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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Dolby Digital (5.1), Dolby, Hi-fi Stereo, Spanish, Subtitled
Emerson Thorsen, 13, lives with his parents in their eco-home in the wilds of Nova Scotia. The precocious teen has completed his first book, writing and illustrating all 1000 pages of it. Meanwhile, the home-schooled youth can barely add 2 + 2, so his mother enrolls him in the local junior high. Emerson isn't happy about the move, and has trouble fitting in at the new school. One of Emerson's new teachers is Don Grant, a 42-year old closeted gay man. Emerson initially is scornful of his teacher, but when Emerson speaks up in class, Don treats his ideas seriously. Emerson's scorn changes to respect, but soon he develops his first crush on Don.
"Highly recommended!" Albert Williams, Chicago Reader
"Engaging, entertaining, and refreshing!" Lawrence Ferber, LA Magazine
Editor's Note
Aaron Webber makes an outstanding feature-film debut in WHOLE NEW THING as 13-year-old Emerson, a precocious homeschooled boy who spends most of his time, when not alone in his room, with his very liberal parents and his parents' friends. He takes naked saunas and smokes dope with his mother, Kaya (Rebecca Jenkins), and father, Rog (Robert Joy), and gives erotic back rubs to their female friends. But Kaya, who needs a change in her life, believes it must start with Emerson going to the local public school and meeting some kids his own age. It also involves her getting involved with Denny (Callum Keith Rennie) because of Rog's growing bitterness about his failing career. Despite his protestations, Emerson goes off to school, and after his initial displeasure with the whole new experience, thinking he is above it all, he soon develops a crush on his teacher, Don Grant (cowriter Daniel MacIvor). Don, meanwhile, likes to spend his free time having anonymous sex with strange men in public rest-stop bathrooms. Beautifully shot on location in Nova Scotia by Christopher Ball, and expertly directed and cowritten by Amnon Buchbinder, WHOLE NEW THING, a film-festival favorite shot in a mere 15 days, is a touching coming-of-age story with fascinating, unique characters, strong acting, and plenty of unexpected twists and turns. Buchbinder's brother David composed, arranged, conducted, and produced the film's score, with additional music from the Hidden Cameras.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital Stereo | | Director & Actor interviews | | Interactive Menus | | Photo Gallery | | Scene Selection | | Trailers |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Wolfe Video |
| Release Date: 6/17/2008 |
| Original Release Date: 2007 | | Catalog ID: 57514 | | UPC: 00667443575146 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Available Subtitles: Spanish | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"[A] minutely observed family drama....The rare film in which the actors playing parents and child feel biologically connected." 04/06/2007 p.E14Reel.com 9 of 10
Written by Buchbinder and acclaimed playwright and screenwriter MacIvor (whose screenplays have included Marion Bridge and Wilby Wonderful), this Canadian import is not your average teen movie...The entire drama unfolds with the sense that these are real people living real lives, not facile movie fictions. The cast is uniformly excellent, but Webber in his first feature role is a stand out, delivering a subtle performance that offers a fully realized portrayal of a smart, sensitive, confused, and sometimes bratty and obnoxious youth. Like Emerson, the actor is bright and likeable. It is a pleasure following him and the adults around him on their path to some sort of wisdom and maturity. That the grownups ought to already have achieved that is only one more way this amiable little movie mirrors life as know it. - Pam Grady
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