The acting is solid across the board. Theodor Aoki as Eli has a quiet soulful presence. Also, unsurprisingly, he has an effortless chemistry with his brother.
Mostly, though, the meaning is in the music. At intervals, between the silly slapstick-violent confrontations, the two brothers rehearse their cello duet, and the tone of the film shifts instantly from agitated to calm. Each time their bows rasp against the cello and the bass notes throb, a cone of focused peacefulness descends, a glimpse of their shared musical dream. The effect is lovely.
Things I Do for Money. Directed by Warren Sonoda. Written by Warren Sonoda and Gary Nolan. Starring Theodor Aoki and Maximillian Aoki, Ed Aoki, Yodit Tewoderos, Dax Lough, and Colette Zacca. Now available on iTunes, Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Vimeo, and Cogeco.